Stasis Trailer and Teaser – April 26, 2014

One game on Just Adventure’s radar is Stasis – a point and click, sci-fi horror adventure by Indie developer Christopher Bischoff. Having just finished playing the demo, its abundantly clear the Chris is more than a little passionate about this project. 

Stasis has its roots in Chris’ obvious love of sci-fi movies like Alien, Aliens, and Event Horizon, and such notable games like Dead Space and Bioshock. For example, the UI design is inspired from Dead Space, while the lead protagonist, John Maracheck, is the name of one of the grunts in Aliens (next time you watch Aliens, take note when Bishop takes roll). 

So What Exactly is Stasis About?

Stasis is set about 100 years in the future aboard the derelict research vessel Groomlake, a reference to  Area 51, and which is in a decaying orbit around Neptune. The ship is owned by the Cayne Corporation, a soulless corporate entity that is run by individuals with the same moral fiber as Carter Burke from Aliens.

 Groom Lake, aka – Area 51, and Carter Burke

Research on the Groomlake consists of some ethically unsound human experimentation on non-volunteer test subjects. The demo represents the first chapter of the game, and is ominously titled “Daddy Help Us.” Each scene in the demo raises new evidence of a disturbing corporate strategy gone horribly wrong.

Puzzle Design

The puzzles in the demo are logical and extremely satisfying. As Chris states, his puzzle design inspiration comes from, among other places, Macgyver – seriously. For example, to access one area in the demo required a level five hand print. What would Macgyver do? Why find a dead level five crew member and slice off his hand.   

Making the Game

Stasis has been in development for over 3 years and is the work of one man, Christopher Bischoff. Before Stasis’ recently concluded and very successful, Kickstarter campaign, Chris worked as an architectural artist at an illustration company he co-owned with his brother in South Africa.

• Game Engine – uses Visionaire (http://www.visionaire-studio.net/). The same egine Daedalic uses, for example for Whispered World and Deponia.
• Game made using WSIWYG interface
• Graphics done in 3DSMax
• Textures done using Paintshop Pro
• Video editing done with Adobe Suite
• Music and Sound done using FL Studio and Audacity
• Mark Morgan, the composer for Fallout 1 & 2, as well as Descent, has been enlisted for the score.

As of 4/14/14, the game was about 70% complete. While Chris has been reluctant to specify a release date, he does expect it to be released sometime in the third or fourth quarter of this year.

The game will be released for Windows and Mac initially, but Chris has stated he would like to release it on as many platforms as possible. 

The game’s planned length is for 8-12 hours. 

To date, Stasis has raised just over $141,000. You can still back the game and receive cool rewards at http://www.stasisgame.com/ The Demo, which is definitely worth a try, can also be found here.

More About Christopher Bischoff

Among Chris’ favorite games are The Dig, Space Quest 5, and Day of the Tentacle.

While working on Stasis, Chris likes to have sci-fi films like Alien, Aliens and Event Horizon, playing in the background.

Chris is also part of a small but vibrant South African developer community that is best represented here: http://makegamessa.com/

Demo Walkthrough

The JA demo walkthrough is just under a half-hour, but to fully explore everything on the Groom Lake will take closer to an hour, assuming one doesn’t get hung up on any of the puzzles.