Commodities; the basic material groups that enable humanity to sustain its vast galactic empire.

And the empire is hungry. Anything and everything can be bought and sold through galactic trade, but as a matter of profit the local planetary markets and climactic events bridle a star captain’s opportunities.

Agriculture

Natural grain base, genetically-engineering crops, livestock, genetically-engineered livestock, and seed species databanks constitute the majority of the essential agricultural products traded at every planet across the galaxy without exception.

Ishtar, Bel, and Sin supply the cheapest sources of agriculture in the galaxy, while Anu and Nergal pay happily to meet population demands.

Textile

Also universally traded are textile goods, made from natural cloths or manufactured synthetics, animal and plant furs, and used everywhere from apparel to, for advanced fibers, military and astrospace applications.

Sin sells the cheapest textiles in the galaxy, while Utu and Marduk pay the highest rates for the commodity.

Industrial

Metals, minerals, ore, colossal machine parts, prefabricated components, expensive tools, chemical waste, and bio-mechanics are the building blocks of the age of space and entire planets rely upon the regular circulation of precious industrial resources among their neighbors.

Bel is the cheapest and most reliable source of industrial materials in the galaxy, while Sin and Enki act as the commodity’s largest purchasers.

Technological

In the age of space, human ingenuity dominates at every scale, from nanotech to starship apparatus, robotics to biomechanics, priceless mathematical formula, cryptographic systems, alternate energy, and neural-cybernetics. Technology remains among the most profitably and widely traded commodities, despite its vulnerability to a variety of deep space mishaps.

Enki and Marduk export the galaxy’s best technology, with Anu and Nergal buying at the best prices.

Munitions

War and its tools are companion to business as ever, while the lawless and vigilante nature of mankind’s empire requires every citizen protect themselves as a matter of course. Guns and ordinance – from large warheads to small firearms – invariably trade well on those planets who endorse the public market.

Conditions on Utu and Nergalare are ideally suited for the production of munitions, and between them they’ve cornered the galactic military industrial markets. Marduk and Anu act as the largest purchasers of such weaponry.

Archeological

Humanity is alone, but just beyond the darkness of time and distance dwell alien intelligences, their history interred by colossal ruins, the wisdom of their cultures fossilized in pictograms and forgotten scripts. As valuable as they are rare, these relics of frontrunner species map  humanity’s future and sell profitably in specialist markets.

Best purchased from Utu or Ishtar, traders regularly sell to the eager collectors and scientists on Enki.

Luxuries

Vaulted wealth in the hands of the lordly few is feeding luxury markets like never before. The sybaritic demand for moongems, flesh from offworld fruits and beasts, unthinkable cosmetics, star-gas aromatherapy, body transplants, and every other extremity of excess finds a place in cargo holds across the galaxy as, desperate for new experience, the aristocracy pays most dearly for its amusements.

Bargains and exciting stock are most prevalent on Ishtar and, secondly, Gula. As a consumer of luxury commodities, Sin is the most rapacious and lucrative of the planets.

Contraband

The Hansa Star Guild prohibits what it can’t control, and in doing so widens the reach of illicit enterprise. Slaves and narcotics, plague strains, private science, genocide weapons, and deserialized goods constitute the tip of the black market where nothing is to risky to sell for the right price.

The prison planet Nergal and the boundless markets of Gula are the underground’s largest suppliers, while the other black market planets are equally good for flipping the product.

Xenotech

Nothing is so little understood yet so coveted as the otherworldly xenotech powering alien species and enabling their great powers. Seamless biomechanics, multidimensional organs, impossible skin, and plasma fuels are the most basic keys opening a door for humanity into the deeper reaches of time and space. Naturally, xenotech is extremely rare and expensive, though it can be freely harvested from defeated alien lifeforms.

Only on Utu is xenotech cheap enough trade to allow for common purchase, while Anu and Enki are the richest of its several markets.

From planet to planet, the Hansa Star Guild can do little to deter the menace of pirate raiders who pillage and plunder trade ships with rising impunity. Even the Regulators are helpless against the enormity of the threat as the enemy’s ranks grow beneath a black banner of fear, violence, and riches.

Rampant Piracy! is the first Rogueship update to be submitted to the App Store. Along with bug fixes and some UI polish, this update introduces six new encounters depicting the effects of piracy on the trade markets, and a new gameplay mechanic in the form of “badges” you can earn for defeating pirates or smuggling contraband. Also look out for new pirate art.

New encounters include:

- Trade Market Besieged
- Smuggling Ring
- Weapons Cache
- Pulse Charge Snares
- Rampant Piracy!
- Extortion Racket

NB: Among the bug fixes is an update to the build target that was causing issues for players installing to 2nd iPod Touches for some environments.

Read the rest of the release notes and download Rogueship now from iTunes.

In Rogueship, game events are the main delivery mechanism for background story, and more importantly, for the general character of the universe. Events which the players encounters set the mood for life as a space trader and contrast the otherwise analytical trading gameplay.

Because the events occur randomly, they’re an even better counterpoint to trade which can be relatively well optimized by clever players. What’s more, they can be and in fact are used to influence commodity trading strategy.

For example. while technology and industrial commodities are widely traded and thereby reliable cargo, there are more events that negatively effect these commodities and target players who try to specialize. Guild Regulators are an especially glaring example and act as the direct challenge to those who would profit from the fluctuations in the market index on contraband.

Beyond influencing trade, events serve as the core content in Rogueship. Ranging from static encounters which resolve automatically to combat with pirates which verges on a minigame, events expand the basic gameplay in simple and hopefully somewhat emergent ways. A measure of variety can be introduced to the game without threatening the core gameplay or balance too much.

This design also works well with the incremental updates encouraged by the App Store, making it natural to enhance Rogueship simply by adding more events.

More than anything, the events mechanic in Rogueship is inspired by the event card decks found in many boardgames. These have always served as a source of suspence and excitement in the tabletop setting, and the intent is for events in Rogueship to do the same. Every time an event is about to appear the player should enjoy a brief rush of anticipation and dread. Rogueship has the advantage of further being able to weight the events, or rather, give players a way to “stack the deck” to their advantage by increasing or decreasing the likelihood of certain events. In other words, events give the player another way to tactically manage risk. And if they don’t, it makes sure they know the ruinous consequences of a heedless acceptance of fate.

Read Part 1: Design Foundation
Read Part 2: Gameplay Foundation
Read Part 3: World Foundation
Read Part 4: Commodities Trading
Read Part 5: Combat

Anu

Class I Planet, pop. 22 billion
The acting capital of the galaxy and seat of power for humanity’s ruling ellite, Anu, the King Star, is a dense ecumenopolis of superlative technogy, industry, and riches. The burning core is all that remains beneath a visionary metal world where the tallest spires exceed the world’s diameter and whose surface shines with the afterglow of burning Astra.

Enki

Class I Planet, pop. 9 billion
The greatest scholastic instutitions of the galaxy keep their courts on Enki, a planet of wisdom, law, and home to the trans-arcanist cults. New technology is first mastered on Enki before export to other worlds, and it remains one of the few open markets for trade in xenotech.

Bel

Class I Planet, pop. 18 billion
A tempestuous world of floods and storms, Bel’s surface violence is matched only by the power which can be harnessed from the deep, unfettered resources seething beneath the crust. The galaxy’s foremost importer of industry to fuel the endless demands of programs to better engineer the human condition, the planet would rival Anu were it not for the literal and political chaos which besets its lands.

Utu

Class II Planet, pop. 12 Billion
Like the fanastic glowing rockscapes that form its face, this is a world of both warmth and majesty. Scant resources force the market to rely on trade from the xenotech artifacts dug from the mountains, though many legal bodies and the headquarters of the Guild Regulators are also situated here and bring both prestige and income to the quiet standing of the planet.

Ishtar

Class II Planet, pop. 19 Billion
Lush savannah and countless leagues of natural beauty belie the ready violence of the formidible military force safeguarding Ishtar’s treasures. What its Arcandian nations lack in galactic dignity, the world’s queen and her court more than indemnify with the threat of their quiet wrath. Agrarian trade is good, and the progessive minds of the people welcome commodities from xenotech to contraband.

Nergal

Class III Planet, pop. 13 billion
This blistering planet was chosen for its menacing qualities and rich deposits of mineral and ore. It’s purpose: a homeworld for labor camps and prison colonies, with soaring manufactories cratoring the mining bastions here, including the tremendous munitions yards of the galactic navies. With the exile of human services from the planet, criminal enterprise has flourished and the most diabolical contraband can be had on the cheap.

Marduk

Class II Planet, pop. 14 billion
Primordial jungles and turbulent storms once ruled the world’s surface but have been tamed and now serve as rich sources of agriculture and energy for Marduk’s nations. Some of the galaxy’s best starships are assembled in foundries rising from the green morass, and orbital cities give testimony to Marduk’s dominion over flight technologies.

Sin

Class III Planet, pop. 8 billion
Once a sizable moon of Marduk, Sin was slowly terraformed into a celestial body and detatched from orbit. Today, over half of its mass comes from the space stations and drifting shanty-towns of orbital floatilla that envelop its outer reaches. The planet ‘s greatest asset are the luminous refinies which prepare textile and agricultural produce for the galaxy.

Gula

Class III Planet, pop 15 billion
A rich and variable world of lush mountains and mysterious land formations home to many priceless natural resources. Crowded beyond its size and developmentally limited, Gula hosts markets that are as a galactic bazaars where the exotic or illegal can be found for a price, and criminals and lawmen alike are treated with equal suspician by a resentful and insular populace.

Rogueship is not a combat simulation. Battle is abstracted, a means to an end like any other at a captain’s disposal. Because of that fact, combat in Rogueship transpires like other game events, with a few key strategic differences.

Any battle-ready starship carries both (1) shields and (2) weapons, and all combat is a function of these two factors. An exchange in combat is a summary matter of resisting an enemy’s attack and then breaking their defense with a counterattack. Owing to universal malevolence, the player always strikes second, meaning that defense really is the best offense in the game.

The consequences of battle, unlike combat itself, depend entirely on the enemy and circumstance. The penalties and rewards are what defines a battle, whether it’s a pirate raider blasting apart pieces of a ship or an alien intruder devouring shields.

Behind the scenes, various difficulty modifiers come into play driven by circumstance, but for the player combat will always remain a quick, intuitive, high-stakes affair. Deeper strategy comes from evaluating the need to equip your starship with weapons and shields, and timing the upgrades effectively.

In other words, it’s a matter of resource management. Like everything in Rogueship, war, too, is a product of commerce.

Read Part 1: Design Foundation
Read Part 2: Gameplay Foundation
Read Part 3: World Foundation
Read Part 4: Commodities Trading
Read Part 6: Events

Rogueship carries its influences proudly, and the first of many would have to be Dave Kaufman’s Star Trader, a multiplayer computer game of interstellar trading published in 1974!

Others have preserved the legacy of Star Trader quite well, but suffice it to say that Rogueship draws a powerful inspiration from the simple and addictive gameplay it pioneered, and tries to invoke an atmosphere of space adventure that does its predecessor proud. While Rogueship’s mechanics and pacing are its own, the driving gameplay of manipulating commodity markets through crafty trading is the same. The sector-based map for navigating the galaxy has also stood the test of time.

Star Trader was distributed as raw source code and promoted further development (if not total reworking). Over the years a lot of additions have appeared in variants of the game, but Rogueship follows a different path in trying to eschew logistical clutter and avoid the less engaging features.

Paying tribute to space trading on the iPhone could only mean following the platform’s shine for simplicity and polish, and that’s exactly what Rogueship is trying to bring to the Star Trader tradition.

Happy 25th birthday to Elite, we treasure and salute you. The BBC reports .

Like the visionary forerunner of an alien empire, you marked a future whose path we still travel down today and history will tell of your greatness while believers form worlds in the shape of the shadows you have cast.

Munitions, technology, luxuries. Trading commodities on the galactic market is at the heart of Rogueship, and so it’s arguably the most important part of the game. Keeping the trading mechanic simple and abstract, and therefore accessible, is the design challenge. At the same time, the gameplay should help the player understand some of the game’s themes, such as the volatility of markets or the importance of planning around risk.

Choosing the commodities was a matter of imaging the basic needs of a futuristic humanity, compounded by scarcities that would emerge after space colonization. The commodities must be evocative of that world, and also tell a story about a planet based on their availability and cost.

The trading mechanic runs on the rule of buying low and selling high. It’s a concept anyone can understand, and you can quickly make a decision after glancing at some numbers. For the trading screen, tabular interfaces with simple responses are ideal for the iPhone, and modeling trading in the native table views felt familiar and fluid.

The second element of trading is randomness; downturns and windfalls. To represent the galactic ebb and flow of consumption, Rogueship has a market index which modifies the base price of commodities, moving up or down in trends. The player must time their trades to opportunity, giving the extra thrill of running cargo on a deadline before they’re selling at a loss, or seeing cargo that they’re sitting on jump in value.

A balanced trading strategy must play on known commodity values while planning for risk.

The final element of trading is the criminal one; contraband and the black market. You have the option of accepting extreme risk or reward by smuggling contraband cargo, which continually sees wild fluctuations in price and can be sold for a quick profit or made into a prosperous career. The danger, however, rests in the hands of the Regulators, enforcers employed by the merchant cartels to portal the tradeways of space and issue brutal inspections to potential smuggling vessels. Upon arrest, the criminal fines can easily bankrupt a player.

Throughout a game of Rogueship, events may nudge the market in one direction or another, but the core strategy and mechanics remain simple and unchanged. It’s not a matter of how to trade, but what to trade and when. And of course, better players will find ways to set the odds in their favor.

Read Part 1: Design Foundation
Read Part 2: Gameplay Foundation
Read Part 3: World Foundation
Read Part 5: Combat
Read Part 6: Events

One drawback of trying to design a tight, compendious game is that there just isn’t room for an elaborate story. A summarily intriguing or suggestive one, yes, but on mobile screen estate and with expected game sessions of a few minutes, most of the attention goes to servicing the core gameplay (unless narrative itself is somehow the core). Fortunately for Rogueship, sci-fi has a venerable tradition of ornamenting shallow stories with a soaring host of operatic tropes and clichés.

I think the popular consensus is that our future will be a dystopia. That as good as humans are at improving technology, we’re not so good at improving ourselves, and so we can expect that by the time we’ve colonized space most of our old problems still remain, only exaggerated perhaps in scale. Commercial enterprise will galvanize entrenched powers while upstart pilots and privateers will find ways to appear on the front lines, all while criminal industry rushes to fill the gaps.

Rogueship is set after humanity’s realization of space colonization, but while interstellar travel still remains a hazardous and unregulated enterprise. Planetary merchant cartels have achieved an uneasy but functional balance that keeps humanity’s collective resources flowing through the galaxy. Wealth and influence have consolidated in the hands of private agents, and in return for services rendered the merchant lords are able to exert tremendous internal power in the preservation of their empire. Starfaring technology is not in abundant supply, however, and, beyond the reach of gravity, space remains a lawless realm.

The player takes the seat of a starship captain who has just enlisted in the service of the Hansa Star Guild, the largest merchant interest in the galaxy. The guild offers its contract pilots a proposal of insidious terms. The guild leases the pilot a small starship and a trade license, and authorizes them to do business in guild-sanctioned ports. In exchange, the pilots must complete a total of four payments to guild, after which they will own the ship and the guild will grant them an official rogue trader charter. Those who fail to pay have violated their contract, and are summarily endentured to the service of the guild where they shall suffer their remaining years in hard labor on an offworld debtors prison.

This gets the player running from creditors, trying to turn a profit from the stormy trade markets, battling space pirates, and a number of other unsavory tasks on the road to glory. It also rationalizes the turn limit, and conveniently divides the game into 4 rounds of payments.

So the world of Rogueship is basically a sci-fi adventure story about a starship captain beating a powerful organization at their own game and winning a ship and a trade charter. Or, well, dying with that ambition anyway.

I’m hoping that the ideas behind that setting are familiar enough to anyone passingly acquainted with sci-fi that they should be able to instinctively pick up on the mood, and anonymous enough that anyone could fill the roll. I mean, we all have our own reasons for becoming merchant starfarers, right?

Read Part 1: Design Foundation
Read Part 2: Gameplay Foundation
Read Part 4: Commodities
Read Part 5: Combat
Read Part 6: Events

The core mechanic behind Rogueship is calculated risk; randomness that can be gambled against. Randomly generated galaxies, fluctuations in the commodities market, and the vicissitudes of weighted encounters are how gameplay keeps the wicked hand of chance grasping the player.

Shrewd trading at favorable prices, while preparing for inevitable misfortune, is the simple recipe for success. Whether it wins out for a given round remains a balance of player resourcefulness and a few turns of luck.

A game of Rogueship lasts only 60 turns before the player is victorious or dead, and games are autosaved every 15 turns. Taken together, these mechanics mean that Rogueship is designed for pick-up-and-play. Short bursts of devious starfaring, and an interface simple enough that anyone can grasp the decision making process.

While random content in the game ensures replayability, it also serves another purpose as well. By essentially assembling a story from sequences of chance events, Rogueship encourages the player to imagine the greater story themselves, passively filling in the details and continuities which tell of a star captain’s harrowing career.

Both mechanics – the trade system and the sort of storyboard random encounters – are a throwback to an era of games that were played at a pretty high level of abstraction. And that’s the experience I want Rogueship to create.

Read Part 1: Design Foundation
Read Part 3: World Foundation
Read Part 4: Commodities
Read Part 5: Combat
Read Part 6: Events