Turn-Based Tactics Archrebel: Tactics - A reincarnation of the classic Rebelstar.

[Ularis Badler]

Hello everyone. Some of you may already know me from my previous project Underlair, which got halted as I finally committed myself to become a full-time game developer. Since then, I've been working tiressly on simpler and yet evergrowing game called Archrebel.

Archrebel is a strategy game heavily inspired by Julian Gollop's Rebelstar, released back in 1986 for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC remaining as my favorite title on the ZX Spectrum computer. Unfortunately, due to the hardware limitations of the ZX Spectrum, Rebelstar suffered from severe constraints and nowadays standard features, including the lack of a mini-map, no line of sight, no menu options, and had only one playable map.

Archrebel is my attempt to capture Rebelstar's essence, featuring the same retro-look and sci-fi setting but with a vastly expanded formula through a large campaign offering more content and modern features.

Wishlisting it on Steam is now a possibility:

Stay close to this project by following me on Twitter; I'm very active there.

 

[Grauken]

I really dig the style

 

[Ularis Badler]

I really dig the style

Thanks! Surprisingly, I've been receiving some good feedback regarding the style, which I initially thought to be something that only a handful of people would be on board with. Cheers.

 

[Visperas]

Yeah, it might be too retro for me but I like the gameplay. We'll see.

 

[Catacombs]

This looks dope. What was the tech stack you used to build this?

 

[Ularis Badler]

This looks dope. What was the tech stack you used to build this?

Thanks. It's all done in Unity and written in C#. In the GFX department, Corel Paint Shop Pro and Aseprite take the throne.

 

[mediocrepoet]

This looks pretty cool. When you're shooting and the units turn into dots, is that a placeholder or is there some reason for that? I think that's the only presentation choice I didn't like and thought was odd, otherwise it looks retro in a good way.

 

[Ularis Badler]

This looks pretty cool. When you're shooting and the units turn into dots, is that a placeholder or is there some reason for that? I think that's the only presentation choice I didn't like and thought was odd, otherwise it looks retro in a good way.

The circles represent the units' signatures. The bigger they are, the bigger the circle, thus the easier you can hit them. Collision uses pixel precision and this is part of a fundamental feature found in games such as Rebelstar and Laser Squad which Archrebel is reincarnating. I'm assuming you weren't around to play those games. Cheers!

 

[mediocrepoet]

This looks pretty cool. When you're shooting and the units turn into dots, is that a placeholder or is there some reason for that? I think that's the only presentation choice I didn't like and thought was odd, otherwise it looks retro in a good way.

The circles represent the units' signatures. The bigger they are, the bigger the circle, thus the easier you can hit them. Collision uses pixel precision and this is part of a fundamental feature found in games such as Rebelstar and Laser Squad which Archrebel is reincarnating. I'm assuming you weren't around to play those games. Cheers!

Yeah, I haven't played any of Gollop's earlier games before X-Com. Thanks for the answer!

 

[Ularis Badler]

This looks pretty cool. When you're shooting and the units turn into dots, is that a placeholder or is there some reason for that? I think that's the only presentation choice I didn't like and thought was odd, otherwise it looks retro in a good way.

The circles represent the units' signatures. The bigger they are, the bigger the circle, thus the easier you can hit them. Collision uses pixel precision and this is part of a fundamental feature found in games such as Rebelstar and Laser Squad which Archrebel is reincarnating. I'm assuming you weren't around to play those games. Cheers!

Yeah, I haven't played any of Gollop's earlier games before X-Com. Thanks for the answer!

Hey, no problem. Ask anything; I'll do my best to answer it.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

this looks pretty bad ass

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Looks nice.
I'll probably check the demo when it becomes available.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Trees looks fine, the grass and river, on the other hand, are borderline fugly.
At least, it's not 3 colors, it could be worse.

I don't like the plain units icons, it would be better as sprites like the monsters, which looks alright/good if there is more than one single type.
The gameplay looks decent, the music would work better in space, battleships, futuristic urban battlescapes.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Found some music tracks.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

The plot:
Seeking prosperity on a newly colonized planet named Kaprical, the player, is coerced to fight for survival, skirmishing against an unexpected totalitarian faction. By gathering followers, looting, purchasing, and capturing powerful droids, the player will eventually assemble a patrol to repel the dominating force that ceased control of the planet's colonies in secrecy and without authority.

The plot section on Steam could use some polishing tbh fam.

Seeking prosperity on a newly colonized planet named Kaprical, the player, is coerced to fight for survival, skirmishing against an unexpected totalitarian faction. By gathering followers, looting, purchasing, and capturing powerful droids, the player will eventually assemble a patrol force to repel the dominating force powerful faction that ceased took control of the planet's colonies in secrecy and without authority authorization.

The above would make a bit more sense IMO.

Anyway, the game looks good and I will gladly give the demo a try when it is ready. One thing that isnt entirely clear to me after looking at the Steam page - I assume that this isnt a rogue like (iron man mode being optional), so how is saving going to work? Can you save on some kind of "strategic screen" in between the tactical missions, or will it be possible to save during the missions as well?

 

[Ularis Badler]

Trees looks fine, the grass and river, on the other hand, are borderline fugly.
At least, it's not 3 colors, it could be worse.

I don't like the plain units icons, it would be better as sprites like the monsters, which looks alright/good if there is more than one single type.
The gameplay looks decent, the music would work better in space, battleships, futuristic urban battlescapes.

I'm still undecided on the flat units. That is something I will experiment with in the future. But it is likely to remain as is, close to its original source of inspiration: 1986's Rebelstar. The water and grass are also likely to remain as is but with a much higher degree of certainty, mostly due to the praise they have received thus far. The music, on the other hand, served only as a demo for the video and as a learning process for FL Studio. That video is destined to be deleted as it becomes outdated since there is a full year of development ahead to add on the existing 7 months of current development.

 

[Ularis Badler]

The plot:
Seeking prosperity on a newly colonized planet named Kaprical, the player, is coerced to fight for survival, skirmishing against an unexpected totalitarian faction. By gathering followers, looting, purchasing, and capturing powerful droids, the player will eventually assemble a patrol to repel the dominating force that ceased control of the planet's colonies in secrecy and without authority.

The plot section on Steam could use some polishing tbh fam.

Seeking prosperity on a newly colonized planet named Kaprical, the player, is coerced to fight for survival, skirmishing against an unexpected totalitarian faction. By gathering followers, looting, purchasing, and capturing powerful droids, the player will eventually assemble a patrol force to repel the dominating force powerful faction that ceased took control of the planet's colonies in secrecy and without authority authorization.

Oh, thanks for the suggestion. I'll change some aspects of it, yes. However, I cannot describe the 'badies' as a powerful faction because they aren't, they simply executed a good plan to take control of the colonies. That's why the player will be able to fight them more or less on pair at a warfare skill level.

Anyway, the game looks good and I will gladly give the demo a try when it is ready. One thing that isnt entirely clear to me after looking at the Steam page - I assume that this isnt a rogue like (iron man mode being optional), so how is saving going to work? Can you save on some kind of "strategic screen" in between the tactical missions, or will it be possible to save during the missions as well?

That's a good question. I'm still experimenting with several aspects of gameplay, but what is planned atm is that saving will be done using a limited quantity of consumable items per mission, through some kind of audio log registry. The iron mode indicates whether or not units will die in battle, instead of just being taken out of action for a single mission.

 

[Ularis Badler]

this looks pretty bad ass

Thanks for letting me know about it. Cheers!

 

[Ularis Badler]

Looks nice.
I'll probably check the demo when it becomes available.

Just keep in mind that the first demo version will not showcase the final version of the game; it will just serve as a demonstration (tech-demo) of the gameplay mechanics using procedurally generated single missions (according to the plan that keeps changing).

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Looks nice.
I'll probably check the demo when it becomes available.

Just keep in mind that the first demo version will not showcase the final version of the game; it will just serve as a demonstration (tech-demo) of the gameplay mechanics using procedurally generated single missions (according to the plan that keeps changing).

Don't worry about it. I'm familiar with game demo's.

 

[Galdred]

Hi Ularis Badler ! I didn't even know you posted here before.
I agree that the non soldiers sprites look better than the soldier sprites.
I never played Archrebel, but I hope you will move to Laser Squad next, because I got really obsessed with the game when I was younger (and failed my procurement check to get it).

 

[Ularis Badler]

Hi Ularis Badler ! I didn't even know you posted here before.
I agree that the non soldiers sprites look better than the soldier sprites.
I never played Archrebel, but I hope you will move to Laser Squad next, because I got really obsessed with the game when I was younger (and failed my procurement check to get it).

Hey, thanks for posting.
Well, Archrebel already does what Laser Squad did and far more, so there is really no reason to make another game featuring the same core mechanics. The major difference between Laser Squad and Archrebel is that Archrebel doesn't use 2.5 dimensions, which for me was always a downside of Laser Squad when compared to Rebelstar. Cheers.

 

[Lord of Riva]

Wishlisted, looks great!

looking foward to playing the demo.

 

[Ularis Badler]

Wishlisted, looks great!

looking foward to playing the demo.

Hey, thanks! I hope it won't disappoint you. If it does, there is always room for improvement. Cheers.

 

[Ularis Badler]

Just dropping the info that I ran a thread on the looks of flat units and ended up with mixed opinions. So, I decided to include both, according to the image below. Players will be able to alternate their look with a single key-press.