hey everybody! this is tj, creator and multi-job guy of alpha six productions and The Joylancer.
we're so excited to finally be able to bring this game to Steam players, and very thankful to Steam, Digerati Distribution, and Merge Games, for helping us get here today. it's going to be an extremely exciting next couple months as we get the game ready for its final release in Q1 2015!
for those of you who might be new to the game, or maybe even don't know why exactly we're here, let's talk about it real quick:
WHAT IS IT?
Joylancer is an action-platformer that i started on in December of 2013. originally a much smaller project, i created the game to test out some ideas i had and see just how well i could execute them by myself.
as an experiment, i tried sticking to a 4-color palette for all of the graphics, and a 2-button control scheme, to replicate the "feeling" of Game Boy games (since i was playing / researching a lot of them at the time) while bringing out an experience that you wouldn't be able to find on one.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
the core game is a little different from other games in its league, as Joylancer is a game that focuses on speed and movement. in this game, your attacks are also your methods of going faster, of jumping higher, of falling safely. use your attacks to blast through stages, connecting yourself to different interactive objects, like grip poles, cannons, and long rail strips that you can ride by surfing on your weapon.
by pressing the Attack button, you use your attack, and the attack that you use depends on how much meter you have stored in your weapon. each attack also has a degree of forward movement, and this concept becomes extremely important for the platforming in later levels, as you have to combine your normal abilities with your attacks in order to traverse enormous gaps.
you can charge up on the fly by pressing Down+Attack, which can also be used to cancel techniques, safely stop moving, and deflect enemy attacks-- however, some attacks are unblockable and can only be stopped with your own attack or by dodging.
while charging, you can tap Jump to launch into the sky with the Burst-Jump technique, skewering everything above you, and in the air, you can press Down+Attack to use the Lance-Drop and smash everything under you.
Down+Jump will perform the Speed-Slide that lets you slide under cracks and trip enemies!
many attacks cancel into each other, allowing you to constantly keep moving while trampling every enemy in your path! keeping yourself and your weapon moving is key to success in this game!
WHAT'S IN IT? WHAT'S COMING NEXT?
Joylancer in its current state features three demonstration levels, showing off a variety of challenges early on in the game, the Arcade-Survival mode "The Dark Palace," and the 4-player face-off mode, Motor Combat, letting you pick between a huge variety of characters, including most of the enemies you fight in the game! compete for knockouts, be the last person standing, or collect the most crystals! (as well as more modes as we come up with them!)
UPDATES?
launching on Early Access, we want to make sure that the game that you're playing is great, and we want to make the game great for everyone. while there will always be complications that might prevent us from doing some things, we plan on going above and beyond the call and bringing lots of great updates as often as possible!
while in Early Access, we want to aim to have the game updated at least once a week, with these updates featuring bug fixes, new stages, new modes, and all sorts of new experiments that we do in development.
we hope that you're as excited to play the game as we are to bring it to you!
-tj