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Why Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime scrapped Hard Mode for Casual Mode

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime arrives today and make no mistake about it, it's cute and adorable. But it's also insanely hard, hard enough to warrant throwing a proposed Hard Mode out the window. Asteroid Base co-founder Jamie Tucker discusses why in an interview with Shacknews Showcase's Andrew Zucosky.

Ozzie Mejia

September 9, 2015 11:30 AM

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Surviving in space is hard enough when there are so many trigger-happy hostiles out there ready to fire at a moment's notice. So what happens when a vessel embarks into the outer reaches of space with only a crew of two? That's the premise for Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime from developer Asteroid Base. The game arrives today, but Shacknews Showcase's Andrew Zucosky recently had the opportunity to speak to one of the game's developers at PAX Prime.

Asteroid Base co-founder Jamie Tucker describes a whimsical and fluffy space shooter, involving cute space bunnies and a universe of colorful (albeit corrupted) constellations. However, the adorable aesthetic should not fool anyone. This game is hard and it's hard enough that Asteroid Base wound up scrapping a planned Hard Mode and actually going the other way.

"We had a Hard Mode and we actually took it out and added a Casual Mode," Tucker explained. "Because we found out it was very challenging just playing it normally and we wanted the game to be the kind of thing you can play with your son or your daughter, your parents, your girlfriends, your brother and sister, your husband, wife. It was this thing we wanted to bring gamers together, so we added this mode so maybe if you want to play with your six or eight-year-old, you can play on Casual Mode with them and still have a fun time and not get brutally blown up all the time."

Tucker also goes into the procedurraly-generated stages and more details on the game's co-op mode. For more with Tucker, check out the full interview below.

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime arrives today on Xbox One and Steam. For more, check out the game's newest videos released below.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?