Jake Crane: Yeah, that's very easy to do. Substituting quantity and scope for depth, basically. Saying, "Oh, let's add this and that and that" while failing to make individual systems and mechanics fun, deep, or interesting. RPS: I think there's a danger with these sorts of games, too, of getting caught up in the possibilities. That's really, really far down the line for us, though. Like, in the pre-production documentation, I wrote a scenario that was like something out of Star Wars where something like the Death Star is protected by a shield generator, and you sneak in, blow up the generator, and then fly in a fleet to defeat the Death Star. I really like the idea of combining genres. So if the game is successful, that's the direction we want to take it. You can go up, fly, and do things in space, then land and do things. If everything goes right, there'll be an add-on to Edge of Space that'll be a top-down shooter. RPS: Have you considered at all what that next step might be? At least, for you? ![]() So if somebody wants to stand out, they'll have to go, "OK, how can I take this a step further?" Because eventually, you'll reach a saturation point where you'll have, say, ten games that are basically the same game with new skins on them. But as you near that ceiling, it'll then force the genre to take the next step. And then you have a bunch of other people who go, "I want to make a game like this, and I want to come in at at least this standard." So you'll get games that come in and expand in one direction and others that go elsewhere. Jake Crane: I think what happens is, you have somebody who sets the standard. RPS: Still though, when a genre is defined by a bunch of eerily similar elements across many games, it's much easier for a feeling of "Been there, done that" to creep in. It's like a feature is ice cream, but there are different flavors of the feature. But you'll see different directions that those things take. So you see a lot of things that are really close to the same thing you came up with, and that's because people are having to solve the same problems as you. Jake Crane: I think what it comes down to is there are a lot of smart people, and a lot of smart people think very similarly. Terraria, Edge of Space, Starbound, countless others - and that's only on the 2D side of the equation. It seems like everything promises crafting and sandbox worlds and random terrain these days. I think it's less an expression of creative bankruptcy and more a general feeling of genre fatigue. RPS: But there is a kernel of truth to claims like that. We definitely made strides to make sure that, while Edge of Space does take roots from Terraria, that we are trying to take our own unique direction. I've been in the industry for a while, and I want to be respectful to other developers. Jake Crane: I actually asked Andrew outright about this when he was looking at the game initially. Obviously, though, Redigit doesn't seem to think so. RPS: Initially (and even now, to an extent), some people accused Edge of Space of being a full-blown Terraria clone. And with talking to him and getting to know him, we thought that it would be really cool if we could get some of their content and pay homage to Terraria while kind of putting an Edge of Space twist on it. So we wanted to reach out to the person who made it. Jake Crane: I was able to get in touch with Andrew, and what was great about it is Terraria's definitely a big influence on Edge of Space. There's some other stuff that hasn't been completely finalized yet, but there are a couple other things in the works as well. We also will be cameoing the Eater of Souls as a pet, and then we'll be doing a special thing where Andrew Spinks' character icon will be making an appearance. Jake Crane: We've taken the Skeletron boss and updated him into Omegatron. RPS: You're doing a crossover with Terraria, a game Edge of Space is often compared to, for better or worse. ![]() But in an ever-expanding genre with a single game's influence looming heavy, how do you avoid being more than just a clone? And is the trend of Early Access actually a danger in disguise - both for gamers and developers? Also, what's on the horizon for Edge of Space, a game that's still very much unfinished? I spoke with Crane about all that and more. Lead developer Jake Crane has, in other words, been around the block. It's also run the full gamut of crowd-powered developmental aids - from Kickstarter to Steam Greenlight to Steam Early Access. Like direct inspiration Terraria before it, Edge of Space offers massive, bit-and-bob-and-secret-and-jetpack-laser-shark-packed worlds, despite being developed by an itsy bitsy team of two. Edge of Space is yet another one of those reminders that game development has gone completely bonkers in recent years.
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