Kickstarter

On March 30, 2021, Jon, developer of Gem, started a Kickstarter campaign for Gemini Station. The goal was $5,810. It was fully funded on April 13, 2021.
Source: Kickstarter

The Game

Jon created Gem because he wanted to play a game that was immersive, casual, and free to play. He always been a fan of games like World of Warcraft, Civilization, Elite Dangerous, and the X3 series. And what he loved most about those games was how engaging they were––You could get lost exploring immersive worlds for endless hours at a time. The struggle Jon found was that in order to get to the meat of those games, he had to dedicate a ton of time to them––Which is great...if you’ve got a ton of time. But not everyone does. So he started to think about what an immersive game that also catered to causal play might look like. He hated pay to win games, or games that hide all the good stuff behind a paywall. Jon wanted to make something that was accessible to anyone, something that you could play from your browser and access all the content.

And so Jon came up with Gemini Station. It's designed to be a casual game. You can play as little or as much as you want and still get the full experience. Jon spent all of 2019 building the game and launched it on January 1st of 2020. Over the last year, several clutch ideas have come directly from the player-base, turning Gem into something that he thinks is really special. But he is the only developer; Gemini Station is a team of one person. Jon programmed all the game mechanics, wrote all of the stories, but one thing he not, is an artist. And art is the one thing Gem needs a lot more of. Jon thinks Gem's existing art is beautiful, but lacking. Jon wanted the depth of the game's visuals to match the story and mechanics and replace stock artwork he had to use with original work.

Art Plans

These are some of the planned initiatives:

• Cockpits - As it stands, there is a single cockpit design for each ship. Unique cockpit designs for each tier (3) of each ship class, as well as for the every unique faction ship the player can acquire will be designed. There are currently 13 unique ships and the each deserve their own unique cockpit.
• Multiple Ship Views - Currently, there is only a single, top view of each ship. Additional side, front, offset, and interior views will give players a better view of the ships they pilot, and will be used in animations as well.
• New Ships - There are a handful of new ships that need to be designed to accommodate future story and game mechanic plans. This includes capital ships, drones, minor space station designs, and alien tech.
• More Characters - One of the most praised elements in Gem are the playable stories and associated lore. With more characters, Jon can expand the lore and write additional stories.
• Animations - Events such as trading, entering and leaving locations will become animated events, giving the game a deeper sense of interactivity. These animations would feature the pilot’s ship and any other character interacted with the player.
• Items & Mods - Additional artwork for both items and mods will be created, allowing for increased variety in mod design, and allow additional items to be added to the game.
• More Locations - Players love exploring new locations whether it’s research station on Earth’s Moon, or SPOILER. The primary limitation to adding locations, is that location’s artwork. There are several new locations that pilots have been suggested, demanded, and or begged for.
• Transaction Screens - Since so much of gem revolves around trade, Jon would like to overhaul the current transaction screen with artwork of each location’s hangar with the shopkeeper, and animations of goods being loaded or unloaded onto your ship.

Goals

As an extra incentive, Jon is going to expand the game, adding additional game mechanics for each goal met.

$10,000

• Trainable Crew - Currently, players can hire NPC co-pilots who augment your ship's ability. These NPC units have static stats. Jon would like to expand that system to allow the player to train the crew, upgrading their abilities, adding new abilities, etc. Training would entail everything from sending them to 'crew school' to sending them on missions where they'd earn XP.

$25,000

• Special Abilities - Unique abilities will be added to each ship class, unique to each class. These abilities will further add to highlight the strengths of each class. Abilities will include class-based defensive/offensive actions, unique weapons, sensor jamming, cloaking, and more.

$50,000

• Guild Ships - As it stands, players can form guilds and play together. Guilds can invade and claim sectors of space, but there is no central guild base. With the addition of guild ships, guilds would be able to build large capital-type ships that would act as mobile a guild base, allowing guilds to travel as one throughout the system.

$100,000

• Grid-Based Combat - A new grid-based combat system will be developed and built. Grid-based combat will be a turn-based mechanic similar to XCOM or Final Fantasy Tactics.

Pledges & Backers

This section was last updated: 19:38, 12 August 2021 (UTC) .

Star Backer

Pledge $5 or more Your name will be immortalized on the legends of Gemini Station page...This is a big deal.
Includes:

• Legends of Gem Credit

4 Backers

Backer

Pledge $25 or more Back the project and receive a unique in-game mod.
Includes:

• Legends of Gem Credit
• In-Game Gear (Backer's Drives)

34 Backers

Basic Modder

Pledge $75 or more A common (White) mod will be named after you.
Includes:

• Legends of Gem Credit
• In-Game Gear (Backer's Drives)
• Name a common (White) Ship Mod

4 Backers

Uncommon Modder

Pledge $100 or more Name an uncommon (Blue) mod in-game.
Includes:

• Legends of Gem Credit
• In-Game Gear (Backer's Drives)
• Name an uncommon (Blue) Ship Mod

0 Backers

Rare Modder

Pledge $250 or more Have a rare (purple) mod named after you.
Includes:

• Legends of Gem Credit
• In-Game Gear (Backer's Drives)
• Name a Rare (Purple) Ship Mod

3 Backers

Cameo

Pledge $500 or more A character will be drawn in your general likeness and added to the game as a supporting character. A high-res version of the artwork will be delivered to you as well.
Includes:

• Legends of Gem Credit
• In-Game Gear (Backer's Drives)
• Become a Minor Character In-Game

1 Backers

Featured Appearance

Pledge $1,000 or more A character will be drawn in your general likeness and a playable story centered around your character will be written.
Includes:

• Legends of Gem Credit
• In-Game Gear (Backer's Drives)
• Become a Minor Character In-Game
• Your Character Featured in a Story

1 Backers