New Early Access build for Flight of the Athena is out now (V0.65)
This mid-sized update has been mainly focused on fixes and quality of life, but all are helping to bring the game close to V1.0. The title and logo updates have been on the todo list for a while, and the ability of enemy Colossus transports to summon reinforcements has added some spice to that key event! The full list of changes is below:
Flight of the Athena V0.65EA changelog: -Logo and title update - The logo and title screen assets have been updated in game & on Steam. -Battle controls popup - A popup with the controller layouts appears in the main battle screen for the first mission now. -Key event, Colossus reinforcements - The Colossus transports encountered can now summon reinforcement waves, take care when raiding! -Hi-score campaign progress - Progress data has been added to the hi-scores data, i.e. whether the campaign was successful, if not which Act was reached. -Location option highlights - some visual targeters have been added to highlight which current and target location options are available (or not). -Screen descriptions - Tooltips added to the top left on console screens to describe the purpose and actions of the current screen -Node complete graphics -replaced the tick image with the allies (lightning strike) logo for the current & completed nodes on the campaign map. -No controller warning - A pop up message and option to quit via the escape key has been added to the main title screen, depending on (un)detected controllers.
Homing missiles & more - new Early Access build (V0.62) for Flight of the Athena
One of the main appeals of building a shmup + roguelite hybrid is the ability to add new content, be it weapons, craft, events etc, and "feed" it into the procedural generation engine, where it can be incorporated into the main game campaign - it has benefits for the developer, as well as the player!
The Screamer Missile has been added, a primary weapon which has semi-homing capabilities, and can be found / bought / traded like other weapons in the game. A couple of new enemies have been added which are also equipped with these, so watch out whenever they are on screen. A few other tweaks and quality of life updates have gone in, see below for further info.
Flight of the Athena V0.62EA changelog: -:New weapon: Screamer Missile, player - these semi-locking missiles are available as a player primary weapon to find / trade / buy within the main campaign. -Screamer Missile, enemies - these missiles accelerate towards a player with semi-locking capabilities, be prepared to get out of the way fast! Enemies wielding include the Batteron Corvette with 1x Screamer hardpoint, and the Dreadnought Capital with 2x Screamer hardpoints. -Objective descriptions - these have been added to display the objective during active key events (e.g. Intercept, Minefield etc). They usually involve destroying things, but good to have some context! -Key Event scaling work - this ramps the difficulty of key events the further into the game they are encountered. Later convoys will have deadlier ships, later minelayers can throw out mines quicker. -Mine on mine collisions - updated to have a "spacing" collision sound and graphics between mines. -PCore pickup text - this pops out a brief onscreen text of the value of the salvage that has just been recovered. -Score popup text - this pops out a brief onscreen text of the score from destroying an enemy (if non zero). -Score, game version info - the game version info of an obtained high score has been added, displayed on the high scores screen.
The demo has also been updated to V0.62 also. Onwards to the next update!
Flight of the Athena V0.6 Early Access is now live!
The V0.6 Update for Flight of the Athena is now live! This is a fairly substantial update over the previous version - key updates include:
Act IV content - Campaigns can now be generated up to the penultimate act, bringing higher level weaponry, but also the heaviest enemy forces yet!
Lowlands, new region type - The lowlands has been added; it brings an improved chance of merchant nodes, however node visibility intel is lowered, so careful route choices may need to be made.
Weapon balancing - The laser and bolo projectiles have been given a bit more punch, and the secondary vulcan and laser turrets rotation speed has been increased to make them a bit snappier.
Craft balancing - the movement force has been increased (acceleration, ability to change direction) across the board, and the speed ranges of ships has been refined. The initial Mk1 ships will still need upgrading eventually, but with a bit more weight from an armour rather than maneuverability perspective.
Minor UI, stability etc fixes.
The Flight of the Athena Demo has also been updated to benefit from the V0.6 improvements (with the single chapter & 2 available bosses demo restrictions still in place).
For the next release, on the agenda potentially are final boss refining, final act content, key event additions / updates, UI and usability improvements, achievements. Which of these will be targeted is still TBD, but will have an impact on the timescale for the next release (current plan is for it to be available end of August).
Any feedback or comments, feel free to send them on!
Flight of the Athena V0.6, hitting Early Access mid-August
The next version of Flight of the Athena, V0.6, will go into Early Access in a couple of weeks, including content generation up to Act 4, some balance updates and fixes also. The enemy formations and attacks at this stage of the game will be pretty fierce, so the stronger the ships and weapons available in the Athena's hangar bays, the better!
Work is also ongoing on creating the final boss, Omega, who packs an array of weaponry and tools (obligatory giant laser included!). He will be the final adversary at the end of the last Act, Act 5.
Looking forward to getting this release out!
Flight of the Athena V0.5, now out in Early Access
Flight of the Athena V0.5 is now out in Early Access! The biggest addition with this update is scoring; harder difficulties and game modes both increase the campaign score multiplier. So a brutal difficulty rogue run has the potential to greatly outscore a normal classic run - depending on how far the player or players get... Alongside this, high score tables are now implemented and campaign run scores are saved (if a high score is achieved).
Other notable inclusions with this release are; -Craters: Ground object explosions (turrets, vehicles etc) now leave craters where the explosion occurred -Large enemy bolo turret: These larger and more destructive enemy turrets can be encountered, with full 360 rotation. -Boss update (Aegis): Aegis's shield generator will no longer always stack to two full rings of shielding before an overload burst, and can fire them off earlier. Although dangerous, this does also mean more openings for the player to attack. -Act interstitial cut scene: Shows after a boss has been defeated, before moving to the next act. -UI updates to try and smooth the experience.
The next update will mainly focus on content, to move closer to the full 5-act experience and the full V1.0.
Any thoughts or feedback, feel free to send on - thanks!
Flight of the Athena V0.48 Early Access is out!
Flight of the Athena V0.48 has been released! Originally these changes were being saved for a more substantial update with V0.5, but there is some good stuff that has gone in so it made sense to get it out.
The change log for build V0.48 is as follows: -New player ship, the Renegade - an advanced corvette class ship with 3x forward hardpoints & 1x turret hardpoint. -New player ship, the Skymoth - a new corvette class ship with 1x forward hardpoint & 2x turret hardpoints. -Minefield tweaks - shorter but a little more dangerous! -Campaign event balancing - slight raising of the odds for a shipyard or a ship selling black market to occur. -Economy rebalancing - resource events reward less of a bonus, destroying enemy ships rewards more (a little less R in the RNG). -Region complete cutscene - interstitial after beating a boss and moving to the next region. -Controller update - enabled left stick navigation of menus etc, to complement D-pad navigation. -Fix: Disappearing minelayer - very occassionally the minelayer was being removed prematurely, this should be fixed now.
Flight of the Athena V0.47 Early Access, out now!
Flight of the Athena V0.47 is now available through Early Access! This provides a couple of key issue fixes and updates:
-Vehicles sometimes overlapping - Ground vehicle collision code updated to fix this. -Bullets occassionally disappearing - The bullet garbage collection code has been rewritten to fix this issue. -Eliminated text - Added to the campaign info screen to highlight the boss / bosses already beaten within that run -Beam laser power - slight tweaks to rebalance the power for the higher mark weaponry
The next game update will likely focus on content, potentially player weapons, ships, enemy types, etc; content TBD.
Any thoughts or feedback, feel free to drop here or in the discussion threads!
Flight of the Athena V0.46 Early Access, out now!
Flight of the Athena V0.46 is now available through Early Access! The key addition with this update is the extended campaign content now available.
-Campaign generation extended to 3 Acts (2 previously): Content will be generated for the first 3 acts now (bosses, levels, campaign map etc) -Various bug fixes and updates
Note: There are a couple of known issues regarding ground unit placements and collisions, fixes for these will be determined and incorporated into the next build.
Flight of the Athena V0.45 Early Access
*Flight of the Athena V0.45 has a greatly updated save game system - if any previous saves are causing issues, going to Options > Data will allow a data cleardown*
Flight of the Athena V0.45 has some major updates over the previous version. Key updates: -Additional boss (Codename: Warlock) - brings the boss count to 5. Available to battle in the main Campaign, and the Bosstiary. -Major UI overhaul - the campaign interface has been greatly streamlined to try and reduce any confusing aspects. -Special mission overhaul - previously, these missions (e.g. transport raid) were separate distinct levels, but this really broke the game flow in an unsatisfactory way. Now, they have been integrated as Key Events that can occur within a standard battle mission. Current key events are the transport raid, minelayer takedown and enemy convoy, with more planned. Be ready! -Weapons updates - beam lasers and missiles have been reworked to fix bugs and calculate power values more accurately. -Numerous updates and bug fixes throughout the game.
Flight of the Athena - back in the flying seat!
Flight of the Athena - status & development update
Flight of the Athena development has been on a long hiatus, for a number of reasons. The largest of these by far was hitting a real impasse on the game design elements of trying to bring together a shmup with experimental ideas & procedurally generated elements. Ultimately, too much was trying to be done together, and it was proving a real detriment to progress.
One of the more unique elements I had built into FotA was a range of level types: An intercept level type for raiding enemy transports for credits, a minefield level type to traverse, with the aim of building up more of these separate level types. The problems with this was not just the added technical complexity, but also whilst fun for a short burst, it was breaking the game flow far too much as a replacement for standard levels.
The solution to this has been to integrate these additional components as "special events" within the main procedural level generator - so within a standard level battling enemies, you can encounter e.g. an enemy transport to raid, and after he has boosted away, the main level will continue.
During playtesting, this works so much better to add variety and interest to the standard (non-boss) levels, as well as solving the conundrum of getting these ideas into the game. More can be added as and when, and they will be integrated into the procedural level generator.
Solving this, as well as a few other design and UI issues has helped get the project rolling again, so what's next?
Flight of the Athena - next steps
The next main step is to get a new, stable Early Access build out. In no particular order, the tasks to get there: -User Interface: Currently it is too cluttered, taking out complexity is a priority -Bug crunching: There are a couple of serious data issues which need fixing. There are smaller ones that need fixing at some point, but getting the serious issues fixed is a minimum -Level generation updating: Taking out the good elements and ideas from the previously separate game types, and integrating them properly into the main level generator as "special events".
Those are the key points which will be addressed to get a new EA build out - alongside this I've been updating some graphics, and will continue to do so as it is helping raise the whole game feel and experience.
