It's In the Vents! Alien-inspired Solo Survival Game
A downloadable game
A distress signal. A foreign planet. An unexpected attack.
Your captain’s suit was breached.
You tried to impose a quarantine, but the team wouldn’t listen.
Now they’re all dead.
You’re not sure what they brought onto the ship, but whatever it is…
It’s In The Vents!
It's in the Vents! is a solo Alien-inspired survival game based on the Carta system (found at https://peachgardengames.itch.io/carta-srd), from Cat McDonald and Peach Garden Games.
You are the sole surviving crew member of The Solus. The rest of your team has perished – hunted down by some kind of alien predator they’d unknowingly carried onto the ship. With the last of the crew now gone, the alien has turned its attention to finding you.
You have an escape pod prepped and ready to launch. There’s just one thing you need to collect before you go: the damned cat.
To play, you’ll need:
╬ 1 standard deck of 54 cards, red & black jokers included
╬ 1 token, coin, or other character marker
╬ 1 counter or scrap of paper
╬ A flat surface for laying out your card grid
Find the cat. Make it back to the escape pod. Don’t get caught.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Donating 110% of Sales to Trans Legal Defense Fund through May 31stMay 05, 2021
- Launching as part of the Carta Jam!Mar 24, 2021
Comments
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An excellent use of the Carta system. Really good job capturing the feel of Alien.
first game ever the cat was next to the entryway
I’ve played this game a handful of times now (not counting the times I’ve immediately found the cat), and have been loving it as a super easy, setup-and-go game. There are times when it feels like it can turn into a slog, but then mechanics like rooms dropping away and blocking paths make it interesting again.
The last couple of games, I’ve been dealing the surrounding three cards around the starting card and then shuffling in the cat card, which has solved the problem of the game sometimes ending immediately.
I was also thinking of further modifying it by making the escape pod elsewhere in the deck, maybe keeping it face up (I’ll just close my eyes so I’m not cheating lol), so I know where it is. That makes the possibility of the starting card causing me to make noise, which might suck? But also might be interesting.
Fun game!
Ha ha ha! Considering The Mansion Incident and this, I think it's safe to say I've found a kindred spirit in terms of favourite games/movies/media. :)
Care to go three-for-three and say you're a post apocalypse fan too? LOL!
I love this game's way of playing with the board by locking down or removing cards! It's a great way to make sure the journey back is just as exciting as the journey there.
I’m so glad! Thanks for making such a fun, flexible, and inventive system with Carta 😊
love this layout and design
thank you so much!
And a first game made for the carta system. Nice! Good luck with the jam!
thanks so much!
Alright, tried out. The diamonds are surprisingly abundance. Is there a suggestion to shift in difficulty other than reducing distance?
hey, thanks for checking it out! And fair point. I might update soon with some optional rebalancing for a higher difficulty — for now, I would say take -2 distance anytime you allow a spade to fail (that is, you don’t save the corridor by spending 1 fuel). This is in addition to the -1 distance you’ll also have to spend when you move from the spade onto a new card (as the corridor is locked down and jettisoned out into deep space behind you). After all, that’s a pretty noisy affair.
It helps make fuel more precious and consequential, and thus requires a bit more balanced luck on your path. I hope that offers some more challenge!