Do the shoulder buttons work? They should work as an alternative to the triggers. If they work, this is purely an input problem. If not, the problem is somewhere else.
A new alpha update 0.0.10 is now available with all the new weapon modifiers and devices that I have showed here and many more improvements!
Here’s a new gameplay video:
Full list of changes since alpha 0.0.9:
- Made some projectile damage and sniper modifiers increase shoot sound pitch.
- Fixed random shadow flickering while player moves around.
- Show “continue game” menu after successful mission completion.
- Added drop markers on ground to indicate incoming drop pods.
- Increased initial fire rate for the rifle.
- Show warning message when damaging containers.
- Added device/controller specific button icons.
- Trigger Steam gamepad text entry for menu text items on Steam Deck.
- Use Steam persona name as default high score name when available.
- Made large walker enemies keep more distance to each other.
- Fixed some particles not properly facing camera.
- Added explosive projectiles modifier for the rifle.
- Added reflective projectiles modifier.
- Made time-limited projectiles break into dim fragments on expiration.
- Added secondary effects to some of the less useful modifiers.
- Added a missile launcher sentry gun variant.
- Added explosion stun modifier for the launcher.
- Prevent diggers from burrowing while stunned.
- Lowered ballistic fire rates for the eight-legged walkers.
Downloads are available on Itch.io as usual: Phobos Down by FRACTiLE Games
I will soon have to decide what to do about early access on Steam but until then you can wishlist the game: Phobos Down on Steam
3 Likes
Since the last alpha update, I have mostly been working on improving the flora. The explosive plants have been made a lot more useful. Their explosion range has been increased and, most importantly, they no longer damage the player at all:
To add more variation to the mission sites, I have added a new plant type called “tentacle”. These are not explosive but can be destroyed and will grow back just like the explosive plants:
I have refactored the obstacle (decorative elements, like these plants) placement logic to be more dynamic and to allow me to add new types without having to change the code every time.
If the game is started without connection to Internet (or if the server is down), following warning is now shown instead of just empty high score tables and silently lost high scores:
After long consideration, I also added one all-time high score table for the totally random games. Because the maximum possible score depends so strongly on the randomization, I was (and still am a bit) worried that that this might feel unfair. Then again, the weekly challenges are there for the fair score competition. I would like to hear your thoughts on this.
There is a lot more work to be done before the next alpha version update with these changes. Next I intend to test some more decorative plants to add even more visual variation.
2 Likes
Perhaps you could allow a seed input, so people could play the same “random” game? You could even give people an option to directly start a game with the given seed from the high score table?
1 Like
The game initially had a custom seed entry option but I removed it to make random game runs feel more “unique” by not being able to replay the exact same game once you died.
That also solved the problem of insane number per-seed high score tables with just one score in each of them. I like the idea of being able to “replay” a game from high score tables but I would somehow have to limit the number of different seeds available.
1 Like
Most of the work since the last update here has gone into procedurally placed plant clusters:
This took way too much time but I like the end result. Each plant in a cluster reacts to player or enemy bodies, wind and blast waves from explosions. This makes them look dynamic and alive. There are currently three different variants of clustered plants.
I also tweaked the site generation code a bit to pick the used obstacles and decorations more intelligently. It is now guaranteed to pick at least one light emitting obstacle type every time to prevent dull looking sites with no dynamic lights at all.
The original plan was to have the next alpha update also on Steam early access by the end of this year but it’s clear at this point that I can’t make it. I have pushed the release year on Steam to 2025. The next alpha update will still likely come this year but it won’t be initially available on Steam. If things look good with that update, I will send it to review on Steam and it will be published on early access later.
Now is a good time to go wishlist Phobos Down on Steam: Phobos Down on Steam
A new alpha update 0.0.11 is out with added visual variation between mission sites and many other improvements including those that I have showed here before.
Here’s an updated gameplay video:
And a random screenshot taken in the pause/photo mode:
Full change log:
- Added a bit more details to walker leg models.
- Enabled debanding post processing filter.
- Show a warning pop-up when the game can’t fetch challenges from the server.
- Fixed showing high scores for challenges incompatible with current game version.
- Added all-time high score challenge game type.
- Improved site obstacle placement logic.
- Added tentacle plant variant.
- Increased explosive plant damage range.
- Prevented explosive plants from damaging the player.
- Fixed connected gamepad causing jerky movement in keyboard controls.
- Improved right stick deadzone handling for smoother aiming.
- Added three types of clustered plants as terrain decorations.
- Made sure that every mission site has some obstacles with dynamic lights.
- Made total number enemy waves independent of the mission count.
- Shortened average game run a little.
- Fixed hidden mouse cursor in high score name entry.
- Made fast crawling enemies only a little bit faster than the player.
- Allow menu navigation using gamepad left trigger too.
- Only deliver GodotSteam libraries with the Steam version of the game.
- Show blinking health bar already at 50% health.
Downloads have been updated on Itch.io: Phobos Down by FRACTiLE Games
And you can wishlist the game on Steam: Phobos Down on Steam (planned Early Access early next year)
1 Like