Across the surface of Shoal, ten thousand guns sound at once. The keen of laser beams build, punctuated by the staccato thrum of orbital landings. A choir of voices rises as the armies of the galaxy’s oldest and newest civilizations meet in battle. From the vast reaches of space, the chaos is almost musical—a symphony, drifting into the void.
Cantata is a character-driven tactical strategy game that puts you in the middle of a spiritual, pragmatic war for survival. Play as one of the nine commanding officers from one of the three factions - the Machines, Humans or Aliens - and leverage your faction’s unique powers and abilities to slowly expand your hold on this alien world.
Build buildings on the map, connect them with supply lines, and build new units and structures that can help you safely explore this hostile, mysterious planet.
Every map you play on holds secrets you'll need to spend time to seek out and find. This isn't a puzzle game, you'll need to do proper reconnaissance to determine the best route across the landscape to your opponent. Once you find it, do you take the most direct route or do you circle them, opening yourself up to the opportunity to see what really was just beyond those mountains...
Each game you'll start with a small base and a couple of units. Every turn you have the ability to build up your base more and more, giving you the ability to build more complex unit types. But watch out! Your base is also your supply network. If a crucial building gets destroyed, it may take down your whole supply chain and force you to rebuild to adapt to the new circumstances.
You'll face off against the other factions as you play through the campaign, but the planet of Shoal isn't one to let you idly move across its surface. Just like any other player, the planet itself takes a turn every round, giving it the ability to fight back against the war on its surface with weather, fauna, and other mysteries.
Every map that you'll play in the game will be made with the game's level editor that will be available to any player to use as well, day one! Go beyond simple level creation and import your own sprites to create your own units and effects and use the editor's simple triggering system to build the map (or game!) of your dreams!
What a week for us! In case you missed it, as part of Gamescom 2021, we debuted our BRAND NEW gameplay trailer!
We debuted our trailer as part of IGN’s “Awesome Indies” show this past Thursday! Check it out! The trailer is also now live on our steam page (with subtitles!).
Gameplay Demo LIVE NOW on Steam!
If you’ve been itching for a taste of Cantata, now is your time! We’ve got a limited time demo live now on our Steam page which will be up likely through this coming Wednesday. The demo is relatively narrow in scope, focusing on the first chapter of the main campaign game, but will definitely give you the feeling for what Cantata really is. We hope you check it out and let us know what you think on either our forums or Discord!
We also did a run-through of the demo when it went live, so if you want to see us slowly walk through some of what’s in the demo, check out the video here:
Developer Demo/Game Q+A
We also did a Demo Q+A on Youtube to answer some of the questions that have come up for the demo recently!
Lastly, We’re being published by Modern Wolf!
A true believe in indie strategy games with a catalog that includes Ostranauts, Rogue State Revolution, and the forthcoming Mechajammer, Modern Wolf is the perfect partner for Cantata.
We’ve been working with them for a while now and have nothing but praise for them and their team, as they’ve really believed in what Cantata can be and are excited by what we’re doing. I can’t think of someone better to work with to usher this game into the world.
Whew! It feels GOOD to finally have all of this out in the open! Hope you enjoy all the great content above!
ORBITAL DROP | Patch 0.3: Mulitplayer, skirmish mode, design changes, map generator and more!
ORBITAL DROP | Patch 0.2: Supply lines, region changes and more content!
GAMEPLAY WALKTHROUGH