Hello, Planet Killers!
I wanted to make a more personal announcement as we get ready for launch and say thank you to everyone who has played, wishlisted, followed, shared, streamed, reported bugs, filled out feedback forms, or simply kept an eye on the game.
Planet Killer has now reached nearly 6,000 wishlists.
That's a milestone I am tremendously happy to see as we approach the full release on September 9th.
During the playtest and demo, I also collected nearly 100 player feedback submissions through Google Forms. Across those responses, Planet Killer received an average rating of 7.66/10.
More importantly, all of that feedback helped make the full game considerably better.
The Demo Taught Me A Lot
The biggest recurring complaint with the demo was balance, and rightfully so (Star Sunder beam destroying planets in one shot anyone? Missile-based weapons just absolutely womping planets? Planet levels not making sense?)
Planet Killer has an enormous number of interacting systems: procedurally generated weapons, hand-designed weapons, passive cores, modules, ship abilities, wingmen, planetary defenses, shields, and countless combinations between them.
Balancing all of that has been tough and taken a while.
For the full release, I've done a major balance pass across the game. Weapons, passive cores, modules, and basically all other systems have been adjusted significantly based on both player feedback and the data I've gathered from the demo but I haven't changed the core of the game, because it should be brutal sometimes, and it should be exciting sometimes to get a really good weapon.
The Wingman system has also been improved and is now communicated much more clearly. Wingmen can equip one weapon and one passive module, opening up even more possibilities for specialized fleets and unusual builds.
And all of this is really what Planet Killer was designed to be:
Giving you systems, tools, and ridiculous amounts of firepower, and seeing what happens when you combine them in the face of exponentially difficult odds.
A Game I've Wanted to Make for a Very Long Time
Planet Killer is influenced by some of my previous projects.
Back in 2013, I made a Flash game called Evadar in ActionScript 2.0. It had a three-card upgrade system (similar to Planet Killer and many other roguelikes, and yes I wasn't the first, but still I was in on the trend early!), permanent death, run statistics, and a progression loop where you became exponentially stronger as you collected resources.
I also created another Flash game called Everstar, an open-ended, procedurally generated space exploration game with randomized planets. (They even had randomly generated flags)
I've been into procedurally generated space games for quite a while.
Planet Killer feels like the culmination of a lot of those ideas.
My goal was to create something that could feel different almost every time you played it, maximize replayability, a game filled with enough systems, statistics, mechanics, weapons, ships, and procedural possibilities that unexpected things happen naturally and work.
I love emergent gameplay.
129 Ships. Find Your Planet Killer.
The full game currently features 129 different playable ships.
Beyond the starting vessels, ships are permanently unlocked using Planet Cores earned by destroying planets during your runs.
There are entire families and progression lines built around radically different approaches to planetary destruction.
You can build around:
Fleet-focused drone carriers commanding armies of smaller ships
Massive dreadnoughts built around overwhelming firepower
Small stealth bombers embracing the ultimate glass-cannon playstyle
Frigates and multirole ships designed for flexibility
Specialized vessels built around missiles, beams, kinetic weapons, fighters, defenses, and other systems
And plenty of stranger ships that I'm going to let players discover themselves (Ramming planets build when?)
The new Ship Rune system adds another layer of long-term progression, allowing you to further influence the direction of your future runs.
My hope is that somewhere among those ships every player finds one that makes them think:
“Yep. This is my Planet Killer.”
You Have Already Played This Game More Than I Have
I've watched during the demo and the leaderboards have been crazy.
The current leaders include:
1. Cryoreaper — 1,548,497,144
2. jaszilla — 745,557,267
3. golden_one — 728,973,134
4. Linole — 692,502,695
5. wayswatcher — 636,905,205
6. meet and greet — 561,025,260
7. Fumoffu — 527,226,014
8. Wolfrenic — 464,673,224
9. NeoDekroma — 452,840,645
For comparison:
My own Planet Killer Rank, including an absurd amount of development testing is only around 180 million. Not even top 20-worthy.
(We also had 4,201 demo leaderboard run scores submitted, and 2,349 rank scores submitted)
There are players on that leaderboard who have already progressed several times further than the person who made the game.
Seeing people spend that much time experimenting with something I built (locked as a demo at a max 10 run depth!) has been super rewarding.
September 9th Is Almost Here
I already have several larger post-launch updates planned, along with plenty of smaller additions and improvements.
I'm also expecting to do a substantial balance update after launch once thousands of players inevitably discover horrifying weapon combinations I somehow failed to anticipate.
I'll be watching feedback, statistics, builds, discussions, and whatever completely broken strategies the community manages to invent.
For now, though:
Planet Killer releases September 9th.
We're on schedule.
We're at 6,000 wishlists.
And after a year of full time development, we're finally here.
Thank you to everyone who has joined me on this journey.
If you'd like to talk about the game, share builds, report bugs, or hang out with other Planet Killers, our Discord has become quite active:
I'll see you all on September 9th.
Stay ready, Fleet Commanders.