Space Cadets: Engineering Corps

Space Cadets: Engineering Corps is a 2D top-down shooter roguelite in which you pilot an over-designed spaceship and survey planets for a company that files your findings into reports. You fly, survey planets, fight and survive, while a crew of engineers tinkers with your ship. Runs last up to 15–20 minutes, and you earn research points to spend on your ship and crew.

Runs and ship systems

Every 60 seconds, your engineers may introduce an experimental modification. Their changes can affect systems such as shields and the hull, and you can fire an engineer if you have the staff to do so. You aim weapons manually unless the engineers interfere, and can gain experience level-ups during a run. The game includes multiple experimental weapon types and ship archetypes, each with its own attributes and gameplay.

Research and progression

Between runs, research points let you improve your ship, hire or train engineers, fire them, or give them a bonus. You can also unlock abilities and ships. The engineers complete an ISC Form 27-B (Loss of Vessel) after each loss.

Explore and scavenge

Each solar system is randomly generated and can contain intensifying asteroid fields, derelict ghost ships, comets, merchants, auditors and rogue engineers. You can make temporary ship improvements by negotiating with locals and scavenging alien technology, which your engineers can use to modify your ship.

Multiplayer

Online multiplayer supports up to four players. Everyone explores the same solar system in parallel, racing to destroy targets and complete planet surveys for points. Spy technology lets you take snapshots of rivals’ activity and interfere with their projects using espionage tokens. Engineers accompany players in multiplayer too, applying the same modifications to everyone’s ships at the same time.