Attack of the Karens cover
Attack of the Karens screenshot
Genre: Indie

Attack of the Karens

Updates for v0.02 and v0.03!

Hey hey! Welcome to v0.02 and v0.03! I missed an update when v0.02 went live on Discord, so we're doing both at the same time!

v0.02:

We saw a LOT of changes from v0.01 to v0.02! Three months of work took place which showed the implementation of the dynamic energy system, a power shot, new enemies, first round of SFX, the Main St. mini-boss, and the ALPHA_KAREN AI boss!


  • Dynamic Energy System: In AotK, you ship is powered by an energy bar. This energy bar builds up as you destroy enemies and collect their energy cells, and it gets depleted as you use power shot attacks or take damage. If you energy falls to zero, you're completely toast!
  • Press "X" on the keyboard for a huge shot that will penetrate enemies and deal a lot of damage! For the default blaster, it's a great strategy to line the Manager X-15 up in front of a bunch of enemies and fire one off, killing off a few. Collect all that sweet energy and fire off another!
  • v0.02 saw the introduction of a few new enemies: Kevin Bot, the Coupon Launcher, and a bunch of traps inside the CASS-3 enemy cruiser!
  • The CASS-3 enemy cruiser is taking over main street! You've got to stop it before it destroys everything! You'll come face to face with it's artillery. Bust it open and make your way inside to the control room to take it out!
  • Cassie isn't about to let you take control of her juggernaut cruiser. Once you find your way into the CASS-3 command center, the defense matrix springs to life! ALPHA_KAREN will control the defense system to destroy any enemy threats inside the CASS-3!
  • SFX made their way into the game! Blaster sounds, power shot sounds, and enemy damage sounds were implemented.


v0.03:

v0.03 saw more polish and the introduction of voiced character dialogue in the game.


  • We welcome Amanda Dales, Lt. of the KDF to the game, voiced by the SUPER talented Abbie Michaels! She's your partner on the mission and helps you analyze boss strategies and warns you of danger.
  • Cassie has a voice! Kelsey Maher lends her incredible voice talents to the team to voice Cassie!
  • Dialogue has now been implemented! Read and hear Amanda's comments and Cassie's threats.
  • The boss fight now has a dialogue scene between Amanda and Cassie.
  • Boss music is now in the game!
  • Enemy health has been tuned to offer a more difficult gameplay experience!
  • Several bugs have been fixed!


What's coming in v0.04?

The plan for v0.04 is to finally introduce the hangar, upgrade system, and the level select map! This will be a lot of development work, but will add a lot to the game.

If you'd like to get involved in testing AotK, join the discord server! Testing is due to open up to all discord members starting with v0.04!

As always, follow AotK on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates on the game!

That's it for now! Over and out,

Joel

Feedback from v0.01

v0.01 hit the private testing group just last week, and it was awesome to finally get the first build of the game out there! Key feedbacks:


  • The scoring system needs to update immediately. v0.01 scoring system ramped up the number of points frame by frame, so it took a while to get to the actual score. The game moves really fast, so the score was always just changing and you never knew what your real score was.
  • Bullets are hard to see. This is something I've fought with from the get go, mostly because of the limited palette. The decision is to make the bullets larger, and one bright color with a contrasting dark border. In v0.01, the bullets are smaller and also blink which makes it a little more difficult to see.
  • We need sfx! v0.01 launched without sound effects (this was planned due to time constraints), but they will be in the next test build. Also, Amanda will have a voice in the next build, too. :)
  • Menus need work. The splash page needs to be skippable, and I'd like to re-work the menus to be more "pixel art" style. For the first build, I just put something together quick to get it out there.


My goal for the next test build is a couple of weeks! If you'd like to help test early builds of the game, you can join the discord server and level up to lv 6, then get access! A public alpha is planned for late summer, which will be open to everyone.

Thanks for supporting the game! It means the world to me.

-Joel