A good co-op game is hard to come by. Even harder to come by, is one that requires a level of communication so demanding that you feel like you’re actually experiencing a game with the other person instead of just playing your own games side by side.
Asteroid Base’s Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is trying to achieve just that, while also trying to complement each player’s gaming style, their strengths and weaknesses.
Inspired by the scene in Star Wars in which Han and Luke are climbing ladders and shooting TIE fighters in the Millennium Falcon, Lovers is a game that demands communication.
Back in March, XBLA Fans spoke with Jamie Tucker, co-founder of developer Asteroid Base, at PAX East. Tucker said that at conventions such as PAX you get to see a lot of couples, as well as parents and children, play the game together. Observing how their relationships affect the way they communicate with each other in-game and how well they work together has been interesting to him. Naturally, people who know each other pretty well are much more vocal when playing, sometimes even yelling at each other.
“It is really great to see that” kind of relationship dynamic being played out through his game, Tucker said.
He also explained to us that Lovers will have four total campaigns. Each campaign is based on a constellation: Ursa Major, Cetus, Cepheus and Orion.
As the levels change, so do the ships. The stations on the ships will remain the same, but their configurations will change from one ship to the next. This forces players to change the way they play the game and the way they interact with each other to complete each level.
For example, one ship is split in half and each player can only access one side of it. Another ship rotates, and the person driving has all the control, leaving the other player to have to react to what the driver wants. Tucker points out that this leads to a “kind of a power dynamic between the players.” Therefore, the player who likes to have control can be the driver, while the player who just likes to go with the flow can take over the other stations. Continuing, Tucker added that Asteroid Base is “trying to have different ships that facilitate these different kinds of play styles.”
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is expected to release sometime this summer on Xbox One and is targeting a $15 price point.
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