We've made a game that we're finally proud to show, and we're inviting you to the alpha playtest of Space Is Limited to help us make it even better!
The critic's chair is a temptingly comfortable perch. Over the past year, while analyzing other people's games, I often caught myself wondering: am I building too cozy a nest of theories for myself? It's easy to discuss game design when you're analyzing a finished product. It's easy to talk about the importance of bad decisions when your own project is safely hidden from prying eyes.
I've always been afraid of this. Afraid of turning into a theorist who knows how it should be done but never actually does it.
Today, I want to offer this critic's chair to you.
For the last year, my team and I have been working on a game. All the articles you've read here weren't just abstract musings — they were my way of thinking. A way to process the challenges we faced and to formulate the principles upon which we are building our project. This process has always remained behind the scenes. Until now.
We've reached the stage commonly known as "alpha testing." In game design terms, this means the skeleton has grown muscles, and the system has started to breathe. But it's not yet a complete organism. It's a prototype, full of rough edges, imbalances, and questionable decisions. And it turns out that theorizing about trusting a hypothetical "smart player" in an article is one thing. It's quite another to open up your raw project and prepare to hear why your systems, so elegant on paper, don't actually work.
Who are we? — Literally The Team
We are a team of five. For an indie team, that might not sound small, but the reality is that none of us can afford the luxury of working on the game full-time. And more importantly — besides the five of us, the project has no one else. No publisher, no marketing department, no community managers.
So when we say your feedback is important, it's not a figure of speech. It's a description of our workflow. There are no filters between you and us.
This means that when you say a system's design is bad, I'll be rewriting the design document and tweaking the balance that very evening. A critical bug will have Eugeny preparing a new build. A tile that renders incorrectly will be sent to Vasilii to be redrawn. A lore inconsistency will land on Dmitriy desk, and an annoying sound will have Egor searching for a replacement.
We will see it. And we will figure out how to fix it. The same day.
This is our side of the bargain: We are responsible for the quality of the product and for living up to your expectations. But we have expectations of you, too, and we see no reason to hide them. We expect you to criticize us. We want you to talk about us, helping the game find its audience. This isn't flattery or pretense. It's the only model that works for us, because we simply have no other channel to the world besides you.
We are ready for your most honest and brutal feedback. The real question is — are you?
What have we created? — Space Is Limited
Space Is Limited is our answer to the question, "what could a battle of wits look like?" In short, it's a competitive turn-based strategy game for four players.
Imagine crossing the tactical struggle for territory from Civilization with the tile-laying mechanics of Carcassonne, and seasoning it all with smart deck-building in the vein of Hearthstone. And all of this in multiplayer, against real people.
Each match is an expedition to colonize a new planet. You choose one of four factions, get a unique general, and begin the battle for influence. By laying down tiles, you and your opponents shape the world map together. By capturing and completing objectives, you earn points. And with cards, you disrupt your opponents' strategies and execute your own.
This is a game where victory depends not on reaction speed, but on your ability to adapt, plan several moves ahead, and discover non-obvious synergies. Each match becomes an arena not just for cold tactics, but also for fun, sometimes absurd chaos, where a single well-played card can turn everything upside down.
If these words mean something to you — you're our kind of person.
Instructions.
I hate the phrase "call to action," and yet, here we are.
1. Follow the link.
Space Is Limited (Alpha) • Private Playtest
2. Read everything carefully, including the NDA (or at least know what one is!).
3. Fill out the form.
4. Wait for an email.
Honestly? Hitting the "publish" button on this post is a little scary for all of us. For almost a year, this game has been our private secret, our outlet. Now, we're bringing it out to you. We don't know what will come of it, but we believe this is the only right way forward.
Thank you for your attention and, we hope, for your future participation. It truly means a lot to us
About the blog.
"Slepok" has always been, and will always be, a place for my personal thoughts on game design. It just so happens that our team's project became the catalyst that pushed me to structure and publish those thoughts. Therefore, the blog will continue to live its own life. Today, it simply has a chance to help its "inspiration."
Soon, you can even expect to see some dev-logs, if not from me and my account, then from our entire team. :)
See you where the secrets are even deeper → t.me/slepokNTe 👀
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