Well, I’m too tired, and there are too many remaining issues. Not much chance of wrapping anything reasonably solid up right now, so I’m writing this report before I go and get some sleep.

So the next goal is to release the alpha/tech demo and start taking pre-orders before Monday 7th.

Kobo II now has a Boomerang fighter with an “ElectroGun”, similar to the ones in Kobo Deluxe, that is, trying to circle around the player, firing some sort of electrically charged “bullets” at said player. Not much AI and no aim-ahead, but you need to respond actively to avoid pain.

There is also a massive drop ship that moves between random waypoints, teleporting enemies into the battlefield. When attacked, it will face the attacker and backpedal, while returning fire using a truckload of guns. Being in the wrong place hurts. A lot!

Current game mode is a Survival variant, where each stage N has N drop ships on it. You need to destroy all drop ships to clear the stage and move on. A score bonus of 10% extra per stage is awarded, and there is also an “adrenaline bonus” that multiplies the score when destroying lots of stuff in a hurry. Death, should you chose to continue playing on the current stage, is avoided by giving up 50% of your score in exchange for a new ship.

The drop ship doesn’t seem to like having screenshots taken of it when in action, but I managed to capture part of it anyway. (Placeholder graphics; constructed from various Kobo Deluxe tiles and sprites.)

Scratching the paintjob of the behemoth, moments before being violently desintegrated.

Playtesting is… not boring! This might work.

David