As some of you know, I started my journey around 2013. With my game Astra Etherium: Adventures of a Space Bounty Hunter in Space. A bullet hell shmup with a story and RPG elements. You could call it a roguelike-lite.
Due to so many life, becoming a caregiver and a multitude of other things, it got backburnered. So as far as it got was the alpha stage. It was released as the last game on the Ouya and also on the Razer Forge. I tried talking to some publishers to see what I would have to do to possibly get help finishing the game but unfortunately a lot don’t reply to people. Others would say no thanks. One said something that I will never forget though and it was something very simple. He said that he doesn’t think he could recoup costs. I had to respect that. Shmups are a weird market and genre these days.
Well I plan to make this game recoup costs and hopefully more. What I want to do with the game is change the dialogue into full cutscenes with possibly motion comics or something similar. Not full on movement but maybe scenes that move forward like a story. The RPG elements will be strong. But this past year I was talking to someone (one of my beta testers) and for whatever reason he got my creative juices flowing. I’m guessing it’s because he lets me have my mini rants. But now I have a trilogy planned out around this game, which includes a prequel and sequel. The prequel would be a murder mystery type game and the sequel would be a mission based game like early Metal Gear meets Meltdown.
This game was supposed to be a launch pad for me. I have a manga planned for it. I have a board game planned which is about to leave the concept stage, I hope. The game itself I want to get a physical release and add things like characters giving lessons and teaching people about the world of Astra Etherium. There are different alien races, phrases and many other things that could be told through motion comics or other methods. I want it to be like a director’s cut.
Hopefully I can get this going and all the other ideas in my head. My mind is always going and I have several other ideas too. I want to be able to be part of a movement to start bringing fun back to gaming.