Taflarium

Playable preview · In your browser

The Long Gap

A trade and smuggling game about keeping an old ship flying and its crew fed, in a two-star system where the companies own everything. It is the most involved game we have started, so before we build the rest we have put an early version here on the website, and we would like to know what you make of it.

Play the preview What we would like to hear Where it stands

It runs in your web browser, on a computer or a phone. Nothing is saved, so closing the tab starts you again from the yard.

The game

Buy a ship and keep it flying

You arrive at the Boneyard, a ship-breakers' yard on a moon of Pell, with 15,000 marks and a reason to be there. Five second-hand hulls sit in their cradles, and each one points the game a different way. The Gleaner grows its own food but crawls, while the Tidewaiter, an old customs cutter, outruns almost anything and grows nothing at all.

Every cell of a hull is either living space or cargo space. A berth for another crewmate is a crate you can't carry, and every crate you load makes the voyage longer. The Collier carries twenty-four crates and has one bunk, so you build the home out of the hold.

The Long Gap preview at the Boneyard: five hulls for sale along the top, and below them a side-on cutaway of the Gleaner showing its reactor, four grow racks, galley, workshop, bridge, hold and four berths, with its specifications underneath.
Annis, who sells the ships, will tell you what is wrong with each one if you ask. Her apprentice tells you the rest
Day fourteen of a voyage from Pell to Aurum High Port: a star map with the route, the Gleaner's cutaway with the crew at work and a hulk on tow behind it, power switches for each room, gauges for food, water and air, reaction mass, power, spares and morale, and the ship's log.
Fourteen days out of Pell with a salvage tow, and 61 days to go

The voyage

Every day aboard costs something

Ships burn towards their destination for half the trip, turn round, and brake for the rest. At a hundredth of a gee a single AU takes about four weeks, and four times the mass doubles the trip. The days pass in real time, and you can pause or speed them up.

Each day eats food and reaction mass. The racks grow more food while their lamps are lit, and when the power runs short you choose which rooms go dark. A breakdown or a customs cutter stops the clock and asks you to decide.

The crew

Everyone aboard believes something

There is no government in Calder, only companies, and each of your crew has a view on that. Five creeds cover most of them: Breakers want company rule ended, Keepers think a charter beats chaos, Drifters want to stay off everyone's radar, Profiteers want you rich, and Loyalists care only about the crew.

A choice at the mess table: Nell, a Breaker, and Ruaridh, a Keeper, have started a row over supper, and the captain can side with either of them or stop it.
Most calls please one creed and cost you with another
5Hulls to choose from
5Crew to sign on
5Creeds
2First jobs

Morale and trust are counted separately. Morale is mood, and a good galley mends it in a few days. Trust is what each person thinks of you, and the calls you make as captain move it.

Feedback

What we would like to hear

The preview covers the opening of the game: the yard, your first crew and one voyage, either to Aurum High Port or out past the Tollgate to Bothy. Everything is drawn in plain shapes. Before we choose an engine and draw the real art, we want to know whether the game underneath works.

Did the hull matter?

Five ships, each with its own way of living. Did the one you picked change how the voyage went?

Did the days feel heavy?

Every voyage takes weeks. Tell us whether that felt like weight or like waiting.

Did the crew make sense?

When someone approved of a call or turned against it, could you see why?

Send us your thoughts Join the testers list

At the end of a run the preview offers to write your results into an email for you, with the same questions underneath. The email opens in your own mail app, and nothing is sent until you press send.

Status

Where it stands

The Long Gap is an early preview. The game is planned from its first scene to its endings, and the opening is playable here. The rest is still to build.

  1. Done

    The outline

    The two stars and the gap between them, the companies that own them, the ships, the crew and their creeds, and the story through to its endings.

  2. Done

    This preview

    The Boneyard and one voyage, playable in a browser and drawn in plain shapes.

  3. Now

    Listening

    Reading what players send us, and changing the preview where it falls short.

  4. Next

    An engine and real art

    Choosing what to build the full game in, then drawing the ships and the crew properly.

  5. Next

    The first act

    Short hauls under the Accord's rules, with a yard loan to pay off and the first relief work.