CUUSOO: FTL - Faster Than Light

FTL: Faster Than Light is a top down, real time strategy, rogue-like indie game created by developers Subset Games released for digital distribution on September 14, 2012. The general premise is you, the player, are the high ranking commander of a faster-than-light travel capable spacecraft belonging to the remnants of a once great Federation trying to transport secret tactical information to headquarters which could ensure victory over the malicious Rebels all the while avoiding destruction or capture from the aforementioned foes. Although in the beginning you have access to only the Kestrel-class cruiser, there is a total selection of nine different ships each having their respectively unique layouts, equipment, and crew; all of which is upgradeable and customizable to a degree. Warping between waypoints on a randomly generated grid of space vectors, you never know who or what you may find in an effort to reach your destination with every leap potentially being the last before possible annihilation. To form one final note before moving along, some of the gameplay and look has been considered to share similarity with the Battlestar Galactica tabletop board game.

Official Trailer – IGN

Now on CUUSOO is a submitted collaborative project between CrashSanders and GlenBecker with the approval of Faster Than Light’s original creators, Justin Ma and Matthew Davis, featuring a number of creative mini builds based on various star cruisers from said indie game.

Kestrel

Federation Cruiser “Osprey”

Engi Cruiser “Torus”

Stealth Cruiser “Nesasio”

Slug Cruiser “Man ‘O’ War”

Zoltan Cruiser “Noether”

Mantis Cruiser “Basilisk”

Rock Cruiser “Bulwark”

Coinciding with what was stated on the designers’ project page and personal blog; these are very much like the same designs found in the Star Wars: Planets sets which could be considered a niche area. Although they may not possess intricately high amounts of features, I have respect for anyone who can make something come across more detailed than it actually is in the same way pixel artists do within their artwork.

In closing, I believe this idea has some hidden potential. True, perhaps the mini builds will not impress a number of people but the decision to build at such a small scale could have been more to do with Lego’s seemingly strict stipulations against large detailed builds especially for relatively unknown properties. (You can read a more in depth article about the project designers’ decision to go micro-scale here on GlenBricker’s blog review titled “FTL: Why not make them bigger?”) Considering the Minecraft project based on an indie game itself passed review to be turned into an actual licensed Lego product and has become so popular they will be releasing two more sets based on the property, somehow I find this idea also based on an indie game having little resistance in being passed.

Since the Faster Than Light project was approved past the Summer Review deadline (June 3rd), this shall be up for assessment by Lego in September. Until then, let us keep a couple of fingers crossed for something good to come from this. Who knows? Maybe Lego will design a minifigure scale version of the Kestrel.

Thank you for reading.