Freespace, the last of the great PC space shooters, is coming back. But as a tabletop miniatures wargame. Made by Chris Taylor, lead designer on the original Fallout.
That's quite a combo.
The game, Freespace Tactics (yes, it's officially licensed), is up on Kickstarter now. And looks a lot like the so-hot-right-now X-Wing, something that's not a coincidence. "Without the success and popularity of X-Wing Miniatures and other hobbyist games in general, I don't know if we would even be attempting to do this project", Taylor tells Kotaku. "I'm a hobby game fan and have been for years. I own and play Wings of Wars, Blue Max, Silent Death and other fighter games. So it feels pretty natural to be working on one. I always try to work on things that I would want to play."
Freespace Tactics is for 2-4 people, and plays out using cards to manoeuvre, dice to settle combat and features pilot cards to let players customise their stats.
So why Freespace and not something original? I mean, it's a cult hit on PC, but it doesn't have the wider brand appeal other space shooters enjoyed.
"FreeSpace is still popular", Taylor says. "There are still new players trying it for the first time and some of more experienced players are really devoted. We often get emails asking for a new game. This may not be what people expected, but it is a good way for us to bring back FreeSpace."
"If it goes well, I would like to see new dogfights in FreeSpace."
You can check out the Kickstarter here.