Aphelion Drop Demo (Patreon)

Well it's been a few months of work but I've finally come to the point where the "playground" version of the game is functional. I'd really appreciate feedback. I have ideas for direction and a lot of criticism for myself already, but I want to know what you all think I could do to make this game even better.


Download:

• PC Version
• Mac Version

NOTE: I was a doof and I have an ultrawide monitor. If your screen is smaller than 1920x1080 you will need to wait for a screen compatibility patch.

Controls (available ingame)

WASD - Movement

Left Click - Attack, Select, Progress Dialogue

Right Click- Special

Space - Dodge

Tab - Switch Weapons

P - Pause

E - Interact, Progress Dialogue

_______________________________    Details:    ________________________________

What kind of game is Aphelion Drop?                                                            Aphelion Drop is a 2D action game. Currently it plays more like a simple endless stage of Vampire Survivors, but I hope to add a lot more complexity to the environment. This demo shows off a lot of the systems I've been programming and gives a small impression of what my ideas for the game are.

Why release such an early version to the public?
I chose to release this demo as a sort of discussion with my player base. I really value constructive critique (and a lot of my audience plays video games.)

What kind of content will the game feature when it has more plot?                     I try to capture a unique mix of philosophy and eroticism in my games. This one is going to try to lean more toward gameplay and traditional story themes. That being said, I'll be slipping in as much erotic content as I can because I find it entertaining. One of the enemies in the demo has a really simple vore minigame, for example.

Note that there is some art in the game that's not available anywhere else. I have the entire story of the game plotted already and I'm only showing a few teasers of what I've done. I wanted to produce very few assets for this demo, so I could focus on the game itself.

Why did you choose to make a new game?                                                              I don't play many visual novels. While making Rapturous I faced some programming issues that implied I may need an overhaul of the entire game. I felt that it was important for me to make projects that I was passionate about, so I shifted my development resources toward something I could make from the ground up. I wanted to make the kind of game I'd legitimately play.

In past projects I used ren.py or other dialogue handler packages to help me get started, I chose to forgo that for this game. It's all my original code (utilizing some of Unity's base functionsD) and I hope to keep growing as a developer as I work on this project.

Before I forget...

The opportunity to spend several months researching and testing and experimenting to even get to this point is a massive privilege afforded to me by your support. Thanks so much, everyone. It may not feel like much compared to a AAA title but I'm really proud to have made even what I'm sharing now. I knew almost nothing about making games this time last year. I hope to keep growing from here!