Project Tool - A Third Person Space RPG Made By Astronauts
By Andrew Powell, published 19/07/2014 in Crowdfunding
"Project Tool aims to provide a cinematic game-play experience, with a captivating storyline that's set in a sci-fi future. Tool is a 3rd person action RPG at heart, with a single player campaign that spans our galaxy. Its story is unforgettable and its gameplay is just as enjoyable", says game studio Tool Games. And it will have Linux support.
Now that I have got your attention, it needs to be said that the game I am referring to is not yet available and is in fact a project seeking funding. However, this is not a sponsored article or some such.
Project Tool is a project that has just recently made itself known, aiming to be a sprawling space epic with an RPG twist. What's more, it's being made with input from actual astronauts.
If that last sentence sounds familiar, it's probably because it is. Project Tool is actually a reboot of a project earlier in the year known as Space Pioneer, which we also covered, that was on Kickstarter. While the Kickstarter project unfortunately did not reach its goal and therefore was not funded, the team behind Space Pioneer did not give up and decided to take a new direction, whilst still keeping the focus of a space game made by astronauts.
While Space Pioneer was, one would have to admit, an incredibly ambitious space sim with real-time strategy and city building elements in a massive universe, Project Tool is aimed at being a third-person RPG epic in space. The consultation with actual astronauts, scientists and NASA (etc.) will still be a major factor in the project and Tool Games still aims to make a universe that is "futuristic but plausible"
. But at the same time, Project Tool is meant to be fun, smart sci-fi with a cinematic experience.
The story of Project Tool, set around the year 2347 AD, centers around the Earth's source of life suddenly being taken away, after an Unidentified Flying Object(UFO) swoops into Earth and hovers over the site of a much older, buried UFO and appears to extract a kind of crystalline substance and then takes off back into space. After this, life of various kinds starts dying off on Earth, including many humans.
Thankfully, a rather smart, still living, professor discovers a similar source of life on a moon in a far away region of space, which gives Earth the chance to be saved. Unfortunately, as usual, the government of Earth sees this as a chance for controlling the population growth on the planet and serving their own interests and sets about taking over the operation to retrieve the far away substance and, basically, keep everything under wraps (secret).
In the game, the protagonist is a secret agent who then has to deal with the events of the dying Earth - and beyond - as he becomes a part of the government's secret mission but goes rogue once he realises what is actually going on.
There is a lot more to the story than what I have summarised so if you are interested your best bet is to head over to the Project Tool website and check out the full plot. See below for a trailer.
The main website is also where Tool Games will be handling funding, instead of platforms such a Kickstarter, for the time being. The goal is listed at $500,000, of which $6,935 has currently been raised.
It's quite a lofty goal but perhaps more attainable than it would be on a platform such as Kickstarter where it would be bound by a time limitation and therefore not receive any funding at all if the target wasn't met.
Of course, I wouldn't be writing about the project (on this site, anyway) if there wasn't a Linux connection. As was mentioned at the start of the article, the game, if it receives enough funding and makes the estimated release date of December 2015, will have Linux support. Other platforms also include Windows, Mac and the modern consoles such as XBOX One, WII U and PS4. This would also mean, all going well, the game would have same-day Linux support.
There are a number of game packages, special rewards and seperate add-ons that can be purchased as a pledge to the funding goal, so if this interests you or you want more information, head on over to the Project Tool website.