Dev Diary: Pre-Alpha v0.1.11 - Climbing the Mountain


So...yeah. Things have been real rough for us. The pandemic hit us so hard, some of our members have decided to move on and focus on their primary careers. We wholeheartedly respect their decision, after all, we aren't making any money with this right now and passion can't pay the bills (sadly). They might come back to us someday, if things improve for them. They're still hanging around in our Discord server, keeping and eye on progress and keeping us company.

Has that stopped us? No. It got uncomfortably close there for a little while, but we rallied together and pulled through. Things are improving and we're finally getting back to work. Feels like I say that a lot, but hopefully those ups and downs are finally going to smooth out. I, personally, have finally moved in with my fiance. Gordon, our lead dev, is getting his own place soon too. Now that our daily lives are chilling way the hell out, we've got time and energy to spend on Azure Domain again! Let's walk through some of the stuff we've got going on.

[h2]New Gameplay Video - v0.1.11 on YouTube[/h2]
[previewyoutube=a-KGDc13Ux4;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]
We've included a start-to-finish gameplay video of the Carrier Assault mission on YouTube. This was actually originally put up to help show what we have to try and attract some new team members. I'll go into that a little later if you're interested in contributing to the project.

[h2]Multiplatform Support - Mac and Linux[/h2]

Oh yeah, baby! Thanks to Unity's excellent compiler, we were able to port AD to Mac and Linux with relatively little stress. If you're a Mac or Linux gamer eager to try out Azure Domain, get it on Steam! Mac and Linux builds are automatically updated too!

[h2]Graphical, HUD and UX optimizations and upgrades[/h2]

There are new models, effects and shaders in place to help improve AD's visuals. Additionally, a great deal of time was spent in optimization since high framerates are important to the game's feel. We wanted to ensure as many people as possible were able to play it the way it's meant to be played. So, we've also included some graphics presets to help players tune the visuals to ensure the best performance.

We've also made some changes to the HUD to try and make things clearer, more comprehensible and provide more information without adding too much clutter. It still needs quite a bit of work but it's to the point now that it's fairly easy to get used to.


[h2]New Mission - "Beyond the Veil"[/h2]

Now, I can't show you any screenshots of this yet, but...

You might have noticed in the gameplay video there is a new mission! In "Beyond the Veil", this demo mission will serve to introduce the Outsiders to the player. The Outsiders are the extradimensional beings being used by the corrupt sun goddess Sol, and an Outsider Archmind with grim plans for Humanity's future. You'll get to meet two new enemy types and a new boss enemy: the Alicorn, a huge Outsider Alpha-type that changes your understanding of how fights in Azure Domain will go. Don't expect to be able to pull off simple strafing runs, or the Alicorn will swat you out of the sky.

I'm currently putting together a teaser video for the new mission, so keep your eyes on the news feed for that one.

[h2]Help Needed - Unity/C# Dev and Unity Environment/VFX Artist[/h2]

Currently, we require a Unity/C# Developer and a Unity Environment/VFX artist. As you can see from the gameplay video, we still have a lot to do. If we want to attract positive attention and build our community, we need to polish this up a lot more. The current goal is to get the first four missions of the game done plus a hub area to walk around in. Once that's done, we can proceed with more aggressive crowdfunding opportunities like Kickstarter.

If you think this project might be fun to work on, please reach out to us on our Discord server!

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

So, there's not quite as much to show off as I'd like, but like I said keep an eye out for that teaser!

Pre-Alpha v0.1.11 is expected to become available in the next two to three weeks. Hopefully a lot sooner if things go our way for a change. I'd like to sincerely thank everyone for their support during these difficult times. Knowing there were people out there who genuinely wanted more Azure Domain helped keep the fire of our drive alight. Thank you so much, and I hope we'll get some more smiles out of you yet!

Hello pilots!

We've been awfully quiet these past few weeks, but not without good reason: we have some big things in store for Azure Domain! We've been working hard to integrate feedback with our game systems, as well as introduce some fun new things for players to get their hands on. Let's start with the simplest changes and work our way up.

First off, there have been a TON of tweaks to the energy system. Planes now regenerate energy MUCH faster, and weapons and planes both have shorter windows to begin regenerating energy. This means that players can be more aggressive and have less downtime on attacking enemy units. In addition, weapons now tax your plane's power plant, reducing the amount of energy your plane regenerates per second. The sum of all weapons in your fire group will determine how much strain your plane takes when regenerating. This also means that if your plane runs out of energy, it could take longer to get back to max maneuverability and speed, so be careful!

Another big change is that enemies now have weaknesses and resistances to certain damage types. One enemy may be weak to explosion damage and resist bullets, while another may not handle laser damage particularly well but shrug off explosions. There is now a damage indicator system to show which enemies are weak/resistant to what damage type to reflect this change. When you shoot an enemy, a colored flash will show to indicate how effective the damage was; red flashes indicate resistance, blue flashes show weakness, and neutral damage is indicated by yellow flashes.

Finally, we have a new demo mission in the works for the playtest. This mission will test your mettle against bizarre and enigmatic new enemies. It is not known what they are, and where exactly they came from, but it is certain that these new enemies are not at all human. Be on your guard pilots!

Well, that about wraps up this announcement. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks!

Best regards,
Gordon Whaley
Lead Programmer, PCMG

Hello, pilots!

We just added a minor update to version 0.1.10 of Azure Domain. It includes a couple quality of life changes aimed at enhancing the experience of selecting planes in the hangar and providing feedback to the team. The full change list is below.

Change List

• -Aircraft weapons are now visible on the hangar models, and change when a new one is selected. This will make selecting weapons for certain hardpoints easier.
  
• -Player and AI Viscounts now have new paint schemes. This type of scheme may be used in future models.
  
• -Chain lasers should no longer hit targets behind the player. This applies to both small and medium CLSRs.
  
• -Feedback buttons have been added to the main menu. These link to the Steam feedback thread, as well as our group Discord.
  

Welcome to 2021, pilots! It's been a roller coaster ride of a year. But now we can put the past behind us, and look toward the future! And in that spirit, we've put together a new build of Azure Domain to be available to all players on the Pre-Alpha Playtest!

This build features a number of changes that should overall improve the player experience. First of all, graphics settings are now configurable per user (FINALLY!). Resolution, graphics quality, and display mode can be adjusted to one's liking. Additionally, the plane AI has received massive improvements. They are more accurate with their shots, so they should prove a bit more challenging. Note that this also applies to your wingmen. They are more than capable of tearing targets to shreds now, when previously they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Use them to your advantage! We realize that the accuracy buff could make things difficult on players, so in response, all planes now have reduced cooldown times on their countermeasures. This will make defensive options more available, and allow you to block damage more readily in the heat of battle.

On top of this, the Sky Drift system has now received a massive rework. Instead of using thrust to circle a target (which is what the old system was designed to do), this new Sky Drift feature lets you use thrust to move your plane side to side, and up and down, at high speeds. You can strafe targets sideways, upwards, and every which way, as well as avoid damage using it. Give it a go!

These and other great changes await you in the new build. Here's the full list!

Change List (Version 0.1.10)

• -New graphics settings menu; Resolution, graphics quality, and display mode are now configurable by players.
  
• -Vastly improved Plane AI; all AI planes have drastically improved accuracy.
  
• -Marginally improved Airship AI; friendly airships have better collision detection with large objects, and turrets are more aggressive.
  
• -Sky Drift system reworked.
  
• -Cooldown time on countermeasures for all planes, player and AI, has been drastically reduced.
  
• -Controls for manuevering are now relative depending on camera angle, making it easier to move and aim when looking at the plane from the side, or the front.
  
• -New plane: QuA-31 Trident (Assault-type)
  
• -New weapons: Class 3 Machine Gun Pods, Class 3 Beam Lasers, and Class 3 Airburst Charges.
  
• -New Defense Module: Resonance Field (Boosts weapon damage depending on countermeasure state).
  
• -Machine Gun bullets and Fragment Cannon shards travel at half speed.
  
• -Fragment Cannon shards have new particle effects to make them easier to see.
  
• -Bayonet, Machete, and Suzume have extra module slots.
  
• -Fixed absent text from module selection dialog.
  
• -Fixed options not applying on game load.
  
• -Fixed not being able to rebind mouse axes.
  

• -Game will temporarily black out and stop for 2-3 seconds when in fullscreen mode, and loading the main menu. This behavior is not observed in other display modes.
  
• -Y-axis rotation on models in the aircraft hangar does not behave consistently.
  
• -Sabertooth and Trident control surfaces are not animated.
  
• -Module text is cut off in the selection dialog.
  
• -Game may start with a low resolution; can be resolved by setting resolution in Options.
  

32. That's the number of users that have signed up for the playtest for our little game. Wow.

All I can say is, thanks so much to everyone who signed up! I hope you enjoyed our little demo as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

But, there's still a long road of development ahead of us, and we'd love to have you along for the ride. If you have any thoughts or concerns about the demo, please share! Think the mission is too hard? Not sure what something in the game is or does? Find an error or bug? Vomiting at the basic graphics? Be sure to let us know!

We have a feedback thread in our Community Hub for all users of the game to submit their thoughts and concerns surrounding the game. Feel free to use it! It can be found here.

Additionally, we at PCMG have a public Discord server for anyone to use! A feedback channel can be found within. Use this link to get in.

Thank you all so much for participating in this playtest! The test will remain active until further notice to allow for further feedback. Good hunting pilots!

-Gordon Whaley,
Lead Programmer, PCMG

AZURE DOMAIN Pre-Alpha Playtest

So, the time is finally near. AZURE DOMAIN will officially be live for public playtesting through Steam's new Playtest beta. As we approach our v0.2 pre-alpha, we want users to have the opportunity to try things out for themselves and provide extremely valuable feedback to help us in development.

[h2]What version will first be available?[/h2]
v0.2 isn't quite ready for prime time yet, so you'll be getting version v0.1.9. V0.2 will come along once our Hub area is finished!

[h2]What platforms are being tested?[/h2]
Windows, macOS and Linux each have builds for testing that will be available. In particular, Linux and macOS users are encouraged to provide detailed feedback regarding stability and performance on their platforms, as our options for testing them ourselves are rather limited.

[h2]How do I get involved?[/h2]
The test will be made public once it's ready to go. The playtest will have it's own store page, and you can join the test group from there. No applications required!

[h2]What do you intend to accomplish with this first round of testing?[/h2]
We want to know how it runs, feels and looks on a variety of systems and platforms. In our Steam Community forums, leave your feedback in the Pre-Alpha Playtest subfourm.

Thank you so much for trying our game. We sincerely hope you enjoy!
-Eric

Join our Discord server here!