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The year and destination is unknown. A team is ordered to set out on a valiant quest to save the last remnants of their civilisation by embarking on a voyage to the last and most distant colony in need of their aid. They have gathered all the remaining resources from their home world in a last effort to secure the future of their race as the last few of the species remain behind to die on the barren world around camp fires in their old age. Upon the team’s departure they are bound to a cryogenic sleep as the AI-controlled ship maps out a journey through the distant stars to help their new home. Little do they know…
Many years later a pilot on board the ship awakes to find everyone on board is lost, The AI-system has deteriorated into a spew of glitches leaving the pilot to manually fly the ship and fight off the hostile forces that have found them. The pilot however Learns very quickly that his fallen foes that quietly spin in the stillness of space leave behind remnants of their own ship’s AI in orbs of knowledge that pulse in the darkness. By salvaging them he is able to slowly restore the ship’s hyperdrive systems and defences. All is not lost as he fights on as the last hope for his people awaiting his aid.
PRESENT DAY:
Good MorningAfternoonEvening Pilot. You have been awoken from cryonic sleep by my subsystem in response to the following report:
Mess-bay, Food Storage Mass Data corruption: detected within th_ChickenWings_e core systems.
Mission day: 0000
Current date: 00:00:0000
Current time: 00:00
01/27 life forms on board with normal vitals
26/27 deceased on board with normal _CreamPie_vitals.
1/6090 peanut crate(s) are approaching use-by date.
…
My readings are picking up that pilot104Name’s face has a biometric malfunction, you seem to be leaking chickenSoup and H2o from your eyes SirMadam. Do you require breaded fillet assistance? inputMissing. I have called the ships medic MrMiss_MedicDead_. They should be along soon. :SmileyFace: hiddenProcess<No medic is available on board, ignore crying human>.
Hostiles approaching, Auto-pilot has been disabled since 00:00:0000 due to malfunction in the vanillaCookies. Please advise that more power core orbs needed to restore ship’s AI, defences and hyperdrive to to reach mission objective. Please take hostile action against enemy gingerBreadMan
Space-Stroids is a 2D retro-styled Rail shooter set in the vast vacuum of space where all manors of creatures and aliens dwell, all trying to stop you get to the colony where the last remnants of your race are waiting and in need of your aid. As the player you blast through the chaotic levels armed with angle-adjustable guns, homing missiles and bomb blasts that cut through the alien foes of the universe to gain power orbs from their salvage which will help you restore the ship. With only the ship’s glitchy yet humorously corrupted AI to guide you, the journey will be tough but well worth the fight as you battle your way through waves of enemies and colossal bosses that loom in wait amongst the dust of the universe.
Key Features:
- Retro-Rail Shooting at its finest!
- Aim-Adjusting, Barrel-Rolling, Homing-Missile firing fun!
- Shields that Protect and Reflect!
- Fully Upgradable Ship!
- Collect Orbs as currency!
- Pretty Pixel Visuals that need sunglasses to just look at them!
- Original Music.
- Funny but Glitchy AI to lighten the mood!
- …The single level version provided for review was made in less than 4 days with a core team of 3 people. (DAY-UM!)
- and more (for final version)
Game Play
The player experience is based around classic rail shooting but on a vertical plain, shooting down enemies of different shapes and sizes until they reach the end of the level where they have to challenge a boss, each boss is unique and has a method to destroying them. Upon the death of an enemy they with drop salvage in the form of pink orbs which also act as the games currency and they allow you to upgrade your ship between levels. Over all the game wasn’t designed to step too far outside of the box, at JumpButton we believe that staying inside of a box can be a good thing; players can pick up our game and enjoy it without a learning curve or frustrating series of tutorials. It’s all about the fun- but that’s not to say we don’t mix anything up. 
Movement
The player has the ability to move around on the 2D plain in any direction very much as the player would expect with the directional controls, but with the neat little addition of the barrel-roll with a simple double tap of the left or right direction:
The best thing about the roll is that the player is immune to all attacks while performing it, but at a cost: the player is unable to use their weapons while they do so.
Core Weapon Mechanics
From the beginning of the game the player has the ability to fire a gun and missiles, as well as the ability to use a screen-clearing bomb. Each of these core mechanics play exactly as the player would expect but with slight twists and changes.
The Gun: Z button
The gun is as you would expect- and infinite ammo weapon that rains bullets upon the enemies of SpaceStroids, they can be upgraded throughout the game to have more and more rails to unleash a maximum amount of firepower into multiple directions through 4 different iterations. The great thing about the guns in SpaceStroids is that they can be adjusted to different directions by simply holding the spacebar down. While doing this the bullets direction will change, the player can release the button if they find a sweet spot or they can just go wild and fling bullets into multiple directions as they roll over their opponents.
The Missiles: X Button
Same as the guns, the missiles are infinite but with a bit of a cool-down to balance the trigger happy gamers out there. The player starts off with two missiles to fire off every few seconds but these can be increased in the upgrade centre to 4, 6 or a chaotic 8. And trust me, when you see 8 missiles weave in and over of each other to slam into the alien ships you’ll feel pretty proud of yourself for unlocking it! But, the fun doesn’t stop there for the missiles are homing missiles. Shweet.
Da Bomb: C Button
At the beginning of each round the player will have 2 bombs to play with, as first they have a 200meter/pixel range which is pretty handy for the tight spots in the level when the swarms descend upon you but they get a lot more handy in the upgrades where the range gets bigger and bigger until you can wipe the whole screen. Boom Baby!
Enemies
In SpaceStroids the enemies attack in different ways to keep the player on their toes, some fire bullets, some throw themselves at you while others even drop small versions of themselves to re-attack. The enemies can come at random and/or in formation to attack the player in numerous ways. This is to keep the player always moving.
Bosses
The set pieces to the game are the bosses. Each boss has a different strategy on how it tries to kill the player and they also require different tactics to be defeated themselves. The final game is to have from 3 to 5 bosses, all with unique mechanics for the player to explore, figure out and defeat. They are designed to be ruthless killers and the hive-mind to the enemies in which spawned from it.
A Final Note:
While we have many ideas to put into the next version of the game to meet the very solid vision that we have for our final product, games development is our passion and we are continuously reiterating our own ideas. The great thing about the boys and girls at JBS is that we are pretty ruthless with ideas and we aren’t afraid to tell each other what is good and bad. With talks, tests, fresh cups of coffee and a little less sleep and we could come up with a mind blowing feature which none of us predicted so everything could change at a moment’s notice! Features noted here are only ideas and our ideas are never set in stone until the game is built into an executable file and ready to play by YOU. We made the current build in 4 days; just imagine what we can do in a month.
We can’t wait to show you.
Credits:
Lead Programming:
Daniel “Ace” Ostermiller
Game Asset Artists:
Vin Hill
Tanney “Zero” Liu
Graphic Artist:
Vin Hill
Effects:
Daniel “Ace” Ostermiller
Tanney “Zero” Liu
Music:
Clark Bonafe
Conceptual Art:
Jennifer “Ajremix” Delk
Vin Hill
Jessica Fong
Pitch Document:
Vin Hill
Honourable Mentions:
Nick – Manager
Y’all at JBS
“Impressively Entertaining” ~ Indie Game Mag
Like the game’s dedicated facebook page and share! Watch our 7th sneak for more information on the project as well on our YouTube channel.