Steam Reveal
I've been working my buns off getting Lenny the janitor ready for the limelight, so am super chuffed to be releasing the Steam page to the wider world. I will be doing regular dev updates as I get closer and closer to launch (whenever that may be...). In the meantime, if you have any friends that love strategic puzzles, VR games or fun narratives, please get them to Wishlist. Every Wishlist gives me a small motivational boot to keep going.
Gameplay: what is Alien Extraction?
The trailer is not quite ready yet, until then you'll have to rely on screenshots and my waffling.
At its heart Alien Extraction is a puzzle game. In each level you must navigate Lenny from the entrance to the exit, encountering challenges, obstacles, aliens and optional objectives along the way. You do this from the safety of your security desk, where you can use the cameras and minimap to understand the level and the many control panels (doors, flame throwers, rover drone, ect) to affect the level. For example in earlier levels you may only have to contend with a few closed doors and winding corridors, while later you may need to avoid roaming aliens and navigate trap laden and incorrect maps.
Look, Lenny is a great guy, but he's not the smartest AI in the AI... database. Like any normal human his sense of sight, hearing and smell is limited and he doesn't know where the exit is, so guiding him through the level is not always straightforward. You'll need to give him audio and visual prompts to get him to move, like following the rover drone or moving towards the sound of an opening door down the corridor.
The aliens on the other hand have astute senses and are actively hunting for Len, so depending on what tools you have at your disposal they will need to be avoided, tricked, trapped or burnt to a crisp.
These mechanics all combine together into a challenging tactical soup, add to that some silly narrative from Station AI and Lenny, Alien Extraction is a light-hearted puzzler that I hope will provide a really great couple of hours of escape for it's players.
State of the game
In two words: "Fun", "Challenging". The third would be "WIP" (work-in-progress). There is still a ton of stuff to be done like adding way more content, working on the narrative and continuously play-testing everything as I go.
I want something out of the door for anyone to play by mid December, although I'm not 100% sure what that will look like yet, be it a demo, early access release or a version 1 release with updates to follow. The most heartening thing is that play testers keep going and want more at the end. For the next two weeks I'm going to crack on with the game trailer and polishing the first few levels, so the next update should have a lovely new video to accompany it.
Thanks for reading and see y'all next update!