Epitasis is a lovely-looking exploration game about alien worlds and ancient technology that sort of echoes the likes of The Talos Principle, Myst and No Man's Sky. It's crowdfunding at the moment—having accrued $6,432 of its $11,650 goal, at the time of writing—and has a free and distinctly polished alpha build demo.
I've spent 15 minutes or so wandering around in the latter and while the game's early puzzles are fairly rudimentary, its world is gorgeous. Here, the player has happened upon a so-called ancient portal wherein lies the remains of a forgotten yet futuristic world. "Cryptic puzzles, forgotten technologies and treasured relics are riddled amongst the beautiful wilderness that has engulfed the remains of this fallen race," so describes the Epitasis Kickstarter blurb.
As is touched upon there, players spend their time faffing around in the game's techno futuristic bounds, getting to grips with alien technology, handling laser-powered machinery, and disabling hostile security systems, among other things. Space-bending portals are scattered throughout the game world and look a little something like this:
"I've been working on this game for roughly a year now," explains creator Lucas Govatos via the Kickstarter campaign page. "Fragments and images of it have been in my mind for as long as I can remember; visions of wide open green plains, large alien moons, metallic ruins dotting the landscape, huge alien forests to climb and sprawling alien cities to navigate. As an artist, I want the game to be as beautiful as possible, colorful and vivid as I see it in my mind. As a computer scientist, I want the game to be logical and puzzling, forged together with knowledge you must learn only by experiencing it yourself."
If you fancy doing so, Epitasis' free demo is clearly identified on its Kickstarter page. The game's full release is expected at some point in June, 2018.
