Space Station 13

Space Station 13
Developer(s)	Originally developed by Exadv1, now multiple
Engine	Byond
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	2003
Genre(s)	Roleplaying, Sandbox
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Space Station 13 (or SS13) is a top-down role-playing multiplayer video game on the BYOND game engine, originally released in 2003. The game is tile based and is played from a 2D angle.^[1]

Set on a futuristic space station, players choose to play from a selection of different jobs available on the crew roster; the outcome of which is determined by the interactions players have with the environment around them.

Gameplay

Space Station 13 takes place on a fictional space station. At the beginning of each round, players are given time to either create a customized character using a character sheet or they may begin playing with a completely randomly generated character. Players can choose different jobs, such as janitor or engineer, which dictate their role on the space station. The game is akin to a roleplaying sandbox game, with events in each round largely being player-dictated and lacking a real objective or goal.

The player can examine and use almost any object or being on the station, and is almost always context sensitive. Different results will occur depending on many variables in any given interaction (e.g. Using a crowbar on another player would attack them but using it on a floorboard would pry it up). Additionally, the player can change their 'intent' between four different states (Help, Disarm, Grab, Harm) which will further influence actions taken. For example, using an empty hand on another player with help intent would cause you to hug them, but would cause you to punch them on Harm intent.

The game engine fully simulates power, biology, atmosphere, chemistry, and other complex object and environmental interactions beyond the vast majority of video games, which to many people, compensates for its lack of visual quality and speed.

While different servers may have their unique station constructs, generally there are eight departments aboard the station. Supply and Service are also often grouped together in the Civilian category.

• Command (taking leadership roles aboard the station).
• Security (enforcing the law, keeping peace and responding to emergencies aboard the station).
• Engineering (generating power and keeping utilities maintained aboard the station, such as keeping doors functional and ensuring Oxygen is present around the station).
• Science (researching technologies and developing 'Synthetics' aboard the station).
• Medical (keeping the crew healthy, performing most surgeries, researching diseases and creating clones for deceased players aboard the station).
• Supply (mining for minerals on a nearby asteroid, and taking charge of the cargo, such as purchasing goods for crew-members and sorting through all disposed items).
• Service (keeping the station clean and providing food and drinks for the crew.).
• Synthetics/Silicons (consisting of the station's A.I and cyborgs, who are often bound by the Three Laws of Robotics, which restrict AI from committing illegal acts, such as assaulting a crew member, unless someone changes said laws).

Optimally everybody will spawn into the station at the beginning of each round and perform their jobs. However, randomly selected players are chosen to spawn as an 'antagonist' aboard the station. Antagonists can range from a character with secret objectives, genocidal AIs, and a wide assortment of monsters such as changelings and aliens. It can be difficult for normal crew members to identify antagonists, and even harder to determine their objectives.

Due to the presence of antagonists, most rounds will end with the station left in chaos, and most others with it completely destroyed. While some servers may have an end game, often the rounds will end when an emergency shuttle is called to pick up the crew at the station.

Story

While most servers have individualized lore and backstories, generally Space Station 13 is a state of the art research station owned by a megacorporation known as Nanotrasen. Nanotrasen's influence and power have effectively made them a government entity, but it is often left ambiguous as to whether they are good, evil or uncaring depending on the server. Due to Nanotrasen's immense stature, it is targeted by an array of third party aggressors. This includes but is not limited to; the Syndicate (a coalition of smaller companies and planetary governments), the Space Wizard Federation, shape-shifting Changelings, bloodthirsty Cultists, and various other antagonists.

The station exists to research the mysterious 'plasma', (or 'phoron' on some servers), which is a newly discovered mineral that Nanotrasen has taken a keen interest in, despite having almost no knowledge of its uses or properties.

Development

Space Station 13 was kept in a closed source and originally developed as an atmospherics simulator in 2003 by Exadv1.^[2] Allegedly the source code was stolen in 2006 and leaked onto the internet, which gave rise to the current popularity of SS13.^[3] However, during an interview in 2017 with BlackPantsLegion, a notable youtuber in the SS13 community, Exadv1 explained that due to life circumstances he was unable to continue programming the game, and had in fact given the code to fellow programmers in order to take the programming of Space Station 13 further in his absence.^[4]

Since then, the player count has grown and is now known across many gaming discussion sites. Due to the nature of BYOND, each server has a version of the Space Station 13 code, which is often modified by those running the server, meaning that each server is an entirely unique iteration of the game with different features and content. In the past, a Mars base server has existed based on the original Space Station 13 code, with a sea lab server in development, now known as Europa station.^[5]

In 2015 an unfinished Space Station 13 remake was made open source on GitHub.^[6]

As of April 2017, the current most popular servers and code bases for SS13 are Colonial Marines (based on the Alien franchise), Paradise Station, Baystation 12, /tg/ Station 13, and Goonstation. Each caters to a unique play style and role-playing standard, and many smaller servers use these servers' code bases. While most servers are generally English-only speaking, there are a few other servers that primarily use other languages, such as Animus (Russian), Tau Ceti (Russian), Beat!Station, also known as Brasil Station 13 (Brazilian Portuguese) and Cordelia Station (Spanish).

As the majority of the stations often have some unique code and content, certain gameplay systems (such as Chemistry) may vary greatly from server to server. Many of these servers have adopted their own wiki pages, explaining the differences.

Reception

Space Station 13 got the attention from various video game journalism websites over the years.^{[7][8][9][10]} The game has achieved an expanding player count, sometimes reaching averages of 500 players on at any one time (around 2015).^[11] Its popularity has gained it communities from websites such as 4chan, Reddit,^[12] the Facepunch Studios forums and Something Awful. The game was also mentioned by Eurogamer as an inspiration for the now-cancelled^[13] game ION by DayZ creator Dean "Rocket" Hall.^[14] Rock, Paper, Shotgun named Space Station 13 on place 37 of its list of "The 50 Best Free games on PC" (of all time) in 2016.^[15]

See also

• List of open source games

References

External links

• Official website
• List of servers on BYOND
• Servers' player count