Carried by Dotemu and developed by the Alt-Shift studio, “Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes” was revealed during the Night Live Opening of Gamescom. Meeting with its creators, fans of the series who want to renew the Space Opera Videra.
This is the story of a game that shouldn’t have been born. In any case, not so fast. However, this Tuesday evening on the stage of the Night Live Opening of Gamescom, Geoff Keighley vibrated the hearts of fans of the series and undoubtedly aroused the curiosity of fans of intergalactic battle games by announcing Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes. The adaptation of the famous series will be French is expected for 2026 on consoles and PC.
Because, it’s endowed, the publisher and developer behind Wonder Boy, Streets of Rage 4 or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revengewhich accompanies the project developed by the studio alt-Shift Games, which had made itself known with Crying Suns. “3-4 years ago, we worked on another totally different game, a metroidvania called Lost Fortress. We went around the publishers. I come to pitcher in Cyrille (Imbert, the president of Dotemu, editor’s note), “recalls with Tech & Co Fred Lopez, artistic director of the Montpellier studio.” It is going well, then at the end, the last slide of presentation indicates that, for the evolution of the studio in the future, we would make a game in the spirit of Crying Sunsbut with licenses of series and films that we like. “It is ultimately the argument that hits the bull’s eye with Dotemu.
“Cyrille sees that and he tells me that Lost Fortress does not interest him. But our future project, much more: ‘If that tells you to make a game in Crying Suns sauce, but brandished Battlestar Galactica, let’s do it!’, Remember Fred Lopez who thinks that Dotemu was already chatting with Universal at the time.
The idea is launched and the two parties are working on the project as well as on a prototype. The American giant is seduced by the multiple references to Battlestar Galactica who already emanated from Crying Suns and gives its green light. A little pressure, recognize Fred Lopez and his acolyte Julien Cotret, creative director of Battlestar Galactica. But they hit it with the desire to focus their future video game on the angle of human drama and survival that gave all its soul to the series launched in 2004.
Intrigue, pressure and survival
The first trailer, unveiled Tuesday evening in Cologne, therefore delighted the spectators of the opening show of the German video game fair. A trailer in the form of a tribute to the license. “I worked a lot on it,” slips the Alt-Shift manager. “We wanted people to see how much we like the license that we wanted to make a game faithful to the original work. That it makes fans want. We are ourselves fans of Battlestar Galactica And we got into the fan pumps to do this trailer, which they would like to see from the first second and the last image. “
This fan “who has been waiting for a game for years” should not be disappointed. The Alt-Shift teams relied on the DNA of the series, but do not offer a cover of the scenario or the frame of this legendary space opera across the Atlantic. It will be an unprecedented story that takes place after the Second Cylon War, when Caprica finds himself bombed and the inhabitants of the twelve colonies (the new refuge of humanity) pushed to flight. This is where the Galactica vessel takes over service to embark fugitives. But, I promise, the play players will find everything that makes Battlestar Galactica “Quite atypical “.
“There will be the same drama with great humanity, the complexity of human relationships that we found,” announces Fred Lopez.
Because the game will not be centered only on space fighting, but a lot on the management of crews, relationships. An “almost the most important aspect of the game” which aims to be a tactical and narrative rogue-liteist. However, the title will dive the players in the shoes of a fleet leader who will have to manage political and spiritual conflicts, military issues, the morale of his troops and get rid of internal intrigue. There will even be a hidden cylon, a humanoid robot spy ready for anything. “There is everything that makes complexity, gives a particular dimension to the game and a slightly different flavor,” summarizes the artistic director. “There is a human experience also behind.”
“We are not forced to know the series to play”
The game wants to rest on a feeling of “pressure and emergency”. After creating his vessel and crew, the player will have to manage all his internal problems and conflicts before the cylons make up for the ship. “Cylons get on you inexorably. But you have to get in the fight in the best conditions and have everything well prepared for that,” explains Fred Lopez.
For this, it will be necessary to rely on his officers, his assistants, to ensure his relations, to optimize his human resources and others. Each game (around 20 to 30 hours to reach the final lens) will be unique, with new fleets and different officers for each start -up – Rogue -Lite obliges. Each choice will have repercussions on events, morale and possible crises to come.
Alt-Shift promises that the game would not exclude non-conneters. “We are not forced to know the series and his characters to play,” insists the studio’s owner. “Being a commander of a space fleet is already an attraction in itself, even for those who do not know the saga.” And this is also what Universal asked by giving the teams to the teams to have “a game which stands without necessarily that the license is fundamental to understanding”.
A creative freedom that necessarily delighted the developers who wanted to find a balance between “good management game and good Rogue-Lite”. “If you know, inevitably, you will please yourself. You will have your fan dreams. But if you don’t know, it changes absolutely nothing to the deep and immersive experience that you want to offer any player in search of a strategic and narrative challenge in space”, he promises full of hope for his game launched in the last straight line.
Fred Lopez, who is used to supporting young studios wanting to pitch their projects, is a little proud to have applied himself to himself one of the advice that he keeps putting them together: “It is important to always include future perspectives in his presentations. We are not immune to having people who flashed on this idea rather than that which you come to defend”, he laughs. With an unconvincing pitch, Alt-Shift will finally find himself at the helm of a cult license to defend. More pressure, but a great accelerator for the young studio projected much further in his video game hyperespace.