Yesterday was the day: on August 15, 2026, Astral Bounty was playable in public for the very first time!
At the retro gaming event hosted by Insert Coins e.V. in Herne-Wanne, the game got its own little playground among home computers and consoles spanning four decades. Set up with a poster, laptop, monitor and gamepads, it landed right in the middle of a club full of playable arcade cabinets, consoles, home computers and pinball machines, which is just about the perfect spot for a handcrafted arcade shmup.
Across the day's two time slots, roughly 110 and 175 guests were on site. Astral Bounty had its own high-score competition: ten minutes per attempt, one winner per slot, and a free copy of the game at release as the top prize. Everyone else who took off at least got some nerve food in the shape of Haribo.
In the end, around 25 people sat down at the controls themselves. Two of them claimed the high-score crown, congratulations!
What made me especially happy was all the praise for the game feel: how directly the ship handles, how hits land, and how last-second dodges click into place. This "tough but fair" feeling is exactly what I work on most intensely. Hearing it confirmed by people who had never seen Astral Bounty before was a real highlight.
The cute, chunky pixel look went down very well too. Even more valuable, though, were the conversations, the questions about development, and the honest feedback after each run. Some players, for instance, would love more ways to interact with the obstacles in the levels, preferably by simply blasting them away. Others gave very concrete pointers on further fine-tuning the controller handling.
Ten players even took the time to fill out a feedback sheet. Thank you for that! Every one of these notes will be reviewed, even if of course not every idea can make it into the finished game one to one.
So what happens next?
The Steam demo has already been submitted and should go live in the next few days. If you weren't in Herne over the weekend, you'll finally be able to try Astral Bounty yourself.
If you're up for a handcrafted arcade shmup with a Blood Money twist, feel free to add Astral Bounty to your wishlist. For a solo dev project, that's one of the best ways to support the game, and you won't miss the demo launch.
Huge thanks to Insert Coins e.V. for the hospitality, and to everyone who played, watched and gave feedback.
See you at the demo launch!
– Weepel Games