1st Person Perspective 'Space Trader: Moon Madness' Now Available
posted April 8th, 2009 9:38 PM EDT by arn in $0.99, Strategy, Upcoming Games, iPhone games
Hermitworks long-awaited Space Trader is now available [App Store] for a very reasonable $0.99.
While the game is set in first-person perspective view based on the Quake 3 engine, it is not a shooter. The core game resembles a much enhanced version of Dope Wars where you buy and sell items from individuals between locations in an effort to make a profit. The values of these commodities can change from place to place and over time based on market events. Opportunities also present themselves in the form of missions as you interact with individuals you run across in your trading.
The goal of the game is to make as much money within a given amount of time ("180 days"). Traveling to the different planets (there are 3 in the initial version) can take anywhere from 8 to 25 days, so you need to plan ahead to maximize your profits.
The game's offers dual control pads for navigation: left side controls movement, right side controls view. Space Trader has the advantage of not having to deal with combat situations (yet) so these controls seem to work quite well for exploration.
Hermitworks is considering future expansion of the game, including additional missions, achievement system and combat.
Given the high quality of production and novel use of the Quake 3 engine, it seems Space Trader is an easy pick-up at $0.99 if you have any interest in this commodity-trading genre.
App Store Link: Space Trader: Moon Madness, $0.99
Picked this up quickly, @$.99 I don't see how I could have skipped it. Just wondering around and such is a pretty cool experience.
Missions, achievements and COMBAT would be superb!
I will easily pick this up for .99. Nay, I have just now purchased this item :p
But I'm not sure that I prefer having to walk to every vendor rather than just having a shop UI appear when I reach a planet. It just seems like unnecessary travelling (aka like an annoying MMO timesink).
I'm already hooked on this. I was iffy, but I went for it because it's only $1. I'm very glad I got it so far.
It's already a lot of fun, but I'm looking forward to the updates they have planned.
This is an amazing game. There should be more apps like this. The gameplay is excellent, and the trading system works well. While I'm up for more planets, resources, missions, etc., I don't think they should add combat. It would only ruin the game. If you've played other iPhone FPS games, you know most combat is either muddy or simplistic. I'd rather just stick with more content.
@Chad. You don't need to walk around all the time. Once you meet a trader, they are added to your address book (top left corner) and you can trade with everyone on the planet from there.
BONUS QUESTION: What is your favorite resource?
@Sam Pow: you've obviously never played the game on a Mac/PC. The combat is the best part!
I haven't had alot of time to play it yet, but this is excellent. Does need some kind of combat. That was half the fun of the original PalmOS game that this was based off of.
why can't someone release a decent commerce/spacecraft combat hybrid?
i mostly just miss the days of escape velocity, but i also know i'm not the only one.
Wow, I grabbed this last night and completed the goal, but I really had a hard time understanding what I was supposed to do and what everything meant.
At this point I think you're supposed to buy stuff from traders and find other traders that will buy it at a higher price and give you a profit, while trying to locate all the hidden stashes and whatnot.
Interesting game so far, the controls are really nice and I think its a good start but having some combat, larger maps, etc.. would be cool.
I was proud to get around $10,000-$20,000 on my first challenge…
…then I found out that the par was like $300,000.
what happens when you reach 300 000$?
I'l probably never know :p
Nothing special seems to happen when you break $300K. I got ~$6M the first try, and got the rank "Inside Trader" (seems to be the highest). My current record is $25M.
$25M?!
My record is around $170,000.
…yeah, I'm not good.:p
Does the 3D enviroment really add something to the game, other then just being eye candy? (or showing of the Quake 3 engine?)
I havent played this – but it sounds like this could be a text based adventure too…
yes it does, you can look for special characters and pick up items
A fun game, high quality, but definitely lacking depth. I too am waiting for a trading game on par with Escape Velocity for the iPhone. BTW, I love the controls – best FPS scheme I've seen yet. All you need to add is tap on movement square=jump, tap on look square=shoot.