How Blackbird Interactive Crafted an Immersive Future for Hardspace: Shipbreaker

All the best! Hi everyone! We’re Elliot Hudson, Chris Williams (Studio Director) and Vidhi Shah(Senior UX designer) from Blackbird Interactive. Our zero-g spaceship-salvaging sandbox game Hardspace for Shipbreaker releases on consoles September 20, and we’re here to share some insider details about how its futuristic world came to be!

Retro jump to the 2300s

We have a vision Hardspace for Shipbreaker was retrofuturistic – and more specifically inspired by the “cassette futurism” aesthetic which draws from 70s and 80s technology. We extensively researched the past, present and future technologies, and historical information about industry, space travel, and labor history to create the story and context. To help shape the specific blue-collar shipbreaking setting and the plot related to it, we looked at many different things for inspiration, from the Luddite rebellion, to America’s Gilded Age, the Ironworkers who built the first skyscrapers in the 1920’s, all the way to the modern-day Shipbreakers, particularly in places like Alang Beach in Gujarat.

Hardspace for ShipbreakerThis game is best played in a zero-gravity first-person workplace simulation. You will explore the dangerous interior workings of abandoned spaceships that are awaiting salvage. This means establishing the design language of our spaceships was crucial to achieving a sense of immersion, and our extensive research on contemporary seafaring boats and ships was key to making the game’s world feel lived-in and real. To examine the construction of large cargo ships and their blueprints, we explored and photographed an abandoned ferry and rented boats.

Our team is space-lovers and we love the challenge of designing iconic ships for our games. Our approach goes beyond the “rule of cool” (i.e. the idea that in a fictional work “the limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief for a given element is directly proportional to its awesomeness”) as we stay immersed in the science of space travel so we can also engage with these designs in practical terms, working out how the game’s ships, tools, and systems might look and function in real life. It is easy to come up with many interesting ideas by simply thinking about what a typical day would look like for these workers, as well as how technology could help or hinder them.

Future that is relatable

Striking a balance between futuristic elements and details from our current reality was tough, but we set some ground-rules to make the game’s world internally logical. You cannot travel faster than light and you can’t use advanced AI or teleportation. These ships can only be saved if they are rescued by industrial force. 

However Hardspace for ShipbreakerOur goal is to demonstrate that labor tools often appear the same no matter what time it takes place. The game was inspired by existing grinding and welding equipment. We tried to keep the tactile look of our creations simple and unadorned, while avoiding science-fiction technology.

The dynamic between the corporations and working classes is intentionally made more ominous and humorous than it actually is. Shipbreaker Hardspace are broadly the same as those throughout the history of labor and industry, and it’s easy to see those dynamics at play even today.

Find the perfect tone

It’s a good idea to mix inspiration with references. For industrial design, we looked at Anime from the 80s to see visual effects.

Regular movie nights were also held to examine the tension between dystopia and satire. Movies like “Alien”, “Moon”, “Outland”, and even documentaries and dramas like “Brazil”, “Blood on the Mountain”, “Deepwater Horizon”, and the seminal blue-collar, construction site thriller “Steel” from 1979 all helped point us toward different ideas for the game’s setting and tone.

We didn’t stop with movies and television, however. We read the works of John Steinbeck, Ursula K. Le Guin, Joseph Heller, Cory Doctorow, Kurt Vonnegut, and Ray Bradbury throughout the game’s development. We’re far from the first people to explore these themes, and we knew the work that came before us would both help us see what had been done before and what we might be able to offer today’s audiences thinking about the future of work.

A simulation of zero gravity physics presents challenges

Although it can be difficult to create a zero-g environment, and allow players full movement, this is an equally enjoyable challenge. We had to ensure that players understood the location of everything in the salvaging area. This was done while keeping inputs as minimal as possible. Assisting players with spatial cues was our focus. For example, each ship had a clearly identifiable ceiling and floor.

Both artistically and technically, all components of a ship had to be capable of destructing and be modelled with complicated physics. Each part also needed to have a convex shape. The art team did a tremendous job with texture work to overcome this problem of simplified geometry, and our technical team added some sneaky graphical features to “cheat” even more detail on objects.

Although these are small details or design choices that many players might not see, they work together to provide you with the necessary information to help you make the right decisions as you save each ship.

An exciting step toward first-person experiences

The first-person perspective is a powerful way to help the game’s world feel real and immediate to the player, and many of us on the team are long-time FPS fans. It was an excellent game to learn new skills and expand our design and artistic abilities. 

This enhanced immersion was achieved by using a predominantly diegetic interface style and HUD. The technology used in the game was what we wanted. Hardspacethe world is simple, yet functional and a little bit rundown. Many of the UI interfaces in the game are modeled after very early monochromatic computers such as the Apple II, and the Player’s HUD in their helmet is modeled primarily after what you’d find in certain fighter jets.

It was our intention to goJust a littleOver-communication of large amounts of information to players in the HUD is a mistake. Decisions about color, visual effects, distortion, etc. that a player sees when they run into dangers are made to emphasize the hazards of the job and reinforce the feeling that you’re just one part of a larger world.

It was an amazing experience. It was a shift in perspective for us from our roots, and we were also able to see the simulations of physics. Shipbreake: HardspaceR was a critical part of our experience, and often proved more challenging than we expected. But it’s also those projects that tend to be the most satisfying: developing a game that not only fits with our core strengths in world building and ship design, but also allows us to stretch out and try new things and grow our expertise as developers. We’re so excited about using everything we learned moving forward as we explore even more varied games and experiences.

Hardspace for ShipbreakerReleases September 20, on Xbox Series X|S and is coming Day One to Xbox Game Pass. This game can already be played on PC, and it is part of PC Game Pass.

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Hardspace for Shipbreaker

Focus Entertainment

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$39.99

$35.99

Welcome to LYNX, the solar system’s leader in spaceship salvaging!

We offer you the privilege of helping turn humanity’s past into its future by salvaging ships in zero-g. Each one is a puzzle, and how you solve it is up to you! Make your mark, save everything, maximize profit.

The cutting-edge LYNX technology helps you complete the task. Use the laser cutter to cut metal and the grapple tool for easy removal of salvage. Upgrades such as sensors and demo charges can be earned.

Pay attention to where your tools point! Explosive decompression, radiation, fuel and electricity are all possible hazards. Your life is protected by our EverWork™ technology, but our profits aren’t.

Start your LYNX adventure now Your account balance is:
1.252.5944,441.92 Credits
Pay that debt now! Shipbreaker, good luck!

• Experience daily life as a blue-collar spaceship salvager
• Cut and destroy at will in a next-gen physics sim
• Salvage through a compelling campaign, relax in freeplay, or compete in timed challenges
• Explore a variety of ship types with unlimited variations
• Upgrade tools and gear to take on bigger and harder ships