Unfortunately, the trademark for the title and logo of this game is going to be canceled, so we need to drop support. We will no longer be selling this game and will likely need to change the branding and logo of the store page. We will continue to leave the multiplayer servers up until at least April 2023.
The original creation of this game's name and logo were designed by Alexander Clark himself, the creator of the game. I still remember the day that I drew the design while on a flight to Korea.
However, as much as we were attached to the original name and logo of this game, we honestly do not have the funds to support the legal process of defending the trademark. The only way for our studio to continue making games and doing what we love is to abandon the project and remove any existing references to the old logo and title.
Thank You
Indie life is difficult. We knew that when starting this venture, but it has been 100% worth it. The journey would not be the same without the likes of this community supporting and cheering us on. While this game may be dead, the characters and legacy of the Starcade Arcade universe lives on. We will continue building content in the spirit of this game and hope that you continue to follow us on the adventure! Thank you for all of the support through the years!
Here is a video we made to commemorate all of the memories tied to this game:
Follow Us for More
Please join our community and continue to follow Starcade Arcade ®. Starcade Arcade Links
What is Starblazer Factions??
Some of you might have seen a Starblazer demo at Game Developers Conference. The demo was at Tobii's booth, with the subtitle "Factions", and new kinds of ships. What is going on??
First off, yes! We have built eye-tracking into Starblazer. That is just one small addition planned for a huge update coming to Starblazer this summer. Check out the innovative work with Tobii though:
But wait, what is Starblazer: Factions?? Starblazer: Factions is the name of the massive patch coming Summer 2022. It includes 3 separate factions, or races, to play as. We're addressing every major request that an RTS title truly needs (yes, queuing... resources... we know what you've been wanting).
We will have a lot more to share in the next few months, but since we got so many questions after GDC, we wanted to just let you know that Starblazer is well and alive and coming back in a big way!
Virus Popper Reopened FREE!
Grab your weapons Space Traveler! New variants of the virus have started to appear all over our universe and we need your help to pop them all!
Use new weapons, explore new maps, and fight off these variants to an album of brand new tunes! Become the ultimate Virus Popper in this huge new update!
Grab your weapons Space Traveler! New variants of the virus have started to appear all over our universe and we need your help to pop them all!
Use new weapons, explore new maps, and fight off these variants to an album of brand new tunes! Become the ultimate Virus Popper in this huge new update!
Available NOW for FREE.
[previewyoutube="qGk6apu3BfA;full"]
Space Slurpies LAUNCHES April 8th!
You've played the demo, you've heard the song... and now it's FINALLY HERE. Space Slurpies is launching and about to be available for all on April 8th. [previewyoutube="B6KloBYfous;full"]
For the past year, Starcade Arcade has been working on a VR game that we are very excited to share with you. It's relaxing to play in solo mode, but equally exciting to play with friends.
How long can you survive the colorful galaxy of the Slurpies? In this multiplayer arcade game, control luminescent snakes that grow in length and size. Collect as much food as possible and survive each round without colliding with yourself and other players in fast-pacing battles. The art of collecting food is as satisfying as it is relaxing. But don't forget to watch out for other players – as they might try to cut you off and create traps!
Players each control a snake that follows their hand in 6D space
Whenever their snake eats pieces of food, it grows in length
It also evolves and covers itself in armor as it grows
Survive the longest without colliding with yourself or other players
Competitive players can cut each other off and sabotage to win the game
Avoid the Jazzeroids and other enemy obstacles on your quest to be the longest slurp!
Enjoy over 20 unique and vibrant maps
Cross platform multiplayer, both matchmaking and games with friends
Customize your snake and make uniquely yours
Space Slurpies Demo
Did you like the world of Starblazer®? Find out what else is happening in that universe with our studio's newest title - Space Slurpies.
[previewyoutube="MVdCjsunJXs;full"]
The demo for Space Slurpies is free and available now for anyone to download. Get it here and see what the excitement is all about:
How long can you survive the colorful galaxy of the Slurpies? In this multiplayer arcade game, control luminescent snakes that grow in length and size. Collect as much food as possible and survive each round without colliding with yourself and other players in fast-pacing battles. The art of collecting food is as satisfying as it is relaxing. But don't forget to watch out for other players – as they might try to cut you off and create traps!
Gameplay:
Players each control a snake that follows their hand in 6D space
Whenever their snake eats pieces of food, it grows in length
It also evolves and covers itself in armor as it grows
Survive the longest without colliding with yourself or other players
Competitive players can cut each other off and sabotage to win the game
Avoid the Jazzeroids and other obstacles on your quest to be the longest slurp!
Features:
Enjoy over 20 unique and vibrant maps
Cross platform multiplayer, both matchmaking and games with friends
Customize your snake and make uniquely yours
Exiting Early Access
After three years of development, Starblazer® is exiting Early Access and launching as a fully featured game. Starblazer® was created by a two-person indie dev team and defined by the feedback and direction of a dedicated community. We are proud to complete this passion project and invite you to join the celebration on September 14th when we release the game.
Find other players to battle and strategize with on our Discord: https://discord.gg/eFqWcT5
Follow our studio and see the rest of the journey on our social media accounts: https://www.facebook.com/StarcadeArcadeLLC/ https://www.instagram.com/starcadearcadellc/ https://www.twitch.tv/starcadearcade https://twitter.com/StarcadeArcade https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxqzAiGfIuHaBIHeB-DMDcQ/
Happy Starblazin'!
- Alexander & Brandon Starcade Arcade
Final Launch Update
After over three years of development, our two person, part-time indie team is proud to release the last patch before our exit from Early Access. This launch is a huge milestone for us. Since entering Early Access, we have uploaded over 20 patches for Starblazer and given out over 1000 keys. We want to thank all of the fans and supporters for their constant feedback, encouragement, and playtime to make a great space RTS game for VR. We could not have done it without the support of our community.
The biggest areas of focus for us in this final patch before release were Performance and final Bug fixes. We have optimized Starblazer to give you a smooth 90 FPS. All bugs that we know of have been fixed and overall gameplay improved. You can read the full list of bugs and performance enhancements added this patch.
From here, we will continue to support the game (in particular we still have lots we want to do in terms of AI). If you want to join the other Starblazers and meet the devs, join the conversation on our Discord: https://discord.gg/eFqWcT5
Gameplay Tweaks:
Attacked Bruisers can defend themselves if the attacker is within a certain distance, chasing down ships if necessary.
All UI icons are cleaner with a rounded single layer Sprite. Highlighted icons show up with a blue neon border now as well.
Increased radius of the Medic to allow for better healing of Bruisers.
Inkers is moved to a more accessible spot on the Bridge and the door can be opened to access.
AI will create new paths immediately after killing their target.
AI will also path ships as soon as they've been created and built by the Builder to avoid clogs.
A delightful noise lets you know that you opted to change your fleet's colors.
Splitters can withstand Bruiser fire for longer duration.
Ships can now accelerate to top speed, rather than instantly hitting max velocity.
The character Comet is added to the Garage in Explore Mode in honor of Dave of Many Names for being the first to beat Puzzle Mode.
Performance Improvements:
Changed render queues to decrease draw calls
Baked Occlusion culling in all levels
Removed warping FX
Optimized all scripts calls to run under 2-3 ms
Removed extraneous textures, such as the hologram models
Sized up lightmaps to 4096
Disabled shadow mapping
Improved static batching
Disabling procedural skybox
Disable runtime illumination
Dynamic instancing of materials
All new WaitForSeconds calls pre-initialized
Log files disabled
Removed instantiation / destroy of hologram models, re-using for performance
Limited overdraw on all maps by removing unneeded meshes
Removed all dynamic menus and animations
Removed thruster variation animations
Weapon checks only update every half second instead of 0.1s.
Fade (transparency) calls no longer every frame, only when needed.
Navigation path meshes fully disabled when not in use, not just invisible.
Removed all spotlights to limit breaking of static batching.
Limit all scenes to one reflection probe
Changed transparent shaders to less computationally intensive ones
Load asset bundles at the beginning of a round to save time
Sparkles Fx removed from the fleet boxes in Fleetbuilder
Removed redundant multiplication from every frame with speed functions
All ships given more aggressive LOD design models
Reorganize asset bundles so that they load by color combination, not ship type
Low resolution textures created and used for all low poly LOD models
All maps changed to static objects when possible
Vsync disabled in project settings
Flattened out sprites into single transparent layers to reduce draw calls
Bug Fixes:
Pacifist Achievement now can also be achieved with a Flagship and Builder. I have no idea how you'd capture with a Builder, but I put in there anyway since I have no doubt Dave could find a way.
I hopefully solved the problem of the ships getting stuck in the Builder by not activating their colliders until they leave the Builder. It's a bit of a cheese, but it doesn't seem to impact physics too poorly.
The AI was supposed to find a new ship, but a bug was preventing the search. Should be more responsive now.
The weird pathing was done by ships that were docking (support Flagship) but detecting ships in their path. They won't do that now.
The Multi-Tool Achievement will now capture all ships built.
All of the "go to every location, map, etc." achievements should be working for now. They'll still display a little goofy, but that's just a learning for our next game. At least they'll record properly now.
Infinity Mode Achievements will now trigger on the time change for both 5 minutes and 10 minutes. It had some earlier test values in them that prevented the trigger.
Switching the game from Full-mode to Arcade no longer leaves the menu disabled in Puzzle mode.
Fleetbuilder announcement removed in the Explorer version.
Door now triggers and opens in Demo Room when the user approaches.
Gap closed in the window of the Bridge to avoid the cold vaccuum of space.
Visual bounds of the Builder extended to prevent accidental clipping from dynamic occlusion.
Ships selected after the Builder has been selected now will pull up the virtual projection plane.
The single rogue robot on Level 26 will not accidentally attack Orbit.
Paths of Evil Orbits improved on Level 26 to make sure they don't fly too high.
Ships disable colliders before exiting the Builder to prevent getting stuck.
The command to support Flagship will no longer create crazy paths, just straight lines.
Build every type of ship in the game achievement fixed.
Flagship can now will Passive Aggressive achievement.
All maps and all fleets achievements now work properly.
Infinity Mode 5 min and 10 min achievements now trigger.
Mis-presses on the projection plane eliminated by disabling the projection plane when the controller is on the same level.
Ships now fully switch back to opaque when leaving the Spectre's radius.
Medic built animation fixed to exit cleanly.
Fleet lighting improved in Fleetbuilder.
Color combination of red on blue texture pack fixed for the Fighter.
Splitter will damage ships 100% of the time when attacking.
Ship highlight no longer stays on last ship selected after moved to a waypoint.
Enemy selection no longer flickers for invisible ships.
Blossom AI will no longer shoot past a player on the hyper lanes
Splitter vs Splitter now does damage consistently
Ships will no longer get stuck behind slow moving ones, choosing to build a path around them when impatient.
Removed the enumerations on backend from Arcade Mode.
Redundant player designations no longer added to the end of user name in Arcade Mode.
Waiting for players sign removed from Mini Battle
Flickering assets removed from the ceiling of Demo Room, Tutorial, and Erosion.
Bruisers spaced out further in Level 3.
Barrier collider added in Bridge and StarRaver to keep player from falling out.
Blossom fleet starting position moved to prevent player from spawning in the wall
Polish Polish Update
In this exciting new patch, we bring forward an immense number of bug fixes, tweaks, and even a few new features to get ready for final release. We are one step closer to exiting Early Access and completing the full version of Starblazer. Check out the insane list of bugs that the community has helped us catch and address (thank you all! Especially Dave, he knows). We have an amazingly improved navigation system, AI features, and performance optimizations to make it extra smooth. Not to mention Leaderboards and Achievements! Honestly, it's so much that there's no video introduction or screenshots this time… I'm tired… need to go get some sleep. But not too much because we're almost ready to exit Early Access…
Just trust me. This patch is great. Go play it and find out for yourself. ;)
Love you Starblazers!
-Alexander
New Features: • Achievements added! Good luck :) • Leaderboards added and live! Who is the best commander?? • Targeting brackets are shown on enemy and ally ships that a user can attack or pair with. • Users can drag and drop ship waypoints by holding down the trigger button. • Pause the game with the menu now! Ships freeze mid-air like that movie Clockstoppers. • A waypoint projector plane allows users to move ships in midair without pointing at a floor or ceiling. • AI ships will now target the enemy captain when it is exposed. • AI ships will get impatient behind a Bruiser and navigate around it. • AI will specifically build ships to counter your ships. • AI seeker prioritizes attacking Builders / Medics / Spectres. • AI Snipers will find another ship to attack if they're blocked by the environment. • AI ships can now prioritize close ships if they are nearby and in line of sight. • Countdown timer added for Multiplayer matchmaking searches. • Name of your challenger is shown before launching room in Matchmaking. • Bruiser has a new voice! It will announce built ships and the process of starting to build a ship. Thanks RottRave for that amazing contribution and voice talent! • Steam IDs are used instead of a manually typed in username. • The map is shown for each level in Puzzle mode on the righthand side of the menu screen. • Users can strafe in Locomotion mode. Aiming is with the controller, not the head. • Smash Mode has a true end… ships only respawn if you get a combo. • Text is added to each of the hints to provide more context to the user. • Tapping the Quit button provides a hint to the user, making it easier for them to understand to hold down and quit. • Arcade mode resets the ship colors and layouts every time the game is launched. • Replay button added to Smash mode. • Lightning noises added to the Seeker. • The level numbers is added to each Puzzle level on the start menu. • User can mute the music volume from Settings menu. • Ships in Fleetbuilder will not blow up outside of the box, but now snap in place.
Bug Fixes: • Demos will fire 100% of the time in Demo Room, despite AI logic to ensure completeness of a demo. • Ships were retaining multiple speed effects when exiting hyperlanes. Now limited to a single effect that is removed upon immediately leaving hyperlane. • Splitters had a UI glitch where they could show a decimal floating value instead of rounded integer. • Players with the same name would encounter severe errors in multiplayer. • Online play would stall if the user tried to search for a game before the game has connected to a server. Now the button is disabled until system is ready. • Locomotion was too sensitive in WMR, adjusted values to add hysteresis. • In WMR, users could accidently spin out of control with the touch pad. • Spectres were completely invisible to user when highlighted, fixed with improved graphics. • Locomotion had that sinking feeling… • Ships had a change of sticking to the controller in Smash Mode. • If you set a Waypoint, and then pair a ship, the last waypoint segment is left visible. • Docking points were not being properly unregistered when a ship leaves the docked ship. • Multiple Medics on a ship equates to weird errors. • If a ship is destroyed while highlighting an enemy target, the reticle stays red. • Ships were losing sync in Multiplayer, re-architecting for synced data on attacks by changing the Observe function to reliable. • Demo Room completion not being properly checked if each station run. • Transfers of saved data were accidentally marking some modes as completed. • Live status of a room was not being updated in Matchmaking after the name of the room is edited. • Trigger pull was not being shown on Oculus controllers. • Ships were blowing up on hyperlanes due to the speed. Unintentional suicide bombers. • Loading graphics were not being destroyed when a player canceled their selection. • Loading icon from old build shows up in the background for Multiplayer games. • Quit loading bar was not showing up in Arcade mode or Multiplayer. • Reckoning could accidentally be loaded as a random matchmaking map. • Game could be broken by naming your player Enemy X. • Holograms could accidently be left spawned in combat if menu cycled too fast. • Colors were being forced in Arcade Mode to red and black. Ew. • Some of the buttons in Tutorial mode were not changing to replay. • Players could accidentally collide with ships in Fleetbuilder. • Bottom two Orbit emotes are broken in Orbit's repair room. • Player can fall to infinite Death in Fleetbuilder by jumping off the side. • Quit ring is off center for the player. • Capacitance counter not showing red or yellow at the beginning of Fleetbuilder. • If you change the color of the ships in Fleetbuilder and then add a new ship, the new ship is the old color.
Tweaks: • Rings in Tutorial Mode glow and pulse to draw the user's attention to them. • Orbit's voice has been equalized and optimized across all scenes and rooms. • A glowing red ring shows up around loading buttons instead of the yellow circley sprite. • Added a loaded sequence to Tutorial Mode loading buttons. • Seeker only zaps and shows electricity when ships are within a radius. • Improved graphics for Medic healing radius. • Improved graphics for Spectre cloaking radius. • Lights turn off on each Demo Station as you walk away. • Increased agility on Snipers and Fighters so that they can turn faster. • Spheres spin in Melody. • All assets and materials were revamped and upgraded for a shinier look. • When user highlights and selects another ship after Builder is selected, not only should Builder be canceled, but the new ship should also be selected. • Added a physical collider to the hint console in Demo Room. • Quit menu is opaque for readability on Demo Room and Melody. • Orbit is less annoying in Smash Mode. • Ships were launching out of the Builder. All animations optimized and fixed. • Builder enlarged to more cleanly fit ships. • All colliders cleaned up and tied to the mesh skeleton for more realistic animations and physics. • Removed inappropriate voiceover from Orbit (no one complained, but I knew it was there. This game is for ALL people, so let's be inclusive). • All start buttons are disabled when clicking and levels are loading. • Auto-firing capabilities were sluggish and choppy. • The new Builder Capacity counter does not show availability for each of the ships. Needs to gray out if inaccessible. • Invisible ships will not activate self defense to keep from blowing their cover. • If no support or offensive ships exist, then gray out the command cards. • Dance floor solidified. • Melody got some more color added - green to add to the stark white and black design. • Destroyed world rings added to Reckoning map for aesthetic. • Snipers were running into other ships, moved their sensors out in front. • Allow user to teleport on benches in the Airlock. • Adjusted AI navigation of Melody to keep them from always going through the rings instead of straight. • Fixed the AI on Blossom so that they will take the hyperlanes to attack the user. • Fixed the AI on Icarus so that they use the hyperlanes more liberally. • Swapped Versus mode with Infinity to help users get into a game quicker. • Medic no longer stutters when following the Bruiser. Ships follow at the same pace as the paired leader. • Ships turn and face the ship they're pairing with before snapping to face the same direction. • Modified Seeker to only routinely seek ships, not every frame, to optimize. • Extended teleportation arc. • Turn off the laser when teleporting. • All highlights are yellow to match the menu system throughout. • Added a '0' to the keyboard. • Culling mask changed on cameras to limit draw calls and help performance. • Docking distance algorithm optimized for performance. • Materials functions optimized for faster loading. • Ships blow up behind the barrier in Infinity Mode to catch cheaters. • Ships were firing too soon on auto-fire and normal attacks. • Updated Desktop icon. • Polling rate of ship distances is periodic rather than every frame to help with performance. • Ship UI updates on trigger driven events to help with performance. • Optimized the following scripts for performance: Loader updates, MenuElements, Medic, ShipLocation, ShipNavigation, Referee. • Fixed most overlapping fleets in Puzzle Mode. • Standardized the enemy names for AI modes. • Multiplayer shows that it's searching when searching for a game. • Other menu elements disabled when searching for a game.
Simple Space Update
The Simple Space update is finally here! In this update, we set about making the game as simple and intuitive to all players as possible. We wanted to create a game that was friendlier, more accessible, and easier for first timer users to pick up and play.
[previewyoutube="GNMi5iN2YGY;full"] One of the key features of this update is the Main Menu on the starting screen. Now, you have access to all the different game modes of Starblazer in an easy to access menu. Every time you quit a game mode, you're back to this one simple menu, making it easy to jump into any type of game you want to in Starblazer.
We also re-imagined the controls for Starblazer, making it our goal to simplify all gameplay just down to one single button! We were able to achieve this by building an intuitive cancellation system. Now you can cancel selections with the Select button (often Trigger) as well, just by clicking on the ship again or double clicking the waypoint. Starblazer has never been easier to play than it is now!
To go with this update, we unleveled some of the gameplay modes that people enjoyed into their own features. Smashing ships is now easy and obvious to jump into using the Smash game mode. Additionally, we are introducing the new Explore Mode, where users can wander around and explore the main ship in the series. Included are new locations like the Garage, the Airlock, and a first person view version of Fleetbuilder.
However you want to enjoy Starblazer, we want to make it easy and simple to do so! Have fun Starblazers!
Additional Features:
Locomotion mode added to allow an additional control option other than teleport.
Announcements and patch notes now added to the front screen on left-hand panel.
Controller model added to replace the VR controllers.
Intuitive trashcan added to Fleetbuilder to make deleting ships easier. Completion marks added for Tutorial and Demo Room maps.
Tweaks:
Saffron Stadium is widened to allow users to move around more freely.
The walls of Blossom have been brought in to help with navigation and prevent ships from getting stuck on the outside.
Moved the asymmetrical column in Incomplex to prevent it from blocking the player on one side unfairly.
"Jenga-like" blocks have decreased friction to make the game more playable in StarRaver Lounge.
The rings at the Space Pong table are widened in order to make easier to play.
AI ships can make smarter decisions to cut down the length of their paths to enemy targets.
AI ships will turn and attack their attacker if ambushed, ending their previous path and target.
Splitters now have damage resistance against Bruisers.
Firing range of the Bruiser increased by 20%.
Text is larger and boldened in Demo Room to make more legible.
Fleetbuilder teleport arc stops at the wall collision.
Menu laser disappears when an object is being grabbed.
Ships paired to a Bruiser are spaced out a little further.
Demo Room voice from Orbit normalized and decreased in volume.
Normalized the voiceover for starting a battle.
Removed the Demo Station for Mini Battle in Demo Room.
Added labels over all of the demo stations in Demo Room to replace the teleportation points.
Removed additional audio sources in StarRaver to give DJ Inkers a clear audio system. Less grainy sound to his epic tunes from Chalk Dinosaur now.
Desktop Icon for Starblazer replaced with an icon of Orbit.
Teleportation floor in Blossom made smoother and easier to move across.
Performance strain on Blossom decreased by ramping down the water effects in the creek.
A return to safe zone added for Explore mode to catch player if wander into unsupervised areas.
Made the CCV1 easier to read on maps like Melody by adding an opaque background to the selection cards.
Thruster graphics added to the ships that can be seen out the window of The Bridge.
The floor in the Bridge now drops down to match the aesthetic, where the Flagship is.
Ships start further away from the player in Smash mode.
The option to cancel a ship selection is now shown visually on the controller.
Both the left and right hand can pull up the Quit menu.
Asteroid can be grabbed in Smash mode.
Waypoints fade 4x faster after deselecting, allowing for quicker gameplay.
Lighting values decreased in Tutorial Room, making it more comfortable for the eyes.
All windows inappropriately facing the void of space are covered up more realistically.
Menu buttons made larger for accessibility, including the Quit button.
Players can exit Starblazer from the main menu now.
Beautiful skybox and audio added to loading screen for Starcade Arcade.
Bug Fixes:
Orbit no longer gets stuck on the player's hand when they grab her.
Ships can no longer collide and blow themselves up in Smash Mode.
Double laser pointer removed from Demo Room, Tutorial, and Mini Battle.
Mesh / texture jitter removed in Fleetbuilder.
Builder progress will now appear on the display, even from a distance.
Snap turns rotate around the player's axis, not the play area. This prevents them from rotating into a space not allowed or out of bounds.
