Exophobia cover
Exophobia screenshot
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Genre: Shooter, Indie

Exophobia

Exophobia at Digital Dragons 2022 Indie Celebration

Going Rogue - Goodbye and follow-up!
Zarc here!

Hope you had an excellent week exploring the Going Rogue: A Festival of Persistence event, including playing our demo!

Some players have found crashing bugs in the end of the demo. So sorry for that! I won't be able to fix them as I am very busy finishing the game... However, next month I will update the demo with a brand new one! It will be closer to the final game and somewhat similar to the one physically at last PAX.

So, if you are curious to see more metroidvania sides to Exophobia, I advise to be on the look out for updates. The best way of course is to wishlist the game!.

Lastly, you can join our Zarc Attack Discord, which has been more active than ever! You can find all sorts of cool stuff there!

See you there,
Zarc

Going Rogue: A Festival of Persistence - Can a FPS also be a Metroidvania?
Hey everyone!
Exophobia has been selected to be part of a Steam festival all about roguelikes, rogue-lites, souls-likes and metroidvanias, called Going Rogue: A Festival of Persistence !

I was a bit surprised to see Steam inviting me to be part of a festival with this name, until I saw metroidvanias were part of the list of celebrated types of games. And metroidvania is one of Exophobia's most prominent tag, and this is where the game's inclusion might start to sound controversial. But here is how I designed Exophobia to feel like a METROIDVANIA FPS!

Steam defines games eligible for this festival with "These games generally share mechanics of repeating parts of the game again and again, or re-treading ground once the player has gained enough experience or equipment."

Even though metroidvanias are often thought as 2D platformers, progression in Exophobia was designed to feature these ideas as an FPS with no verticality (quite a challenge!).
The gameplay happens inside the spaceship, a giant map with multiple floors each having their own characteristics (look, enemies, objects,...), with multiple gated areas, designed to push exploration. The player progresses through the game by finding upgrades, that improve combat mechanics as well as uncover areas that were locked before. The more you progress, the more the map opens up, and you might even find secrets that you can now access with your new abilities as you backtrack to find your next one.



Besides this larger progression loop, you can also find other gated areas with one-way doors, key cards, movement challenging areas and even boss fights can unlock something on the map! You also have to save often in checkpoints, because that's where you return when you die, something you also see in metroidvanias.

So, in brief:

  • One giant map with different themed areas and checkpoints.Check
  • A clear player power arc and enjoyable movement. Check
  • Gates, boss fights and hidden secrets to reward exploration. Check


Of course, feel free to give your own opinions on the subject :)
Have some great runs with the festival,
Zarc

Happy holidays from Zarc Attack! Help Exophobia by voting for GDWC!
Hey, Zarc here!

2021 has been a tough year, but all your support has been fundamental and I'm very thankful for it! So for all of you, wishes of a great holidays and a happy new year!!
I'm really looking forward 2022, Exophobia is finally going to be released and new exciting things are bound to happen.

But before moving on 2021, there's this last bit of support I want to ask of you.
Exophobia has been nominated for 'Fan Favorite' at the Game Development World Competition!
And right on this busy week, so the biggest gift you can offer me right now is voting for it at the site :P It takes 2 seconds!

Vote here!

You can also check out the other contenders during this week, lots of cool games! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjO-XauHKiI

I'll be very thankful for your vote!
See you next year
Zarc

Exophobia as Indie X's past finalist!
Exophobia's page will have Indie X banner from 18th to 22th November. Unfortunately, Exophobia was not chosen this year as a finalist, but it's still part of the Steam page as a finalist for the past three years!
Check out the awesome games that make it company.

See you next time,
Zarc

New Exophobia Release Date
Hey, Zarc here

This time with some unfortunate news. Some of you expected the game to be released today as advertised. Here is what I wrote on Twitter:

It's very hard for me to announce that the release of Exophobia will be delayed until April next year. Everyone tried their best to deliver the game as soon as possible, but ultimately it was decided not to rush the release so Exophobia can better reach it's initial vision and become the best experience it can be.

I appreciate everyone who is patiently waiting for the game, giving feedback and showing their support. Without you this decision wouldn't be so heavy, but I believe in the end it will be worth it and hope you do too!

I can only apologize for the late announcement. And hope I can keep counting on your understanding and support!
See you soon
Zarc
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