We are on track for a March 21st release of SKIPCHASER as an Early Access title. We’ve had a private beta for the past few months and that has been a HUGE help in getting some of the gameplay mechanics worked out and squishing those pesky bugs.
Today the closed beta will get the first of TWELVE early access updates—that will give us the weekend to play test and deliver any hot fixes needed before the live release on Tuesday.
What’s included in the Early Access release, you ask? Here it is by the numbers:
5 complete missions from Act I
30+ randomly generated levels
8+ hand crafted maps including a boss battle
5+ pages of story dialog
2 weapon blueprints (Uzi, Rifle)
40+ unlockable weapon upgrades
4 enemy classes
6+ NPC classes
4 mission variations
3 original songs by VXVX
Major updates from the last release
Improved enemy AI
Respawn options screen
Terminal for dialog and help
Elemental damage states
Environmental interactions (switches, etc.)
Missions 4 + 5
Additional art assets
Grenade capping
Random chest drops
Camera smoothing
Performance enhancements
Back from GDC, a week of feedback
Hey everybody,
We're back from GDC and starting to compile feedback from everyone who got a chance to play the game. We got to meet the creator of one of our favorite games Relic Hunters Zero as well.
This week will begin our first two-week SKIPCHASER sprint, so look forward to that.
Early Access Plan
I wanted to share our plan for SKIPCHASER while it's in early access. Those of you with closed beta keys and those who buy into the EA launch are seeing about 25% of the first of three acts. Our plan as of right now, is to continue to push content updates, progressing the storyline and finishing the planned features until our "official" release in early July.
Releases will be every other week for 12 release cycles, and we will look to the community to help us prioritize features, tweak the missions and story line and balance the gameplay. We will share our proposed roadmap following a build and allow players to weigh in.
Our hope is to release a well crafted twin-stick shooter with a story and engage the audience that wants to play something like that throughout the process.
If you are interested, follow SKIPCHASER on Steam for more frequent updates.
SKIPCHASER Update Live
After our first pre-release version that crashed-and-burned we're back with a significant update that improves performance, solves some text issues and demos the first three missions of Act 1.
New in the 2017.24.2c build
Numerous performance enhancements
Coins no longer slow down the game when not collected
Kill the "bad guy" mission type added
More random map types (rogue-like and fenced)
Spacebase merged into space hub
Cave entrance updates
Weapon part unlock fix
Updated tilesets for random maps
UI tweaks for mouse and gamepad
More audio design
See you at GDC!
SKIPCHASER Steam Keys for GDC
We've been busy boys cracking down on bugs and dropping in more content for GDC. We're so excited that we're bringing 50 copies of SKIPCHASER to drop on streamers and YouTubers at GDC 2017.
Our hope is to have a very stable build with about 25% of the Act 1 for demo, both in-person and for those streamers waiting on promo copies.
HOTFIX: Windows 7 Text
Over the weekend we installed a workaround for Windows 7 systems that weren't displaying text properly in UI and in-game dialog. This is just a workaround using a default font while we work with our SDK developers to get the proper fonts back in.
We are also opening a bug submission forum if any of our private beta testers find anything we haven't.
Bugs, bugs and more bugs...
Now that we're sharing keys with streamers, we're seeing issues with the display text not rendering on Windows 7. This leads to not being able to customize controls and general nonsense.
Needless to say, we're going to push the Early Access launch back until we have these showstopper bugs fixed.
That said, thanks to everyone who has tested the game so far and has given us great bug reporting so we can get this cleaned up.
SKIPCHASER is Officially Coming Soon!
After nearly a year of development, Ponywolf's flagship indie title SKIPCHASER is coming to Steam. Targeting a February 27th launch at the 2017 Game Developer's Conference.
Skipchaser is a rogue-like, story driven sci-fi fantasy shooter with customizable weapons, procedural levels and fast paced gunfights. Battle and loot your way through an abandoned wasteland while upgrading your gear along the way.
Join this group for more information on our launch.
