It's time! It's been 6 months since Space Bob entered early access, 18 months since the free open alpha became available for download, and 2.5 years since development first began, but Space Bob has now gone gold and left early access today. It's been a fantastic journey and I've met so many great people along the way who helped to shape the game at every stage of development. I can't thank each and every one of you enough for showing support and making Space Bob what it is today. I hope I did you all proud but our journey is far from over. Like Bob reaching the jump-gate, it's is only the beginning. I have some wonderful ideas brewing for post release content and you can expect updates and new features to continue to appear as often as they did during Early Access. There are still so many cool things to explore in the world of Bob and I could happily work on expanding it for years to come if there's enough support. Whatever happens in the future, I'm extremely proud of how Space Bob turned out and now it's time to have some fun and make it even better. Thanks again and here's hoping for a successful launch. Edit/Update: Oh dear. Steam has changed so much since the release of my last game in 2015. New games no longer get a spot at the top of the new releases list on the front page, so Steam is generating very little traffic to us here. This is very concerning for me right now. Views are only about 5% of what I was expecting based on previous experience. If you can help to spread the word about Space Bob's release today it would be very helpful otherwise the game is going to disappear before anyone even knows it exists. Somehow we need to get it trending to grab that front page spot.

[ 2018-09-28 12:50:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Space Bob vs. The Replicons is a light hearted yet challenging physics-based planetary exploration, survival, rogue-lite in the final stages of development for PC (Mac & Linux soon). Expect to die in a dozen different ways before you figure out how to survive for an hour.

Combining hand crafted planets with procedurally placed resources and hazards, you must help Bob to solve the mystery of what is keeping him trapped in a never ending time loop while experiencing elements of survival, platforming, adventure and space exploration along with his companion AI.

Gameplay

Explore dozens of planets, collect resources, salvage what you find to craft upgrades, and fight for your life while trying to uncover the time-bending mysteries of Bob's universe.


At first, something as simple as landing on a planet and recovering some salvage will be a challenge. If the planetary hazards don't kill Bob first he will likely be overrun by Replicons before learning that many things are not worth his time to collect. Managing resources while learning how to maneuver valuable loot around obstacles, and out of deep winding caves, is what the game is all about.

The first objective is to escape through the jump gate and this may feel like the end of the game but nothing could be further from the truth. To truly escape Bob will need to explore further, master his skills and ultimately take the battle to the Replicons directly over three story acts.

Whether you live or die, an average play session is designed to take 30-90 minutes. At first you'll die frequently and struggle to do seemingly simple tasks but with patience, careful resource management, time and practice you'll learn to survive long enough to discover that death is not as permanent as it seems. Dig even deeper and you'll find yourself working with mysterious forces to save mankind from alien obliteration over multiple consecutive games.

This game features a type of permadeath. Death doesn't reset the story but it does rewind time. Collected resources and upgrades will be lost so it's best not to try and do too much before learning how to survive first. Also, contrary to some of the early reviews, the game now allows saving at any time but as is typical with rogue-lites your save point will be lost after death.

Technology

Although the game may initially appear to use traditional 2D sprites, it instead uses polygons. This allows for improved performance but also the ability to seamlessly zoom from viewing an entire planet down to having Bob fill the screen, and all without any pixelation.


All objects are physics enabled creating the corner-stone for much of the gameplay. You'll need to figure out how to efficiently connect objects together and return them to your refinery ship in orbit while managing their weight as they swing around the game's environments. Oh, and don't forget that you'll need to do it while trying to survive an alien invasion. Good luck!