PROGRAM_IX
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I couldn't find anything at all about Sky Rogue here so I thought I would share one of my favourite indie games of the last year.
Current version: Alpha 22 (itch.io)
Sky Rogue has been Greenlit! I think that anyone who has bought the game previously will get a key. The site currently says you are guaranteed a key with purchase, but it's not actually available on Steam yet so I haven't received one. No confirmation on Early Access plans yet.
Sky Rogue is a game about flying jets around procedurally-generated hex landscapes, blowing up ground and air targets, and looking great doing it. Produced by a three-person team in Unity, it's available for most personal computer platforms (Windows, Mac, and Linux) at itch.io as a $10+ download. It is currently in a heavily-changeable alpha state, but very playable. I have put a good few hours into several of the iterations, and each has been fun to play and appropriately arcadey. Alpha 21 is definitely the most solid-feeling yet.
Get it! ($10 or more)
Thanks for reading! Let me know if I went overboard with the images, if I left out anything glaring, or if you know a better way to format stuff than putting it in quote boxes.
This is my first OT, be gentle.
Current version: Alpha 22 (itch.io)
Sky Rogue has been Greenlit! I think that anyone who has bought the game previously will get a key. The site currently says you are guaranteed a key with purchase, but it's not actually available on Steam yet so I haven't received one. No confirmation on Early Access plans yet.
Sky Rogue is a game about flying jets around procedurally-generated hex landscapes, blowing up ground and air targets, and looking great doing it. Produced by a three-person team in Unity, it's available for most personal computer platforms (Windows, Mac, and Linux) at itch.io as a $10+ download. It is currently in a heavily-changeable alpha state, but very playable. I have put a good few hours into several of the iterations, and each has been fun to play and appropriately arcadey. Alpha 21 is definitely the most solid-feeling yet.
Get it! ($10 or more)
GIFs
(All credit for these to the developer's itch.io page.)
Gameplay
You start off with a quick tutorial, which shows both mouse/keyboard controls and the corresponding 360-layout buttons.
First you pick a plane, and with a flick downwards you can pick a loadout as well (see below). You will be able to change either or both any time you return to your aircraft carrier.
You launch from a flying aircraft carrier, and can return to it any time to restock and refill your health bar. Weapons refill quite quickly (<30s), but the flares do not. You're flung off the carrier at top speed and an island emerges from the clouds below you. The island will have a number of ground targets, such as Radar and Hangar buildings, and a Command building that you must destroy to progress to the next island. Between you and that progress stand multiple airborne drones (in the first level - there are tougher air enemies as well) and multiple SAM/AAA installations. You don't have to kill anything except the Command buildings to progress, but you may find it difficult to resist mashing X when your micromissiles lock on to a lazy drone.
The game was originally called Sky Rogue to reflect that any progress of any kind would be lost upon death (as in roguelike), and that was the case until recently. Now, the Scrap and Tech (researched weapons, jets, etc.) carry over, but your progress through the islands does not. You still only have one life to get as far into the game as you can, with enemy difficulty/numbers mounting based on 'alert levels' that rise as you progress. Be prepared to see this screen a lot.
This is where your Tech levels increase, though, so only through death(s) can you research new things.
Loadouts
Every time you kill an enemy, you gain Scrap (currency) which can buy ordnance for your loadouts. You also gain experience towards your next Tech level. Both of these carry over between runs. At each Tech level you can research a new thing, be it a different jet, a new type of missile, or sundry equipment for the planes such as different engines. There are two types of loadout points that must be contended with in order to add a new item to your loadout: payload, and avionics. Payload is to do with mass/weight, and avionics is electronic systems capability. So a cluster bomb would have a high payload cost but low avionics cost, and an infra-red air-to-air missile would be the opposite. Different jets have different payload/avionics balances so there's a fair amount of customisation if that's your thing.
In the bottom right of the loadout screen is a 'skin' selector which you can use to change the colours of your missiles, carrier, and the jet itself between a number of themes. I understand that the game is also moddable around this concept, but I haven't seen much information about it. The third GIF above depicts the 'RAUSER' theme, for example.
Thanks for reading! Let me know if I went overboard with the images, if I left out anything glaring, or if you know a better way to format stuff than putting it in quote boxes.
