Savage Vessels

Savage Vessels is a top-down pixel-art shooter about scavenging and fighting to survive in a region where a strange void makes escape difficult. You pilot a one-man destroyer launched from an automated carrier, searching fields of asteroids and fragmented freighters while hostile drone vessels pursue you.

Stranded in the void

You are a scavenger whose ragtag fleet has dropped out of hyperspace into a threatening region that is merging with real space. A mysterious force disassembled a freighter fleet traveling through hyperspace and rematerialized it among the asteroids. The fleet's drone vessels survived, but are out of control and still follow their primary directive: protecting their owner's property, the Taiko Mining Corporation.

To escape, you repeatedly triangulate your location by leaving the carrier, checking navpoints, landing again and moving on. The drones make this difficult, so you scavenge materials and craft weapons, devices and consumables from makeshift parts.

Regions and survival

The game has 10 levels made from handmade regions that are procedurally combined and populated with enemies and items. Your view is obstructed, and sound helps you stay alert to danger. Levels use pixel-shape-based inertia and collision, while the audio features a striking Doppler shift.

Permadeath means each run can end permanently, though some levels can be unlocked as starting points to give you a head start. The game also features a dynamic field of view and a hard difficulty.