Spaceteam!

I played Spaceteam with some friends this weekend. When you have a group of people who work in games and think critically about games, sometimes it’s easy to get caught up talking about mechanics, but I had so much genuine fun playing this game! Then, after we were done yelling at each other trying to save the ship, I thought about all the ways this is an optimal co-op game.

Here’s my piece on IHeartChaos. (Note: I write for IHC about games and zombie puppet musicals, but the site also has some NSFW sections, so click carefully.)

Spaceteam, from indie studio Sleeping Beast Games, is an amazing cooperative game, inviting 2 to 4 players to serve aboard a starship together. Spaceteam offers a sense of adventure and cooperation, as your team shouts technobabble and flips switches to avert certain doom.

Each player’s iPhone or iPad becomes a control panel, with a different collection of high-tech space knobs, dials, buttons and settings. Players will be asked to set hydromats, engage ferrous spectrums, and reticulate splines, but the instructions appear on random screens, so you’ll need to shout the technobabble commands you see, and listen to the commands that are relevant to your screen. In about ten seconds, your friends are transformed into officers on a starship bridge, operating at maximum efficiency — and volume.

As you and your friends crew the starship, it becomes clear that your ship is suffering some mechanical failures. Green space goo oozes from between panels, and sections of the control panel detach. Just push the broken parts back into place, and keep flipping those positronic switches and engaging the flux combobulators to keep the ship flying! There are asteroids, wormholes, and all kinds of space disasters for your crew to avoid in this goofy, fast-paced team game.

Via Shout Technobabble as You Crew A Starship in ‘Spaceteam’ on IHeartChaos.