Lords of Rigel Announced

Another day another challenger to Master of Orion title, as king of the 4X’s. This time the challenger is Lords of Rigel, a title from Rhombus Studios. The Rhombus team is comprised of a spread of modders, up and coming programmers, and even a racoon rehabilitation specialist (no I didn’t make that up). Rhombus as a team appeared to the world last June, with deafening silence! They then proceed to alpha test parts of their game through Desura and eventually, in November, started a Kickstarter campaign for the project.

Sadly their Kickstarter campaign was resoundedly unsuccessful, which shouldn’t have been surprising considering their lack of advertising. However Rhombus ploughed forward with development, signed themselves up with Iceberg Interactive, and released an announced this week to tell the world that their game will be ready sometime in Q4 of this year.

Lords of Rigel: Shape the Galaxy (LoRStG? LoRSG? LRSG? LoR?) is a 4X game, as I’ve said. It also uses turn-based mechanics for the strategy and management side of the game, but switches to real time for the combat. With one programmer specializing in RTS programming, another in Python, and yet another in Racoon it seems like is a logical way to divvy up the workload.

Some inspiration for the back story seems to be taken from Babylon 5. Narrative is often an afterthought in 4X games, as players usually enjoy living through their own sci-fi sagas. However LoR’s story has some fun elements to it, placing the player in a galaxy already alive with intrigue and war between two elder races. The player has to choose whether he is going to join sides with one of the elder races, or whether they will forge their own path combing their might with that of the other young races. This is a quite unique mechanic and idea for a 4X game and I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

The game’s overall feature list seems pretty comprehensive, with some nice extras like Dyson Spheres! and one important omissions in my eyes – a ship designer, something I particularly enjoy playing with.

Lords of Rigel seems to have most of the essentials for making a fun 4X game and I look forward to discovering more about it.

Official Press Release

Haarlem, The Netherlands – March 9^th, 2016 – Publisher Iceberg Interactive is delighted to announce that they have signed a new publishing deal with Rhombus Studios, for their debut title ‘Lord of Rigel’. Based in Bellingham, Washington, Rhombus Studios is working hard to bring this brand new 4x space-strategy title with real-time combat elements to market in Q4-2016, on Steam and other digital platforms.

Lord of Rigel is set in a galaxy locked in a pan-galactic cold war. Choose between warring elder races, forge your own coalition, or go it alone. Navigate galactic council politics and defeat gigantic menaces, while utilizing espionage, research, and military might to shape the galaxy your way.

James and Adam Rorabaugh Co-Founders of Rhombus Studios say: “Rhombus Studios is excited to have secured a future for Lord of Rigel by partnering with Iceberg Interactive. They are the ideal publisher for Lord of Rigel, because they understand how small studios work and have a deep understanding and love of strategy games. Our core gameplay and immersive universe combined with Iceberg’s industry experience and keen eye for detail will take Lord of Rigel to the next level and create a franchise that players can enjoy for many years to come.”

More information on Lord of Rigel can be found on its official website http://www.lordofrigel.com or check out the Facebook Page.

Shape the Galaxy
Lord of Rigel is a turn based 4x (Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate) space strategy game. Set in a galaxy divided by an ancient cold war, guide your race through a galaxy in turmoil. Form coalitions to survive the coming war, or discover the secrets of ascension that the elder races fear. Your race will have many obstacles to overcome if they are to survive. Face rival species including the elder races who view themselves as the rightful guardians of the galaxy or fend off grand menaces as they attempt to disrupt that already troubled galaxy. Use numerous tools such as diplomacy, espionage, real time ship combat, and research to define a path for your civilization or join one of the elder species as they fight for control of the galaxy.

Features:
Species
Choose from 10 playable races with unique characteristics, behaviors, and leaders. Play alongside two elder races and choose the fate of minor species with unique resources and technologies to protect or exploit.

End Game
Shape the fate of the galaxy through harnessing rare strategic resources to build dyson spheres, doomsday weapons, or unlock evolutionary secrets.

Diplomacy
Shape Galactic Council politics by negotiating trade treaties, alliances, and creating client states. Each species has unique leaders with personalities and cultural traditions that direct their choices.

Espionage
Run a shadow empire and benefit from your spy network through sabotaging fleets, bombing infrastructure, stealing technology, creating the “right” political climate by inciting rebellions, or assassinating leaders.

Fleet Combat
Real time combat that rewards for using good tactics. Use smaller ships to flank and target weaker rear armor on capital ships. Target subsystems and disable: weapons, shields, engines, computers, and other systems. Use onboard marines to raid enemy ships or capture them.

Menaces
Defend yourself from intergalactic invaders and devastating alien probes. Gain galactic prestige by defending the galaxy against those who would destroy it or enlist the aid of the galactic council to end these mutual threats.