Game: Stasis

I recently played through the Stasis alpha demo, and I can tell you two things about it. First, a great deal of work remains to be done: path finding is extremely wonky, character models look like mannequins and appear to glide weightlessly when they walk, interactivity and feedback is very limited, and it's just "rough," in various ways, to varying degrees. Second, and more important, it is absolutely overflowing with potential. Even in its brief and incomplete state, it left me very much wanting more.Stasis is a point-and-click sci-fi horror adventure set aboard the research vessel Groomlake, which has suffered some sort of catastrophe that's left it nearly derelict, with most of its crew dead or missing. Systems are shut down and signs of struggle are everywhere; it also slowly becomes clear that the ship's crew was inflicting horrors of its own, long before disaster struck, as part of its mission. Figuring out why, and what role you played in it, will be an important part of understanding what went wrong.""Stasis really is an amalgamation of everything I love about science fiction," creator Chris Bischoff told me. "Alien, Event Horizon, Sunshine, Dead Space, The Dig, System Shock... they all have some element of DNA in the game. From a gameplay point of view, System Shock's way of telling its story through audio logs, video logs, and ghosted re-enactments is a heavy influence on Stasis."Bischoff is the lone developer on the game, handling everything from programming to graphics and animations, although his brother recently signed on as "the business mind" of their indie game studio, handling things like the Stasis website, community management, and contracts with voice actors. He's also involved in crafting the story, and they discuss, refine, and discard ideas on a daily basis.