Nova Drift News

Hello All,

Starting this week and lasting until March 23rd, Nova Drift is discounted at an all-time-low of 65% off. Also, full release is coming up in later 2024, so the price won't be this low again for a very long time. Now is a great time to buy a copy for your friend, mom, or very talented parrot.

The Soundtrack is also 70% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1156340/Nova_Drift_OST/

Work on the game's FINAL BOSS is well on its way. It's kind of crazy for me, actually. I've been thinking about the inevitability of this work, and project's conclusion, for so long that facing it kind of feels like the final boss of my mid-life.

I don't want to reveal anything about the game's finale, but I'm pretty excited about it. If you haven't been following the announcements, 1.0 will contain nice improvements including:

• "ENDFULL" mode (Endless mode turned off), for those who wish to savor victory (and not the void).
  
• Custom Skins! Including 3 new skins, and the ability to create & add your body own skins.
  
• Kickstarter backer deliverables.
  
• Enhanced visibility mode.
  
• Several other new quality of life settings.
  
• The usual round of balance changes to spice up the metagame.
  

With 1.0 coming up, we're ramping up marketing efforts. I will be real with you, I'm trying, but I am not great at it, can you help? I will be posting on a new TikTok page & my Twitter all throughout the sale. Follows, likes, and retweets can help Nova Drift catch fire again. If we can do that, I can keep putting quality first and foremost, no matter what, and keep making games you love. I really appreciate it:

My new TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chimericgames
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/NovaDriftGame

People keep asking me about the future of Nova Drift post-launch. It's hard to say, a lot of it rides on how well launch goes, but there are a few things I'm pretty confident about:

• I really want to bring the game to major consoles.
  
• I really want to do mobile ports (it already runs!)
  
• I'm pretty confident that we'll add Daily Challenge Mode.
  
• Potentially some DLC with new gear?
  
• We will keep fixing bugs, adjusting balance, and adding QoL.
  
• I will continue to prototype games, and share the results with you, as I figure out what my next major project will be. And that includes experiments with other potential Nova Drift games.
  

Thanks for listening and I hope you'll love what I've been cooking.
~ Jeffrey / Chimeric

This update aims to balance and refine Nova Drift's rough edges before we shift focus to the game's release, which features a final confrontation, ending, and full release.

[h3]Complete List of Changes[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/app/858210/discussions/0/3658515990056189069/

Important note: Menu control bindings have been separated from ship controls. If you have been using custom bindings, you may want to rebind the menu controls after updating.

[h3]Major Overhaul: Burns and Ignites[/h3]
A rework designed to clarify and simplify text and mechanics related to burn damage and ignites. Many burn and ignite powers have been buffed.

• All burn damage now implicitly ignites, and ignites now deal 120 damage /s for 3 seconds unless otherwise stated
  
• Adjusted the text for every upgrade that uses burn mechanics: All upgrade text referring to ignites have been removed unless they're special cases, cutting down on a lot of reading!
  
• The terminology for "burning", referring to an ignited target, is now "ignited"
  
• Ignite duration modifiers are no more. They have been replaced by ignite damage modifiers
  
• Dying Star's ignite damage has been doubled(!)
  
• Many burn powers have been buffed and/or adjusted, including: Deadly Wake, Corrosion, Incendiary Strike, Purification, Purge, and most "lightning bolt" powers. See the patch notes for the full changes.
  

[h3]Gear Rework: Viper Body[/h3]
Previously, Viper's kit was wordy, convoluted, and the body wasn't very strong when compared to popular Body Gear. Now, it has been reworked to be simpler, stronger, and more cohesive. Caustic Barrier's offense has been merged with its Venom Strike ability, and its defense has been moved into its base stats.

• When you take a hull hit, you disgorge Venom Strike projectiles toward the offender
  
• Venom Strike projectiles deal 90 burn damage /s
  
• When you crash head-on, you release up to 24 additional Venom Strike projectiles, increased by 2% per your level. This effect strengthens the longer you have not crashed head-on, up to 10 seconds, and has a 2-second cooldown
  
• +50% head-on crash damage resistance
  
• +50% total ignite damage
  
• Hull: 110
  
• Thrust: 110
  

[h3]Super Mod Rework: Sanctuary[/h3]
Sanctuary's former design was neither very powerful, nor was it particularly deserving of Super Mod status. The rework makes it truly transform your build. It is now the ultimate tank / point defense mod.

• While your shield protects you, create a large Sanctuary on the battlefield that slowly follows you. Your shield still protects you from damage, but shield effects originate from the Sanctuary instead of from you
  
• While you are inside the Sanctuary, you gain 10% shield damage resistance, +15% global damage, and recover 6 shields /s
  
• +40% crash knockback resistance
  
• -20% thrust
  
• Your shield effect radius becomes equal to the Sanctuary's radius, but it cannot be increased or decreased by other modifiers. Instead, your modifiers to shield effect radius apply at 40% effectiveness to your shield effect power
  
• While you are outside the Sanctuary, your shield effects are disabled, and your shield cooldown is doubled
  

[h3]Some other notable changes include: [/h3]

• Added new background music to all modes: "Spectra" and "Fukura"
  
• Most text-heavy menus have received an aesthetic pass
  
• Added a lot more options for input binding
  
• Auto Firing can now be selected from the settings menu, allowing the "fire" input to turn it on and off during gameplay
  
• The maximum account rank is now 64, up from 60, and the Unlock order has been revised slightly
  
• Added support for moving the mouse with the gamepad right joystick
  

[h3]What's Next?[/h3]
The full release of the game! We've been treating this game as if it were released for so long that it feels strange to recall it isn't technically "released" yet. No pressure, right? This update will finally introduce the game's final boss and an ending to the game. The game will end provided that you have the "Endless" Challenge Mode turned off, which will finally become possible with this update. That's right, should you choose, you shall no longer inexorably succumb to THE VOID.

[h3]Discord Upgraded! Come Hang[/h3]
We've got quite an active discord with a very chill and inclusive community. The dev team is also pretty active there. We recently opened up some new channels like #weekly-discussion, #ask-the-devs, and #feedback. The latter allows you to submit feedback to a bot that lets players upvote or downvote the suggestion. I'm also quite proud of the #game-dev-help channel, which is a space for current and aspiring developers to learn and collaborate. So... come chat with us!

[h3]Want to help Nova Drift grow?[/h3]
Steam Reviews really help! As a tiny operation, Nova Drift relies on its quality and reputation to sell, and reviews encourage the Steam algorithms to show the game to more people. Please do take a moment to fill out a short review, even if it's only a few words. It just might make a big difference.

[h3]Don't want to miss my next game? Follow me![/h3]
On Twitter, BlueSky, and TikTok

Thanks for reading. Best wishes,
Jeffrey (Chimeric)

I'm proud to announce a collaboration with Quantum Protocol, another crafty indie game by a fellow solo developer, jkong. We teamed up to bring you a unique 16-card Quantum Protocol deck that features Nova Drift pixel art created by me.



The Nova Drift collab introduces the new nova archetype to Quantum Protocol! Familiar ships and mods take on a new form, reimagined as Quantum Protocol cards. Deploy ships to the board and play mod cards on them to create your own unique combination of effects. Stack damage mods for powerful offense, or load up on defensive mods to protect your other cards. Or maybe focus on setting up the almighty Leviathan! The Nova Drift cards are full of unique mechanics that make the archetype feel completely unique.



If you're not familiar with it, Quantum Protocol is a fascinating game, blending roguelike, card drafting, and puzzle mechanics into something new, all wrapped in an anime visual novel. I've never played anything quite like it, and that's not something I get to say often!

Quantum Protocol has had amazing crossovers in the past with amazing indie titles like One Step From Eden, Cross Code, and Vault of the Void, all of which also have a playable deck.



Eventually, in the end-game, the Nova Drift pack can be mixed and matched with all of the other decks, exploding the deck building possibilities. The pack comes free with the base game, and has just been released. Quantum Protocol is a true labor of love, but it's also very challenging. If that sounds like your bag, I urge you to give it a try!



[h3]What's Next for Nova Drift?[/h3]
The only real obstacle to full-releasing the game is creating the final boss, and the game's ending, so that we can finally allow "Endless" mode to be (optionally) disabled. However, there's still polish that we'd like to add before we call the game complete. We'd like to make at least one more update before we tackle the ending. Here are some of the things we're considering addressing next:

• Body Gear: Viper redesign
  
• Ignite and Burn overhaul / simplification
  
• Flak love
  
• Additional polish for underperforming and overperforming Mods and combos
  
• Additional ease-of-access settings, such as press-to-toggle firing
  
• Something secret...
  

[h3]Discord Upgraded! Come Hang[/h3]
We've got quite an active discord with a very chill and inclusive community. The dev team is also pretty active there. We recently opened up some new channels like #weekly-discussion, #ask-the-devs, and #feedback. The latter allows you to submit feedback to a bot that lets players upvote or downvote the suggestion. I'm also quite proud of the #game-dev-help channel, which is a space for current and aspiring developers to learn and collaborate. So... come chat with us!

[h3]Want to help Nova Drift grow?[/h3]
Steam Reviews really help! As a tiny operation, Nova Drift relies on its quality and reputation to sell, and reviews encourage the Steam algorithms to show the game to more people. Please do take a moment to fill out a short review, even if it's only a few words. It just might make a big difference.

Thanks for reading. Best wishes,

-Chimeric

[h2]Complete List of Changes[/h2]
https://steamcommunity.com/app/858210/discussions/0/3658515990056189069/

[h2]New Weapon: Swords[/h2]
Courser, Shockwave Shield, and Shielded Constructs

Swords, Architect, Loaded Mines



Wield a pair of monomolecular double-edged swords that can slice through targets and cleave through enemy projectiles.

Sword's unique scaling interacts in unusual ways with a variety of Body Gear. Bodies that grant additional advanced constructs, or grant additional cannons, add another pair of swords. Bodies that have increased crash damage or achieve high speeds can convert those stats into damage for Swords.

Projectile modifiers affect the sparks that are created when Swords destroy enemy munitions.

Additionally, Swords are Advanced Constructs, which means they can wear your shields when modded with Shielded Constructs. Their unique property of only taking damage while attacking, as well as coming in pairs, makes them an ideal conveyor of any shield effects you have.

Finally, they have unique interactions when used with Loaded Mines and Death Blossom. Give it a try.


[h2]Super Mod Rework: Void Slice[/h2]




Void Slice makes you Blink to your Strafe destination, cutting through targets in your path. Void slice deals damage based on a flat amount added to a percentage of the enemy's remaining hull.


[h2]Super Mod Rework: Antimatter Rounds[/h2]





Antimatter Rounds has been reworked. It now causes projectiles to degenerate or destroy each other on impact. Antimatter Rounds now gives weapons uniquely colored VFX. Additionally, the stat bonuses now benefit constructs at a lesser percentage.


[h2]Buffs and Balance[/h2]

[h3]Ally Changes[/h3]



Ally and its mod tree have been updated. Ally now fires "explosive rounds" as its base weapon, which have a cone-shaped blast radius. Additionally:

• Evasion has been removed. Half of the passive attack avoidance from Evasion was moved to Ally base stats and half was moved to Outmaneuver
  
• Echo Strike has returned to the game and replaces Evasion, adding an additional, larger circular blast radius to Ally explosive rounds
  
• Outmaneuver has gained a new buff: After dodging, your interceptor's explosive rounds gain +700% rate of fire for .25 seconds
  

[h3]Blast Changes[/h3]

The Blast Radius tree has been reworked:

• Blast Radius, High Explosive, and Concentrated Blast now affect all player blasts
  
• Preexisting blast radius modifiers have been divided into new categories: Weapon blast radius, weapon projectile blast radius, and (global) blast radius
  
• Many mods now scale with the tree's global blast modifiers. This includes: Discord, Force Armor, Last Stand, Mines (base explosion and clusters), Rebuke, Force Armor, Blink, Void Slice, Purge, War Machine (missiles), Bastion (blast wave), Counterpulse, Shockwave (shield reset shockwave), Reflexive Shields,
• Warp (warp blasts), Volatile Shields, Self Destruction, Ally (explosive rounds and Echo Strike).
  
• Many of these blast powers, new and old, have received balance adjustments
  

[h3]Some other notable changes include:[/h3]

• Allowed separate key bindings for Strafe and Blink. The default binding for Blink is now "F". Strafe is still "Shift"
  
• Strafe has been adjusted to feel more fluid: It now spreads its acceleration over a short interval while strongly redirecting your motion in the direction you strafed
  
• Strafe now has a cooldown of 1.5 seconds, which is the same as Blink. (We realized that strafe was becoming near-mandatory for any hyperscoring build, and that Blink had trouble competing with its power level. To compensate for this, enemy speed scaling has been significantly reduced, which benefits all builds)
  
• Lots of buffs for Body Gear: Carrier
  
• Crash damage adjustments for many bodies
  
• Armor Stack buffs
  
• Weapon Construct changes
  
• A few new enemy encounter surprises
  
• Steam Deck improvements
  
• Myriad text improvements
  

[h2]What's Next?[/h2]
The only real obstacle to full-releasing the game is creating the final boss, and the game's ending, so that we can finally allow "Endless" mode to be disabled. However, there's still polish that we'd like to add before we call the game complete. We'd like to make at least one more update before we tackle the ending. Here are some of the things we're considering addressing next:

• Body Gear: Viper redesign
  
• Ignite and Burn overhaul / simplification
  
• Flak love
  
• Additional polish for underperforming and overperforming Mods and combos
  
• Additional ease-of-access settings, such as press-to-toggle firing
  
• Something secret...
  

[h2]Discord Upgraded! Come Hang[/h2]
We've got quite an active discord with a very chill and inclusive community. The dev team is also pretty active there. We recently opened up some new channels like #weekly-discussion, #ask-the-devs, and #feedback. The latter allows you to submit feedback to a bot that lets players upvote or downvote the suggestion. I'm also quite proud of the #game-dev-help channel, which is a space for current and aspiring developers to learn and collaborate. So... come chat with us!

[h2]Want to help Nova Drift grow?[/h2]
Steam Reviews really help! As a tiny operation, Nova Drift relies on its quality and reputation to sell, and reviews encourage the Steam algorithms to show the game to more people. Please do take a moment to fill out a short review, even if it's only a few words. It just might make a big difference.

Thanks for reading. Best wishes,

Chimeric

Dweller (Vorpal Update) artwork by Advent. https://www.artstation.com/adventzen – https://twitter.com/ZenAdvent

This update introduces new alternate bosses, updates old bosses, adds 21 new Steam achievements, a glossary, several mod overhauls, and many balance changes and fixes.

[h2]Complete List of Changes: [/h2]https://steamcommunity.com/app/858210/discussions/0/3658515990056189069/

[h2]New Nemesis Bosses[/h2]
Now, each boss encountered at waves 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 has an alternate version that may be encountered if the Challenge Mode: Nemesis is enabled. Additionally, these bosses can all be encountered "in the wild" at high enough waves.

[h3]Dweller[/h3]

Dweller is immensely tough, but shares its vitality with its minions. Pare them down and know victory.

[h3]Dreadnought[/h3]

Dreadnought will challenge your reflexes and positioning as you find a safe angle of attack and choose your moment. Each of its guns that you destroy limits its attacks and strips its defenses.

Additionally, we've given some of the older bosses (Spitfire, Scion, and Warbringer) a fresh coat of paint. Spitfire even learned some new attacks.

[h2]Guardian Overhaul[/h2]

We recieved a lot of feedback that the Guardian should better compete with its Interceptor alternative, so it has risen to the challenge. In addition to being more capable in combat, the Guardian has received upgrades to its mods.


Echo Strike has been replaced by Nanotech Dissemination, providing a means for it to redirect the damage you and your constructs receive to itself. Then, based on the amount of damage redirected, it creates a shower of power-ups when destroyed. Also, Echo Strike is now less needed since the Ally basic attack now deals innate splash damage.


Medi-Charge has been updated with a new power that allows the Guardian to also redirect self-damage from you or your advanced constructs. Fire at will!

[h2]Saturation Fire Upgrade[/h2]

Sustained-firing builds needed a little something to compete with alpha-striking builds. Saturation Fire can now reward you for keeping those bullets flying.

[h2]New Achievements[/h2]


[h2]What's Next?[/h2]

The only real obstacle to full-releasing the game is creating the final boss, and the game's ending, so that we can finally allow "Endless" mode to be disabled. However, there's still polish that we'd like to add before we call the game complete. We'd like to make at least one more update before we tackle the ending. Here are some of the things we're considering addressing:

• New Weapon Gear: Swords
  
• New Weapon Gear: Flail
  
• Gear adjustments: Specter
  
• Mod Adjustments: Ally Interceptor mod tree
  
• More mods compatible with Ally Interceptors
  
• Mod Rework: Antimatter Rounds
  
• Mod Rework: Displacement
  
• Enemy spawn improvements
  
• Visual effects iterations
  

Thanks for reading. Best wishes,

Chimeric / Jeffrey Nielson