Sphere: Flying Cities - SURVIVAL CITY BUILDER - First Look, Early Access, Let's Play

[@TheFreeBro]

I always thought that games like this should record how players remap the controls. It would be interesting if a game developer saw that everyone would prefer a certain input and implement that in the next release

[@DexterContracting]

Well it's not them beavers doing beaver-y things, but it's so relaxing and chill watching you play... I've been stressed out big time lately and really appreciate your playthroughs to help get my mind off things.

[@KatherineOfSky]

It makes me happy to hear you enjoy them so much :-)

[@arielmoonsoo9219]

44:00 or so - the reason there wasn't much material available is because you departed the sector before finishing your mining. Something to keep in mind before moving on to the next sector.

[@StephBer1]

I love this and looking forward to playing it. It's a combination of Frostpunk and Flotsam - picking up survivors and debris and building bigger. I hope there is some sort of endgame though, unlike Flotsam which is just more of the same. The best games are those that have a personal element or a reason to continue once the city becomes self-sufficient.

[@lozfreak17]

This seems really micro heavy, and I'm not sure if I'm a fan or not. I also wish cooked meals were displayed alongside food, and that I could look up current rate of consumption. Is there even a benefit to the kitchen if pops can eat raw food?

[@Zack_Wester]

my guess one of two things. 1: Happiness boost from eating cooked food or at least no negative effects from eating raw food (be it unhappiness from raw food or health risk). 2: more food per food. aka 2 unit of raw food can feed one person or you can cook it and it becomes 2 cooked food and each cooked food can feed 1 person. or both.

[@abelardlindsey7579]

Sounds like James Blish's "Cities in Flight". Is the antigravity device called a "spindizzy"?

[@LeSethX]

Flying cities? I think there was a Dr Who episode that casually mentioned that... I continue to be impressed how you look out for and show off new early access games instead of fully complete ones. While still looking solid, that list of features in the beginning shows a lot missing. And importantly, lacking in some nice controls as you mentioned. Edit, the flying of your base to other areas reminds me of Homeworld, esp the announcement of arriving and ready to collect resources.

[@dekar820]

This game looks really nice. One problem I can think of is the massive amount of things to do and remember doing simultaneously. It’s definitely not adhd friendly to say the least. Thank you for your hard work! Cheers!

[@tantamounted]

I think that depends on how your adhd manifests. This game looks good for me, but back when I played Alpha Centauri I was annoyed with constant city management and military upgrades, so I let the game so that. Wanderbots skips nearly all tutorials, but I normally do all that so I understand the game before I get in trouble.

[@Hawk7886]

What an incredibly cool concept! The cutscene art is a bit odd to get used to, but the style definitely grows on you.

[@monad_tcp]

Its kind of a clone of Frost Punk. But that game is amazingly well made. But this game has some interesting mechanics on top of the survival. Still, the game is being made.

[@HeruKane]

I like what I see so far and think the game has potential and so I am looking forward to seeing what happens to it in the future. Thank you for this video and I have to say I am glad you play a bit beforehand because 'this is the first time I opened the game' sort of playthrough just bothers me. (Like they spend half a video figuring out the build button.) So yeah, I super enjoyed the way you played this.

[@KatherineOfSky]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the video!

[@BlackeyeVuk]

You never changed Katherine. Soon billion subs my lord empress.

[@kbahrt]

One positive I did notice is that adjusting the game speed doesn't unpause. Hm, looking at the features, an automatic 'scan on arrival' or a simple 'scan when available' option the way most RTS and similar games let you automate ability usage for a unit by right clicking it. Dunno know if there might be an upgrade that unlocks it the way Stellaris has it.

[@thomas77539000]

I've been hooked on world building games sense simcity way back in the day.When the game is done i'm definitely going to buy this.

[@bloodgain]

2 criticisms so far: 1) "Infinite" zoom! Fixed zoom levels are so 1999. 2) Needs more beaver.

[@KatherineOfSky]

hahaha

[@GretchenDawntreader]

the storytelling apparently decided that an asteroid destroying the Moon that then laid waste to the Earth wasn't dire enough, so then the humans make something that bakes what's left. Hopefully there's no additional shoes waiting to drop! Sheeeeesh!

[@GretchenDawntreader]

do the storms move once your scanner reveals them? It would be dangerous to plot a course and find one had shifted.

[@eCookie019]

Love your stuffs! Keep it up

[@KatherineOfSky]

Thank you so much!

[@raventilyndel7186]

Thank you KoS! You helped me understand the game better than a certain shades wearing streamer.

[@antonstezhkin5991]

There are five survivers... I wonder what if i choose to rescue half of them? 2.5 extra persons in my town?

[@Myriako]

Thank you for this video ! 🤗💐

[@marines532]

This game kind of reminds me as a futuristic Frostpunk in a way. Oh, KoS, did you see Skyestorme's video on Frostpunk 2's trailer?

[@KatherineOfSky]

No, I haven't, been really busy.

[@GretchenDawntreader]

KoS: I need more things. Give me the things. Game: More things? More of what... KoS: All. I want....ALL THE THINGS! Game: *thunderclap* ALL YOU SAY! You know not the forces you meddle with! Choose carefully your next words lest another asteroid be upon thee!! KoS: But...I am of the Sky. This city is in my domain! HEED MEEEEEE ... and the sky opened and all the things did descend and a legend unfurled...

[@KatherineOfSky]

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Brilliant!

[@ED-yy4te]

Dream engines has more satisfying flying and resources gathering.

[@KatherineOfSky]

I feel it's completely different than Dream Engines: that's more of a tower defense game, and this is a city builder.

[@Prozerge]

it reminds me a lot of the old "Dragon Flyz" cartoon

[@SorrensSorrow]

Before we leave was my first thought.

[@Zack_Wester]

Only me or does the messedge sound like for when the ships departs and arrives in a sector. sound a bit like the put seat belt on sound from aircraft or is that just me?

[@Hawk7886]

It's definitely the airline "alert" sound that plays when the captain turns off the seat belt sign. Probably an intentional joke, it's like the captain of the city alerting the other "passengers"

[@Zack_Wester]

@@Hawk7886 it also played when ever any of the Named character (chief medical and city planer) wishes to speak to you and a few other moments. so its not just for the city entering and leaving travel mode.

[@SuperFlamethrower]

It is at 52% positive on Steam. An asteroid the size of the moon could cause the moon (and itself) to collide with earth but short of that it's not possible. We haven't observed any asteroids that big. There are asteroids out there big enough to wipe out humanity if they hit earth, though. If one hit the moon we would barely feel it. More realistic to me is if someone planted a nuclear bomb on the moon to break it into pieces, but a nuclear bomb probably isn't strong enough (this is a strategy that could work with the aforementioned asteroid) and I don't know why someone would do that. Ferrum, did you mean iron? Thanks for the demo but the game seems quite bad right now. I would consider buying after a lot of improvements. A lot of things need to be automated, like how about auto-scan when radar station built and when arriving at a new sector (if the radar station is on). Automatic exploration with the drone, there are a lot of sectors out there. Research queue. Burn or gain rates and time-until-empty. Also needs easy mode because I think the game might be "challenging" at its current difficulty and I would like to play the same city for longer before losing. Shortcut keys. So much stuff. The simulation seems to be working so improvement seems possible. I don't know a lot about game balance but it seems like there are too few resources at each sector. Another thing that needs to be automated is the mining drone hub. When built it should be in auto where it is on if there are resources that can be mined and enough spare power, and off otherwise. The interesting question is what do I want to turn off so that I can mine, not do I want to mine. The UI for turning on and off building is clunky, can there be a turn building on and off tool sort of like the repair tool. Notifications are lacking. It's easy to lose and not know why you lost.

[@RichardPhillips1066]

The bad UI reminds me of a 90s game you pretty much left to figure things out

[@KatherineOfSky]

Every game goes through iterations of design

[@dr5dzdl26]

*the moon has been absolutely smoinkt* *times are rough* *scientists say you have to move a couple of blocks away from your current resident because it's the chosen location for a project that can save humanity* ... *you wake up thinking an earthquake is happening* *the place they gave you is split in half. Falling Debris would've killed you if the ground wasn't...ascending* ... *you later realize they chose the location because it was perfectly in the middle of a Dunkin Donuts, a Wendy's and a laundromat of some sorts + where their families are staying* *you're alive only because they didn't anticipate the radius to include half the ground level of the apartment you've been thrown into, and now, you have to work together*

[@donarnold2249]

Thanks for the laugh 👍

[@stevegardner6139]

i would like t see more plz

[@Belnivek]

This game reminds me of Cliff Empire.

[@SuperFlamethrower]

The backstory is similar, isn't it.

[@paulzagieboylo7315]

This game looks like a good concept, but all of the UI is so, so bad. Literally everything requires 2 more clicks than it should, and the missing "escape to dismiss a dialog" is really unforgivable. Why do I have to explicitly turn my miner back on in every sector? There are resources, you're being paid to get resources, get to work! Why is the map screen so backwards? Why do I need to "set a course" and then "activate" instead of just saying "look, get moving"? Why do I have to "remember" to scan surroundings? That should be automatic. And the research element trading is cute but REALLY needs more support. Still, I hope they do fix these problems, because the game itself seems pretty cool.

[@pterrok5495]

Nit-picking the devs here, but alchemy to turn the elements into other elements? ;-) And THEN, there are buildings with smokestacks simply belching all important elements away! I mean, surely they would instead be capturing everything to change into whatever was needed...

[@Reoh0z]

Cat tax paid.

[@KatherineOfSky]

Accepted with a happy meow! Enjoy!

[@chriswil8252]

Hi

[@KatherineOfSky]

Hi

[@antonstezhkin5991]

"If they have loyalty > 50 they descide they love the gorvernment and have wild sexparties" ...Hm... With the government they love?

[@zpg743]

Mandatory youtube engagement comment.

[@jgcompton]

I, too only go to wild sex parties when my trust in the government is over 50. In other words never…

[@WickedBlondie]

i really dont vibe with the character portraits, its like way too uncanny valley, thats like the only critique i have of this game, at all

[@boofhead711]

Ahh yes 🅱️rost 🅱️unk

[@antonstezhkin5991]

The game is weird. You can convert copper into iron and do so ...to research how to build a two-stored house. What???? Come on! Even the beavers know how to do it!

[@blakeps192]

Far from it. Limited game to begin with.