Crashlands Brings Sass to Adventure RPGs

The three brothers who make up Butterscotch Shenanigans are looking for some interested players to join the Beta test army for their newest title.

, as Butterscotch member Sam Coster puts it, is “so gargantuan and full of sass, no words we type can describe it.”

In Crashlands , the player character is a galactic delivery truck driver named Flux Dabes. Accompanied by her “trusty sidekick/supervisor/robotic cargo pallet,” JuiceBox, Flux is on a shipment run when she’s interrupted by Q, an unfriendly alien who tears apart Flux’s ship for useful technology. Flux and JuiceBox end up crashing and becoming marooned on the planet of Woanope. Flux needs to contact the Bureau of Shipping and make sure that the packages reach their destination; but with no way to deliver them at hand, she must instead turn her attention to surviving in the vast, wild, and colorful Crashlands.

Flux will need to “fight, tame, craft, quest, bossfight, and adventure [her] way to domination of all things.” Construction is done in a manner reminiscent of finger painting, making it something of an art project, and the inventory of items collected and scavenged is both infinite and self-managing, meaning that players need not worry about having to throw away potentially useful items to make room for others. With more than 450 crafting recipes to find and utilize, Flux can create tools, housing, furniture, and increasingly ludicrous weapons like harvest bombs and laser clotheslines.

The story behind Crashlands is quite a tale. It came about in late 2013, when Sam Coster was diagnosed with Lymphoma. As he fought his way through chemotherapy, he and his brothers decided to scrap their then-current project and instead make Crashlands . The nonsensical game provided a wonderful distraction for Sam while he underwent months of painful treatment to save his life. His fight continues, and so does the work on his legacy. “Working on Crashlands has been my outlet, my catharsis. This game has been my defense against blood dragons, poison, stab wounds and baldness. It stands as my family’s translation of adversity into something that will spin joy for thousands of people for thousands of hours.”

Crashlands was a finalist at the Reboot Indie Game Awards, and was Greenlit on Steamwithin 42 hours of its listing. PC and Mac players can sign up to preorder the game from the official website for $15 USD. Players will be able to move their saved games between desktop and mobile devices, and by creating a “BscotchID,” they can take advantage of the modding tool that allows them to “do horrible, wonderful things” to the game. Find Butterscotch Shenanigans on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, their devlog, or the official forums.