Slipways Classic
The PC version adds a council of five races with varying technology and philosophical outlook, a replayable campaign mode, revamped procedurally-generated graphics, and many other features - while still keeping the swift gameplay of this preview. If you'd like to stay up-to-date with the progress, check out the Discord server or the Twitter feed.
How to play
There is an animated quickstart guide, but here is the shortest possible version:
Drag the map around using the right mouse button or the SDFE keys. Click to drop a wormhole that will become your starting point. Then click and drag to find some planets, which you can colonize with your chosen industry type. Drag from planet to planet to connect them with a slipway. Try to connect planets that make stuff with planets that need it. Buy structures by dragging them from the bottom-right corner. Research technologies from the top-left corner. Click the heart symbol to check your score.
Make the biggest, baddest, most prosperous empire possible!
Credits
The game design, coding and graphics are all by me - Jakub Wasilewski. All things audio by Gruber.
This game would not be possible without the help of my Patreon supporters, including these top-tier heroes: Tomasz Bylina, Adam Kwapiński, Thorsten Schleinzer, Marc Holmes, Grzegorz Dałek, Andreas Bretteville, Carlos Pardo. Thank you!
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Slipways PC - open beta available!May 06, 2021
- Slipways PC - final release date and roadmapMar 19, 2021
- Slipways PC - release date, trailer, Steam page!Dec 02, 2020
- SlipWays development - November updateDec 01, 2019
- PC Slipways are back in development!Oct 26, 2019
- SlipWays 1.1 releasedApr 07, 2018
- Working on a balance updateApr 05, 2018
- SlipWays updated to 1.01Mar 26, 2018
Comments
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This was way too much fun! First off, really love how you worked with the pico-8 limitations, it feels great and looks great even with the 128x128 and limited color palette.
Making mistakes in this game is punishing, but thanks to the 25 year cycle it's very much contained, so mistakes only matter for a short (well, round an hour) long run. Compare that to stellaris, where if you colonize the wrong planet at the start you really have to go for an uphill battle the rest of the game. Here it's more of a "oh fuck I probably shouldn't have done that, I'll do it differently next run".
Overall, this is really impressive work, good job!
Pretty fun game, but it's not cool it's only 25 years and no other goals apart from connecting planets...
Also it's annoying how little information there is, and mistakes cost heavily... For example you place something, but because of some mechanic you didn't know about now that thing is useless... Or let's say you accidentally make an unnecessary slipway, or connect the wrong resource to a lab... And there is nothing you can do to change that...
Also would be cool if there was an option to send more than 1x resource from X to Y.
Also not being able to change anything you placed has another issue - your infrastructure from before slipgates is less efficient... If you built it after inventing slipgates it could be much more profitable... But it is done, and you can't do anything about it!!
Finally got 5 stars on Reasonable. Now to tackle harder difficulties.
my speedrun record is 6 seconds : )
managed to explore an entire system
I would love it if this game had an endless mode that autogenerate new sectors via a struceure and had no time limit
Fantastic game! I think it would be nice if you could use planets like gas giants or iceballs to connect other planets and transport resources.
that's what the slipgates are for.
Any chance for an android version?
i dont know what you put in this game but i've spent several hours just doing the same thing over and over and will probably continue to do so. i fear what will happen when i eventually buy the finished version.
Blown away, didn't even finish a match. Exploring the game without reading the wiki was my best decision in a videogame in a long while. The fact that this is also the <3 Pico-8 is utterly fascinating. :D I am happy.
Great Game!
Can you add an endless mode? I enjoy the game but feel it is too short!
been playing 3 hours still haven't got over 1 star, 10/10
There isn't any sound any more
this game was good
installing with itch.io client doesnt work for me on win 10 :/
with the tutorial i understood the mechanics. fun little thing.
why esdf and not wasd?
would like to see a way to delete a slipway
fax an undo button would be amazing
it would, in free play. i believe that forcing the player to decide adds a layer of strategic complexity to the game, but i am also just a game design student so im not the most researched in the topic. as a player though i enjoy having to stop and think before selecting am optio
I just don't get this game. It honestly feels very luck dependent as if your starting area has bad planets, that just snowballs into not being able to do anything until much later, by which time any chance of a good score is gone. Is there some obvious strategy I am missing or is it just reset until I get a good start?
Just keep playing, and if it still doesn't click, maybe the game just is not for you.
Also, remember, this is basically a demo.
i feel like something to keep in mind is that some of the strategic planning comes from deciding which planets to use and which to ignore, as well as when to use planets. i hope this helps
Also just because a planet is unhappy doesn’t mean you have to satisfy it.
Just move around the map and find an area with high planet density? If you still get bad rng, just restart. But I played many games, and I don't think rng is really such an issue.
doesn't work for me on MM+ latest onion FW / Fake08
gives error cart not found
tried changing the extension, checked gameslist.xml seems fine
have the PC game already and was really keen to try it but am at a loss here
have many other PICO 8games running all of those have .p8.png extension as well
Not sure what the acronyms you use are referring to, are those emulators, hardware?
If yes, I'm afraid I can't help much with troubleshooting - I can only test on actual PICO-8 and in-browser.
thanks for responding, I am referring to running the game on the Miyoo Mini Plus handheld emulator using the Fake-08 core (which itself is being managed by Retroarch i think)
I realized it is actually working and to get it starting properly I just need to load Retroarch and do a 'restart game'. Then it loads to the title screen as it should.
That said once is loads it shows a mouse cursor but no way to control the mouse cursor using the miyoo dpad or buttons. Usually one can remap the inputs in retroarch but it doesn't give any way to remap mouse.
I realize you didn't build this game with this handheld console/emulator in mind so not expecting you to give a solution. In fact big thanks for making these great games!
I am sure there are other ppl than I who would also love to run your game on it. Having slipways running on such a pocketable device would be awesome. So in case anyone else knows how to get the mouse controls working for slipways on a MYM+ let us know! :)
Still having fun enjoying this game :D
awesome, game putting the steam release on my wishlist. my best score on challenging so far:
man this game is good to play, its a stress relief once i understand how the game works. i just hope that there'll be an endless mode of this game.. but since forgiving is done i still have another challenges to be completed :D but still this game makes me replay a billion of times that my friend told me to "move on, this is 2023"
i'd pay a lot for the pico-8 version to be made endless.
Its not that the PC version is bad by any means, but this version's graphics are in my opinion more aesthetic, a good breakoff from traditional 3D graphics.
Reminds me of MOO1 and the barebones simplicity is an aspect which I feel isn't kept 100% in the PC version.
can you please add endless mode to the pico8 version
very dificult even on the easiest mode still very fun
It's not that hard after you really do understand their "how to play" methods
This is such a great game. Would it be possible to sandbox play after the time runs out? I've gotten four star runs with unexplored planetoids, and it's a tiny bit unsatisfying for my completist soul.
The PICO-8 version of the game is not getting any new development, sorry.
You can take a look at its bigger brother, which includes many new ways to play (including an endless mode for when you want to colonize *everything*): https://store.steampowered.com/app/1264280/Slipways/
The other Slipways look cool, but I don't think that there are any other forain empires, foragin trade, or battle mechanics. I may be wrong (nad correct me if I am) but if I'm right that may be a cool update or mod.
the star is op
I got a 4 Star run on Forgiving, with 8 or 9 Rich planets, 15 or 16 Prosperous planets and 3 Green planets. My best run by far.
Jakub, are you no longer accepting patreon supporters? I assume with Slipways doing so well you have less time but I’d still love to support you and get access to past patreon-only goodness! :-)
Unfortunately, the Patreon creator page is no longer active. Slipways is indeed 99% of my creative output right now and it's treating me well financially, but the flipside is that I have much less time and energy left for other projects. This might change in the future once the project is complete (soon!). Thanks for your support either way!
Can I call this a 3X game? eXplore, eXpand, eXchange?
The official version is eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXhale ;)
lololol
Highest score is 9806 on Forgiving. Not great, but it's the products of a double-digit number of runs, which is a lot for a small free game on Itch. Love this game, I'm glad it got a AAA release
good game
i want a sandbox mode pls
Amazing game! I know that full-fledged PC version is out (already on my wishlist), but I believe I found a small bug - when you connect an Ascension Gate with a star first and then connect the same Ascension Gate to a source of people, the people won't be converted into happiness. The "Wants More" of the Gate will only show the star resource.
Gates that first receive people and then star resource do not have this problem - their "Wants More" correctly shows both people and star resource.
That's just how energy works - and that's true even in the updated PC version. If you use it to replace a need, that needs gets replaced completely - only more energy will be accepted, not the original resource. So, not a bug - but maybe a little counterintuitive.
Have fun with both versions of the game! :)
Why is the cartridge download a png file?
That's how cartridges work on PICO-8! (the PNG contains all the data necessary to run the game, as well as the picture)
Holy crap. Now THAT'S clever. That's outstanding.
Super-fun game! It's also extremely cool to see an open-source game achieve commercial success.
I learned of this game's existence through an announcement of the PC version on GOG's RSS feed. However, this page does not mention anywhere that the PC version will also be released on GOG; rather, it points exclusively to Steam. It might be helpful to include a link to the GOG page somewhere, since some people prefer GOG to Steam.
The game will be available on Steam, Epic, GOG and itch.io. I'm a little behind on my announcements, what with all the open beta excitement, but I will be updating all of the information sprinkled in various places soon :)
wow this is incredibly short
barely enough time to expand further
aside from that this is really good
can i increase the year limit? beyond 3425
Not in this version. The upcoming PC version (coming June 3rd!) has an sandbox-like endless mode where you can play as long as you wish :)