Its been almost a year away from DA now... damn, does time fly.
I've spent pretty much all my free time this past year and a half on pursuing my indie game dev dream with some talented dev pals from Touch Dimensions.
This is basically the menu screen for a humble premium title I am the lead designer/creative director on-- one that is my love letter to old school hardcore top-down tactical shooters/ARPGs.
We are aiming for submission to the Apple store for vetting in about a months time~ and we'll be doing optimisations for Android and eventually for the PC. Can't wait to share more meaty marketting shots/vids, etc soon!
THE LOWDOWN:
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As for Strain...
Its a semi-hardcore game set in an apocalyptic future where the earth is overrun by a space-borne infectious strain. (Think The Thing.) Thematically, the game is trope-y and homage-y and fairly self-aware and I'd like to think is a love letter to its inspirations. But from a functional game-play perspective, we hope it comes across as a tight, finely-tuned tactical ARPG experience, driven by elegant mechanics and innovative controls that excels on mobile devices.
You're a re-cloned war veteran who is put in Command of up to 5 Ground Team members, and are tasked to lead a special task force to defeat this alien Strain in your region.
You play from the vantage point of a helicopter(the Helibase) overlooking the action. The game features 78 playable units with varying personalities(traits) and self-preservation AI that for example, automatically position themselves out of harms way, with you acting more like a tactical controller who oversees their positioning on the battlefield.
This functionality is to accommodate players who lack finger-dexterity, but by NO means exhausts any kind of finesse-based play for more hardcore types. There are manual-override features that allow you to control individual units and their firing arcs all in real time and on the go, with elegant and intuitive controls. This means that it can be as "Command and Conquery" or as "Syndicate" as you can handle.
It has a physics-based combat system with fully realtime projecticles, inventory management and as mentioed earlier, Psychological management as a key feature.
The Helibase itself where you reside acts as a 'level' unto itself where you can board your units to ferry them from your home base to mission sites and back again.
This Helibase also features weapons systems that you use, as the gunner, to support your Ground Team from above.
Lastly, no "zombie-alien" game should be without an infection mechanic. Infection/decontamination plays into how you choose which of the 78 playable characters (clones) round out your ideal Ground Team. You can recruit Droids that do not get infected nor suffer psychological penalties, but have deficits in other areas.