Barotrauma (video game)

Barotrauma largely takes place inside submarines submerged beneath Europa's ocean. At the start of each game, players are assigned a "job", which may provide them access to specialized traits and equipment. The submarine's crew are given a mission, which may involve hauling cargo from one outpost to another, hunting hostile undersea wildlife, or recovering alien artifacts. The players are then free to act at their own discretion for the duration of the round, with few, if any, additional objectives provided by the game itself.

Various hazards will frequently jeopardize the submarine's voyage, such as hostile fauna, parasite outbreaks, and player-controlled traitors. Player incompetence can also be a source of disaster, as improperly-maintained ship equipment (such as nuclear reactors or oxygen generators) can quickly render the submarine inoperable. Crisis management is a recurrent theme in moment-to-moment gameplay, as players are implicitly encouraged to use their job skills to both avoid and mitigate disaster.

In the event that the submarine's hull is damaged, water will begin to flood the vessel, which damages submarine structures and significantly impedes player movement; without appropriate equipment, a player trapped in a flooded segment of the sub is liable to suffocate, or in areas with high water pressure, be crushed via barotrauma. As the submarine effectively functions as a lifeline for its crew, an irreparably-damaged vessel often signals the end of a round.

Lead developer Joonas Rikkonen cited the online role-playing game Space Station 13 as the biggest single source of inspiration for Barotrauma, praising its emergent gameplay and emphasis on human interaction. However, he also critiqued Space Station 13's unintuitive user interface and various technical issues; with Barotrauma, Rikkonen sought to create a game that "built on the foundation of SS13" while "smoothing some of the rougher edges". Rikkonen also drew heavy inspiration from "Pressure", a game concept anonymously posted to 4chan's video games board.[1]

Development on Barotrauma began in 2014, under the working title Subsurface.[1] From 2015 to 2018, pre-alpha builds of Barotrauma were freely released to the public for testing and feedback. Following the 2019 commercial release, future versions of Barotrauma were made exclusive to Steam, and the unsupported free version was retitled Barotrauma Legacy.[2]

In 2017, the source code for Barotrauma was publicly released under a limited license to facilitate the creation of community mods.[3] The source repository continues to be updated in tandem with the commercial release.[4]

In 2018, Undertow Games partnered with FakeFish Games to jointly develop Barotrauma, turning the solo project into one developed by nearly a dozen individuals.[1] In early 2019, Undertow Games signed Daedalic Entertainment, a German games publisher, to handle Barotrauma's publishing and marketing.[5]

Barotrauma was released onto early access on June 5, 2019.[6] While originally planned for a full release in Fall 2019, as of February 2021, the game is still in early access.[6]

Barotrauma was voted "Best hardcore game" at Game Connection Europe 2018, where it was also nominated in three other categories.[7]

• Official website