FTL: Faster Than Light

FTL: Faster Than Light is a top down, real time strategy game created by indie developers Subset Games and released on September 14, 2012. The game is available on Steam and is cross-platform - it is available on Linux, Mac OS, and Windows.

The concept for FTL was based on tabletop board games and other non-strategic space combat video games that required the player to manage an array of ship's functions. The initial development by the two-man Subset Games was self-funded, and guided towards developing entries for various indie game competitions. With positive responses from players and judges at these events, Subset opted to engage in a crowd-sourced Kickstarter campaign to finish the title, and succeeded in obtaining twenty times more than they had sought; the extra funds were used towards more professional art, music and in-game writing. The game, considered one of the major successes of the Kickstarter fundraisers for video games, was released in September 2012, to many positive reviews.

Story
In the game, the player controls the crew of a single spacecraft, holding critical information to be delivered to an allied fleet several sectors away, while being pursued by a large rebel fleet. The player must guide the spacecraft over a number of sectors, each with planetary systems and events procedurally generated in a roguelike fashion, while facing against rebel and other hostile forces, recruiting new crew, and outfitting and upgrading their ship. Combat takes place in real time, but the game can be paused at any time, and if the ship is destroyed or the crew lost, the game ends in permadeath, requiring the player to restart.