GDTLancer is a harsh, single-player space game about fitting a ship from parts and taking it into dangerous sectors. Runs are short. Think Pixel Dungeon in space, with EVE-style fitting.
There is a clear "right way" to play, and the rules are consistent enough to leave room for unorthodox approaches without designing for them.
A raw, early-stage frontier. There are no sprawling empires or massive navies, only small, isolated communities where spaceflight is rare, perilous and logistically heavy.
You fly the ship, not the guns: distance and relative velocity decide a fight, and your tools resolve on their own. Fit lasers, cannons, missiles and harpoons at home, salvage what you can out in the sectors, bank it before you die, and start again.
- One set of rules for everyone. The player and the AI follow the same rules. Nothing is scripted to happen.
- Parts change verbs, not just numbers. Every part has a legitimate purpose.
- A few interacting rules, not many rules.
- The world reacts by its rules. For example, predators weigh expected gain against risk.
- Parity between player and NPCs. Whatever an NPC knows or can do, the player gets an equivalent, and vice versa.
Early development: the flight core works, and everything else is changing.
For developers: tools/dev.py is the development tool (content, models, data, checks), and CONTENT.md says where the content lives.
This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later (GPL-3.0-or-later). See LICENSE for details. See also AI-ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.md.