Tag: Demo Time

Demo Time: Intrusion 2

On July 17, 2012

Just after taking a second look at the Skyjacker demo, another demo came to my attention. This one is for Intrusion 2, an indie action platformer, with the focus on the “action” half. I mean, just look at this trailer. Intrigued, I gave the demo a spin, and I can confirm that the action is indeed completely ridiculous. I got to drop huge boulders on enemies, knock down guard towers by blowing up their supports, ride a giant wolf while shooting at flying squid robots (pictured above), and deal with an over-the-top, multi-stage boss fight that made most action movies look tame.

In short, it won me over, and I’ll be grabbing the full game, currently going for $10. But since it will end up in my ridiculously large game queue, to be played at some indefinite time in the future, I figured I’d call your attention to it now. The official site has the download link for the demo as well as the purchase link if you decide to buy.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, the “2” does in fact mean that it is the sequel to the original Intrusion, which was a free flash game. You can find it on flash portals like Kongregate if you’re interested.

Demo Time: Updated Skyjacker Demo

By waltorious

On July 12, 2012

In Uncategorized

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.

Skyjacker Kickstarter To Be Rebooted

By waltorious

On May 23, 2012

In Uncategorized

With regards to my last post about Skyjacker, it looks like the developers have decided to scrap their current Kickstarter project so they can start a new, better one. The news comes in the project’s latest update, although the current Kickstarter project still appears to be active. No word yet on when the new Kickstarter project will start, but I’ll keep an eye out for it. In the meantime, anyone’s who’s interested in some space sim action can still check out the playable demo.

Demo Time: Skyjacker

By waltorious

On May 20, 2012

In Uncategorized

Ah, demos. They were these things we used to have that let you try out part of a game before you decided to buy it. Now, there are so many inexpensive games available digitally that most developers don’t bother making demos. But there’s a good reason that the Russian developers of Skyjacker made a demo: they’re not quite done with the game yet, and they’re looking to crowdsource some funding through Kickstarter. That’s been quite successful for some other game ventures, as you may have heard.

Of course, after Tim Schafer’s success there’s been an explosion of Kickstarter proposals for new games. So what makes Skyjacker stand out? Well, for one, it’s a space sim, which is a classic genre that essentially hasn’t seen any new games since 1999’s Freespace 2, considered by many to be one of the best games ever made. Skyjacker’s developers are also talking up some cool features like fully destructible spaceships that can be blown apart one piece at a time, freeform gameplay that lets the player pick and choose missions and develop their own relations with various factions, and a bunch more. And, unlike most Kickstarter projects, there’s already a fully playable demo. I downloaded it, dusted off my flight stick (literally; it was dusty) and took it for a test flight.