Project Landsword
A downloadable game for Windows
The once peaceful surface of Mars has decayed into a violent battleground between arms corporations and Earthly governments.
To join the fight would be crazy. To survive would be downright psychotic.
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Landsword is a top-down mecha shooter with a heavy emphasis on destruction and gameplay that combines elements from classic shoot em' ups with contemporary action-stealth games.
Featuring fully destructible environments, players must use their wits and surroundings to outsmart and defeat enemies in combat, while still retaining an arcade feeling to its gameplay.
This early prototype demo currently includes seven different missions with fourteen different weapons to choose from.
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"D3DXCompile failed / Fatal Error in Vertex Shader Compilation"
Upon starting a mission, you may encounter an error screen that says a shader named shd_outline_old failed to compile. This error only occurs because your computer does not have DirectX9 or later, so please see if your DirectX driver is up to date or installed at all. You can download the driver patch directly from the Microsoft website. This will fix any shader compile errors if you are having them, and should work on any Windows version (including XP and Windows 7, 32 or 64 bit)
- If you are having the same issue on a Linux emulator, please use Winetricks to install the DirectX patch and then try again.
- A dedicated Linux build will also come eventually, but currently I do not have the ability to compile one.
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This demo is 100% free and the game is a work in progress, but any donations will go to paying for a proper soundtrack and some additional programming help for things such as shaders.
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Wishlist the game on Steam!
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Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Progress Report - Pathfinding, Art, Optimization63 days ago
- LS Update V.0.8.2Jul 09, 2025
- Steam Page + Progress Report + FAQMay 11, 2025
- LS Update V.0.7.0Jan 04, 2025
- 60 FPS hotfix for Windows 10/11 usersNov 14, 2024
- LS Update V.0.6.0Nov 08, 2024
Comments
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Just checking in to wish you Happy Holidays !
That's very kind, thank you and same to you!
After more than a year(I think?) I still play this absolute masterpiece from time to time. This game's replayability is only matched by top-tier roguelike games. Please never abandon this game's development!
Thanks for the kind words and continued interest! It's still being actively worked on. I didn't expect people to replay the demo much honestly, but I'm very happy to hear that. I'll have a new progress report showing off some new things to play with hopefully in a month or so.
An absolute blast to play and a visual gem of a game! I adore (and have fallen in love with retrofuturistic/cassette cyberpunk aesthetics because of this project) the visual style of this game because of how seamless it is with 2D to give the impression of 3D (how this game is only sprites is beyond me, speaking of which, if you don't mind, what programs did you use for the art?). Also, Val's a cool character, but I gotta wonder if there's more to her than "killing is cool"! One thing I would certainly love to see in future progress logs (or maybe even as a standalone DLC when this project comes to Steam) are an artbook detailing the design process of the game, and maybe separately we could get a lore sheet to somewhat connect the dots and find out what the intel doesn't tell us about the world. I would really appreciate this too because I somewhat wanted to start work on a worldbuilding project involving mechs (called Powergears, taking inspiration from naming conventions), and I am one of those people who are really into the lore and world history of games.
Some possible suggestions? (although they may not be the greatest ideas ever) Perhaps a cluster bomb or even a short-delay sticky grenade would be pretty neat. I do believe the former is possible since you would just tweak the smoke grenade to make a cluster bomb (possibly as a tertiary weapon? it would just be a single bomb that detonates into smaller explosions really), and the latter could be a nice finesse like the spider remote bomb. I think thermobaric weapons would be a neat addition (yet more anti-structure, but maybe also for organic enemies since they suck nearby oxygen?) Speaking of which: enemy infantry carrying MANPATs or even recoilless anti-tank rifles could be a decent challenge since they are somewhat difficult to hit and maybe they would come in transport helicopters/APCs. Perhaps to also deal with the difficulty of distinguishing the player and enemies with muted environments would be tiny accents on the vehicles. I believe it could also make sense with the different allegiances and affiliations too since we do see a lot of that distinguishing in warfare with friend-foe-identifiers. I would also add that with thermal smoke, enemies would probably keep shooting even if you aren't visible since it doesn't stop incoming projectiles, but breaking their line of sight is absolutely still invaluable.
Also, I did some reading and on the topic of a Discord server, while it may be a time-consuming task to moderate, maybe you would be able to take community moderators? I know having a few people across different time zones could really help with that. Of course, no pressure to create a server if you don't want to make one!
Anyway, I absolutely love this project, and I will keep tabs with great interest! I've already told a couple friends about this and decided to write this post after getting an S on every mission (took about 2 hours looking at the battle data, and maybe that just says something about me being bad at games). Keep up the great work, and I hope this game finds success! From this guy anyway: you're getting a supporter for life.
Thank you for playing and the feedback!
It's mostly MagicaVoxel for all of the buildings and vehicles in the levels, along with Paint.net for drawing the rest of the art.
There is, but it's difficult for me to show that with just the combat in the game right now. I wrote a bunch of different dialogue and interactions with other characters, but it's been difficult for me to get it into the game since creating cutscenes takes a long time. I also have yet to implement the rest of the actual story in the game so it'll all line up and makes sense. I really do want there to be more of a story and character element to the game on top of more ways to show the visuals and world, but it's been a major challenge to tackle honestly.
This would be really cool to see. I'd love to show some of the design process and evolution of some of the units in the game, but it'll be some time before I can make such a book.
I've considered having a grenade that splits into a small field of a dozen or so mines since people have complained that the current secondary weapon mines in the game are somewhat underwhelming. Right now I've been experimenting with air strike grenades which mark an area with smoke and have a bunch of missiles bombard it, so that probably would make cluster bombs obsolete. It's worth a shot experimenting with though, maybe it'll actually be interesting like the EMP grenades.
This has been suggested for a while now, but I've found that humans at the scale of the game would be roughly 3-5 pixels in size, which makes them almost impossible to see. It just doesn't work for the game's scale I'm afraid, sorry.
I agree, and I intend to rework the smoke completely so they don't just freeze up no matter what. It's way too OP right now.
Thank you kindly, and nice job S-ranking every mission! It's very impressive, especially considering how difficult Mission 7 is to avoid damage currently. I'm glad to hear it's doable though.
Absolutely, no problem and thank you for your dedication and hard work! I'm pretty grateful for a response on a possible art/lore book even if it is a significant future undertaking, and I will say that airstrike signal grenades sound way cooler than cluster bombs (although I'd love to see both, especially given currency I can assume will allow us direct upgrades as long as entirely new weapons). Also I feel a little better about how long it took to S-rank Mission 7 (speaking of which, reminds me of Metal Gear Solid) haha. Regardless though, keep up the good work! For the meantime, I'll watch this project closely, this one's definitely gonna be part of my aesthetics study.
Hey man, me again...uh....I have only one question that are you planned to make more than one Pilots?
I would like there to be a second pilot protagonist, one who you switch between or speak to every few missions or so.
man i can't wait to see the armor design you'll give him. i can't wait to see how he will interact with the current pilot. is there more info about the characters that you'd like to share? concepts and themes you'd like to explore. i am just as interested in the story beats as the gameplay and designs. thank you for your time and have a good day :D
Nothing I can really share at the moment, but I'll certainly show more of it when I can!
can there be a really cool guy (or even a girl that the protag gets attached to) who's very strong that betrays you later in the story and has a crazy story arc for a comeback in the final boss? (may or may not be mandatory)
A game that's this light yet feel rewarding is quite rare of itself, even more in 2025 where there's so much AAA games that's bland. I'd say that the game is quite optimized (i'm not sure how much optimized it is with my own rig),honestly i'm surprised that there's a lot of gun that i can choose from. That Glorious A-10's GAU 8A 30mm knockoff is shredding everything like butter with it's blazing fast fire rate (Although you'll find it'll drain ammo faster than anything else), the enemy posed no threat as long you're moving in the right dimension.
The enemy LOSAT carrier does spook me a few times with it's amount of damage it can deal, imagine you're focusing on a halo when suddenly it ambushed you. However from the gameplay wise, you're not really punished standing still in the game for a couple seconds. Which makes the stacked munition launcher (Practically the Metal Storm no?) is hilariously easy to clear the game, was thinking about how a certain mechanic like enemy artillery can hit you (With at least 3 layers of armor, but then, up to the dev) so you're forced to constantly move on a certain mission
With how the powerplant and armor kit absent and the dev are considering to remove this mechanic, i do have suggestion on filling the role. Albeit not very specific
Powerplant
- Overdrive! i am pretty sure you'll spam that sprint button the moment you see you're surrounded or even saw some far-off enemy, but have you ever thought that you wanted your cruiser to be "I wanted to tradeoff Overdrive for faster cruise speed so i can dodge the enemy" or, if a certain mission reward you with better coolant so you can overdrive far longer than what you're used to?
-Cruise speed, it's your main speed whenever you didn't overdrive it. I really think that it should be a focus on certain mission especially in the solid open field so you can avoid halo and LOSAT launcher that's definitely will see an increase of it's usage (Or is it?)
- Acceleration, of course the acceleration helped the mecha to get into your cruise and overdrive speed. but do think about it, what if there's an option to actually see a use of low cruise speed and high acceleration like swamp?
- With how weight worked, i do expect that the heavier you are on a certain terrain. You'll get either a buff or a nerf, let's take a look at the cruiser's legs. You see, something weird happened if you put a stick on a sand with that much weight on a cruiser. You get stuck easily and mud can slow you down, and or. heavier powerplant can take down a building more easily because of how much mass you slam on a building.
But how about Armor Kit? it seems like it can be used on the cruiser in a different way, if it shrug smaller arm and still receiving no damage that would be boring.
- Angled armor
Basically used to focus on deflection, however i see no stats on enemies that suggest if it have certain penetration rather than certain damage dealt, could this mean that the bullet itself have fixed stats in the future? we'll see it in the future
- Armor w/ CRAM
CRAM is practically used when every defense (In this case, your 20mm Minigun) failed to intercept a missile if you're surrounded or this could be your only defense to missile especially LOSAT, plenty of ammo and decent fire rate but lower than average accuracy seems to be viable
- Armor w/ APS
Lovely APS have been used for atleast a few decades to hard kill anything big and fast (Such as missiles), they can react fast but it should only cover a fair bit of angle and limited ammo because you can only carry so much APS even with the Cruiser. LOSAT doesn't have to be nerfed though, it's practically APFSDS disguised as missile. Still perfectly balanced so you can be surprised sometimes, although i see no reason (yet) to actually consider light or heavy armor since it will require another tweak
But even as i'm writing this, all of this is merely a suggestion and i could be wrong on a certain part as i'm not really an expert to this kind of technical jargon
lastly, the art feels quite neat i can stare it all day and still not bored of it. I admit that i'm not really good with spotting art but i can see how much hours did you put into the game you really loved with, thanks for getting us some good stuff for our time to play. Now if you'll excuse me from this holy long text that feels like even my own eyes sort of suffered a bit, i'll see this page on a bit
Thanks for playing and the feedback! The stacked munitions launcher is definitely quite OP at the moment, I'll likely lower the damage or fire rate a bit since it's way too easy to take out enemies from afar with it; it's basically like wall hacking. Enemy artillery units are also planned, I'm already working on a system for certain enemies to call in air strikes when they see the player.
I appreciate your ideas for the powerplant system. It's an interesting way of implementing it though I think it might be a bit difficult to balance the changes to speed due to how fast the enemy's bullets are currently set up so you can dodge incoming fire. I do think different armor types will make it in with basic effects like health regeneration, and a random chance for bullets to ricochet without counting as a hit. If you check out my latest progress report you'll see I've been working on an APS system for the player to stop incoming missiles and mortar rounds; I didn't think to bundle it with the armor kits before but now that you mention it it might be a good idea.
Thanks again for the ideas and feedback! I'll keep them in mind.
Glad that you're getting some insight on my suggestion, dev!
The idea of the top 2D perspective of a mecha reminded me of the same mech genre but quite different on it's own style, i'm not not really promoting any game except there's a game called "Mech Engineer". You might can take some reference from it since there's an artillery mechanics and more, it's also an indie game that's created by only one person too (!). There's too much mechanics there
or this comment can be a long ride from top to bottom trying to explain them, but my only hope is quite straight; That this game can improve so much more, and there's lot of room there alreadyIn the meantime i've been reading through your progress report and honestly quite surprised that this game have existed for a while, i'm quite upset with myself that i can't try the game way more earlier. And looking at your own struggle with the pathfinding is quite amusing (Even though i'm not a developer, yet), however you might need to check the latest progress report (pathfinding) since some picture from A* pathfinding onward is well...simply gone (Firefox and opera is alright, but not on chrome, i think either the site or the hosting hated the pic or gif?). But aside from that, the APS looked quite solid. The progress log you've mentioned also have a quite promising overall
However there's something quite strange with the enemy that moves very fast at a desert terrain, i can't quite put it. a Hover-like tank or is it BTR equivalent of enemy. Maybe a hybrid from both? for something as agile as that and tanked around 100 rounds of a vulcan with depleted uranium round and still not guarantee a kill is quite...something. With the same weapon, i can kill a tank with around 30 rounds of vulcan's depleted uranium. It might be quite a task to balance things not to be fragile while at the same time, not too spongy that absorb numerous of bullets (or shells). However for now i'll take these enemies as challenge on how not to deplete my ammo mid-fight
Keep it up dev, you don't have to promise everything. But your delivery on what we could have in the future assured us that it could be better in the future. Cheers!
TLDR: game's good, needs afew tweaks here 'n there but overall is a good game.
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really fun game so far, needs afew fixes here 'n there but overall just some good bones for the game. funnily enough, the thing that hooked us for this game was the audio settings menu 'n the fact it had real-time visualizers to show you how loud or quiet that particular channel was. (and just the settings in general displaying what they're affecting, rather than just text giving you a vague idea of what it is changing)
it does have afew issues though, mostly with visual clarity/eyestrain problems with the player mech, mostly in more grey/beige environments (i.e. the first mission) since the colors blend together so well it becomes hard to distinguish where you are when you're stood still.
same with weapons being way too strong or way too weak for what you need them for. (though the progress report does show that's being fixed so this is really only a problem with the current version) but the grenades seem to be fitting into their own niche, though the incendiary, from our experiences, tends to out-perform the H.E. grenade more oft than naught.
the side-weapons are an interesting case, the landmine tends not to be useful since enemies just tend to.... not go over them, or otherwise miss them (somehow) making them more of a detriment to you if an enemy launches an explosive at you or hit a wall with an explosive that had the mine near it, especially if you'd only just placed the mine. the missiles tend to be fairly useful, though the rapid-fire ones are hit or miss with their usefulness.
the lil' bomb drone (my beloved), however, is basically always useful cuz holy shit that explosion radius 'n damage is nuts, to the point where its' limited range/fuse time hardly affects it 'n it just overshadows the other options, as we found ourselves using it just cuz it got all the jobs we wanted the missiles to do done way faster and with far more consistency and with far more safty.
music is currently only for the menu, bay, and mission select screen so missions tend to be very silent. which tends to make the places you fight feel very "dead" for lack of a better term, which if it's intentional then it sets the mood really well 'n adds a sense of tension. but if not then it makes things feel far too empty despite the fact that you've turned half a city block into swiss cheese via a minigun, attempting to kill some fodder and a heli at the same time.
the melee, though, in our experience, tends to go unused alot since getting close to enemies is really not good when they can just shred you to shit at close range with, y'know, their bullets. outside of maybe the worms/grubs since it seems to one-shot them but that's a gamble due to the fact they come in hordes. hopefully it finds a place in the kit in the future.
those issue aside, the game's got some really good bones for the gameplay, 'n the audio design's also really good, weapons 'n such all are very punchy or otherwise have a satisfying sound when in use (caseless explosive launcher specifically for us) and what music is there is really good too.
all 'n all it's just a really good game, minor issues here 'n there but that's to be expected. 'n we had a relatively fun time playing through what's available currently. damn good job so far, keep up the good work mate.
(apologies if this sounded overly negative, that was far from our intentions with this.)
Thank you for the detailed feedback and playing through the demo!
I'm glad you like that aspect of it. I want everything to be as visually interesting as possible, even if it's just something like a settings menu.
This has been a pretty common complaint from players. I'm still trying to find a way to have more varied/colorful environments where enemies and the player stand out while retaining the overall muted desert aesthetic. It's a difficult thing to balance, but hopefully I'll have it sorted out.
At the moment while all weapons are unlocked, the plan is to have different arms dealer characters who you purchase them from; plus different types of missions where excessive collateral damage will actually be punished so as to incentivize using less destructive weapons sometimes. I think the very standard H.E. grenade will be a lot more useful in those types of levels.
Eventually stages will have music added in. I know right now things can feel pretty quiet/dead even with the slight stage ambience in the background. I've just been struggling with trying to figure out what the gameplay tracks should actually sound like, honestly. I'm still looking for a composer since I don't think I'll be able to compose the combat tracks myself.
Different melee options are still planned. Some have suggested a charge/shield function with it too, and I think the plasma slash will just serve as the basic level 1 attack.
Thank you! I really appreciate it.
Not at all, no worries. This kind of feedback and criticism is invaluable to me, thanks again!
Dropping in to say that this is such a passion project!
Game got recommended to me by a friend and saw them play it one time during game night!
Definitely hyping this to my circle!
Thank you for playing and sharing the word! Really appreciate it.
i keep getting this error
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FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: shd_outline_old
D3DXCompile failed - result
at gml_Object_o_player_Draw_0
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stack frame is
gml_Object_o_player_Draw_0 (line -1)
Please download and run the DirectX patch from the Microsoft website, it's in the description above.
thanks
Gonna download the newest update, absolutely loving it so far! I am glad I paid for it, I might do it again next major update. I am really loving the art, and especially the vehicle, but one big thing is the pilot armor and helmet, its really awesome to see! I assume you based the helmet off something like the HGU-56? I own one and I have been super tempted to 3d scan it so I can print the shell of it and then make something like a VR visor for it like how it appears ingame. Cant forget the clamshell armor which makes me think of Hammers Slammers. Good shit man!
Thanks so much for the support and kind words!
I think you could say it's vaguely based on it, but honestly there wasn't any direct inspiration from any real life helmets. The VR visor as well was sort of improvised. Here's two shots of the somewhat crude model:
Good luck with your 3D print!
Thank you!!
hi, can i ask what program did you use to model and what's your work flow? this is really similar to the style i want to model in so i wanted to ask. (gorgeous helmet design by the way)
Hello. It's just Blender with some inverted hull shading for the outlines. I draw my textures directly with the built-in texture painter tool. Nothing really fancy in terms of workflow, just low poly modeling with flat UV projection.
Guess who’s back... back again.
It’s me, I’m back.
If you don’t exactly remember who I am, I’m the person who complained about enemy visibility when in motion or something similar, I don't know man...
I’ve been silently watching this game's progress over the past few months on Bluesky and the like. Things seem to be going smoothly.
A couple of months back, I played the updated demo and DAMN! This shit is fire! The art style of this game REALLY grew on me, I’ve had a void for clunky, yet still “advanced” technology in media ever since I watched Cowboy Bebop for the 86,438th time. I really want to mention Signalis here, but that’s more tech stagnation, if anything.
Moving on to the efforts of my LAST comment, either my eyes improved or something changed with the game so I could actually see the enemies before they started slinging sabot rounds at me; both are positives.
If there are ever 3d models of most of the in-game vehicles/enemies (especially that dropship thing that drops you off on some of the levels), I would be more than happy to shittily recreate them in something like Stormworks or Plane Crazy. Seriously, they are WAY too cool not to replicate, and with the game being top-down-ish, it’s hard to get a good POV to work with.
I really liked fighting the MBTs ingame (K41A1, if I’m not mistaken), and it would be nice to see some more enemies like them later on down the line.
Cough cough space BTR-82, anyone? cough cough...
Uhhh... yeah, that’s probably it lol, once again hope to see more content from this project. Probably even more than last time, seeing as the other indie game I liked almost religiously got violently carpet bombed by both the community and the devs.
pls buff smartgun
Thank you for playing again!
The design work and the overall aesthetic of the vehicles has been very important to me. Even though they're not too visible due to the general size and angle of the view, I spend a lot of time trying to make them look as unique and interesting as possible since I think there's no reason they shouldn't be.
I've increased the shadow hardness of enemies and added more indicators along with adding more color contrast in levels, so that's probably the reason they're more noticeable now.
There will be dedicated intel pages for every design, and I intend to show some closeups and other angles in cutscenes when possible. It's early, but I am considering the possibility of making an artbook eventually showing them off in even greater detail.
Since smooth steering behavior has now been implemented, I plan to have more conventional ground vehicles show up too.
Appreciate the kind words! That's a shame to hear, what's the other indie game?
Coming in the next build! I actually just tweaked it a few days ago.
Well art directed, well performed, and it is fun too 10/10 I really look forward to this one :3
Glad you liked it!
This game is amazing by all means. Love the art and aesthetics + the menu grabbed my sight really well. How did you make this game? You have a developer diary for this?
Thank you for the demo <3
Thank you for playing!
I'm going to put up more progress posts here chronicling development in the future.
<3
This reminds me of a mech from 86, real fun
I think you're thinking of the dinosauria, I can see the resemblance
This is genuinely so beautiful and an absolute blast to play, will there be different paintjobs for your mech in the final game or other mech variations? That'd be cool, a 3 player co-op situation would be nice too but that's probably asking for too much. Sweet game overall
Thanks for playing! I'm not too sure yet on adding custom paint schemes, but a co-op mode might be possible in the future. The tricky part will be camera control since it's tied to the mouse, but I guess it could be done via split screen.
That's amazing to hear, thank you for your work and this game. Truly hope it comes out beautifully
We want more and we want it now!!! Dopamin release!
Full-fill your obligation!
That being said, how is it coming along? :)
I wish I could put more out faster, but there's only so much I can do I'm afraid.
Slowly but steadily. I'll probably have another progress post up before the end of the year, if all goes well.
Tank you for your tireless work!
Will you be able to buy the full game here? Cool game! I don't do steam.
For sure. There will be both a full Steam and Itch release.
Cool thanks for the reply
Thanks for the support!
honest question: why dont you do steam
Do you mean put the demo on Steam? I intend to eventually, once I replace the second mission and implement a few other features such as gamepad control.
I dislike the fact that my purchases are controlled by a third party (example Steam) and that I do not own my purchases... that in fact it is only rental or long term lease. Plus I don't like being spied upon by steam or anyone else for that matter. My private time is my private time and no one else gets a say in how I choose to use it.
The dev can can at anytime decide that they do not want to continue to allow you access and pull the plug.
This has been proved by the Karens at "collective shout", they decided you can't play whatever game, for whatever reason, then informs the Credit card companies and steam has no choice but to pull the plug. That's why I prefer to use Gog, itch.io or any other non steam seller.
I own the game can install and play without big brother.
I only use steam if I really have to say there is something I want to try that is steam exclusive.. It's very rare.
ps: Love the game it's a blast
Was such an awesome game! Felt great to play and all the details were excellent. Can really see it building into a great project.
Thanks for playing!
Great game bro!!!
Appreciate it!
Proposal for electronic warfare systems: Make two different types, offensive and defensive. The offensive action works in a cone in the direction of the turret and not only disrupts the missile guidance (missiles after launch are deflected to the side if they are in the cone of action), but also increases the enemy’s guidance time, and also reduces its range towards you. Defensive electronic warfare does not allow a unit to be locked with guided weapons, it acts 360 degrees and slightly reduces the accuracy of opponents (here you can think about the levels of improvement, both the strength of the effect and, for example, the cone angle of the offensive one).
Interesting idea. Currently I plan on being able to choose between an APS which acts as a shield or an ECM which will deflect missiles and stop enemies from locking on, but the concept of it changing their accuracy is an interesting one which I'll keep in mind!
Hi man, it's me, I was thinking how about...what if you added things like...varied terrain into a level? i mean, would it add variety to the gameplay?(yeah...I know I was comment too much, but....I think....uh...I don't know...I think I'm bothering you by commenting too much...just hope you don't think I'm a bother, your game is great, keep it up! over.)
It's a cool idea, but it probably doesn't fit with the style of the game. Plus a lot would need to be revised in order for that to actually be possible, and I don't think it'd be worth it.
Thank you for seeing my idea, friends, I was read the info about the game, you said "Landsword is a top-down mecha shooter with a heavy emphasis on destruction and gameplay that combines elements from classic shoot em' ups with contemporary action-stealth games." so....So where does this "stealth" fit into the gameplay? if... it were existed, are you planning about some kind of mission like night mission? or...smt like that?
Eventually. At the moment the stealth element is mostly avoiding enemies and thinking strategically when you're out of ammo, but I plan to have some more stealth emphasizing missions implemented later on.
Hmm, I think everything needs time to be fully developed, but I'll always be waiting for the next update that way, I'll have more things to analyze and give feedback on. Keep it up my friend.
Hello,
really excited to read the progress report after all this time, seems you’ve been hard at work!
One thing I was wondering: will there be a map for Level 7? Or maybe at least something indicating the general direction of the exit, maybe like the enemy arrows around the cursor, but maybe a different colour. Dragging the container back to the lift honestly took longer than fighting to the container in the first place as I was confused multiple times as to where I was, and at least a small indicator would be nice.
I can totally understand if that’s not something your going for, maybe it was also just a me problem.
Hello. Thanks for checking in on it!
I don't think it's necessary, honestly. The map isn't too big and the path is always the same. You just have to retrace your steps back to the elevator, nothing more.
hello! game is even lovelier than when i played it last year. will you be making a Discord server anytime soon, would love to discuss with other fans
btw any plans to add more volley weapons (like the stacked munitions launcher)? i like avoiding property damage haha
No Discord is planned AFAIK since it would add a community management hassle (big concentration of unvetted users).
Thanks for playing it again!
At the moment I don't really plan to open a Discord server since I'd have to spend time moderating it, plus I just feel there isn't enough content in the game right now to warrant it. Eventually I'll probably put one up though.
Possibly! They'll mostly be secondary weapons rather than primary ones I think.
for some reason i have started to like skimmer/hover mechs more then actual bipedal mechs and me liking this game does not help with that
Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
i will take it as a good thing
I KNOW! I have an idea on how to fix homing missles! Introducting HAD(Homing Arc Directed) Missles! They go up in the air, and then fall onto the closest enemy, being able to target fying guys and ignore buildings! Though for this great power there is a price to pay, that is small clip size. (make them do a good damage pls pls pls)
Hope you like this idea, have fun developing further and see you soon *mwah*!
Top-attack missiles which fly over buildings will be added eventually. I think for now I'll try and just add a line of sight to the homing missiles so they only start turning if they can actually see the enemy. I also increased their damage so they can kill Mantises in one shot.
Thank you!
Basically one step away from the artillery weapon I suggested a year ago lol
But in all seriousness, top-attack missiles would be lovely. My grenades always run out so fast since I love to use them to bombard enemies from a distance.
I think there will be an automatic grenade launcher as a secondary weapon eventually, something like that might be nice.
I finally managed to beat the Demo and wanted to give more feedback than in my first comment...
All weapons feel cool and flashy although some (coughRailguncough) feel stronger than other. Also the balance between stealth and action is often perfect! The variety of enemys is for a Demo great but maybe more "fleshy" ones coud help make other weapons better. (Although I can understand that in such sizes fleshy enemys are hard to introduce. Maybe something "Elemental" like?)The levels feel like a good introduction to the game with different terrains and objectives.I also like your unique mech design.
In my eyes this is already a great game with even greater potential. Maybe we will even get more mechs than the assault crawler? 11/10
Thanks for playing and beating the demo!
More enemy variety is being worked on, expect additional fleshy targets to show up later on. Also I know some of the weapons right now are quite overpowered, but I intend to have a shop system in the game so you buy them as the game progresses rather than have everything available at the start.
Cheers! We'll see what happens.
hello mezz, its me, Himothy Prime, back here again for this peak mech game. ngl i feel like thsi would be able to rival mainstream games like armored core and such if done right. i cant wait for the next update, since the game is lacking some useful content. also if you need any help with concept art, i will be more than happy to help you (and your team if you have one). just reply to me with what you need done.
all n all, still
HIMOTHY APPROVED
Hello. Thank you for the kind words and offer for help, it's very much appreciated.
Okay so me in my −∞ wisdom forgot that itch only allows for 1 time donations so uhh...you got a direct donation option like patreon or ko-fi or anything like that? Speaking of which i can also just log out.
I don't have a Patreon nor Ko-fi, but I may consider setting one up in the future.
I believe you can donate a second time, there's been at least one person who has donated twice with the same e-mail.
Okay nevermind the lower download button does allow me to donate again lol. Nice
PS: Hope this help, have fun making the game and good luck with your financials!
Thank you so much!
Looks cool. Will it be a Steam-only release, or is the intent to also have a drm-free version available here and/or gog.com?
Yeah, the finished game will be released both on Steam and here on Itch.io without the DRM.
Awesome! Thanks :).
MORE ART!! MORE ART!!
1-okay so, even more Val art and it is really done, i my opinion you caught the mid 2000s feel with her (i love that we can see this casual design in the hangar section of the game). can we get art of her pilot suit too? (please). also for a suggestion for reference making, maybe you can use 3d kitbashing? i download a bunch of models and bash them together to "sketch" mechs, the process doesn't usually take that long either, i can send you some of the stuff i made but i don't know how. also, can we learn more about the characters? we know Val is rather... unhinged but what else? what does their partner like and look like (i always imagined them as a lanky guy for some reason)? are there any other characters that have interesting concepts aspects behind them? i'd understand if you wouldn't answer these questions since it is still in early in development and i'd understand if you don't want to spoil anything. i just can't help but ask because the world of this game is the most exciting thing for me in the game. thank you again for working on this game and taking your vision into reality, keep up the good work and best of wishes for you!! (also, i may have caused one of my friends to make a 3d model of val by accident)(edit2: WHO THE HELL İS DİRTY JOHNNY??)
Absolutely. There will be multiple pages to flip through in the intel log. I think the suit design needs some tweaking before I make illustrations of it though. I'm not happy with the legs and the vest design, I think those parts of it could be a lot better.
It's not really my style to do that, I prefer to just make models from scratch. I appreciate the idea though.
At the moment, I mostly have stuff in writing, and the 2D artwork I've made isn't finalized enough to share yet. I will certainly be showing more art when it's ready though. You're not too far off regarding her partner by the way.
Really appreciate it, thank you!
Is that so?
That's just a callsign of that particular mech, but it's also this.
umm...about the...suit design, as a digital artist also a traditional artist on Deviant art...if you don't mind I can help you about the design...
I am still quite interested about the lore behind this, It might be better if there would be voice acting but anything works best!! Very good game, Still holding up hopes for this!
Thank you! Voice acting would definitely be nice, but at the moment it's not really a priority; expect characters to talk with beeps or grunts. The lore/story is admittedly still not fully concrete, so I can't share too much yet.
Just wanted to bring to your attention that, as a UK user, I am unable to see any of the images on this page anymore. Imgur recently started blocking all UK users (thanks, Online Safety Act =~=)
Really sorry to hear that. Do you know of any other image hosting websites that aren't blocked in the UK? I don't think Google Drive allows direct linking on pages.
maybe you could insert the images directly? like in html
Itch has a size limit and the images don't seem to embed correctly for some reason.
Sorry, I'm not a super technical person so no. I don't know how to fix the problem, just that it's there •~•
I've just changed to a different file hosting website. Are you able to see the images now?
I've just changed to a different file hosting website. Are you able to see the images now?
They're visible again, thanks so much!
I just finished playing for the first time and I gotta say this has to be one of the games with the most potential I've played in recent memory. I can feel the soul in it and I gotta say it's got it's hold on me now.
The lack of progression and very fast pace of the levels keeps me wanting more, I can't wait for the side missions,the shop, more lore, and more characters in this terraformed red planet.
Don't give up on this project, you're on the road to making something amazing!
Appreciate the kind words a lot, thank you!
I'm working hard on it, I'll be putting up a progress report soon!
Such a nice game. Played to the third Level (where it absolutely destroyed me). The variety of Weapons is already amazing (loved especial the mines). Can't wait for more!!! (And the levels after the third when I got better :))
Thank you for playing! More to come.
is there any way to contact you privately?
Hello. You can contact me on Twitter, @sysmainframe
Hello, i just had an idea! What if you could break inside an enemy mech, kill all crew, and take control and\or parts to fix your own mech?
Fun idea, maybe there'd be some kind of grenade that takes control of enemies and pits them against each other. Killing enemies for more health is planned, it might be a type of armor kit.
Great game, I feel that the missiles should get a buff like being able to kill helicopters in one or two shots, more health, and there is a bug where the railgun will not shoot even though it took ammo. Also an anti tank grenade could make grenades better in more missions, and being able to use the other mech bodies would be cool, changing speed or just cosmetic or whatever. Good game however and I wish you luck in making it, I will be coming back to this game.
Thanks for playing!
I agree.
There will be HP upgrades in the future.
I'm unaware of what causes this glitch, can you please tell me a bit more about how it happens?
Thanks again!
When playing the last mission I was using the rail gun and a couple of times it would take ammo and not shoot, other times it did shoot but a very short range and not close to the enemy, it would do this even though I had it on a quarter charge minimum, but I might have had it less and too little to shoot.
Possibly. If you don't hold the charge long enough, it'll just spit out a cartridge on the ground. I'll look into it further though.
I did do a little testing and I'm pretty sure I didn't hold the charge long enough but there was one time where it did shoot but abruptly ended in melee range
I beg you add 1 huge mountable gun on top of the crawlers chassis, like the juggernauts from the anime/manga 86. I would balance it to have a mag of 3-5 rounds, apfsds if possible that can be fired quickly doing around the same damage as the rail gun only without the penetration through buildings/enemy's.
Your game holds a really special place in my heart I wish you the best of luck in coding it.
I don't think it will really work for the gameplay loop and weapon system in the game, but I could definitely see an enemy or two with that 86 esque railgun configuration. We'll see what happens.
That means a lot, thank you kindly!
Hi, there will be mech customization?
R u going to add soft and hard kill protection?
And can u add E.R.A.to the mech?
Thanks!
Hello. By mech customization, do you mean paint schemes and other parts?
This is actually what I've been working on right now, particularly hard-kill APS as an upgradeable shield. I think instead of soft-kill APS you'll be able to choose an ECM jammer in place of it that will behave a bit differently.
Eventually. It might show up as just more armor layers that unlock.
Hi, how r ya?
And yeah: Paint schemes, different parts, things like that...
Are there plans for the equipment you equip to affect the appearance of your mech in the future? Either way, I am looking forward to seeing your project progress :3
In the future, for now I'm keeping the player sprite mostly the same since I'm still tweaking details on it every once in a while.
Thanks!
when will be the next update???? ahh i cant wait moree
Sorry, I can't give any ETA at the moment. I know the updates are quite infrequent and the page is pretty quiet right now, but please rest assured the game is being worked on.
Hi, how r ya? i just wanted to say: Keep the good work!
Hey, thanks!