Indie Game Sneak Peek

Yesterday Tripleslash Studios was kind enough to host an Indie Game Sneak Peek where they invited local gamers to come out and preview some of the games being developed by local indies. I was fortunate enough to be able to show off Flame Warrior (that’s what I’m calling it now, by the way) and get some great feedback.

Here are a couple of screenshots showing off what I’ve been up to for the past two silent months. Here’s some basic combat, and you’ll notice a lot of new things going on, and even a few things that weren’t on display yesterday because they were too buggy. I added health bars to ships, in the form of those inner circles around the ships. They shrink and turn scary colors as ships get closer to exploding. I also added armor, which is being displayed by those gray quarter circles around the ships. Each ship has front, rear, left, and right armor that can be equipped and repaired separately. You’ll also notice the green outer circle on some of the ships, that is a layer of shields. Finally, there are some brightly colored puffballs on display. Those are clouds of space magic that do different nasty things to your ship. I don’t remember what all of the colors do, but they do things like damage the ship hull, drain shields, corrode armor, even add heat.

Which reminds me of another new mechanic not featured in any screenshots, because it’s still really buggy. But it’s the ability to turn ship systems on or off to balance power requirements, and to balance heat output. Components output heat, and if you don’t manage it correctly it will build up and start wrecking your ship from the inside.

I also updated the movement controls somewhat, they still work the same way, they just look better now. You’ll also notice the partial green circle, that represents your rotational freedom, so it’s much easier now to see what your acceleration needs do to your ability to rotate.

Overall it was a great experience, I got a lot of good feedback, lots of people really liked the combat mechanics, which is good. It was very encouraging, and I really appreciate Tripleslash for setting up the event, and everyone who came by to play the game.