Prior to this year’s PAX Prime 2014, Polish developer and publisher 11 bit announced that they would be showcasing three titles at their booth: the war survival game This War of Mine, the minimalist strategy game Spacecom, and a third “secret” game. This third game has turned out to be Jameson The Pilot, a top down space exploration game.
The game is being developed by a one-man developer known as Rezoner Sikorski, and is being published through 11 bit’s publishing arm, 11 bit launchpad. Despite being developed by just one person, Jameson‘s scope is wide and ambitious sounding.
There doesn’t seem to be much of a plot or overall goal, because Jameson promises to allow players maximum freedom to do whatever they want:
They can be explorers, miners, traders, pirates or even… space bus drivers! Combined with the rich system of customizable ships, guilds and quests, Jameson The Pilot offers a huge world full of endless possibilities.
All of this will be encased in the game’s charming pixel art graphics and 8-bit soundtrack, which will certainly appeal to older gamers. Jameson will also be bristling with humor, as the reveal trailer, whose narrator goes off on an incoherent tirade about having sex with space octopuses, demonstrates:
Of course, it’s hard to imagine how Jameson, in all its superficial minimalism, will tackle the complex task of allowing for free-form gameplay, but more information will be revealed when the game is made available on Steam Early Access in the coming months.