Deep Flare is a 2D episodic space exploration game set in our solar system. Being focused on the plot and the atmosphere, it fits the expectations of those looking for a single player old time experience.
The game offers crafting elements through which the player will be able to upgrade his spaceship, and 2D shoot'em up elements, but the gameplay is not as focused on shooting as it is on avoiding the dangers that our solar system has hidden away from us.
Late 2025. The world is on the edge of the worst economical and political crysis ever seen.
In an era of rising international tensions and seemingly unsolvable energetic issues, William S. Anderson is the designated pilot of the spaceship sent off in a journey through our solar system, to investigate about a mysterious celestial event - the Deep Flare.
The hostile environment is not going to be his only concern. He will have to face the unknown, his fears and worries, unravel schemes and secrets hidden by time, become pioneer of a new age.
In a time when mankind has lost itself, you must find it again by getting through darkness.
Space exploration is no easy task. There are many things that you need to keep under control - fuel usage, radiation level, hull integrity and gravitational pull being only the most obivious ones. And, of course, there are as many things that could go wrong.
In Deep Flare, you will take control of William S. Anderson in his journey throughout the solar system.
Almost two years ago, our project was focused on releasing one single big game called Deep Flare: Explorer. We started by working on a full playable demo set on Europa, one of the Jupiter's main satellites. Alas, our plans had to change in order to adapt to a different working condition that our lives forced us to adopt.
In this demo, you'll get control of the spaceship's exploration module, in a quest to get everything ready for departure after an unlucky incident... but there are many mysteries hidden on the icy moon for you to unveil.
Keep in mind that this demo is based on an outdated game concept; the current project is slightly different.
We decided to put voice acting in this demo, even though this feature will not make it to the completed version of the game.
Hi everyone!
It's been quite a while since the last time we got in touch with you. A little longer than a year actually.
For those of you who don't remember that, in our last posts we asserted our firm determination to keep on developing the project, despite the poor results of our Kickstarter campaign. Confident in our on-the-ground experience, we got back to work - with some adjustments to our plans and pacing.
Our first ordeal was indeed to survive a long and hard period filled with changes, farwells, lack of resources and personal issues of all kinds. Despite everything, we never gave up. We looked at each other and realized we hadn't had enough of that already.
But sheer determination has to be paired with judgment in order to succeed. By taking a closer look at our own project, we realized we couldn't make it on our own. Then we accurately weighted every possibility and taken some (more or less painful) decisions about what to keep and what to cut from the concept. We can't know if the road we've taken is the right one yet: only time will tell, to us and to you as well.
The first and greatest change in direction is about publishing.
As we've said time and again, the original idea was to develop all the game from top to bottom. One big, carefully crafted experience to be delivered to you all in one piece. Alas, that would have required an amount of resources and effort that we just can't put into it as of now.
So we've taken a different route by opting for an episodic release structure. That way, we will be able to give more polish to every content piece (thus mantaining a good quality standard despite the lack of resources) and you will have time to enjoy a more focused and less dispersive experience.
The first episode is set to take place on the Moon. Starting small will be useful to us to make gameplay adjustments in order to deliver better following episodes, and you'll get to (finally!) have an "appetizer” after a long wait.
The following episodes will cover William's journey throughout the solar system. No worries - we'll keep as much freedom of exploration as possible: you'll be limited only by the same means that would have kept you from getting somewhere in the original concept.
For this reason we decided to change - or, more precisely, to structure in a different way - the project name.
"Deep Flare: Explorer” will become only "Deep Flare”. The first episodes will compose our first ‘season', called "Explorer” in honor of the project's beginnings.
Of course there will be many more news to come… only pre-warming our engines here!
See you soon!
Opened a public Discord channel, completed the code baseline of the game, some new module sprites to show... long story short: big news.
We redesigned our exploration mechanic to make it more clear and functional.
This week we talk about the entire creative process behind the sound effects in Deep Flare with our Sound Designer.
This week we discuss how we changed the game flow from Deep Flare: Explorer to Deep Flare concerning the movements of the main ship.
*** UNTESTED BUILD *** Europa Demo of Deep Flare: Explorer, for Linux (both x64 and x86 binaries included)
Europa Demo of Deep Flare: Explorer, for Mac OSX (Universal)
Europa Demo of Deep Flare: Explorer, for Windows (32-bit binary)
Europa Demo of Deep Flare: Explorer, for Windows (64-bit binary)
I tried the latest demo and it realy is interesting.
Small feedback:
+ I like the voice acting and that the actor is commenting your actions
- I did not like that much text at the start. let me play first and or cut some text
The star background could move as well. I dont have the feeling of movmeent when i dont have ground obstacles in sight
Thank you for the feedback! :)
About the star background, we put some heavy parallax effect there, but we'll keep in mind what you say and do some testing for future development.
Nice game so far.
Will more voice acting be needed?
Hi and thank you! :)
About voice acting, we're not 100% sure to feature it in the completed game. We added it to the demo mainly to test how well it integrates with the gameplay, and to evaluate the amount of extra work involved.
Looking forward to this!
Thank you! :)
Did you try the demo?