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House of the Dying Sun aka Enemy Starfighter is released.

Trash

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enemy_starfighter_web.jpg




http://enemystarfighter.com

Here are some recent articles.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art...-Preview-Homeworld-Meets-Battlestar-Galactica

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/04/25/enemy-starfighter-preview/

Some actual Alpha gameplay.





http://www.twitch.tv/escapistmagazine/b/527277301

And two (very) old articles.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...hter-is-a-friend-to-fans-of-space-roguelikes/

http://indiestatik.com/2013/01/28/enemy-starfighter-is-bastardly/

Oh my, that is looking nice. Command a fleet, fly a interceptor and wage a guerilla war against superior forces. Actually playing as a faceless crony of the malevolent empire. That's been awhile. And check out those graphics... Lots of npc chatter, muted thumps and booms in combat and cockpit systems blaring appears to make for quite an atmospheric soundscape. Amazingly enough the game is apparantly made by one guy. Seems the arcade space 'sim' is really making a triumphant return this year. Finally. And I really need to start saving up for an Occulus.

But let's be honest here. They already had me with that awesome poster. I'm a sucker for exactly that kind of art.

You expected to smash the colony ship and its escorts. What you didn't expect was a Federation military fleet jumping in before you were finished.

Enemy Starfighter puts you in the cockpit of the universe's most mobile and lethal interceptor and also puts you in command of an elite fleet of Imperial warships.

You are the Harbinger Fleet, waging a guerrilla war against the enemies of the Empire.

Your mission is always simple: Jump ahead into a system where you will most certainly be outnumbered, cripple it, and pave the way for the Armada to hang in the skies above the enemy home world like storm clouds and offer terms: submit or be purified.
 
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SCO

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Looks ok but i'm not seeing much of homeworld here. Maybe it's just the guy preferring controlling the ships himself and the rts layer is just as sophisticated, but i'm doubting it (especially with how the bots seem to be annihilating the enemies by themselves, maybe they are disabled on the rts view?)
 

Trash

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Thus far it's the graphics, map and that you can select capital ships and tell them where to go and what to attack that give me Homeworld vibes. However it is primarily an arcade space game with a strategic overlay that he is currently expanding with mechanics like experience, traits and more overworld interaction.

All in all, early days for a game that seems to have parts roguelike, freespace, tie fighter and indeed, even a bit of an rts in it. You jump into a solar system and systematically take down the enemy presence in it by taking out different nodes and whittle down their fleet until you make the remnants flee the system. The enemy fleet does react, so if you attack a carrier without earlier destroying its escorts in a different node you can expect them to jump in. Guy worked at Bungie and is using their encounter design philosophy to make this baby tick.

Federation fleets use a refined hybrid scripted/dynamic group objectives to move around the solar system. This system is a simple version of what we used on Reach for controlling squad movement. I'm (still) a huge believer in Bungie's approach to building combat encounters. If you want more info, check out Damian Isla and Max Dyckhoff's GDC slides.

And here are parts of the blog I liked.

  • Push the progression system, iterate on the best ways to give out XP, and determine the best way to let players level up their fleets.
  • Now that the solar system movement code is in a good spot, make this more dynamic by (re)introducing other inhabitants to the systems like traffic and mining ops.

Part of the progression system seems to be in place with capital ships getting stuff like 'energy shield' when they upgrade. Let's see how he progresses with it from here.

One thing missing from the game was a satisfying currency reward loop for killing fighters. The tumble alone felt good and you earned points for it, but a new layer has been added: the escape pod.

A majority of your currency is acquired from killing the crew of downed vessels. If you have an autoturret, it happens automatically. As a capital goes down, the famous loot-piñata situation occurs as the crew abandons ship.

It's one of the first things I've put in the game that makes people feel like a villain. Several people reported feeling conflicted about it. Good!

Wonder how that's going to look when you actually do take down a colony ship. Anyway, it's all very much work in progress but the gameplay vids do give a good idea of the current state of the game.

So far, what I am seeing I am liking. Seems like a real ambitious dream that's actually coming to fruition. Do read the blog to see the direction he intends to take this.
 
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Trash

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Early access? Dunno. The guy working on it has been doing so since at least 2012 and has been sending out press previews since 2013. The last one he send out in april seems to have gotten some attention. Nothing so far seems to indicate that he intends to do an early access. Then again, who knows.
 

bert

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Hope this one doesn't flop, otherwise it'll be the Last Enemy Starfighter.
 

Hobo Elf

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Poster reminds me of the times as a kid when I'd go to a video game store and they were filled with awesome posters and cool box art. Just going inside the store was a fun experience in itself. :(
 

Stokowski

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I really do like the "texture-less" textures.

(OTOH there's so many titles like this, it'll probably need something really special beyond the shinies if it is to carve out anything more than the smallest niche.)
 

Trash

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Game has left early access status and been released as House of the Dying Sun.



I absolutely loved the initial pitch of an open ended, almost roguelike dynamic campaign in which you play as the bad guy. The name Enemy Starfighter also rocked. The one man dev however decided to scale back drastically awhile back and has now delivered a game with a short static string of missions and a lame name. Shame. What was a day one purchase has gone down for me to 'maybe one day.'

The dev said it was because of player feedback that he scaled down. All reports however point to people absolutely loving the earlier versions of the dynamic campaign. Methinks he just chewed off more than he could handle and had to tone it down in order to get it out of the door. And the name? He was afraid that Enemy Starfighter sounded too much like The Last Starfighter. So he renamed it to something that sounds like an Animal's song. Le sigh.
 

Destroid

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Honestly 'House of the Dying Sun' is a lot easier to get mixed up with another videogame 'Emperor of the Fading Suns'.
 

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