Invader Attack 2 was approved by IndieDB staff yesterday and is now present in the database: Indiedb.com
Development that has started more than 3 years ago, back in 2010, is destined to get finished until September 2014. I imposed onto myself that deadline and will try to stick to it and make sure the game really gets done.
The most important distinctions from its predecessor would be the improved AIs, 3D models, graphics using Shader 2.0 features (should work even on older 3d cards) and a wide range of different types of enemies, power-ups and achievements.
I'm proud to say that AI is currently biggest strength of the game. If you're a fan of shoot them up genre, you know that they always contain predictable waves of enemies flying and moving around, usually following noticeable movement patterns. Well, in IA2, you don't have those. In fact, each invader has it's own artificial intelligence (AI) I programmed to make decisions based on many input parameters. Some invaders are smarter than the others, some have different properties thus enabling them to have different strategies against you. And also, all invaders do communicate with each other, so there's a collective AI as well.
When you destroy the invader, he will fall down pulled by gravity, but sometimes this is the strategy of invaders. They might destroy each other to deliberately fall onto you. It's rare, but it happens when you least expect it.
As you can see the game will be full of surprises and I'm proud to say the game will be strategic shooter requiring you to know your enemy before deciding the best tactic on each level. There will be 100 levels, 10 bosses, so you'll need to make a decision about 100 best approaches until passing all the levels. Each level will carefully be designed to provide challenge even for the most experienced players of shoot 'em ups games known as "shmups".
Each level will have a transitional bonus level where you can pick up an extra life if you're skilled enough.
As each different invader type has different properties and tactics against you, replay value of the game will be high. When I was a kid I often dreamed playing this kind of game, but classic Space Invaders, that were available back then, just weren't good enough. I never dreamed, though, that I'll be the one to make such a game.
