With the Alpha done

I'm back to working on the standalone Beta version

A month passed since I had an idea to create an alpha version to put the game out of the shadowdev with the web and standalone version, and now when it is shipped, it's time to share more details about the game.

Hello, thanks for reading this. Fighting through all the quickslapped jank made to ship the Alpha faster ended up delaying the alpha launch by a week, but I digress. Here to tell you the information about the upcoming updates for the game.

Many features and content are on track to be added, and many more exist as a concept, but unfortunately due to lack of feedback, deciding which course to take the game in is a bit difficult. Anyways, here's the list of things I can confidently say have a high chance of getting in the public free beta coming maybe in half-a-year (generous estimate):

Planned features for the free Beta:

• Destructible cover objects and more variation: Variety of cover objects of different materials. As the Alpha goes, the poorly modeled cardboard boxes are questioningly tough, which is not going to be the case in the upcoming Beta, here's the preview:
• Item boxes: Destructible item boxes that will randomly spawn, from which things like armor, ammunition and special items can drop from
• More themed levels, and verticality: Currently, an unfinished "wooden" level is presented, but more variety will come with time. The Alpha is also exclusively horizontal, but it's not going to be the case in the beta, that will includes some vertical elements
• Minibosses and events: A dozen of random events would be added, including minibosses
• Intelligent AI: I have a system in development that I don't want to spoil yet, but I think it's pretty promising
• Soundtrack: A couple of tracks from In-house original OST will be included in the beta
• Updated graphics: Refined impact, blood, shooting, explosion VFX, but the artstyle will likely stay unchanged

Things that are planned for final release but won't be included in the Beta:

• Item shop: A couple of attachments and upgrades for weapons and environment that will affect both players and enemies
• Improvements, enhancements and additions to the Beta features: Will be added/updated based on feedback
• Different gamemodes: Including customizable infinite mode
• Finalized levels: Final, polished versions of all themed levels
• Weather: Different weather conditions will be added. I have not decided yet if the weather will affect anything, or is just an aesthetic addition
• Completed OST:  With all tracks
• Steam deck support: And any other major OS (Linux, Mac)
• Complete UI and more polished game feel: UI Transitions, animations, kill effects
• Couch co-op: This one will be quite tough to implement, so it's possible that it won't be implemented at all, but the plans are still there
• Final boss: To defeat in the main gamemode
• Achievements: And other Steam related integrations

This is going to be a long one, so I'm not particularly keen on giving an exact release date, because I thought the game was going to be finished in 6 months, but I'm 8 months in already, so can say for certain that the development to the complete and full version is going to take at least a year. I will keep constant communication, so stay put.

That's seems to be it for now, thanks for reading through this yap. If you are interested, daily devlog can be found in discord:

https://discord.gg/f2rnRfBM