SSH #19 — Playing in The Junkyard

Happy Saturday! It's time for some brand new information about everybody's favorite upcoming sci-fi action-engineering metroidvania, MEANWHILE IN SECTOR 80!

Last week, we showed some level concepts and talked about our future plans.

This week, we're sharing some details about an early prototype level, The Junkyard, which we got up and running in time for our most recent playtest.

The Junkyard

Laura put together a playable prototype of the junkyard level concept we've been working on to serve as the intro to the game.

We start the player out with no equipment and have them rebuild themselves from scrap, do a little parkour, puzzling, and combat, before we let them loose on the rest of the game.

The junkyard will eventually be full of stuff that's similar in shape to the player and the robots in the game.

For now, we've just got the most important bits: a couple dead player-like bots with a battery and a weapon for you to scavenge.

The level has a gentle introduction to puzzles and how we use glowing key objects, elevators, and drag-and-drop engineering.

It's also got a gentle on-ramp to combat with some of the enemies we've got so far in development.

In the end, you come across a vehicle that will take you out of here and send you on the rest of your adventure!

It was fun to see a level progress from concept to roughly playable, and Laura did a great job working within the game's current constraints.

Once you get out of The Junkyard, you end up on the newly renovated Home Ship.

Looking Ahead

This week was one of those where it feels like there's an endless number of things to do. It's overwhelming and tough, but doable!

I'm glad to be working with a wonderful team and I'm happy that we've got the time and space to work on such an interesting and unusual game.

I'll see you all next week, spirits willing!