Sword of the Stars: The Pit
A crowdfunded roguelike set in the Sword of the Stars universe.
Sword of the Stars: The Pit is a 2D turn-based roguelike dungeon crawler from Kerberos Productions. It takes place in the same universe as the earlier game Sword of the Stars and was self-published following an Indiegogo campaign that closed on November 14, 2012, having raised $23,941 against a $60,000 goal. Despite not reaching full funding, the developers completed and released the game three months later, first on GamersGate on February 21, 2013, and then on Steam on March 8. The player controls a character exploring an ancient alien facility called The Pit to find a cure for a plague devastating the human population of the planet. Difficulty increases as the player descends deeper into the facility. A spinoff, *The Pit: Infinity*, was released on November 11, 2019, and an official sequel, *Sword of the Stars: The Pit 2*, entered early access on Steam on October 22, 2021.
The game is turn-based, using rounds to track movement and combat. At the start, the player chooses from 12 classes, with three available in the original version (Scout, Engineer, and Marine) and nine more through expansions. Each class has unique starting stats and equipment, such as food, weapons, and tools. For example, the Marine begins with higher might, making it stronger in melee combat, while the Engineer starts with higher brains, improving skills like trap detection. The goal is to reach the last floor of The Pit—30 floors in the original game, 40 with expansions—to find the cure. Along the way, players defeat enemies, collect items, and monitor health and hunger meters; if either depletes, the character dies. Enemies grow tougher on each floor, and tasks like opening boxes or repairing devices require higher skill levels. To keep up, players level up by gaining experience from tasks like killing enemies, then allocate points to stats and skills. The player's vision is limited to the character's field of view, with enemies behind walls or the character unseen. A minimap shows the current floor, but fog of war hides unexplored rooms.
The game was funded through an Indiegogo campaign that closed on November 14, 2012, raising $23,941 (40% of its $60,000 goal). Despite this shortfall, the developers completed and released the game three months later.
Quick Facts
- Title
- Sword of the Stars: The Pit
- Developer
- Kerberos Productions
- Publisher
- Self-published
- Released
- February 21, 2013
- Modes
- Single-player
- Genre
- Roguelike
- Platforms
- Microsoft Windows / OS X / Linux
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The player controls a character exploring an ancient alien facility called 'The Pit' to find a cure for a plague that has devastated the human population of the planet. The game is turn-based, using rounds for movement and combat. The player chooses from 12 classes, with the original three being Scout, Engineer, and Marine, each distinguished by unique starting stats and equipment. For example, the Marine starts with higher might for melee combat, while the Engineer starts with higher brains for skills like detecting traps. The goal is to reach the last floor—30 floors in the original game, 40 with expansions—to find the cure. Along the way, the player must defeat enemies, find collectibles, and monitor health and hunger meters; depletion of either causes death. Difficulty increases with each floor, requiring players to level up by earning experience points from tasks like killing enemies, then allocating points to stats and skills. The player's vision is limited to the character's field of view, with a minimap showing explored rooms and fog of war hiding unexplored areas.
Reader's Guide
Sword of the Stars: The Pit was funded through an Indiegogo campaign that closed on November 14, 2012, raising $23,941—40% of its $60,000 goal. Despite not reaching full funding, the developers completed and released the game three months later. Five expansions added downloadable content, increasing the original three playable characters to twelve and adding weapons, floors, recipes, and enemies. The first expansion was titled Mind Games, followed by the Gold Edition that bundled the game with Mindgames and added more characters. The game initially received mixed reviews on Metacritic; Destructoid noted it did not challenge expectations and stayed in its comfort zone. However, after five years of updates and content additions, RPGFan called it 'one of the more solid roguelike titles on Steam'. A spinoff, The Pit: Infinity, was released November 11, 2019, and an official sequel, Sword of the Stars: The Pit 2, entered early access on Steam on October 22, 2021.
Did You Know?
- The game was funded via Indiegogo but raised only $23,941 of its $60,000 goal, yet was still completed and released three months later.
- The original game has 30 floors, but expansions increase that to 40 floors total.
- There are 12 playable classes in total, but only 3 (Scout, Engineer, Marine) are available in the base game; the other 9 require expansions.
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