O Snap! Games
The Fists of Heaven’s very own Mike and Merritt visited PAX East last week (the rest of the team isn’t jealous at all), and their first coverage from this event included quite a few interesting indie developers that certainly deserve a feature on our website (expect at least two more articles about PAX from Mike and Merritt coming along). Anyways, if you are a regular at FoH you probably noticed that I really dig shootemups, 2D games and bullet hell games. You can read some of my recent work on this topic right here:
But for now, keep reading because I’m about to present Quasar, a 2.5D top down bullet hell coming from O Snap Games. O Snap Games is a team of indie developers from Toronto, Canada. Mike and Merritt met Ryan Luck and Franklin Barrientos at PAX a week ago in Boston (Ryan is the technical director, and Franklin is the creative director of O Snap Games). The cool thing about this duo and their team is their approach to this industry: In this sort of a competitive environment, the O Snap Games team is consisted of genuinely good guys. They are really responsive and open for communication, they listen to their community, and they insist on publishing a game that will be polished, skill based, and ready for the eSports arena. It seems that they really want to deliver a product that, while indie, will have the balance and polish of a much higher budget title. Undoubtedly, these guys have a hit on their hands, and even from the pre-alpha footage one can establish that this chaotic little thing of beauty is certainly going to find its way to the hearts of 2D space shooter lovers. I know we’re going to have a blast with it!
Procedurally Generated Awesomeness
Assemble the Vessel
In Quasar, there will be more than twenty spaceships available for you to choose separated into light, medium, and heavy classes. They can all be equipped with a myriad of hardware, and there are no ship class restrictions: if you want to load up a heavy ship with engines for additional speed, you can. In the spirit of the arcade classics, you can also grab powerups and similar boosts during gameplay and tune up your spacecraft as you fight. More precisely, you will have to fight off your opponents in order to get and use that upgrade because everyone’s going to want them! And if you don’t find a weapon that you would like to use, remember that I mentioned that these guys really care about their community of gamers? If you have a good suggestion for O Snap Games, you can join their community here and let them know. Also, if you are playing multiplayer you can build your own fleet or join an already existing one, which is really neat (More info on this feature as we get it).
Face the Chaos
As we mentioned multiple times, Quasar is a procedurally generated game: this means that you will never get to learn a map to help you dominate multiplayer. On the contrary, your map is going to be different every time you enter the game, and so will the goals and powerups. I really like this procedural map generation, especially in multiplayer: the playing field will always be fair. On the other hand, screenshots cannot express the atmosphere of this game, so I would strongly suggest to everyone to take a look at that gameplay video above – the chaotic action is mind bending, and us 2D space game aficionados are super excited for release. Quasar is being developed with the help of the Unreal Engine 4, and in its recognizable style, this game is fast and fierce whether you’re playing in the multiplayer or solo. There will also be multiple modes to choose from, and all of them look promising.
Quasar Kickstarter
I won’t lie – I partially wanted to roll this article out ASAP to spread awareness about the Kickstarter campaign for Quasar. All of the above, awesome features are still in the making, and these guys need your help to deliver this game to me as soon as possible. If you love retro space games, 2D games, and/or twin stick games, you should definitely back Quasar. It’s inspired by Space Wars and Asteroids (the very first space games), and there’s no title like it on the market. In the current state (watch that pre-alpha footage), this game is already nicely brushed up and it looks tempting to say the least. Personally, I can’t wait for the final product, which will have a 5 vs. 5 multiplayer option with at least 3 gameplay modes. Imagine 10 player, chaotic space combat in a randomly generated universe?!
The guys from Oh Snap Games are also playing Quasar live at Twitch, and you can catch them and check this game out right here. But if you already decided that you are going to back Quasar, just click the big image down below and it will take you to their campaign. Personally, I would love to see all stretch goals unlocked as well, since one of them is getting additional spaceships in the game. More. Spaceships. No such thing as too many spaceships…but I digress. Go back ’em!
The mad Badmath
In closing, I have to give a shout out to Blaise Lacktis (or Badmath), the FX engineer from O Snap Games, and the man behind the music from Quasar. It’s really refreshing when indie developers really invest in their music (something we appreciate here at FoH), and I have to say that Quasar has a soundtrack that is seriously amazing and could compete with AAA titles with no problem. The depth and quality of the music gives this game a much needed edge, further separating Quasar from the rest of the 2D/bullet hell marketplace. I mean, this game is unique as it is, but the music is seriously impressive. It’s like a statement from the devs, saying:
Yeah, we’re that cool.
I’ll definitely be bringing an interview with Blaise to you guys if at all possible! Now, listen to this:
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