General News - The Curse of Space Station 13

Eurogamer examine the role playing game Space Station 13 and explain why follow-up attempts have been met with repeated failure.

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What sets Space Station 13 apart is the coming together of a huge number of systems and mechanics. The engine the game is built upon, the "super old and super crappy" BYOND engine, as it has been called, lets players interact with pretty much any object or being on the station, and you'll get different results depending on the context. Here's a simple example: use a crowbar on another player and you'll attack them. Use it on a floorboard and you'll pry it up.

Adding to the complexity are four states of "intent": help, disarm, grab and harm. Each affects the interaction. For example, use an empty hand on another player with the help intent enabled and you'll hug them. Use an empty hand on another player with the harm intent, however, and you'll punch them.

Behind the basic graphics is a game engine that simulates everything from station power to atmosphere, chemistry to biology. Research and development stations require resources and the patience to click through endless menus. There are multiple departments on the station, including Command, Security, Engineering and Medical. If you're working in Security, you need to enforce the law and respond to emergencies. If you're in Medical, you need to keep the crew healthy, research diseases and even create clones for dead players.

The spanner in the works is the player chosen by the game to act as the antagonist. Usually the antagonists have secret objectives. Kill everyone, perhaps. Escape. Sabotage. Steal. That sort of thing. This means most rounds end up in some sort of chaos. The station may even end up destroyed. But that chaos, that drama, is all part of the fun.

In the video below, one of the best let's plays of Space Station 13 I've seen, YouTuber ShitoRyu95 assumes the role of the station chaplain and is designated the traitor. He has two objectives: steal a chief medical officer's jumpsuit, and hijack the emergency shuttle by escaping alone. None of the other 14 role-players aboard know this. The chaplain must somehow go about his business, avoiding suspicion while setting up his masterplan via dastardly misdirection and intimate knowledge of Space Station 13's inner workings. It's a fantastic watch, and gets to the heart of how Space Station 13 is in essence a big simulated sandbox with complex rules - and where the gameplay emerges from the rules.

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