Skyjacker is one of many game projects seeking funding through Kickstarter. Unlike most, it actually has a playable demo, which I tried out a while back. Well, since then the project has raised nearly $93,000 out of their target of $200,000, but the bad news is that there’s only 10 days left in the campaign.
I’d really like to see Skyjacker succeed. It’s a space combat sim in the vein of classics like Freespace 2, but with a cool demolition system that lets player blow off bits of enemy ships and then salvage them to use themselves. Plus, with the demo the team has proven that they have the technical chops to deliver on their promises. And now, the team has updated the demo, mostly to include smarter enemy AI that will actually challenge the player. I took it for another spin, and it’s still quite fun, although I miss the “lead reticle” from Freespace that makes it easier to aim at enemy fighters at longer distances (EDIT: apparently this is already planned to be added to the final game). But it’s still pre-alpha gameplay; fixing these things is exactly what the Kickstarter campaign is for. If it sounds like something you’d be interested in, I urge you to check it out and consider donating to the campaign. Also take a look at their awesome fleet videos… they’ve got some really excellent ship designs in there.
Other Kickstarter projects have managed to pull through in the final days, but it requires getting the word out to people who might not know about the project. So take a look, and if you know others who might be interested, tell them about it.
Some quick technical notes about the demo and some more screenshots are below.
To get the updated demo, you actually have to install the original first, then apply the patch. The demo installer may ask you to install some other stuff like DirectX, which you can safely cancel if you already have the latest versions.
Once you’re playing, please remember that this is an early state of the game and many things are not final, including the voices which are very hard to understand. Also, if you are killed the demo crashes… there’s no death screen yet. But overall I found it to be very impressive for pre-alpha.
Here are some more screenshots I took (as always, click for bigger versions):
(The HUD is not final either)
It looks much better in motion, though, so check out the videos or try the demo yourself!
URL
Very good site you have here but I was wanting to know if you knew of any user discussion forums that cover the same
topics discussed in this article? I’d really like to be a part of group where I can get
responses from other knowledgeable individuals that share the same interest.
If you have any recommendations, please let me know.
Bless you!
waltorious
Hmm… I honestly can’t tell if this comment is genuine or a clever attempt to avoid spam blockers. It’s just a bit too vague to ring true. But, just in case it’s actually genuine, I guess there’s no harm in a reply.
If I assume that by “the same topics discussed in this article” you mean “space sim games”, then the best forums are over at Space Sim Central. They even have a dedicated thread for Skyjacker, which, incidentally, just started a new Kickstarter campaign and got onto Steam Greenlight. I’ll probably be posting about Skyjacker again sometime soon.