First off, congratulations on once again summoning a sequel to a beloved franchise. I mean this with no hyperbole though that I might be more excited for this game than AC8, funnily enough. Let me tell a little story:
Both AC games (Ace Combat 7 and Armored Core 6) nurtured my love for singleplayer games and I care for them deeply. Like many others, I scrawled through hundreds of mech games trying to find one that would satisfy the AC6 itch - none have even come as close to how good Gearbit is. I'd like to think I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to trying games and I have played a lot, a lot of garbage. I think you might be the most talented solo developer I have come across and have proven to me that that search has been worth it.
Its clear with Carrier Wing Ypsilon that you took all the right lessons from Gearbit's development. I think you genuinely have an incredible knack for distilling what makes AC6 and AC7 fun, removing some of the fluff and at times iterating on the formula. Here's a couple of examples of this in Carrier Wing Ypsilon:
- You carried the usefulness of friendly AI over from Gearbit. AI Wingmen seem to be legitimately useful in air to air fights. This is paired really well with (compared to AC7) skilled opponents, making air to air combat fields for more alive and interesting
- By creating your own setting and aircraft, I don't think you felt as constrained to stick to the normal physics laws that govern aviation. Flying on controller feels incredible - acceleration/deceleration is extremely responsive, turning is tight, and holy shit your iteration on PSM / high G-turns is fucking genius
- I gotta dedicate an entire to that last point because I really think it sums up what makes this game feel so inspired already. Making your version of PSMs dependent on a relative reduction of speed (not absolute like AC7) paired with only two button presses in combination (acc/dec) means that high-G turns are easier and more intuitive to weave into flying. I think this does a lot to highlight the best flavor of this game - this is all of the best parts of Ace Combat's arcade-y flight system and not bogged down by real aircrafts or a real planet that's being flown on
Overall, your style of game development is legitimately special. Your projects feel like games that you want to play. Its akin to a musician only caring about making songs that they want to listen to, or an artist painting a landscape that they only care about hanging in their office. I find thisconcept extremely refreshing and inspiring enough that I might have to go ahead and try to learn Game Dev. Who could've thought that I could make the game I want to play purely so that I get to play it?
I would love to support your work in whatever way possible. If that means sitting around and waiting for the next release or subscribing to a patreon or pitching in help with the project, I'm there. Seriously good fucking shit you're cooking hard with your work so far keep it up.
Best,
- mrfarts18