The stealthy spaceship hijacking game Heat Signature being developed by former PC Gamer editor Tom Francis and the team at Suspicious Developments has come a long way since we got our first look at a prototype in early 2014. Such a long way, in fact, that it will be released next week—September 21. Francis said in the launch date announcement that he doesn't do preorder bonuses "because I don't want to pressure you to buy before reviews are out," but there are a few things going on for people who pick it up early.
For the first week of Heat Signature, a ship carrying a unique weapon called the Everything Gun will be plying the spacelanes. It'll be easy to find, thanks to the way it pulses with light, and if you're able to steal the gun, you'll also unlock it as a random drop in the game. The Everything Gun teleports everything that's lying around loose into its barrel and then fires it all out like a shotgun, which sounds like a handy thing to have in a fight. But Francis warns in the new trailer that it's utterly chaotic and "will definitely get you killed."
Early adopters will also have the opportunity to be sort-of immortalized in the game as a Steam Trading Card. "Heat Signature is all about the stories that emerge from what you get up to in game, not our pre-written lore. So for Steam Trading Cards, we want them to be about your stories," Francis explained. "We want to see GIFs or short videos of crazy situations you've got into or clever tricks you've discovered, and we'll turn the best into trading cards with your name on! You'll have the strange sensation of being traded, sold, and perhaps broken down to make a badge."
There's no hard deadline on submissions, but the developers will start looking at them on September 28, one week after launch, and assuming things go well that will likely give them a healthy pile of clips to dig through. Instructions for capturing and submitting clips are up at pentadact.com.
Disclosure: Tom Francis used to work at PC Gamer, and we still publish his articles occasionally, but we don't think you should hold that against him.
