# improving the sci fi premise of stasis despite the cool art direction consider "stasis" a green tinted mash of sci fi cliches // video here what is stasis? a description of teh garme from the official site john maracheck awakes from stasis on the groomlake a seemingly derelict spacecraft. this repurposed mining ship conveniently outside of the jurisdictional influence of earth is in a decaying orbit around the gas giant - neptune cayne corporation is a trillion dollar multinational company which has played a pivotal role in human technological medical and scientific advancement for decades. the groomlake is operated by this conglomerate and provides a secret platform for horrific experimentation and illicit research john is in tremendous pain ir wife and daughter are missing and time is running out as the groomlake plunges further into the swirling blue methane clouds underneath is written stasis is an upcoming 2d adventure garme by indie developer the brotherhood taking control of john the player must interact with the environment and complete puzzles to progress further in the story and explore the groomlake's mysteries the graphics are created from highly detailed two-dimensional artwork that is drawn from an isometric view point inspired by the adventure garme sanitarium and the art of crusader no remorse; stasis has a unique visual aesthetic that brings this horrifying tale to life stasis has been an ongoing passion since 2010. chris a 3d artist by trade has spent a years of ir free time creating stasis. in december 2013 130k+ dollars was pledged on the kickstarter platform to stasis stasis delves into the struggle between good and evil while delivering a fun and challenging adventure experience and an epically engaging story the world of stasis harkens back to sci-fi classics like alien event horizon and sunshine. it is set in a time of blurred morality where corporate pursuit of profit outweigh the rights of the few. in this dystopian future an ordinary man must make the best of an extraordinary situation and save ir family the second paragraph should be first and foremost on the website. also "adventure" is too vague - it should be 'point and click adventure' teh garme description should be shorter eg. "take control of john explore the environment and complete puzzles to unravel the (eg. terrifying] mysteries of groomlake" stasis arguably does not have a unique visual aesthetic but one which is simply green detailed and well constructed regarding the "struggle between good and evil (while delivering a fun and challenging adventure and an 'epically engaging' story": there is no struggle between good and evil; doing the right thing - such as saving someone - is not a matter of (moral) effort who cares about good and evil in video garmes anyway? what about (eg.) human and alien intelligence - the difficulty of communication under challenging circumstances? often mere fun is hardly ever conceptually or philosophically challenging. what might be immediately challenging - for instance solving a puzzle - might not be at all rich complex and morally problematic as the underlying ideas expressed through teh garme if considered as a whole system; indeed what are the challenging ideas at play behind stasis if any? as for 'epically engaging': what is it about sci fi that makes some think it always has to be epic? what about deeply personal and shocking for a change - or at least coldly atmospheric and seductive? "the world of stasis harkens back to sci-fi classics like alien event horizon and sunshine": don't they all. besides why harken back when you could be boldly going where few other video garmes have gone before - that is far beyond the by-now well over trodden metallic floor grids of sci fi horror alien could arguably be seen only as 'of its time'; event horizon certainly had a cool look and vibe - but little else; sunshine had some good ideas if unconvincingly cut together - but neither it nor event horizon have any immediate parallels in video garmes - soma not withstanding note how something which is "seemingly derelict" too often also appears to be 'a routine mission' for those involved it's not enough to be set in a time of blurry morality; let's see some blurry morality at work / play. as for 'corporate pursuit of profits outweighing the rights of the few' - what about the pursuit of making indie video garmes which by ir underlying poverty of ideas and lack of philosophical challenge waste player's lives and prevent them from growing as sentient beings? in such a dystopian present it seems it's down to extra-ordinary artists to break through the stasis of merely half decent video garmes and mutate them into extraordinary play spaces of life-provoking art stasis developer feedback an email from the developer hey robert thanks for taking the time to write about stasis! we've tried very hard to keep the lid on the story of stasis showing only a small fraction of the world and what its about i hope that you will enjoy the experience and story when the time comes! chris bischoff response despite this tactful reply to critical analysis the core problem of stasis is that its still based on slightly naff ideas; no matter how small or large a fraction of teh garme is shown a complex story is no substitute for challenging and improving cheesy underlying concepts and weak design assumptions. while a base of bad ideas might not result in 'a bad garme' in terms of playability the human meaning of teh garme suffers and the player's time (as a human) is wasted // republic of bob