Rockfish Games brought its own indie take on on the space shooter in Everspace, and the studio is prepping for a sequel with a much more expansive scope. Everspace 2 will drop the original’s roguelike progression in favour of a proper open world and a much greater focus on story and narrative.
Everspace 2 has a “significantly expanded development budget” according to the developers’ press release, allowing for a much greater selection of ships alongside the open world and expanded story. You’ll build your character with persistent, RPG-style progression, but the studio isn’t sharing much more than that just yet.
The game will launch on Steam Early Access in the second half of 2020, and is scheduled to properly launch in 2021 – for PC and consoles. An Everspace 2 Kickstarter with a funding goal of €450,000 will launch on September 9. The devs say crowdfunding will let them “ensure full creative control” and potentially expand the game’s scope further with stretch goals.
While Everspace 2 is still a good distance away, you can check out the Everspace 2 Announcement trailer built from in-game assets.
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The developers will have a playable prototype on hand at Gamescom this week, so we’ll learn more soon.
“With Everspace 2, we are making a big leap towards an open-world space shooter,” Rockfish CEO Michael Schade says, “but will still remain true to our DNA and offer exactly what our fans love: A beautiful fantastic sci-fi world paired with uncompromising space action that gets down to business right away.”