A time-rushed engine building game
Ark, Awakening
Theme Overview
You awake from cryogenic sleep in a strange biodome that resembles your home planet. You have no memory of how and why you are there – obviously a side effect of the cryogenic sleep is a temporal loss of memory.
You start exploring and find out that your biodome is just one room from infinitely many rooms on a traveling alien space ship – the Ark. Each room is the size of city and the Ark is the size of a planet. You open and power up rooms, exploit resources needed to awake the rest of your people, collect alien artifacts and investigate the reason why your faction is at the Ark.
Digital Demo Version
Tabletopia Version
A digital demo version of the game is available on Tabletopia. If you are unfamiliar with Tabletopia – you can play the game on Desktop (Steam) or in your Web Browser for free.
On Tabletopia you can play a 2-3 player competitive game, solo, 2-3 players co-op against an automated opponent, or 2-4 players from which one plays the as the opponent.
We are always striving to make our game better.We use Jotform to collect feedback.
Game Features and Mechanics
Players
For 1 (solo mode) to 5 players, ages 14 and up.
Time to Play
Game lasts around 15-30 minutes per player.
Player turn is very short, usually while handling the effects of your action, the next player has already taken the action. With up to 3 players there is almost no player idle time.
Mechanics
“Ark: Awakening” is a hybrid worker placement / area control game, with exploration elements. Has a deep multi-layered engine builder and asymmetric gameplay.
Players start to explore the Ark and reveal randomly rooms. Each room provides different options and can be utilized differently. Players must learn to adapt on the go and make choices that best capitalize of the revealed rooms.
Combat is possible between players, but combat is not the focus on the game. Instead players will compete in finishing their objectives faster and use combat as just one of the many tools to get there.
Difficulty
On a competitive level the game has a rich multi-layered engine builder that might be difficult for casual players. So the game provides two difficulty settings – Complexity 1 for casual players and Complexity 2 for veteran players.
On Complexity 1 the game is played without the deeper elements of the engine builder and can be perfectly enjoyed by casual gamers. Actually, we recommend first playing at least 4 games on Complexity 1 until switching to Complexity 2.
Asymmetric Factions
At game start players will choose an alien faction to play with and then further customize it by choosing type of life form (carbon based, boron based, energy based, etc.), type of consciousness (single, collective, individual and symbiotic), a unique technology and more. With all these customization each faction will feel different to play.
Replayability
Variance in setup and multiple player choices provides a puzzle of players to solve and build their engine as fast as they can.
On each play the Ark is revealed differently – both the types of rooms and their positioning varies.
In addition to the competitive “Awakening mode”, the game features a competitive “Fallout” mode, solo mode and cooperative mode that can be played against an automated or a player opponent.
Who will win the game
The goal of the game is to finish the objective and players build up their engine to help them achieve this goal faster.
The game rewards players with critical and fast thinking, players that will adapt best based on the Ark’s revealed rooms. Likely winner is the player that will best balance between 1) work put to building the ultimate engine and 2) work put to complete the objective.
In the game, luck plays a very small part.
Rulebooks
Our Progress ...
Alpha-version Available
An idea is born, we have created a alpha-version of the game, we had more than 20 playthroughs, we like it and see potential in the game.
Team assembled
Artists, graphic designers, developers are on board and ready to go.
Beta-version Completed
Our team has created a version of the game that is close to the final product. We had more than 100 playthroughs. The game is ready to be shipped to professional reviewers. Marketing and funding are next.
Funded
With the help of Kickstarter community we have managed to fund the game. Last tweaks before manufacturing are complete.
Manufactured and Shipped
The game is manufactured and shipped worldwide to our customers.
See what other games we are developing and vote for the one you would like to see published next on our home page.