Massive Galaxy, Massive Galaxy Studios, 2015–present (work in progress)

There is hope for the galaxy yet

Retronator Games Watchlist

Could I be more excited about a game than I am for Massive Galaxy?

Not only am I deprived of pixel art games where the only point is not killing enemies, I could also use some sci-fi that’s not grimy cyberpunk with the world going to shit.

It’s not global warming, it’s Neo Venice.

Before you go on, it’s dangerous to go without music, take this:

So what do you do if you’re not shooting? Massive Galaxy is a point-and-click … business adventure?

Your goal is to trade goods to buy better ships to explore more not-going-to-shit planets.

Locations range from sprawling cities …

… to space stations …

… and you can even explore deserts and forests.

Sure, it’s not all love and bunnies in the galaxy. You will get into trouble and you will blast those guns.

Let me be very clear, I don’t have beef with games where the point is killing enemies. I love and play them all the time. But like any ice cream, if I stuff my face with it for too long, I’ll want to go for some fruit the next time I crave dessert (yes, raspberries count as fruit dessert!).

Eat fruit dessert, kids, not recreational drugs.

The problem with (pixel art) games is, the fruit isle is like the empty clearance section compared to the rest of the supermarket. This is not a problem with any one fighting-oriented game in particular (and especially doesn’t make them bad—I’ll say it again, I love these games). It’s a problem with the bigger picture for the people that desire more than one-more-precision-platformer-rougelike-jump-on-enemies-hack-n-slash things (otherwise there’s nothing to worry about).

Shields on, motherfucker!

That’s why I appreciate it that much more when the obvious way out is not always necessarily to shoot someone in the face.

In fact, sometimes that’s the clear wrong choice if you’d still like to have your life the next minute.

And when you do espace, don’t think you’ll get away without being called names either.

Like I said, it’s not just love and bunnies, but it’s not just fighting either. I don’t know … like real life?

Asshole.

So the gist is: explore the galaxy, meet funky characters, buy low, sell high.

Basically like if 1996′s Gazillionaire Deluxe didn’t look like my first photoshop art, but had cool pixel art like that of Kirokaze.

Ah, Gaz, you will always have a place in my heart.

Wait wait wait, hold on. (Who cares about this prehistoric crap anyway?)

At the end of the previous paragraph, did you say Kirokaze as in … Gerardo ‘Kirokaze’ Quiroz V.???

As in the Kirokaze-you’re-a-huge-fan-of that makes those magnificent artworks and game mockups and you wrote an article about him?

Yes, yes indeed I meant that Kirokaze. The lead developer of Massive Galaxy, Gonçalo Monteiro, is joined on the project by Kiro himself. And you thought this day couldn’t get any better.

The game’s development goes back to early 2015 when Gonçalo started a development blog on Tumblr.

Some of the game’s early art that was done by the lead developer Gonçalo Monteiro.

Gonçalo initially did art himself, but Kiro joined around the start of the blog too and so it’s Gerardo (Kirokaze) who does almost all the scenes and vehicles you see here.

Gonçalo does occasionally contract to other artists, but it’s mainly just him on code and Kirokaze on pixels. Besides the two guys, we’ll also be hearing some sweet sound effects and synth-pop music from Martyn Stonehouse and Matthew ‘Mushroomizer’ Dawnson (you should be listening to Matthew right now if you took my advice at the start).

Martyn’s explanation of how he did sounds and music for his showreel demo game is pretty cool as well.

Massive Galaxy holds a lot of promise—and promises, including, well, a massive galaxy for you to explore.

Just don’t make the mistake people did with No Man’s Sky. When game developers say things like “explore a massive galaxy full of planets with rich and diverse cultures”, especially when it’s indie developers (remember, Massive Galaxy is coded by one person), you shouldn’t imagine millions of unique worlds with completely different stories and settings (and then be butthurt about it). Not even Wing Commander’s Chris Roberts can do that much handcrafted content for Star Citizen with his giant studio that spreads 4 offices around the world.

Rather, expect a dozen of unique types of content (that’s the keyword), spread across a world setting that happens to be the universe.

It’s still all put in there by real people that have to come up with designs and stories and turn them into code and art with their own hands.

Nonetheless, I’m very excited to explore whatever the size of the world that Gonçalo and Kirokaze will bring to life with their superb vision.

It’s early on in the project and despite all we’ve seen, not that much is really known about the game. Until a teaser trailer hits, all you can do is follow this massive thing of awesomeness on its Tumblr devlog, but also double subscribe on Twitter and Facebook because you will never get enough of this game.

Hello people of planet Retronator. Did you enjoy that? It’s the format with which this magazine started: lots of big visuals and just a sprinkle of crunchy text to bind it all together. I’m very happy to make this again too. Almost as happy as seeing a game that makes me come up with shit like fruit dessert. I like my fruit dessert aisle to have games in it. There is hope for the galaxy yet.

—Retro