Game News DoomRL successor Jupiter Hell now available on Early Access

[Infinitron]

Tags: ChaosForge; Jupiter Hell

Today's next release is Jupiter Hell. The DoomRL successor from creator Kornel Kisielewicz was announced way back in 2013, but development appears to have entered high gear only in 2016 when it was successfully Kickstarted to the tune of $85k. Like many roguelikes, the game is beginning its life as an Early Access title. The launch trailer is something that has to be seen, especially the part near the end. I'll post it here along with the Early Access FAQ:

Why Early Access?
“TL;DR: We intend to make the game the best it can be by listening to player feedback.

We believe that traditional roguelikes make best use of Early Access especially if they actively engage with their community. We promise frequent updates, usually twice a month, based a lot on player feedback - you can already notice this from our update history and some topics on the steam forums! Roguelikes have traditionally been a long-brewing experience that like good wine got better with age.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“While we plan to support the game for several years with regular content updates, there is a state of the game that we can confidently call 1.0, which will provide a polished complete experience. We intend to achieve that milestone before the end of 2020.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
“Roguelike development is usually a horizontal affair - adding more possibilities, more items, more traits and challenges, and adding more classes.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?
“The game is playable from start to finish, all the features described on the store page are implemented. What we are still expanding upon is the breadth of the game - more item, enemy and level variety, more special levels and challenges and better modding support. We're also committed to constantly improving performance and visual quality.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
“We plan to gradually raise the price as we ship new content and features.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
“Whether here on the Steam forums, or on our ChaosForge forums, be it Twitter or Reddit, we read all feedback. Anyone that has been active on our forums during our ASCII roguelike game days can tell that we treat all feedback seriously and very often implement player suggestions. Roguelike development is a very community driven effort ”
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The Jupiter Hell Early Access release is available now on Steam and GOG for $25, with a 10% launch discount until next week.

 

[tripedal]

That price is certainly ambitious...

 

[ERYFKRAD]

No melee weapons in it yet.

 

[you know what time it is]

That and Legends of Amberland both look really enticing, but questionable pricing ruins it a bit.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

This reminds me of the Doom RPG mobile game (I never played DRL).

 

[Gromlintroid]

Got this on my wishlist, looks really neat, no rush to buy it just yet, see how it pans out.

 

[Corvinus]

Already updated a few times since release - plasma weaponry is in and so's different types explosive barrels. The only fault I've seen so far is that the shotgun reload ability is called "shottyman" and not the more fitting "Shotgunguy" (because of the Doom connection).

 

[Jaedar]

No melee weapons in it yet.

I spotted a chainsaw (didn't pick it up though)

 

[ERYFKRAD]

No melee weapons in it yet.

I spotted a chainsaw (didn't pick it up though)

Yeah I saw it too. Character died before if got any use though.

 

[ciox]

I didn't play DoomRL but this seems to have more in common with the free AliensRL than I thought, that one was great and I cleared it many times, will probably get this soon.

 

[Mustawd]

Pretty sure i have a key or something as I was a KS backer. PM me if you want it. First come first serve poortards.

EDIT: It's taken.

 

[ciox]

Made it to Europa L2.
This is looking quite promising but it needs some more work, it's kind of a pain to do basic stuff like line yourself up with doors and items to pick them up, that really shouldn't be the case, especially given how AliensRL made it a breeze with the shift+arrowkey maneuver.
The difficulty is still kinda hit and miss, lots of runs feel like non-starters, really need that knowledge base so I know what the fallback areas are when you're very low on resources, will probably get it eventually.
Not sure about weapon balance, towards the end I had the colt .44, shotgun and 9mm SMG, and they all felt pretty interchangeable, the shotgun should have been dominant in close range but not with the 'reload after every shot' nerf, that makes it feel like the sawn-off in AliensRL which was very risky to use against slightly stronger foes that didn't die in one hit.
Ragdolls sometimes make it difficult to tell if enemies are dead, need to rely on the targeting data on the right..