Tom “Who Made Gunpoint” Francis is making a new game! In fact, Tom “who I worked with for eight years” Francis is making two new games simultaneously and making videos about both as development progresses. One of those games is about a grappling hook and that’s all we know. The other, called Heat Signature, is a space game about sneaking up on spaceships and that’s all we knew.

Knew, because Tom “I still do a podcast with him every week and we’re good friends” Francis just released a video in which he reveals ship-boarding and explains the objective of the game more fully.





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What’s in the game right now: the universe is populated by randomly generated ships. Moving quickly causes your ship to heat up and heat is the method by which enemy ships detect you. You can therefore sneak up on them by moving slowly, carefully maneuvering yourself close enough to dock with them. Once docked, you can climb aboard, walk around, and kill people with a gun or a melee attack.

What’s planned for the future of the game, as explained in the video: you’ll begin each life as a different character type – assassin, thief, spy, and more – and be given an objective, such as a person to kill or an item to steal. As you explore, by boarding, hijacking or attacking ships, you’ll discover clues that whittle down where your target might be, such as what kind of ship they’re on, what sector of space they’re in and so on. It sounds a little like the system in cowboy accusation roguelike Westerado.

It’s still early in development, but if you want to follow along the game has a Twitter account, Tom has a mailing list for occasional updates, and there’ll be regular development updates over here.

When you think about it, maybe my constant need to caveat my news posts with disclaimers and disclosures isn’t my fault. Maybe it’s the fault of all my friends who keep making games? Maybe it’s them that’s the problem.