Hi Everyone, I'd like to thank everyone for their continued interest in the game. We were greenlit and everything and it was awesome. I appreciated everyone's time and hope you guys enjoy Organism 8 when it gets released.
What is Organism 8?
Organism 8 is a 2D action adventure that focuses on horizontal progression with light survival elements.
Who are the people responsible for making the game?
All pixel work is done in Photoshop and programming done by me (Derek Duong). You can follow me at:
https://twitter.com/MFSDDuong
I like to post things there.
Game engine used is Unity with a third party tiling system known as Rotorz Tiling System. Unfortunately Lea Hayes was not able to continue work on his tiling asset, none the less give him a shout if you can at:
https://twitter.com/leahayes
Our music composer is the talented Matthew A.C. Cohen. If you love the music, I would recommend you visit his website at:
http://www.matthewaccohen.com/
Tell us more about the weapon systems
There are 4 beam types in the game. They are;
- Phantom(Electric Blueberry): Responsible for dealing pure damage, most tools aligned with phantom are largely associated with either dealing direct damage or preventing it
- Heat(Flaming Peach): Responsible for adding temperature to the target
- Cold(Minty Gum): Responsible for taking away temperature
- Singularity(Radical Green Apple): Most utility effects are bundled here including dealing damage to ammo pools, disabling shields, knocking targets out non-lethally
Each of the 4 beam types can be used with any of the items available to Carter including:
- the arm cannon
- the det pack which can transform into a grenade or mine
- the combat kit which can transform into a rocket launcher and remote drone
- the suit in two forms including self buffing or aura emitting
With no augments, each tool is essentially smaller/bigger versions of each other. The rocket has the smallest explosion but you can shoot more at once, the mine has the largest explosion but uses the most energy to deploy. The real customization comes when the player starts crafting the trait augments of the game, "talent points" that completely change how weapons work.
Examples:
- Smoke Grenade is an augment for the fire grenade which allows the fire grenade to cover a large area with smoke, interfering with line of sight. This comes at the expense of the grenade's ability to deal any damage or add temperature.
- Blizzard Mine is an augment for the cold mine which allows the cold mine to cover a large area with a temperature dropping aura and disables the enemy's ability to add temperature to Carter. This comes at the expense of the mine's ability to deal damage, temperature is lost slowly for enemies in the field and also normalizes Carter's suit temperature if it's high.
All attacks stem from the same energy resource, the game's stamina mechanic rather than pickups.
Tell me more about itemization and progression
The game features a horizontal stat/trait augmentation approach with cosmetic rewards. There are various categories of items that can be crafted/obtained in the game. They are:
- Resources - gather these to make things
- Suit Cosmetics - I decided to make things purely cosmetic so the player can get the look they want without sacrificing their preferred playstyle
- Stat Augments - Pure stat based augmentation, when an augment is used to boost a stat in max shields, it comes at the expense of another stat such as energy regen rate
- Trait Augments - Augmentation associated with making various combat decisions in the game. These include augments for; when shields drop to 0, per 10 points of energy gained via recharging, when successfully landing a blow with an explosive, successful active parry, successful steady block, staying in the air with the jetpack, crouching, picking your nose IRL
Is Organism 8 non-linear?
The game features a Metroidvania style map with landing pads that can be unlocked as you progress through the game.
Tell us more about the protagonist
Yulana Carter is the head of the United Energy Technologies Research Group (U-EneT), a Private Military Group that masquerades as a Scientific Research Corporation and is also seen as one of the 4 grand mercenary groups of the galaxy by those outside of the Allied Space Federation. Despite being a very small organization, U-EneT has been able to accomplish vast things in a very short amount of time due to Yulana's more cold and sometimes very questionable approach to solving problems.
In this game we will be focusing on Yulana Carter and some of her subordinates including: Fafnir, Yamato, and Richter, more details coming soon.
Will there be New Game+?
The bosses and level design is made with New Game+ in mind. The best example of this is the Crimson Swarm faction, a race of giant red hornets that inhabit the area. Carter may attack the mobs, sending them into hostile state or do the best she can in preserving them. Maintaining allegiance with them until their level arc is finished unlocks them for assist and opens up a vendor to get a set of cosmetic armor and augments not available otherwise. Killing them opens up the option to ally with the Emerald Thunder, a race of grasshoppers that shoot lightning out of their mouths. Multiple playthroughs are required to get everything in the game.
The Nekril Orb Guardian as seen in the trailer get's his shields disabled via a flying singularity anomaly. As we know, green is great against shields, Carter can use her own singularity beam to disable the shields at will once it is obtained from a previous playthrough.
If I have more questions about the game where can I go to ask them?
I generally have my twitter always open so you can hit me up anytime at.
https://twitter.com/mfsdduong
Or you can post in the discussion here.
Thanks again everyone for your time and I hope to get the game out for people to enjoy as soon as possible. Thanks!