Emergence February 2019 Preview Build Published

The February build of Emergence has been posted to Itch.io.

See the following video for release highlights and the notes below for a more comprehensive list of changes:

This build offers a massive improvement in the gameplay and game setting. The flat single room prototype from the January build, while interesting, is now significantly different.

January:

February:

Additionally, major features have been added. Namely:

• Linux support
• Mac support
• A heads up display with Stability (health), a compass, and a minimap
• The levels are now on a virtual landscape meant to be a small desert of circuitry
• Two new enemies - the Process Monitor and its big brother the Process Terminator
• The ability to capture computer cores
• The firewall will lower if all cores on a level are captured
• Entering the firewall will allow you to move on to the next level (only 2 levels, and the 2nd just wraps back to the tutorial level at the moment)
• A prototype version of the first true level (the starting level is a tutorial and character select level)
• Minor degrees of level randomization
• Enemies can now fire projectiles at the player
• Vertical gravity shafts, allowing the player to reach raised platforms

Work now begins on the March build which has a lofty goal of trying to add 5 new levels as well as enemies to populate those levels. It is a very content-heavy development cycle, but if all goes well, the game should be in a beatable state in the March release, even if the variety, detail, and complexity are lacking. It should certainly serve as a proof of concept and communicate what the game wants to be to the outside observer.

Speaking of future plans, as part of the February build I have included a pair of billboards on the tutorial level. Both billboards help orient the player as to the game world and what the game is in the process of becoming.

The general info billboard, while artistically lacking, helps players understand what type of game they're even playing.

The road map billboard (pictured below) tells the player where the game is going and when various features are being developed.

As always, please join the community and interact, particularly on Discord at https://discord.gg/U3fWjFj (Patreon supporters get a special badge to display and early access to builds).