Most of the work on this game over the past few weeks has gone in to bug fixes and polish, but I also added a few shiny new features that I'll explain later in this post.


Many of these changes were inspired by some feedback and suggestions I've received from players. I also invite anyone who feels strongly about the game to comment below on what they'd like to see from Aluminum Acrobat.

And if you're interested, the source code for this game is public on GitHub: https://github.com/chrisspieler/sbox-space-game

It's under an MIT license, so feel free to use for your own projects whatever code you find useful.

The last article I wrote was released on March 4th - so long ago that I only had two ore types and one asteroid type.


Well, here are the "new" asteroids:

Near the starting area, only the C-type asteroids appear. As the player ventures further away from safety, S-Type and then M-Type asteroids begin to appear. The rarer the asteroid, the more valuable the ore it drops.

The top-left corner of the shop screen displays the credits that will be given to the player in exchange for each of the types of ore that exist in the game. Selling a unit of ore reduces the value of that ore while increasing the value of all other ores. This will hopefully motivate players to venture further out in search of rarer ores. 

A player who repeatedly mines the asteroids near the shop may notice that the value of gold ore increases like the jackpot of a lottery while iron ore is ever cheapened.

Initially, ship refueling and repairs were services sold by the store. Any trip that expended resources exceeding the cost of cargo gained was a sad failure. If this encourages the player to make interesting decisions about how they find more cargo to sell, then the refuel/repair mechanic is a success.

But there are some ways in which this mechanic can fail:
1. Finding a fuel-efficient means of getting to asteroids is yet another thing the player has to learn before they experience their first success.
2. Because the only penalty for death is losing credits, it's sometimes better to die than to pay the store to repair/refuel.

Although these problems can be fixed, paying for fuel and repairs currently inflicts more frustration on new players than I'd like. For now, the mechanic has been removed, and the player's ship just automatically refuels and repairs once it touches the shop.

As you may have noticed in a previous section, the ship upgrades in the shop now display thumbnails.

I made an editor tool that allows me to save a transparent PNG of the current scene. It's rather fiddly, but good enough.

The way you steer your ship in Aluminum Acrobat is kind of weird. By tapping WASD, you tell your ship to face the corresponding direction. There is never a reason to hold down the WASD keys. This works and makes sense to me, but it defies a common expectation in video games that to travel in a particular direction, you keep holding down the corresponding direction on your input device.

So, I've added tank controls. When you first start a game, you're prompted to choose whether or not to use them.

The buttons on this screen are actually videos that demonstrate how each control style works. 

Also, this prompt serves as a way to sneak an unskippable movement tutorial in to the game.

The grapple beam offers a means of redirecting or cancelling your velocity if you grapple an object that's off to the side of where you're going. It's a bit like you're Spider-Man. The risk is that if you don't know what's around the corner, you might slam in to something hard and die. You can use this thing to absolutely bully drones, or to tow asteroids.

The quantum translation drive (QT drive) is an upgrade that allows you freeze time and change your ship's position in space, phasing through any obstacles in the way. It's great for collision avoidance and going Coldsteel the Hedgehog on your enemies. You can combine the QT drive with the grapple beam to perform an absurd and reckless technique that I won't explain here.

Drones are the first type of enemy to be implemented. You can think of these as just being dollar store Manhacks - situationally aggressive Roombas that try to collide with you if you've pissed them off. The drones aren't aggressive at all unless you either harm them first or mine an asteroid that's near one of them.

Currently, drones are just shiny obstacles that make pretty colors when you blow them up. In the future, I'll give the drones more interesting idle behaviors, better navigation, and actual weapons and/or shields.

As of the time of this writing, the contest that Aluminum Acrobat was submitted to has nearly concluded. In a little over an hour, I'll know if I won anything.

Regardless of the outcome, I'll continue developing this game. There are still upgrades and additional weapons I need to add. Plus, I need to justify spending so much effort on getting world streaming and floating origin to work. Enemy "outposts" and other points of interest are planned. 

Ultimately, this is a game that ought to exist - something currently missing from the world that I can make real.