Shortest Trip to Earth offers "deep narrative, meaningful ideas"

We caught up with Interactive Fate's CEO and game designer Edvin Aedma at Gamescom to discuss the "FTL on steroids" that is Shortest Trip to Earth. Today it was also announced that the game will be hitting Steam Early Access on October 9.

"It's basically a space exploration simulator roguelike," says Aedma. "So you're going back to Earth and there's a huge intergalactic war unfolding around it and you're just trying to survive the trip."

As you'd expect Shortest Trip to Earth offers some progression that carries over between runs, but it's a bit different than what you might expect.

"We want to stay true to the roguelike core which is like that you can't just upgrade yourself and run through the game," explains Aedma. "But when you make ethical or really meaningful decisions in the game you get Fate points. And once you die on your next run you can get extra perks and bonuses from the Fate points from your previous run. But they don't carry over. It's almost like karma."

The interview also covers the crew you'll take onboard, the various resources and currencies, and much more.

Here's a gallery of images from Shortest Trip to Earth: