Ahoy mateys! :)
I’m the solo indie dev behind Pirates of Gravitae, a roguelike that takes the aerial combat action of Luftrausers, mixes it with the campaign progression of FTL and Hades, and presents it in 2.5D. It is coming to Steam Early Access on March 31st!
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You can check out the demo and watch the trailer here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1703500/Pirates_of_Gravitae/
Or you can watch it on YouTube if you prefer:
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My aim has been to infuse the frenetic action with sim like features, like physics based movement and AI, dynamic weather and flight conditions (watch out for storm winds that’ll toss you around like a leaf), and with energy management for activation of combat abilities (like you would with a MOBA). So you’ll need strategy and tactics on top of good reflexes.
For those that let this gem pass them by, or are maybe too young to remember; Star Wars Galaxies was an early contender in the MMO boom that started to shift the markets towards multiplayer, starting somewhere around the very late 90s. It was a game that was way ahead of its time, and destined to fail simply because the it leaned heavily on the love people have for Star Wars, and not on consistently developing a great play experience.
So what was Star Wars Galaxies [SWG]? SWG was in essence the first major sandbox style MMO. There was no real set goal of the game and the economy was completely player driven. There were no set “classes,” to choose from, instead players were free to spend their set number of skill points between 7 basic professions and 26 advanced professions, with the option to remove skills at will to make way for new ones.
The game allowed players to explore multiple “top tier” planets, as well as visit well known points of interest, and …
The steam deck full embargo releases the 25th. However numerous outlets will be having preview coverage tomorrow February the 7th. No subjective info (opinions). Those must wait until the reviews after the embargo lifts. But qualitative info and first looks are allowed including benchmarking on certain titles (again, everyone will have a chance to see full reviews before they buy the device).
So far we only know of 3 outlets for sure all on youtube are:
Also, it seems dbrand will be unveiling something involving the steam deck. Due to dbrand implying this is “much more than skins” and their language seemingly hinting that this is new territory for them, speculations as to what they’re showing range from the ordinary (a shell replacement) to the wild (a steam deck dock) but I’ll leave that to you to guess.
The Phawx gave a great preview into what to expect from his “preview” tomorrow on his channel
When I find an Early Access title or one in Alpha or Beta stages, I consider the game and its subject matter second; I consider the game’s vision from the developer’s standpoint first.
I like to see a developer with a vision for the road ahead; it doesn’t have to be complete, or even have an ETA date. I just want to know that you’re committed, have ideas, and are willing to change them and listen to feedback.
And most importantly of all, I want transparency. If you’re going through life shit and just don’t have time to update as often, or if you’ve needed to step aside and put development on the shelf for a while, that’s totally okay, and I encourage it as I know development is fucking HARD work. But I would really appreciate some communication if this does happen.
That’s all. I absolutely loathe the entitlement of some gamers today, demanding releases without flexibility and updates regularly, adding to the pressures of a …
For me it’s when a character can’t get over a wall that is clearly easy to get over so instead you have to take a detour just to stretch out the playtime.
I cannot emphasize this enough: #%@& this game.
I avoided this game for years for various reasons. I finally started it a week or so ago and noticed that whichever load option you choose, last uninterrupted story point, or last save point, it would often start you WAY back in your gameplay. I almost deleted the game yesterday because of this. I played for a couple of hours last night, passed numerous checkpoints and automatic saves, and now I go to play some more and it loads back to about where I STARTED yesterday. I had done the first mission for >!locating a cross section of the codex thing, cleared out the entire disposal depot, and took the tram to the storage depot.!< Now it loads me back at the start of all of that. I’m done. I was right to not play this POS in the first place. This is the worst example I’ve seen of the sad move to shitty checkpoint save systems in about 30 years of PC gaming. What a waste of my time.
For me it Risk of Rain 2 and roguelike games