Marauders

*"**"Marauder"** is a quintessential space pirate multiplayer game in which players explore an industrialized deep space set around the 1990s. Earth has expanded its industry to the point where law and order is out of reach, the new wild west. Raid colonies, factories and space stations for valuable loot or board other player's ships take their gear by force and return to your base before your oxygen runs out."*
— Fig.co description

***Marauders***, previously known as ***Marauder*** and known internally as ***RaidGame***, ***Project M*** and ***Project Harlock***, is a multiplayer first-person extraction looter shooter created by Small Impact Games, and published by Team17. It is set in a dieselpunk world where the industrialization and militarization of space has occured en masse, amongst a three-way war between three superpower factions.

## Development

*Marauders* was first started in development in April 2020 as a project during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was first revealed to the public through being pitched on Fig in late 2020 under the name *Marauder*, earning the backing of more than 3,000 patrons and $117,027, giving access to pre-alpha versions of the game to backers of the campaign on Steam, known as *Project M*. The name was later changed to "*Marauders*". From April 7th, 2022 to April 9th, 2022, *Marauders* was given its first public demo at W.A.S.D. Two years later, on May 4th, 2022, *Marauders* was given a closed alpha test to all who pre-ordered the game, known internally as the *Project Harlock Playest*. The alpha concluded on May 9th, 2022.

On July 11th, 2022, the date for the closed beta was announced for July 20th, 2022 to July 25th, 2022. It was available to all players who pre-ordered the game, and contained more content than in the alpha, including the Merchant Ship and Terraformer levels. Due to server issues on the first day of the beta, the beta was extended to July 26th, 2022. Backers of the original Fig.com campaign were given one extra day, of July 19th, 2022. Additionally, Easy Anti Cheat was chosen as the client's anticheat software, followed by Denuvo Anti-Cheat (without the Anti-Tamper) on February 24th, 2023, however manual bans are the sole moderation method. A demo of the beta was playable to TwitchCon Amsterdam 2022 attendees on July 17th, 2022, where a competition known as **Battle for the Void** was held, wherein all attendees competed as duos to get as much points as possible by killing AI (1 point) and other players (3 points), in order to win a free copy of *Marauders* and a *Marauders* themed t-shirt each. *Marauders* was then announced for an Early Access release in early October by a trailer first shown at Gamescom 2022, with additional playtests announced in 5-6 hour increments from September 6th, 2022 to September 14th, 2022.

A final tech test, known as the ***Marauderthon***, was announced on September 30th, 2022 where all who preordered the game, Fig.co backers and content creators were able to play the game in a contained wipe cycle until October 3rd, 2022, where the game was officially released for Early Access. All progression earned in the tech test was wiped on October 3rd, 2022.

The Space Pirate Pack, an exclusive helmet and body customization option for the player to purchase with credits, was awarded to all players who pre-ordered the game before its early access release on Steam.

*Marauders* is currently only available for play on PC, purchaseable via Steam, or through the Microsoft Game Pass. Steam and Game Pass players are unable to crossplay at present. Cameron Small has stated that *Marauders* will not be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One out of a want to "stretch the power and push the multiplayer graphics" of the game, however he has stated it would be available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X if it is ever decided to bring it to consoles. Small has also stated an unwillingness to allow cross-compatibility. *Marauders* has also been confirmed to have controller support. In the United Allies Update, proximity voice chat, also known as VOIP, was added into the game. In the Guilds Update, the **Player Test Environment**, also known as the **PTE** and **Public Testing Branch**, was added as a unique Steam game to test upcoming features for *Marauders*.

Presently, the supported text localization languages for *Marauders* are English, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Ukrainian, French, German, Korean, Russian, Polish and Turkish. English however, is the only language will full audio and UI support. Further languages might be added depending on requests and data from the beta.

On the TwitchCon Amsterdam stream, Cameron Small stated that *Wolfenstein*, *Sea of Thieves*, *Escape from Tarkov* and *Star Citizen* helped inspire the game's development. Cameron Small specifically mentioned the map Factory from *Escape from Tarkov* as a stated inspiration for map design in *Marauders*. *Warhammer 40,000* also inspired the breaching aspect of the game. Other stated inspirations include *PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS*, *Vigor*, *Rust* and *Illang: The Wolf Brigade*, with Cameron Small stating influences of sci-fi, dystopian, neo-noir and used future films and anime such as *Star Wars*, the filmography of James Cameron, *Cowboy Bebop* and *Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade*.

After release, *Marauders* has been featured in various events. On May 18th, 2023, the *Marauders* merchandise shop was opened. *Marauders* also appeared in a FORMAT exhibition on May 25th, 2023, and in TwitchCon Las Vegas 2023 from October 20th, 2023 to October 22nd, 2023.

## Plot

*"For 70 years we’ve lived in the shadows of the Great War: a war that destroyed Earth and forced humanity into the cold void of space. Those three great warring empires have taken our homes, our families, and forced us into a life of raiding; fighting each other over the scraps from their table. Well no more! They thought we would just roll over and die, but we survived! We owe no loyalty to any King or country, what we do now, we do for ourselves. We come from the darkness, we hit hard, we hit fast, we are marauders!"*
— Opening sequence.

70 years after the start of an apocalyptic conflict known as the Great War, technological advancements have since developed the capacity to industrialize, colonize and militarize space, complete with asteroid mines, space stations, cargo ships, terraformers, military installations, prisons, colonial ships and nuclear launch facilities by the year 1992. However, the War lead to the destruction of Earth, forcing all relevant factions to exist solely in space, with materiel extraction and battles happening between factions. The three main factions fighting the war are the Central Empire, United Allies and Kingdom Alliance, with several minor factions being involved. In order to gain the edge in the perpetual war, the three main factions have contracted the assistance of a fourth, neutral yet universally hostile decentralized faction, known simply as the Pirates, or the eponymous Marauders. The three main factions hate, but tolerate the Pirates to gain an edge in the war. The factions trade with and give missions to the Pirates, despite themselves falling victim to or warring with individual pirate members. The Pirates also engage in conflict with themselves, as the individual members hold sole loyalty to themselves.

Due to the restriction of material in space and the subsequent destruction of the Earth, other planets have been co-opted as stores of raw materials for manufacturing, such as the use of Jupiter to store Earth logs rescued from the planet during its destruction, for production into small arms.

## Gameplay

*Marauders* is a hardcore multiplayer player-vs-player-vs-environment first person shooter game, with the goal of amassing resources through looting, completing missions for the three main factions, and killing members of other factions. Marauders manage their inventory, craft and trade with certain members of the other factions, in order to prepare for the next raid. These include armour, ammunition, tools, consumable items, and weapons. Marauders can enter a raid solo, or with a group of other Marauders.

There are two sections to the gameplay - spaceship flying and raiding. Spaceship flying involves the maneuvering and dogfighting between ships in the space of the raid instance, whilst the raiding itself is the looter shooter element of the game, once the Marauder has breached another ship, or docked at one of several points of interest. In both of these sections, the Marauder can kill or be killed by other factions or one of up to 40 other Marauders. If the Marauder dies at any point of the raid or flying sequences, they will lose all gear and ships possessed by the Marauder at the point of death. However, the Marauder can use an Escape Gate, which allows the Marauder to safely exit the raid, along with all their collected gear and ships from the raid.

Progression and wipes of said progress are at the discretion of the player, through the Prestige System, as a replacement for the global wipe system present in other games in the same genre. Prestiging will wipe the player's inventory and progression, but will award the player Prestige Points to spend on non-combat advantages such as an inventory space upgrade.

## Videos

Marauder Milestone Retrospective -1Marauders - Alpha TributeMarauders - Beta TributeMarauders - Early Access Launch Trailer - OUT NOW!Marauders - Early Access Release Date Reveal Teaser
## Gallery

Iridium Asteroid MineL1812 Service Space StationTerraformerMerchant ShipInterceptor Frigate*Marauderthon*Concept art for three weapons and three types of level design.The wanted poster for "Sev" Sevvverino.The wanted poster for "Lettuce" Lettucesux.The wanted poster for Karnivore.F1 Poster

## Trivia

* A 2023 April Fool's joke was played announcing the release of "The UwUpdate", featuring Neko Ears cosmetics and a pink coloured "Kawaii Destroyer" Strike Frigate skin complete with rainbow trials and other "cute surprises".
* There are posters of several community members found in certain maps. The members are "Sev" Sevvverino, "Lettuce" Lettucesux and Karnivore.

## References

1. ↑ SteamDB - Marauders
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 InternetArchive - Fig.co Marauders campaign
3. ↑ *Marauders* Discord server FAQ
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 TheLoadout.com - Marauders
5. ↑ The Loadout - March 24th, 2022 - Marauders is at the “precipice of a new genre”
6. ↑ IGN.com - July 11, 2022 - Marauders Beta Kicks Off Next Week
7. ↑ Beta Extended to July 26th!
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 MARAUDERS FAQ (with BETA Major Additions/Changes)
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Red Baron Hotfix #02 | Bug fixes, tweaks and new Anti-Cheat system - February 24th, 2023 - Steam
10. ↑ *Marauders* TwitchCon Amsterdam
11. ↑ *Marauders* Battle of the Void event
12. ↑ TwitchCon Amsterdam 2022 - Marauders Demo
13. ↑ *Marauders* - Early Access - Coming Soon
14. ↑ Technical Test Period | Info & Dates
15. ↑ Jump into the Marauderthon and prepare for October 3! - September 30th, 2022 - Steam Announcements
16. ↑ Preliminary Patch Notes - United Allies Update - April 22nd, 2023 - Steam
17. ↑ Development Update | Guilds - November 15th, 2023 - Steam
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Marauders Update - Plunder - August 4th, 2023 - Steam
19. ↑ NME.com - *Marauders* lead developer Cameron Small on taking his Tarkov love to space.
20. ↑ ‘Escape From Tarkov”s Factory map “definitely bled” into ‘Marauders’ development - NME - August 2nd, 2022
21. ↑ TwitchCon Amsterdam 2022 - Interview with Cameron Smalls
22. ↑ TheLoadout.com - Marauders devs influenced by Star Wars, anime, and Star Citizen - March 30th, 2022
23. ↑ @PlayMarauders - May 18th, 2023 - Twitter
24. ↑ @PlayMarauders - May 17th, 2023 - Twitter
25. ↑ @PlayMarauders - October 22nd, 2023 - Twitter
26. ↑ @PlayMarauders - October 22nd, 2023 - Twitter
27. ↑ Royal Armouries Viper MkI collaboration with Cameron Small
28. ↑ Dev Blog #002 - The Red Baron - December 2nd, 2022
29. ↑ Twitter - @PlayMarauders - April 1st, 2023