| Stranded | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Unreal Software |
| Designer(s) | Peter Schauß |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | 2003, (Sequel: 2007) |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure game |
| Mode(s) | Singleplayer |
Stranded is a 3D adventure game, developed by Unreal Software. The main goal of the robinson-esque game is to survive on a dangerous island and to find a way to return home. Its design and gameplay are influenced by the relatively unknown German freeware game "Schiffbruch".
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Stranded was released in mid-2003 by Peter Schauß, the founder of Unreal Software. Stranded was a success in November 2003, appearing in four different German gaming magazines and the Rhein-Zeitung.[1] After release of Version 1.3 development ceased, and the Stranded source code was released, but without any license information given, thus leaving all copyrights still on Peter Schauß.[2]
The game has no campaign mode, but its "random island" mode is wrapped up in a story where the player is stranded on an abandoned island. Resource management is a vital component of gameplay, since the player character has a constant need for food and water, and has to sleep. Sleeping in the open injures the player, unprocessed food is not very effective against hunger and aggressive animals threaten the player. So the player is forced to gather resources like branches, stones and vines to construct tools, buildings and weapons. Each building that is finished will unlock another, more sophisticated building, until the player is able to build a raft to escape from the island and reach his homeland.
There are also some mini-missions such as rescuing kiwi birds or fighting off a pack of blood-thirsty raptors under a time limit. Such custom maps can be created with the built-in map editor. Several of these fan-made maps can be downloaded from the Stranded home page. Although there are some limited settings, such as turning off the need for food, water and sleep, any way of story-telling is limited to a single briefing message after the map has started and creative terrain design.
Because of the unexpected success of Stranded, Peter Schauß started work on the sequel "Stranded II" in late 2003. Development entered public alpha stage in December 2005. But still, the release of the final version didn't happen until June 2007. He supplied an additional update in 2008, but then development on Stranded II was abandoned in favor of work on Counter-Strike 2D. After some time, the Source Code of Stranded II was released under the GNU General Public License, but some days later, Peter Schauß changed the license of the Source Code to Creative Commons (by-nc-sa).
In comparison to its precursor, Stranded II features improved graphics and more items, tools and weapons. Also, Stranded II now has a campaign with a story spanning over a travel to several islands. The fundamental gameplay principles remained the same.
In addition, Stranded II has scripting capabilities and therefore allows the creation of scripted maps. This enables map creators to incorporate narratives into their stories by use of character dialogues, quests, scripted events or cut scenes.
One goal of Stranded II was to allow an easy creation of modifications by use of these scripts and editable object definition files. The community-created mods either extend the range of available items ("Extension Mod", "Massive Mod") or take the game scenario to other places ("Lost in Space"). The new items, and the new possibilities to combine these allow the player to discover the game mechanics anew, increasing the replay rate.