Games Null Vector - an arcade roguelite (August release)

Null Vector is an arcade rogue-lite game drawn with 80's style vector graphics.

It's a challenging permadeath rogue-lite. Fly and fight through rooms of random, uniquely designed enemies. Pick up components that augment your ship and weapon to better your chances of survival. How far can you pilot your ship?

The game will be releasing in August 2017 on Steam for the Oculus Rift and monitor.

Alpha Demo 3.0 released! https://opticaloverride.itch.io/null-vector

The demo is in an early state for the Oculus Rift and monitor. While the game supports the keyboard, I highly (...highly) recommend using either an Xbox One or Xbox 360 controller as the game is a twin stick shooter. Please give it a try and let me know what you think!

Update 5/10: I have taken the demo off (for now) as it does not reflect the game in its current state. I am spending all of my time finishing the complete version of the game and having to update the demo to parallel the rapid changes and improvements I'm making is nearly impossible. I will hopefully be uploading the final demo sometime before or soon after Null Vector comes out in August. Thank you to everyone who tried the game!

 

Major changes in the new demo v3.0 has been released!

Get it here: https://opticaloverride.itch.io/null-vector

I have been insanely hard at work over the last few weeks working to update the demo. I received a bunch of great feedback, all of it generally positive except for several very important areas. So let's get down to the good stuff...

What's new?
- new movement/aiming/shooting balance (and code)
- new mechanics (like Hyper Speed and Warp Crystals)
- new "ship components" (5 ship components, all re-balanced for the v3.0 demo)
- new enemies (7 enemies total, also re-balanced)
- new visuals
- obstacles in the room (no more empty rooms)
- a lot more...

Before the Feedback (Demo 2.0)
The game was much slower paced... Few/simple enemies, slow player speed, slow bullet velocity... The game feel was off and I had been so busy simply building the game I had grown blind to these issues.

After the Feedback (Demo 3.0)
From a design perspective, the feedback helped drive home what the core of Null Vector is really about: aiming and dodging. The player's focus sits on a spectrum, constantly shifting between the right and left sticks; between aiming and dodging. As a "volley" of enemy bullets approaches, the player shifts their focus towards the left stick to move out of the way. As the room begins to clear, the player gains the opportunity to shift their focus back to the right stick again and put some enemies out of commission.

This realization helped me to better understand and design the other game mechanics like Hyper Speed, the ship components, and the enemies themselves which are there to offer new and different ways to aim and dodge. Some components like the Homing Shot allow the player to focus more towards the dodging end of the spectrum, giving the bullets themselves some ability to aim. The Hyper Speed mechanic allows the player to focus almost entirely on aiming for a short time at the expense of a unit of energy.

I hope you enjoy the new demo, and please feel free to let me know what you think!

- Alex

 

A lot has changed in Null Vector, but first the most fun part: ship component chemistry.

New Weapon Chemistry

Every ship component now affects (and consequently is effected by) every other ship component. This means combinations like

- [Rocket] + [Ricochet] + [Homing Shot]
- [Laser] + [Homing Shot] + [Multi-Shot]
- [Multi-Shot II] + [Laser] + [Rocket]

Here's a GIF for an example ([Ricochet] + [Laser] + [Multi-Shot]):



It required that I completely redesign, and consequently rewrite, all of the weapon/bullet code from scratch; it sucked but was so worth it. After finally getting it working last night I found myself thinking up and playing with combinations of weapon components I hadn't considered before the redesign.

Also, a short list of changes since the last post:
Change log:
- Warp Crytal game mechanic removed, Sector Portal always open
- Sector Portal room is now marked on the map and spawns 3 waves of enemies when entered
- Added a new resource (Crystals)
- Added the "Exchange" machine, produces random exchange deals to the player (2 HP for 4 Crystals, 1 Energy for 1 Ship Component...) that can be re-rolled for a cost.
- "Slow time" Energy based ability removed for now... still playing with the Energy based special abilities (insta-kill all enemies in the current room? reverse the direction of all enemy bullets currently in the room and make them player controlled?) Let me know if you have any ideas for a special ability that costs Energy to use!

That's it for now, I'll be back soon with another update.

- Alex

 

Looks great! I'd buy this

 

Thanks, that's good to hear! Glad you like it.

 

It's been a while. Instead of the normal "change log" list, here's some screen shots and a brief explanation of the most interesting additions to the game.

First a GIF showing some new weapons, enemies and some slightly hidden new content



Machines. Machines appear occasionally in completed rooms and give the player various choices and mini-games that grant the player rewards. The "Shock Roulette" machine, shown in the image below, has a small chance to electrocute the player or grant a reward. Each use of the machine raises the chance of electrocution (best used when excess HP is available or early in the game for skilled players).
The art and menu are temporary (ignore the "[:INTERACT:]" text ) and will change.




Map. Added a top-down "map" camera view that allows the player to pan over the entire current sector to see any special rooms, machines or loot sitting in previously cleared rooms.



There's a lot more that's been added over the last few weeks, but I don't want to show everything off before the game releases I'll be back again with more to share soon.

Hope you like it, let me know what you think!

- Alex

 

Love the retro look! cant wait to try this out

 

I'm really excited to try this out, will it have controller support?

 

Thanks! Won't have to wait long, coming out in August

Glad to hear that! And it will absolutely have full controller support (I highly recommend using one) for Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers, although I hope to make it compatible with almost any controller before release or soon after.

 

Quick Update

New menus and a new machine, the "Mechanic", which allows weapon parts to be permanently "welded" to the ship, giving the player the ability to progress and experiment with combinations beyond 3 weapon parts.

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As you can see, a bit has changed with the visuals (camera angle, HUD in the background has moved). There are also new enemies, new rooms, new game mechanics... No time to turn them all into GIFs today, but I'm feeling really good about the progress. More updates soon!

- Alex