I began this game as an entry in the Learning Together Game Jam and finished it in about a week. I decided to improve, enhance, and expand it and I wanted to post what I have so far here. I’d like to release it commercially, but I want to make sure it’s a great game before I do that. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. 🙂

Game jam version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/d45ou8x55oihc3d/SSVentus.exe?dl=0

Current version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xi3kn4aw5auz534/SS_Ventus.exe?dl=1

Right now it’s working and playable to the end, but I have more improvements to make. I’d call it an early Alpha version. I’ll post updates as I make progress. Toward the end of this post I’ll write out the planned improvements.

Game details (what I have so far):  

Story:

Your home planet is at war and things are not going well. You’re an amazing engineer, but a shortage of fighter pilots is forcing you out into the battlefield. And all they can give you is a scout ship – the SS Ventus.

You: “A scout ship?! Not even a proper fighter?!”

Commander: “Yeah… well, we’ve upgraded it. It now has basic weapons and shields.”

You: “You say that like it’s a good thing!”

Commander: “Oh, come on, you’re an engineer. You can make upgrades.”

You: “With what material?!”

Commander: “Good luck! Command out…”

You: “…?!”

You: “…”

You: “Hmmm… upgrades…”

Gameplay / Features:

Instead of just blowing up enemy ships, you fly around and disable them. Then you can board the enemy ship which has a procedurally generated interior. Defeating enemies within the other ships gives you weapon components you can use to upgrade your weapons. You can choose one of 4 weapons from the locker on the SS Ventus. On the enemy ships, you’ll also find ship components you can use to upgrade your ship. You can return to your ship at any time through the menu. When you’ve upgraded at least one of your weapons and fully upgraded the ship, you’ll gain access to the final enemy warship.

Estimated play time: About 30 minutes

Screenshots:

titlescreen shipinterior spacebattlealt spacebattle insideenemyship

Game Guide:

Here are a few tips to keep in mind while playing the game:

  • Standard controls: “Esc” or “x” to open the menu or cancel. “Enter” or “z” to confirm or interact with stuff.
  • You can use the mouse too: Left click for confirm / interact with stuff. Right click to cancel / access menu.
  • When you’re in space or on an enemy ship, you can get back to your ship by opening the menu and selecting “Return to Ship” or “Enter Ship”.

gameguide_ventus_interior

  1. Save Point. (It’s always wise to save often)
  2. Pilot controls. This control panel brings you to the space view where you can fight other ships
  3. Ship Upgrades. From here you can restore your ship’s hit points at no cost. (Best to do this after every battle with another ship.) From here you can also upgrade your ship’s weapons and shields. There are 4 enemy ship difficulties:enemyshipsizes
  4. Transporter. After disabling a ship, you can transport over to it from here.
  5. Heal point. If you rest in the bed, your hit points will be completely restored. It’s recommended to do this after fighting the aliens on board enemy ships.
  6. Weapons upgrade. From here you can use weapon components to upgrade your weapons. There are also 4 difficulties for the aliens:
    enemylevels
    Level 1 weapon can beat level 1 alien, but probably not level 2. Level 5 weapon will take out level 1 alien with one hit.
  7. Weapons Locker. Here you can choose which weapon to use when fighting the aliens.

Credits:
Game design / Story / Ship sprites / Enemy ship battlers / etc.:
Quantum Phase Tech (eslabon)
Plugins:
SumRndmDde
http://sumrndm.site/
Yanfly
http://yanfly.moe/
Sanshiro
http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/51808-map-generator/
[Map Generator]
Music:
Cinematic Soundtrack Music Pack
[Copyright](C) 2013 Joel Steudler
RPG Maker 3 Music Pack
http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/a/music/rpg-maker-3-music-pack
Tileset:
Futuristic Tiles
[Copyright](C) 2012 ENTERBRAIN, INC; artist Celianna
Character Generator Pieces:
hiddenone, Kadokawa, & Avery
http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/47255-hiddenones-mv-resource-warehouse/

Planned updates:

  • Title Screen
    • Create custom title screen background
    • Customize title text a bit
  • Game over screen
    • Replace current game over music
    • Change background graphic
  • Story
    • I want to focus more on gameplay, so the story will still be simple, but I want to expand it a little.
    • Add to the story (Not quite sure on the details)
    • Add cutscenes to the beginning and end instead of text
  • Presentation
    • Add ship HP HUD during space battles
    • Add player HUD during alien battles
    • Add both HUDs while on board Ventus
  • Gameplay / Mechanics
    • I’ve already updated the space battles with Quasi ABS, but it’s not very balanced yet. I need to go in and work on the balance
    • Add Quasi ABS to the alien battles
    • Add more weapon options (handheld as well as ship)
    • Maybe have a simple crafting system for making weapons using certain components. Also could break down weapons to get their individual components
    • Have the weapon upgrade screen be more like a shop screen
    • Add additional events to alien ships like random animals as an extra challenge, control panels that can be dismantled for parts, and stairs leading to upper or lower decks. (That last one might be tough to implement…)
    • Add a simple achievement system
    • This would be super awesome, but I don’t know if I could get it working: Allow the player to take over an enemy vessel and fly it around instead of the Ventus.

Known bugs:

  • When firing on alien ships, an additional explosion animation occurs in the upper left hand corner of the screen.
  • Able to shoot and hit transparent events in the upper left portion of the space map.