VOID BASTARDS - CHARACTER TRAIT SYSTEM

Void Bastards is a science-fiction first-person shooter and roguelike. The player (a prisoner), needs to survive and ultimately be set free by traveling from ship to ship, gathering and managing resources, as well as crafting weapons and upgrades.

​When you die in Void Bastards you lose everything you have gathered except your weapons, gadget upgrades, and story progress. The game gives you a new character to play as, and each character starts off with a randomised trait. Traits are essentially skills, and active traits can be seen in the character bio tab in the map menu and is easy to always access.

In-game screenshot

Current traits shown in character bio

​You can remove, replace or obtain additional traits using a gene therapy machine. This machine is always in the ‘Gene’ room, so the player knows every time a ship has one, there will be an option to alter his/her current traits.

Gene therapy machine

​The trait system includes ‘negative’ as well as ‘positive’ traits and their effects lend a hand to the games dark humour and can affect moment to moment gameplay. The player could obtain one that makes you run silently, or you could begin with a trait called ‘Smoker’, where your character would give out a random cough, which in turn can give your position away to enemies. This system varies gameplay by forcing the player to strategize their decisions depending on their active traits.

Gameplay situation example with different traits (1 trait active)

​The traits system as well as its randomisation helped facilitate the success of the game. I believe its goal was to flesh out gameplay and vary it to a degree and it does exactly that. Making the player strategize their moves in situations that arise. This system in turn, also gives more depth and personality to the voiceless characters of the game. Void Bastards focuses on creative problem solving, strategy and player skill improvement. The character trait system lends a hand to those areas and improves the quality of the experience.