Posted on Leave a comment

[Announcement]: Outwarp 50S – your favorite coffee-break shoot ’em up for Linux

Hello Giants! 

Like I mentioned in the previous post, I’m working on a new Game! A devilish hard shoot ’em up that you can play one handed while you sip from your favorite coffee mug! It’s developed using Pint, my work in progress framework, and the core of the game is done! You can shoot, you can dodge, you can change your ship’s height on the map, since we’ve got a small faux-3D feel to the game using 3D perspective projection and all that in less than 50 MB of Drive Space. Check out the screenshot and we’ll get back to the nitty-gritty details after you glance at it!

Outwarp 50S SHMUP

Outwarp 50S

Outwarp Fifty-Es (or Es-Ogh-Es) aims to scratch a few itches:

  1. Gameplay sessions will be short (but not do to the lack of content). You’ll probably die in the first 10-15 seconds during your first playthroughs
  2. It auto-pauses when you switch to another window so hopefully you can sneak in some practice sessions at work
  3. Comes with a low memory footprint! In the current form the game gulps up around 48 MB of ram! It’s going to eat up 96 MB ram at maximum but I’m aiming to get it as low as 32 MB.
    • The idea is you can keep running it in the background and go for another run when you have the chance.
  4. You can collect tokens that are dropped by enemies or destructible environment elements! With them you can
    • Unlock new ships with different weapons, power up’s and special attacks!
    • Unlock new environment segments that can alter your current run
      • Enemy types with new movement patterns
      • Bullet types with various configurations and effects
      • Power-ups and
      • Even more destructible elements
  5. It aims to be the shmup you play while your steam client updates or your favorite online game is queuing you up!

Outwarp 50S’s source code

And let’s not forget my Linux first initiative! The game is developed on Linux and will release first for Linux. If enough interest in it will be gathered I’ll port it to another platform. Or you can port it yourself given that the source code of the game and engine (more on Pint in the next few days) will be available under a MIT license. Like my previous games the only thing that stays proprietary are the graphics because I need to make a living and have to pay to get some art! But you are free to get your own open source art assets into the game and distribute it with those.

What’s left to be done

The core of the game is completed. I need to hire an artist to get some quality pixel art graphics for the game and start working on the audio elements. The game’s content has been established but pacing and feel still needs work. Abilities will be added and removed constantly as I juggle around with the difficulty and feel of the game. Adding new content to the game is easy tho’.

Bullet patterns, enemy paths, enemies, power-up’s and even map segments are defined and controlled via CSV files. Map segments are designed in TileD and exported to Pint in simple Lua scripts. Technically, you can use the CSV files to make your own shmup with your own rules without even touching the source code. I’m aiming for a release sometimes near the end of Q1 (aka March). The game should be done by then but I want some buffer time to make sure all the art will be ready and given that I’m moving into another apartment I want to make sure I won’t backtrack on the launch date.

But fret not, if that happens, you will be updated. I’m planning a weekly development update on this blog with info on how development is going. Due to my privacy policy and commitment to protecting your data I do not have or use a mailing list so you’ll have to follow me up on twitter (or the facebook page) to stay up to date with new blog posts. You can also join our Discord Server for more updates in-between keyboard discussions and Sheo’s mad ramblings. Or go the old school way and refresh the Bearded Giant Game’s front page every day :).

If you’re wondering about the final price of the game, I haven’t decided on one yet. It’s going to be between $3 and $10 depending on how much the assets end up costing me. I’ll come back with more information on price soon enough.

P.s. I’m aiming to fit the game on a 3.5″ floppy disk. If I can get it under 1.44 MB of drive space and have it eat less than 32 MB of ram I’ll have a special surprise for all of you. But I’m keeping it a secret for now!

Thank you Giants!