Welcome back to another thrilling addition of the Subverse dev diaries, a series of creator updates with dirty words and even dirtier space girls.
What's New, Pussycat?
Meow!
As you can see, we've put the finishing touches on our catgirl infiltration specialist - Taron Kraask! Taron was one of the first stretch goals for Subverse, and the whole team was super excited to bring her to life.
Taron's species is known as the nikith (nigh-kith), which are obviously the Subverse equivalent of the feline humanoids so prevalent in the hentai world. Most nikith are content remaining in the hunter-gatherer phase of their society, but Taron fell in love with technology as soon as she had a fateful close encounter with an alien vibrator.
Since she is still relatively young and doesn't have much experience with culture outside her primitive planet, this can cause Taron to come across as socially awkward in many situations. However, her radiant positivity, eagerness to please and genetically inherent addiction to the pheromones of solar males like the Captain make her a shiny beacon of endlessly horny hope aboard the Mary Celeste.
That previously mentioned and almost inconveniently powerful reaction towards the protagonist of Subverse leads to all sorts of hilarious and fun interactions in the game, especially during her recruitment missions. But don't worry...despite her seemingly whimsical characterization, this kitty has claws and sick ninja moves that will allow you to stealthily shred through the opposition in both grid and space combat. She is voiced by StudioFOW legend Milly Stern, who also voiced 2B in our most downloaded movie ever: Nier First Assembly (yes, even more popular than K3).
BETA BEGINS
As we previously mentioned, the closed beta begins on Saturday, September 28th!
To make sure you are ready to go, use the following checklist:
1.) Have Big Bang Theorist backer status (donation of £75 or more).
2.) Redeem your Steam key that was previously provided so that Subverse is in your Steam library.
3.) Join the Studio FOW Discord server and access the Beta Oasis room.
4.) Send a DM to the bot "Masterbeta#1202" after it is launched on Saturday, September 21st, and follow the instructions to receive your beta key.
5.) Redeem that secondary key on Steam to add the beta download branch to Subverse.
6.) Download the update when Steam states it is available on the 28th.
7.) Open the first closed beta build and have fun!
Bug reports and feedback forms are available in-game and will be sent to Studio FOW's internal servers for review. It is immensely helpful if you can provide the context of what happened when you experience any bugs so we can potentially recreate these situations and analyze them, so please be sure to include as much specific information as possible!
ENTER THE DRAGON NEBULA
On that note, we're starting the party with our SHMUP-tacular gameplay! The first closed beta build will include three sections:
1.) SHMUP tutorial level, administered by DEMI
2.) The first space gameplay mission of Subverse
3.) "Endless mode" for testing purposes
While the first two sections are obviously intended to give you a gentle introduction to how space combat works in Subverse, the third is our little gift to the community that will allow you to play to your heart's content and hopefully uncover some bugs for us to fix in the process. The first pool of enemies is limited to pirates but we'll add more dickheads to the builds as beta progresses.
For now, you will be playing the game mode that we refer to as ANNIHILATION (kill everything = victory). As we continue development, we will also make additional modes playable such as the previously revealed DEFENDER where you are responsible for protecting objectives.
So how exactly does space combat work in Subverse? Here's a mini-instruction manual and rundown of the gameplay:
MOVEMENT
Your ship is guided with WASD movement. Subverse is primarily one of those rare free-roaming SHMUPs that allows you to wreak havoc all across the map rather than forcing you in one direction.
Hitting the shift key will activate cruise mode, which gives the F3N1X a speed boost to help you dodge attacks, flank bad guys or get to a defensive position much faster.
WEAPONS
Aiming is accomplished by moving a targeting reticle around the screen with the mouse. You can open fire on any targets acquired using the left mouse button, which is the trigger for the F3N1X's basic repeating particle cannon. It has unlimited ammo, so you can blast away and kill things real good all you want.
You'll also have access to the first special attack of the game, which is a precision-strike missile. It can be fired with the right mouse button. Should the projectile collide with anything, it will instantly detonate. However, you can also manually detonate it in the middle of clusters of enemies for a big sexy multi-kill. Note that this weapon reduces your ship's energy, so you must wait for it to recharge before it's ready to fire again.
Speaking of energy, the F3N1X has access to another attack tied to the space bar called the charge drive. This will send your ship speeding forward at lethal velocity, either destroying or causing heavy damage to any enemies dumb enough to not get the fuck outta the way. The charge drive can also be used to dodge enemy projectiles in a pinch.
RESOURCES
With two attacks tied to the energy resource system, you're likely to run out fast if you spam them. However, lucky for you, energy pickups will be available from fallen enemies.
Note that there are two levels of ship integrity in Subverse - shields and hull. Shields regenerate automatically after a period of time when no additional damage is taken, whereas hull does not. You can pick up health packs to get your hull back into shape.
BAD GUYS
You'll be throwing down with the pirates, which are the first enemy faction in Subverse. We guarantee these guys are all complete assholes, so don't feel bad about reducing them to wreckage and racking up points in the process.
You can increase your score in Subverse by defeating enemies, and each enemy has a different score value attached to them. There are currently five unique rival vessels in the build, and each of them can be found in escalating levels of difficulty (distinguished by color schemes).
Each one will require a different strategy to defeat. It's when you have multiple different classes of enemy on the screen coming at you at the same time that Subverse really shines as an arcade shooter that rewards quick-thinking, resource management and defensive movement combined with aggressive attack patterns.
We're all thrilled to see how the initial gameplay is received! However, please keep in mind that we are still barely in beta (its more like an alpha) and we have a long way to go before the game reaches its potential.
Calendar & Artbook
More excellent news! We are very confident our digital art rewards will be ready on time for their estimated release dates (End of 2019 for the calendar, early 2020 for the art book). Both projects are turning out even better than we imagined, and we can't wait to send them out to our loyal supporters! Expect a few teases here and there as more dev diaries are published.
Until Next Time
We're working around the clock like usual to finish up the last few waifu and main character models, so we'll have updates about those soon.
We hope you all take care and look forward to working with you throughout the rest of Subverse's development!
Sincerely,
Mr. Kristoff
- Senior Producer