Dear Friends, This morning, I pushed Ops v29 to Steam. This should be the final build prior to pre-publication review by Valve. As you may know, the game is scheduled to launch on Thursday, August 15th. HUGE THANKS to everyone who provided insightful comments, bug reports, and suggestions for improvement! There may be additional builds prior to publication, so please do continue to send me your honest feedback. The biggest change in v29 is the introduction of the F-317: a highly classified stealth bomber aircraft that delivers airdrops of power-ups to the player. There is currently only one power-up available: an induced gamma emissioon (IGE) warhead, based around a hafnium nuclear isomer, that kills all visible enemies through a flash of gamma radiation. To signal the F317 to drop the bomb, it is necessary to hit it with a radio wave. Likewise, to trigger the warhead to detonate, it is necessary to shoot the package as it's falling. A challenge? Absolutely! But you can do it!!
ALSO, development of Ops Mobile is officially underway, so watch out for that in the Google Play Store soon! We now have a working port of the game running in Android 14 on a Google Pixel 8 Pro. It still needs work, and we don't want to fork the project too soon, so the Steam version of the game will take priority for now. If interested in Ops Mobile, please do give us a shout! Will it release for iOS as well? Possibly... That depends on the level of interest. Stay tuned! Cheers, ~ Pete http://www.vlaops.com

[ 2024-08-06 15:18:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Created by real life VLA Operators, "Ops" takes you inside the shadowy world of NRAO Special Operations and puts you at the controls of the world's largest energy weapon: the Karl Zjunior Very Lethal Array! Disguised as a giant radio telescope larger than New York City, this massive weapon was built for one purpose and one purpose only: to terminate hostile aliens with extreme prejudice! Lucky for you, the night sky above rural New Mexico is a target-rich environment...

Knowing cows to be more intelligent than humans, the aliens seek to abduct as many cows as possible. Due to the VLA's special relationship with the cattle rancher, allowing all of the rancher's cattle to be abducted would be disastrous for your employer, the National Radio Ablation Office (NRAO). Ablate the aliens before they can abduct all the cows! Also, look out -- the alien ships pack devastating laser cannons that can melt your antennas within a few seconds. Kill the attacking ship before your antenna melts, and your antenna will eventually cool back down.

As you get to higher levels, you may notice other threats, such as chupacabras. These foul creatures are particularly nasty! A chupa will happily eat an entire cow whole (although they usually like to carry the cow back to their lair before doing so). Once a chupa has sunk its sizeable fangs and talons into a cow, the cow is mortally wounded and cannot be saved.

We wanted to do a "Last Starfighter"-style contest whereby whoever earns the highest score automatically gets offered a job with NRAO, but sadly that idea was deemed to be "too rad" to actually implement (paraphrasing a little here)... We do, however, encourage everyone who crushes this game to apply for a job with NRAO. It's an amazing place to work, and this game is exactly the same as being a real life VLA Operator!*

*The truth value of this claim has not been independently verified and is dubious at best.