what is Reduction?

Reduction is an original campaign for the game Alien Swarm. (And here's post on What Alien Swarm Means To Me...)

Reduction is by myself, Tim Carter. Alien Swarm is by Valve. (And, to be clear, I'm not employed by or affiliated with Valve in any way. I'm simply a community mapper using the Source SDK [the toolset Valve has released to us], to make new content.)

Reduction is fully playable right now in beta. As of this writing it consists of six levels: Missions 1 through 6 (plus at least 100 custom props).

My plan is to build a complete a 20+ mission campaign. If this works out really well, I'll be adding a prequel and a sequel, both six levels each, hopefully working with mappers from the Source SDK community.

In terms of gameplay Reduction is designed to fit in with the Alien Swarm style of play: up to 4-player team-based co-operative gameplay. You are a squad of interstellar Marines; you have integrated voice-comms; you need to work together as a team, fighting hordes of crazed aliens to complete the mission objectives. Alien Swarm, by itself, is an excellent game - but it hasn't had a new, high-quality campaign in some time.

As a story, Reduction is wholly original and non-canonical. Alien Swarm exists in a classic sci-fi "bug hunt" style universe that bears a striking resemblance to the movie "Aliens" (which in turn was influenced by military-flavoured alien-invasion sci-fi stories such as Starship Troopers, Armor and The Forever War). Reduction taps into Alien Swarm's excellent gameplay and production values - but Reduction aims to tell its own unique aliens-invade-the-earth story. (In fact, as a pen-and-paper gamemaster, I did my first bug war mission BEFORE the movie Aliens came out - though I do acknowledge the influence of that movie.)

In terms of look-and-feel, Reduction is very James Cameron-esque. The full campaign, once completed, can be summed up like this: Aliens-meets-The Terminator.

The question of the story is this: How much would you sacrifice if you found out our earth was being wiped out? Would you hide out in some bunker somewhere and count off the remainder of your days? Would you abandon your home to go live on some barren rock world, out on the fringes of the known galaxy? Or would you choose to follow a cryptic, self-appointed, possibly insane leader on a questionable mission to save the world?

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. These are things I can only hint at. The full story is written out now, and you'll see it in the remaining levels I'm intending to build.

I would even suggest that Reduction could be an entirely original IP franchise. With enough support, crowdfunding, and community enthusiasm, the plan is to turn Reduction into a standalone game mod, with new characters, unique new "aliens" and weapons. I could even see a movie and so forth, as there is a lot of background story developed that has necessarily been left untold in order to keep the focus on player-driven gameplay.

In fact, it would be cool if James Cameron himself did Reduction: The Movie. (Hey, no harm in dreaming big...)

5 comments:

  1. I'm with you.
    I like dreaming and try to make dreams come true!

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  2. Very nice 4 maps Tim. Looking forward to the rest. More cut scenes planned?

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    Replies
    1. Glad you like it.

      Yes, more cut scenes. More in-game scripted sequences. More stuff happening to make you feel like you're in a real place with real shit going down.

      ...And lots of aliens to blow up too.

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  3. Hey,

    I see you are thinking big, but I totally support you in this. I'm a an of these kinds of isometric top-down shooter games, and eventually Alien swarm.

    One of the dreams I would like to see coming true is to see Reduction become a stand-alone game. From what I see in the YouTube video, it would be awesome (especially with new characters). It would make a good addition to my favorites isometric shooters (Alien Shooter series and Zombie Shooter series)

    A lot of people play alien swarm, but I think just a few of them know about your project, so I suggest you find a way to spread the word and get more supporters, like creating a special space for that in the community, talk about it in the steam forums...

    I will support you anyway I can...
    ...and I wish you SUCCESS!


    Ezechiel

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  4. Ezechiel, I'm curious about this too.

    First off, I have a ton of work to do just *building* Reduction.

    Next, I have wondered what else I might do on the social media or promotion front. I do have some forum threads on the Steam forums. I also have a Steam group. You can see links to those in the Community & Contacts page.

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