Games Something At My Alien - 2D Mining Puzzle adventure

Hi,

I'm a programmer, and me and my partner Kat Langwagen (who does the art and design work) decided back in Nov 2016 that we wanted to create our own game. Together we are Rokabium Games.

We knew it was going to be hard work, since there were just 2 of us, but we thought we would give it a go.

We didn't want to do something too simple, but had to think of something that we could actually finish, and that's when we came up with "Something At My Alien".

We've come far enough along now that we are confident to show people our progress, and are looking for some feedback. We would also like to try to build a little bit of a following and community around our development efforts.

So firstly, a little video trailer to get you in the mood, but please remember this is just an early dev version and we still have plenty to do...

The game is a 2D mining and collection game with puzzle elements. You are the AI on board the spacecraft Antalasia, and you have been taken over by a pirate vessel in a remote system. The pirate is demanding resources for the release of your ship.

As the AI, you have a bunch of alien minions on board your ship, and you can control them to collect for you. There will be 4 different planets that you can transport them to, and explore and puzzle your way through the worlds to find the required items.

Along the way there will be many dangerous obstacles, puzzles and enemies to fight your way though.

This is another dev video with me talking a bit about the game...

We think we will have about another 6 months left, as we have the main mechanics in place, and now we need to add more 'stuff' (Enemies, attacks, puzzles etc) and polish.

We have a little dev blog I've just written over here: http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/first-dev-post/

Some screenshots and artwork:





We have a website up here: http://www.somethingatemyalien.com
Our Youtube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOelxidLDP5X0oDGrNIj0OQ
FB page is here: https://www.facebook.com/RokabiumGames/

And now our Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1047870/Something_Ate_My_Alien/

We will be posting here with updates and ideas, and would love to hear from you and see if we are on the right track to a fun & great game.

Thanks for your time... Rob & Kat.

 

I just written up a little dev blog explaining how we implemented a new enemy "Terrator" in our game.

Its mainly around the smooth path creation and trying to do it with zero garbage, but I think I've managed to get a good piece of code done to quickly change paths for it and not effect the performance.



I ended up using a modified version of "Chaikin's Algorithm" to do the path smoothing. I found a code snippet that did this, but it created alot of garbage, so I re-wrote it to be garbage free.



If you want to read further and see the full blog click here:
http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/dev-blog-02-smoothing-a-path-for-terrator/

 

We're still busy working on our game.

Recently we've been re-doing all the UI to make it uniform and tidy it up.

Below are some screenshots of what we have done, and you can also read about it more in our recent DevBlog #03 over on our site: http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/dev-blog-03-polishing-the-ui/

 

Busy busy busy... Still working hard on our game SAMA.

Click below to read our latest blog about our development, and be sure to come back and post any feedback or ideas you have!!

Blog: http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/dev-blog-04-extending-the-worlds/

Below are some of our latest screenshots:


Blog: http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/dev-blog-04-extending-the-worlds/

 

Been working on particles and weapons recently, and just done a quick video of them in action!

Also been working on a bit of performance, to keep those FPS high!

 

Been working hard on SAMA, and we are very close to public Alpha Testing now.

We've had a few people do a private alpha, and that went well, some changes were made, mostly around making sure the player understood what to do, and also text size on the screen.

Our website (http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/) has new images of the game up now also.

Here's a little video we just did, to show how we have 'layered' the different layers in the game, and a 'fly through' in the unity editor while the game is running.

 

Getting closer to a release!

We're still in development, but the complete game can be played through now and is relatively bug free.

We will be moving into a Public Alpha test phase soon, so look out for that.

This weekend we released a new Trailer and we also got our Steam Page up and going.

So check that out below.

Our Steam page is: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1047870

 

Public alpha testing has started!

If you fancy trying out our game, and like testing. Take a look over here:
http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/forums/Thread-Sign-up-for-Alpha-Testing

We've also got a new blog out with a bit of an update on what we've been up to and you can read all about it here and see some new screenshots:
http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/dev-blog-07-steaming-ahead-to-alpha/

 

We had our first interview a few days ago!

So, if you want to learn a few things about us and our game, go have a read over at Indie Ranger.

https://indieranger.com/on-building-a-game-from-the-ground-up/

 

Did some more messing around in the editor.

After doing the 3D spin around the level a few months ago, I wondered what it would be like if I attached a 'perspective' camera and rotated it to an angle and followed the player.... just for fun

Below is a little dev video of what it looks like, and how all the layers, sprites and colliders are all built up.

Enjoy!

 

Been very busy with our Alpha testers the last few weeks.

We've just managed to get some spare time away from coding and reading emails, and wrote up a little dev blog to let you know what is going on with Something Ate My Alien.

Click the link below to have a read: http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/dev-blog-sama-ines-alive-sound-music/

 

Still continuing with our work on Alpha testing feedback, we've done loads of changes in the last month.

Due to what we want to still do to the game we've also decided to move the release date forward to early 2020 now.

• Inventory changes - Made the ransom list easier, removed item cost.
• Upgrade changes - Now upgrades are built from items you find, rather than selling them and buying them.
• Minimap enhancements - New scanner to find items.
• Tutorial - A 'walk through' tutorial at the beginning of the game to help new users.
• Made the first level more linear to help players understand the game better and not feel to 'lost'.

Click the link below and have a read of our latest blog:
http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/dev-blog-09-changes-release-extension/

 

Still progressing and just released another Alpha release (r0.808)

Lot of fixes and enhancements from our testers in this release, and we've also now moved the release distribution to Steam.

We have to be there eventually so it made sense, and we now have Steam Achievements in the game, so we need to connect to Steam.

Next up is more bugs and tweaks, and also implementing Steam Cloud save and Controller support.

If you fancy helping test, then take a look over here:
http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/forums/Thread-Sign-up-for-Alpha-Testing

Our latest screen shots:

 

It’s official, we are nearing the end of development of our game “Something Ate My Alien” and we will be releasing it on the Steam platform in April 2020!



Loads more changes in the latest Alpha release, UI changes, new enemies, new abilities, Steam achievements and much more!

Just working on adding in Steam Cloud saves, Controller Support and Mac & Linux builds.

Sorting through Alpha Testers feedback and seeing what ideas they come up with, along with bugs and fixes.

Click the link below and have a read of our latest blog:
http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/dev-blog-10-release-date-april-2020/

 

Just written a little blog about our current status, and a new 'upcoming' demo version of the game that will be available.

We have also delayed the release a little, as we were needing to work on our marketing a bit more, and finish polishing.



Click the link to have a read: http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/dev-blog-11-demo-coming-soon/

 

Oh, and our new Trailer video we've just release today:

 

Just written a little article about our free demo we have just completed!

We decided it was time that we released a demo to show you all how the game plays and what you can do.

Have a read all about it here: http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/dev-blog-12-demo-available/

Or go and download the demo today from Game Jolt: https://gamejolt.com/games/something-ate-my-alien/479495