Starship Breakers: Alpha

Patricia stopped climbing after suffering an injury at a local tournament. She’s now studying in Iceland and needs money. One day, she finds a shady gig about playtesting an action escape game and finds herself trapped in a fictional spaceship.

She must escape using both her wits and her agility…

Starship Breakers: Alpha was originally written for Battle Action Fantasy VN Jam 2025 as a prologue to a bigger story, inspired by puzzle anime Phi Brain, that would feature an expanded version of the escape game. However, due to its lack of supernatural elements, it could not be submitted for that jam, and was instead submitted for Josei Jam 2025, then again with more updates for Sunofes 2025.

The links to jam submission pages are available at the top-right of this page.

It can be enjoyed as a standalone story.

Note: in the title, Alpha means “Prologue” and is a reference to Alpha Centauri, and doesn’t mean that the project is still in Alpha phase of development.

• Download and run the executable matching your platform (Windows, macOS, Linux)

  • We recommend to download the latest version for the best experience

• Warning: sounds have not been normalized yet, and some BGM and SFX may be very loud. We set up the default Master volume to 50%, please play a few scenes at low volume to test the full volume range before increasing it back.

• Currently, only mouse is fully supported, with additional keyboard/gamepad bindings for some actions

  • Mouse is required to navigate in some menus
  • Gamepad bindings are shown at the bottom in the menus when gamepad input is detected

• Visual Novel phase controls:

  • Advance dialogue: mouse primary button click, Space or Enter
  • Toggle auto-advance mode: click Auto or press A
  • Skip: click Skip or hold Ctrl/PageDown (set Skip mode to Everything or Read only in Settings > Text)
  • Rollback: mouse wheel up or PageUp
  • Open pause menu: mouse secondary button click or Escape

• Puzzle phase controls:

  • World view: Click on an object to interact with it. It will automatically do the correct contextual action (look, take, use, place item)
  • UI panel view: Primary click to select first token, then select a second token to swap both. Middle click to remove a token from a slot. In Puzzle 2, click on the Rotate button under a token in the bottom pool to rotate it.
  • Open pause menu: mouse secondary button click or Escape

The latest version (v0.7.0) is complete story-wise, although some images are still missing or unpolished and some BGM are missing.

It currently features:

• 13 scenes
• 2 puzzles
• around 35 minutes of play
• 6 polished backgrounds, 3 unpolished backgrounds
• 8 BGM (out of 10 planned)

Subscribe to our newsletter (check “Genre: Narrative games”) to receive updates on this project!

Full devlog: https://komehara.itch.io/starship-breakers-alpha/devlog

• komehara: Writing, Puzzle design, Programming, Character design (Worker, Coddy)
• Mongoose: Art direction, Background art
• Ecchymog: Character design
• Zwaany: Character design (Tracey)
• MadScientist: Menu UI
• Marionette: Puzzle UI, Additional graphic design
• Maxime Campin: Music
• Athmane: Sound design
• Alex: Proofreading

Playtesters

• Rythen

Fonts

• Body text

  • Rajdhani by Indian Type Foundry under SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1
  • Inter by Rasmus Andersson under SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1 (part of Naninovel framework)

• Title

  • Game of Squids by Darrell Flood
  • Dudu Calligraphy by Adderou

Ambient

• Escape Game Corridor1: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/set-of-ventilation-sounds-52435/

Sprites

• (jam release only) Dad silhouette by RAIT Visual Works: https://witching-metal.itch.io/character-silhouettes-bureaucrats

Icons

• Xelu Free Controller & Key Prompts under CC0 (gamepad input icons included in Naninovel + extra mouse & keyboard input icons)

SFX

• (v0.4) Smartphone Ringtone: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/90x27s-rampb-guitar-loop-171092/ under Pixabay Content License
• (v0.4) Van Back Door Open: Sonniss GDC Game Audio Bundle 2023 (Ferrari, Testarossa, t10, Var SFX, Doors, Interior, AMBEO1)
• (v0.4+) Smartphone Call End: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/cell-phone-hang-up-100514/ under Pixabay Content License
• (v0.4+) Climb Ladder Slow/Fast: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/metal-footsteps-14727/ under Pixabay Content License
• (v0.5+) Voice Patricia Grunt Jump: Sonniss GDC Game Audio Bundle 2023 (Female 3 - Grunt - Jumping and Landing - Long - Ehrlund M1)
• (v0.6) Voice Patricia Gasp: gasp.wav by drotzruhn -- https://freesound.org/s/405203/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
• (v0.6) Panel Falls: metal piece drop fall on floor.flac by kyles -- https://freesound.org/s/453346/ -- License: Creative Commons 0
• (v0.6) Run: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/running-6358/ by Juandamb (Freesound) under Pixabay Content License
• (v0.6) Transition Comical Slide In: SWSH_Swish Of Heavy Stick.Artificial 1_EM by newlocknew -- https://freesound.org/s/794818/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Drawing references

• Hands by Pose Maniacs: https://www.posemaniacs.com/en/tools/viewer/hand
• Male Hands 8 by Rumpelstiltskin: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/male-hands-8-712a7a99037a4e03a15dac26c8790361

Game engine

• Unity 6000.0.48f1
• Naninovel v1.20

Writing

• Obsidian with plugins:

  • Smart Typography by mgmeyers
  • Better Word Count by Luke Leppan

Art

• Adobe Photoshop

Audio

• Cubase
• Logic Pro