Phobos Down 0.0.1 alpha released
It's not exactly "early 2023" like I estimated for the first public alpha release for Phobos Down but it is here now!
The game is in playable state with all core mechanics in place. There are currently only a few enemy types and weapon modifiers so the gameplay does get repetitive quite fast and the missions that are supposed to be harder are way too easy (because the really tough enemies are missing). High scores tables and online features are also completely missing. The visuals and audio are going to need a lot work in coming updates.
All feedback is very welcome as very few people have actually played the game so far. Send feedback through the contact form here or leave a comment on Itch.io page.
Downloads are available on Itch.io:
Posted on 2023-05-29
Introducing Phobos Down
The unnamed twin stick shooter is no longer unnamed. It's called Phobos Down and it now has a game page here.
There hasn't been any huge changes in core gameplay since the last update. I have been mostly working on features that will turn this into an actual game like menus, missions, game state saving/loading and proper enemy spawning logic.
Here's a new gameplay video recorded on Steam Deck today:
The development goes on slowly but steadily. I'm planning to have a playable alpha test version out early next year.
Posted on 2022-11-04
Unnamed twin-stick shooter
Those who have been following me on social media have probably already heard about this but I think it's time to make a more formal post about my latest game project. The game has no name yet but it's a minimal twin-stick shooter game where you play as an astronaut on a cargo salvage mission on uncharted planet full of hostile lifeforms. It will feature low-poly aesthetics (as usual), procedural generation and moddable weapons.
Here's how it looks today (my Godot Engine Showreel 2022 submission video):
I have been working on this more or less since I finished Polychoron. The basic core gameplay mechanics are starting to take form but there is a very long way to go until this is a proper game. I haven't set any hard deadlines for myself so the game is ready when it's done. Probably not this year :)
For more frequent updates on the development progress, follow me on social media.
Posted on 2022-06-30
High score pages are back
Now you can again see the online high scores for my games here on the website:
Polychoron global top 100 high scores.
Hyper Ultra Astronautics survival co-op mode top 10 high scores.
This isn't really a new feature. The original high score pages broke long time ago and I had to remove them. Now I finally rolled up my sleeves and created new functioning pages.
Posted on 2022-04-08
Polychoron 1.0.1 released
This is a minor maintenance update. It has been nearly three months since Polychoron release and I have received very few bug reports. I take this as a good sign.
There are some crashes reported on Google Play. Most of them seem to be related bad GLES3 support on old Android versions and luckily they seem to be affecting only a small number of players. I would like to fix these too but they are very hard to resolve unless workarounds are implemented in Godot Engine itself. I did upgrade the engine to latest stable version (3.4) which should at least improve input responsiveness on lower end devices.
Vast majority of the players have been playing the mobile version, which feels kind of weird as I have always viewed Polychoron as primarily a desktop game, best played with mouse and keyboard. I thought playing a 6DoF game on touch screen would be impossible but I'm glad to be wrong. Ratings and reviews have been mostly positive.
Here are the changes since version 1.0.0:
- Changed menu background color to lighter blue.
- Switched to use "weak" vibration motor in gamepads for better compatibility.
- Added an option to disable vibration effects in settings.
- Improved input responsiveness on low-end Android devices.
See Polychoron game page for more information. Direct downloads have been updated on Itch.io. Android version update has been uploaded on Google Play and will be available shortly. Web version has been updated on GotM.io.
Posted on 2021-12-15