Predestination

Predestination is a turn-based sci-fi 4X game set in the distant past of our own galaxy. Ships from countless races are flung back in time by a powerful hostile race known as the Revenants, and must now work to rebuild their empires and somehow stop the Revenants in the past. Explore the galaxy, colonise habitable worlds, meet alien races, and wage war. Predestination aims to blend the gameplay of classic titles like Master of Orion II with more modern 3D graphics and new game mechanics 4X fans have been waiting years to get their hands on: A 3D galaxy map, turn-based tactical fleet combat, advanced planetary exploration and colonisation gameplay, terraforming, a seamless 3D ship designer, and many other features.

Current build and release plans

Predestination is currently in a fully playable Early Access state, and all major features have been implemented thanks to your support and feedback. The main things left to add before release are additional content such as further episodes singleplayer story campaign, some user interface elements and improvements, some 3D models, sound effects, and content designed by our Kickstarter backers. We're now working on V0.9.9.0, the second last patch before we hit the big V1.0 update, when we'll begin working heavily on adding promised user content, iterating on gameplay and balance based on your feedback and polishing the game for final release.

The game is fully playable in its current state, but it hasn't been polished significantly and will contain bugs. If you enjoy helping to shape an emerging game with your feedback, or supporting dedicated indie developers, buying into the Early Access now will definitely help us out. If you're just looking for a new game to play and the Early Access process doesn't appeal to you, we would instead suggest adding the game to your wishlist and keeping tabs on development through our regular development updates. You'll get a notification when the game is officially released and can make a decision then. Predestination is currently singleplayer-only.

Post-release plans

Brain and Nerd has already committed to supporting Predestination long after release. We sold Free DLC for Life as a reward tier during our Kickstarter campaigns and have promised at least one expansion and several DLC packs, and we've promised to add multiplayer and modding tools in free updates after release. We have some very exciting plans for future content, such as space monsters and races with living ships, and constantly turn to our community for ideas. Stay with us and keep an eye on our development updates for more news on this after release.

History

Independent game development studio Brain and Nerd was founded in January 2012 by Queen's University Belfast graduate Brendan Drain and Tina Lauro, and work immediately began on Predestination. When it became clear that Predestination would need some funds to continue development, a campaign for the title was launched on Kickstarter in November 2012 and went on to become the first Irish game to be successfully kickstarted, reaching 200% of its initial goal. A small grant from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's Creative Industries Innovation Fund allowed us to add a stretch goal feature that we didn't reach during the campaign -- A freeform 3D ship designer. A small secondary Kickstarter campaign was launched to improve on the 3D ship designer with new features like customisable space stations and CAD-like advanced tools, which was also successful.

The game's Fleet Combat, Planetary Colonisation and Galaxy level gameplay were each developed as separate modules and individually tested by our dedicated beta backers before being joined together into one cohesive playing experience. We launched this as our first alpha build on Steam Early Access in 2015, and have continued to develop the game with your support and continued feedback. Since then, we've released over 70 regular updates and implemented almost all of our target features, including:

• Tax system and economic gameplay
  
• Ground combat, planet bombing and capturing
  
• Space Exploration galaxy age -- Skip straight to colonisation.
  
• Planetary morale, health, security and loyalty systems
  
• Trade Routes and blockades
  
• Diplomacy System
  
• Race Stats and four Race Archetypes with unique technologies and gameplay
  
• 3D Ship Designer & racial ship part models for 3 races
  
• Ship captains and colony leaders
  
• A directed tutorial for 4X newcomers
  
• Wormholes
  
• Planet specials, including strategic resources
  
• Warp-capable missiles
  
• Temporal Rifts, and Revenant attacks (random events)
  
• Planetary disaster events
  
• Building and infrastructure models (90% complete, final batch in progress)
  
• Tech Era 3: First Contact
  
• Tech Era 4: Galactic Domination
  
• Synergies technology tree
  
• Multiple Victory conditions
  
• Spying Gameplay
  
• A fully moddable episodic story mission system
  
• Empire management tools