Flight of the Athena News

The campaign map is going through upgrades currently – background map graphics are being improved, as is visual clarity of which path or paths the player can choose to take on. The navigation panel will also be upgraded to more clearly highlight actions in the current territory, and territory info for the target territory.





The secondary weapon shop items are now implemented, allowing purchases of the 360º top mounted turrets. Players will have to consider purchases based on availability, play style, and whether they can afford it!





The Early Access release is getting closer (date tbc). Once there, the current state of the game and progression to the full 1.0 release will be shown and updated on the main title screen to keep players informed of the current release status.



That's all for now, till the next update!

On the (bargain) hunt

A mini-milestone has been reached with the working implementation of the primary weapons shop. There is still some graphical work to do to show the impact of the purchases, descriptions etc, but having this in place functionally means work can proceed on balancing economy within the main campaign, alongside finishing the secondary weapons and new craft shops also.





You ain't the Boss of me

One of the main appeals of creating a shmup with procGen elements was the ability to create fresh playthroughs each time, and build upon the content and world – this can and will involve new maps, enemy waves, mission types, but also new bosses which can all slot into the main campaign. To that end, I've started working out the Bosstiary mode. As the boss count goes up, I thought it would be useful to have a game mode where you can practice battling against the bosses available – as well as being a pretty useful tool during development! More on this to follow as the mode is built out.

Road to Release

Getting Flight of the Athena to a releasable state has and continues to be an adventure in itself, but it feels like plenty is moving in the right direction. The current plan is to take it to Steam Early Access with a chunk of the main campaign and the Bosstiary mode active, to gather valuable feedback whilst the remainder of development takes place. Any bugs / defects would be welcome, but actually it would also be at a stage where any awesome boss suggestions, enemy types etc would have a decent chance of getting worked in. I'll put out a date for this release when I have fair confidence of achieving it.

Tasks for the next couple of weeks: Next pass of wave/chunk creation, finish shop implementations, Bosstiary mode, test assets > final assets. (And probably a few critical tasks I've forgotten!)

Regional Specialities

Under the hood work in the campaign engine has enabled regional traits to be configured. For instance, the Arctic region currently has the negative traits "Battlefield Intel -" and "Flight Pathing -" influencing node visibility and potential flight routes respectively, but also the positive "Resource Abundance ++" which increases the chances of resource caches on the map. With a different mix of traits for the different region types, the player will need to work with the intel they have to choose the flight paths they think would be most advantageous.



We Are Legion

Work is ongoing on a new boss, callsign: Legion. Quite physically formidable, he will be able to split and rejoin parts of the ship, as well as being armed with a "proper" heavy laser you will not want to find your ship in the path of...



More heavy lifting on the path to Closed Beta / Early Access, but lots of progress. That's it for now, till the next update!

The procedural level generation engine is at the heart of the main shmup action, and bears a heavy burden – it needs to offer variety, progression and robustness. Apart from variety within the main created wave "chunks", work has gone into the "Special Events" system; these events will be rarer and interspersed within the standard chunks. Some will help, whilst others hinder – the repair ship special event has gone in to test the system, a couple more will be added to make sure they are slotting in ok with the other standard chunks (pirate raiders / 360º ambush are looking like the next candidates for creation!).





The first pass of ground structure work has also gone in, where the wave chunks are able to call to place turrets / buildings at free positions. Much more to do in this area, but the economy work currently takes precedence.





The graphics for the collectible currency have been overhauled, and they are also now actually collectible, which helps! The next step will be determining the drop rates, amounts etc, and is a very important one, as it will start to shape the campaign economy for purchasing ship and weapon upgrades as you progress through the Campaign.





That's the current state of play, looking forward to bringing further progress in the next update!

Developing Flight of the Athena has definitely been a much, much more challenging experience than anticipated. Graphics have taken longer, as have some code elements, but the biggest issue has been nailing down the game design core, and what the game is trying to be.

This is mainly due to being torn between wanting to create;
-An RPG Shmup, where the main campaign could be a lengthier experience, difficult enemies could be overcome through upgrading equipment, craft etc.
-A Rogue shmup, aiming for a shorter more replayable campaign experience.

When researching other games in the Shmup genre with these elements, it felt as though there were quite a few offerings with varying levels of depth on the RPG front, but not much on the rogue front. The conclusion I drew was that there is a severe genre clash between shmup (heavily focused on player skill) and rogue (player skill is important, but elements of luck can play a large role, and bad luck can be fatal).

I felt though that a faster, replayable campaign experience was where Flight of the Athena needed to be, so what could be done? The follow up conclusions were these:
- Make use of elements that aid replayability. With this in mind, FotA uses randomly generated campaigns & paths through, procedurally generated levels, etc.
- A full rogue option (one life and out) for those wanting a serious challenge, but also a more player friendly option for (hopefully) the majority of the player base.
-Luck based elements should provide small peaks and troughs – for example, whether you encounter shops when you need to, event decisions having a positive or negative outcome – BUT, the overriding ability to succeed should come down to player skill. The rogue elements provide small bonuses or penalties; adding spice, not emptying the chilli sauce.

In short, it's a Shmup first and foremost, with rpg and roguelike elements where appropriate.



The initial plan was Spring 2018, but that clearly hasn't happened, in large part due to the elements above. I've not committed to a new release date, this will come when I feel I will actually be able to hit it. This may also be dependent on a closed beta / early access period, as feedback will be pretty crucial whilst trying to merge these elements together. Work has been progressing much faster after making the big game decisions, and I should be able to share more in DevBlog updates more frequently.



There will be more to share in future DevBlog updates, but here's a screenshot of the current WIP arctic tundra region. The aim with regions will be to have pros and cons for each – e.g. Arctic regions could have more limited paths on the campaign map, but higher weighting on the chance of hidden credit stashes. These will be able to worked on and tweaked after the economy system has taken greater shape.



Thanks for reading!