Devlog # 9 Building a NEW demo

Hello again to another irregular devlog! We've been taking wish lists for about two months now without any advertising , slowly improving the game as we work towards releasing an official demo.

An official demo? You might be asking. What about the playable builds that have been available since the launch of the project?

Well they still exist but we aren't actively funneling people to them at the moment and we want to create something that feels nice and polished. We've been working on this demo for a while now and a lot has changed since the last time we updated the playable build here on itch. We're getting close to releasing the demo, hopefully by the end of August. The demo will be made available on steam. Did I mention we are on steam? They have this cool wish list button over there, you should totally check it out! *hint hint* Also we have a new trailer! Be sure to check it out!

WHATS NEW?

Ah yes it's been a while since I've written about specific new things we've been working on so let's talk about it shall we?

As shown above we are working on different styles of stages including a vehicle combat stage that will break up the usual gameplay think of it like a sort of mini game between levels. 

Here we can see both Bill and Duke's different vehicles. 

Next up we completely changed the controls into a twin stick shooter. We enjoyed the use of a mouse but it got a little tricky especially if the player clicked off screen. This resulted in a lot of poor gameplay moments so we decided to use WASD and the ARROW keys for movement and shooting. These keys are all rebindable in the game through the options menu but that is their defaults.

We also added the pocket chainsaw mentioned so long ago in previous devlogs. The chainsaw acts as an slicing melee arc in front of the player slaughtering bugs and terrain alike. 

We've been working on several other things that we can't wait to show you which is why we are so hard at work on finishing this demo. We will be sure to let everyone know when it is available in a future devlog. In the mean time you can follow us on Twitter, Mastodon , Tiktok, and steam. 

Don't forget to wish list us on steam because it really helps!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2413220/Exterminators_of_Saturn/

WHATS NEXT?

As I've said, the demo is our top priority however we are also beginning our marketing for the project. Some of that is making videos, taking screen shots, attempting to be social .... on social media. Yeah that one is a bit difficult. Never been a social person.

I've been saying "We" a lot in this devlog and followers of this series already know this but for anyone new here Exterminators of Saturn is being developed by two brothers myself(Jack) and my Brother. My brother has been working on enemy AI, particles, level design, and music and probably a long list of other things but for the sake of brevity I'll stop there since music is something very important to a game. We've settled on a style and that is "70s grindhouse movie" and that can lead to some interesting and fun music with a nice range for creativity. 

There's plenty of music to make and that will take up time over the next month, though in truth he will likely be working on many systems as we hunt down the remaining bugs. Coding bugs, the giant alien ants will have to wait.

I on the other hand will be working on artwork and finishing touches for the demo. I will also be focusing some effort towards marketing, a skill I have yet to master. If you figure it out be sure to drop me a line. I could use the help.  :)  ...  :\

Let us know what you think of the steam page and the new trailer! Thanks for reading and we will see you next time.