itch.io

Thank you for playing and the feedback!

what programs did you use for the art?

It's mostly MagicaVoxel for all of the buildings and vehicles in the levels, along with Paint.net for drawing the rest of the art.

Also, Val's a cool character, but I gotta wonder if there's more to her than "killing is cool"!

There is, but it's difficult for me to show that with just the combat in the game right now. I wrote a bunch of different dialogue and interactions with other characters, but it's been difficult for me to get it into the game since creating cutscenes takes a long time. I also have yet to implement the rest of the actual story in the game so it'll all line up and makes sense. I really do want there to be more of a story and character element to the game on top of more ways to show the visuals and world, but it's been a major challenge to tackle honestly.

One thing I would certainly love to see in future progress logs (or maybe even as a standalone DLC when this project comes to Steam) are an artbook detailing the design process of the game, and maybe separately we could get a lore sheet to somewhat connect the dots and find out what the intel doesn't tell us about the world. 

This would be really cool to see. I'd love to show some of the design process and evolution of some of the units in the game, but it'll be some time before I can make such a book.

Some possible suggestions? (although they may not be the greatest ideas ever) Perhaps a cluster bomb or even a short-delay sticky grenade would be pretty neat. I do believe the former is possible since you would just tweak the smoke grenade to make a cluster bomb (possibly as a tertiary weapon? it would just be a single bomb that detonates into smaller explosions really)

I've considered having a grenade that splits into a small field of a dozen or so mines since people have complained that the current secondary weapon mines in the game are somewhat underwhelming. Right now I've been experimenting with air strike grenades which mark an area with smoke and have a bunch of missiles bombard it, so that probably would make cluster bombs obsolete. It's worth a shot experimenting with though, maybe it'll actually be interesting like the EMP grenades.

 Speaking of which: enemy infantry carrying MANPATs or even recoilless anti-tank rifles could be a decent challenge since they are somewhat difficult to hit and maybe they would come in transport helicopters/APCs. 

This has been suggested for a while now, but I've found that humans at the scale of the game would be roughly 3-5 pixels in size, which makes them almost impossible to see. It just doesn't work for the game's scale I'm afraid, sorry.

I would also add that with thermal smoke, enemies would probably keep shooting even if you aren't visible since it doesn't stop incoming projectiles, but breaking their line of sight is absolutely still invaluable.

I agree, and I intend to rework the smoke completely so they don't just freeze up no matter what. It's way too OP right now.

Anyway, I absolutely love this project, and I will keep tabs with great interest! I've already told a couple friends about this and decided to write this post after getting an S on every mission (took about 2 hours looking at the battle data, and maybe that just says something about me being bad at games).

Thank you kindly, and nice job S-ranking every mission! It's very impressive, especially considering how difficult Mission 7 is to avoid damage currently. I'm glad to hear it's doable though.

Nothing I can really share at the moment, but I'll certainly show more of it when I can!

I would like there to be a second pilot protagonist, one who you switch between or speak to every few missions or so.

Thanks for playing and the feedback! The stacked munitions launcher is definitely quite OP at the moment, I'll likely lower the damage or fire rate  a bit since it's way too easy to take out enemies from afar with it; it's basically like wall hacking. Enemy artillery units are also planned, I'm already working on a system for certain enemies to call in air strikes when they see the player.

I appreciate your ideas for the powerplant system. It's an interesting way of implementing it though I think it might be a bit difficult to balance the changes to speed due to how fast the enemy's bullets are currently set up so you can dodge incoming fire. I do think different armor types will make it in with basic effects like health regeneration, and a random chance for bullets to ricochet without counting as a hit. If you check out my latest progress report you'll see I've been working on an APS system for the player to stop incoming missiles and mortar rounds; I didn't think to bundle it with the armor kits before but now that you mention it it might be a good idea.

Thanks again for the ideas and feedback! I'll keep them in mind.

Hello. It's just Blender with some inverted hull shading for the outlines. I draw my textures directly with the built-in texture painter tool. Nothing really fancy in terms of workflow, just low poly modeling with flat UV projection.

Thank you for the detailed feedback and playing through the demo!

funnily enough, the thing that hooked us for this game was the audio settings menu 'n the fact it had real-time visualizers to show you how loud or quiet that particular channel was. (and just the settings in general displaying what they're affecting, rather than just text giving you a vague idea of what it is changing)

I'm glad you like that aspect of it. I want everything to be as visually interesting as possible, even if it's just something like a settings menu.

it does have afew issues though, mostly with visual clarity/eyestrain problems with the player mech, mostly in more grey/beige environments (i.e. the first mission) since the colors blend together so well it becomes hard to distinguish where you are when you're stood still.

This has been a pretty common complaint from players. I'm still trying to find a way to have more varied/colorful environments where enemies and the player stand out while retaining the overall muted desert aesthetic. It's a difficult thing to balance, but hopefully I'll have it sorted out.

same with weapons being way too strong or way too weak for what you need them for. (though the progress report does show that's being fixed so this is really only a problem with the current version) but the grenades seem to be fitting into their own niche, though the incendiary, from our experiences, tends to out-perform the H.E. grenade more oft than naught.

At the moment while all weapons are unlocked, the plan is to have different arms dealer characters who you purchase them from; plus different types of missions where excessive collateral damage will actually be punished so as to incentivize using less destructive weapons sometimes. I think the very standard H.E. grenade will be a lot more useful in those types of levels.

music is currently only for the menu, bay, and mission select screen so missions tend to be very silent. which tends to make the places you fight feel very "dead" for lack of a better term, which if it's intentional then it sets the mood really well 'n adds a sense of tension. but if not then it makes things feel far too empty despite the fact that you've turned half a city block into swiss cheese via a minigun, attempting to kill some fodder and a heli at the same time.

Eventually stages will have music added in. I know right now things can feel pretty quiet/dead even with the slight stage ambience in the background. I've just been struggling with trying to figure out what the gameplay tracks should actually sound like, honestly. I'm still looking for a composer since I don't think I'll be able to compose the combat tracks myself.

the melee, though, in our experience, tends to go unused alot since getting close to enemies is really not good when they can just shred you to shit at close range with, y'know, their bullets. outside of maybe the worms/grubs since it seems to one-shot them but that's a gamble due to the fact they come in hordes. hopefully it finds a place in the kit in the future.

Different melee options are still planned. Some have suggested a charge/shield function with it too, and I think the plasma slash will just serve as the basic level 1 attack.

all 'n all it's just a really good game, minor issues here 'n there but that's to be expected. 'n we had a relatively fun time playing through what's available currently. damn good job so far, keep up the good work mate.

Thank you! I really appreciate it.

(apologies if this sounded overly negative, that was far from our intentions with this.)

Not at all, no worries. This kind of feedback and criticism is invaluable to me, thanks again!

Thank you for playing and sharing the word! Really appreciate it.

For some reason the file hosting site wasn't working and the attachment disappeared, I'll try to put it up again.

Thank you for playing again!

The art style of this game REALLY grew on me, I’ve had a void for clunky, yet still “advanced” technology in media ever since I watched Cowboy Bebop for the 86,438th time. I really want to mention Signalis here, but that’s more tech stagnation, if anything.

The design work and the overall aesthetic of the vehicles has been very important to me. Even though they're not too visible due to the general size and angle of the view, I spend a lot of time trying to make them look as unique and interesting as possible since I think there's no reason they shouldn't be.

Moving on to the efforts of my LAST comment, either my eyes improved or something changed with the game so I could actually see the enemies before they started slinging sabot rounds at me; both are positives.

I've increased the shadow hardness of enemies and added more indicators along with adding more color contrast in levels, so that's probably the reason they're more noticeable now.

If there are ever 3d models of most of the in-game vehicles/enemies (especially that dropship thing that drops you off on some of the levels), I would be more than happy to shittily recreate them in something like Stormworks or Plane Crazy. Seriously, they are WAY too cool not to replicate, and with the game being top-down-ish, it’s hard to get a good POV to work with.

There will be dedicated intel pages for every design, and I intend to show some closeups and other angles in cutscenes when possible. It's early, but I am considering the possibility of making an artbook eventually showing them off in even greater detail.

I really liked fighting the MBTs ingame (K41A1, if I’m not mistaken), and it would be nice to see some more enemies like them later on down the line.
Cough cough space BTR-82, anyone? cough cough...

Since smooth steering behavior has now been implemented, I plan to have more conventional ground vehicles show up too.

Once again hope to see more content from this project. Probably even more than last time, seeing as the other indie game I liked almost religiously got violently carpet bombed by both the community and the devs.

Appreciate the kind words! That's a shame to hear, what's the other indie game?

pls buff smartgun 

Coming in the next build! I actually just tweaked it a few days ago.

Thanks so much for the support and kind words!

I assume you based the helmet off something like the HGU-56? I own one and I have been super tempted to 3d scan it so I can print the shell of it and then make something like a VR visor for it like how it appears ingame.

I think you could say it's vaguely based on it, but honestly there wasn't any direct inspiration from any real life helmets. The VR visor as well was sort of improvised. Here's two shots of the somewhat crude model:

Good luck with your 3D print!

Cant forget the clamshell armor which makes me think of Hammers Slammers. Good shit man!

Thank you!!

Please download and run the DirectX patch from the Microsoft website, it's in the description above.

Glad you liked it!

Thank you for playing!

I'm going to put up more progress posts here chronicling development in the future.

Thanks for playing! I'm not too sure yet on adding custom paint schemes, but a co-op mode might be possible in the future. The tricky part will be camera control since it's tied to the mouse, but I guess it could be done via split screen.

I wish I could put more out faster, but there's only so much I can do I'm afraid.

That being said, how is it coming along? :)

Slowly but steadily. I'll probably have another progress post up before the end of the year, if all goes well.

Do you mean put the demo on Steam? I intend to eventually, once I replace the second mission and implement a few other features such as gamepad control.

Thanks for the support!

Interesting idea. Currently I plan on being able to choose between an APS which acts as a shield or an ECM which will deflect missiles and stop enemies from locking on, but the concept of it changing their accuracy is an interesting one which I'll keep in mind!

Appreciate it!

Thanks for playing!

For sure. There will be both a full Steam and Itch release.

Thank you!

Cheers!

Eventually. At the moment the stealth element is mostly avoiding enemies and thinking strategically when you're out of ammo, but I plan to have some more stealth emphasizing missions implemented later on.

Really appreciate the kind words! I hope that the next update won't disappoint. V.0.8.2 released roughly 3 months ago if you weren't notified.

Something that surprised me a lot is that it has very low requirements. (We're talking about a stable +60FPS with an Intel Pentium® B960 2C/2T @ 2.2Ghz (Intel HD3000) from 4000b.C. and 8Gb DDR3 1333Mhz with an HDD 😭

That's roughly the same setup I have actually, so I have to make sure everything runs well for myself, haha. I'm glad to hear that it's running so smoothly though, as I said I'd like everyone to be able to play this even if they have long outdated hardware. I've had one player even tell me they're running the game on a 32-bit Windows XP computer, and I'd like them to continue to be able to do that.

Seriously, I really appreciate what you're doing, keep it up! I'm confident you'll be at least in the top 20 best indie games of 2026 (if not 2025).

That's really high praise, thank you!

(P.S. You nailed it with Valerie in a bunny suit 7w7)

Cheers!

I think there will be an automatic grenade launcher as a secondary weapon eventually, something like that might be nice.

It's a cool idea, but it probably doesn't fit with the style of the game. Plus a lot would need to be revised in order for that to actually be possible, and I don't think it'd  be worth it.

Thanks for playing it again!

will you be making a Discord server anytime soon?

At the moment I don't really plan to open a Discord server since I'd have to spend time moderating it, plus I just feel there isn't enough content in the game right now to warrant it. Eventually I'll probably put one up though.

 btw any plans to add more volley weapons (like the stacked munitions launcher)? i like avoiding property damage haha

Possibly! They'll mostly be secondary weapons rather than primary ones I think.

Hello. Thanks for checking in on it!

One thing I was wondering: will there be a map for Level 7? Or maybe at least something indicating the general direction of the exit, maybe like the enemy arrows around the cursor, but maybe a different colour.

I don't think it's necessary, honestly. The map isn't too big and the path is always the same. You just have to retrace your steps back to the elevator, nothing more. 

Interesting. Do any of them look particularly good?

Regarding AI behavior, what if certain enemies, when they get stuck, try to shoot at the obstacle in an attempt to break through? Others might try to flank you around corners, but the "smarter" ones could create their own path.

I neglected to mention it in the post, but they actually can demolish buildings if they get stuck. It's another thing I did to try and solve the old lack of pathfinding when they got into infinite loops.

Eventually you will be fighting higher level enemies that won't hesitate to shoot through cover though. I want there to be enemy crawlers armed with the same sort of arsenal as the player, and I'd like them to fight equally as dirty.

Here’s a question, what are the chances of implementing a bullet vs bullet mechanic, something like a more direct offensive-defensive approach, instead of just dodging? For example, could high-rate-of-fire weapons like a 20mm cannon be used to shoot down incoming enemy fire? Or would that be redundant now that the new APS System is in place?

It's an interesting idea, though I think the APS system will probably make that redundant. I also still haven't implemented different types of armor; in the future there'll probably be one that slowly regenerates if you take bullet damage, or straight up deflects shots with a random chance instead of counting as a hit.

And lastly, is there any chance we could get a Val bunny suit cockpit icon, or maybe even alternative skins for her in the game?

Haha, that would be fun. Maybe you'll be able to buy different outfits with the credits you earn, or they'll unlock at the end of the game. I'm not sure yet, but it's definitely possible with how the portraits are animated.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Top-attack missiles which fly over buildings will be added eventually. I think for now I'll try and just add a line of sight to the homing missiles so they only start turning if they can actually see the enemy. I also increased their damage so they can kill Mantises in one shot.

Hope you like this idea, have fun developing further and see you soon *mwah*!

Thank you!

Thanks for playing and beating the demo!

More enemy variety is being worked on, expect additional fleshy targets to show up later on. Also I know some of the weapons right now are quite overpowered, but I intend to have a shop system in the game so you buy them as the game progresses rather than have everything available at the start.

In my eyes this is already a great game with even greater potential. Maybe we will even get more mechs than the assault crawler? 11/10

Cheers! We'll see what happens.

Hello. Thank you for the kind words and offer for help, it's very much appreciated.

Can I ask what browser you're using?

Thank you! More to come.

Glad to hear it! I'll be sure to use the other site from now on.

I've just changed to a different file hosting website. Are you able to see the images now?

I've just changed to a different file hosting website. Are you able to see the images now?

I've just changed all of the images to use a different file hosting site. Are you able to see them now?