Leipzig, 27.03.2017 – The alpha for Sleeper Games' new jet-combat rogue-like just went live on itch, featuring dozens of items, various enemies as well as three boss fights and endless play afterwards. Ace Access players get to swing hardlight swords at fighter jets in mid-air first hand.
After months of closed testing, Sleeper Games now released a fist public build of their air brawler to the public. The current alpha version features a refined gameplay loop, in which the player combats waves of enemy fighters and ground targets with some of the 15 weapons available ingame, all in an ill fated attempt to demilitarize planets at the brink of destruction. The games story is told mainly through combat chatter and item description, but HDog is more concerned with providing an intense and fluid 2d air-combat experience than telling the player about what exactly is going on. You are here to blast things and that's what you'll get to do.
Combat is only interrupted by short intermissions scenes in which the player can pick up new items. The already large variance in weapons, passives and active items ensure that each 10-30 minute run plays out a little different. Sometimes you'll build up a tanky shield jet, sometimes an ultra-fast jump craft and sometimes things get just weird. With certain items each of your evasive jumps might create radioactive explosions, or your jets starts to randomly drop air-mines, or your melee swings fill half the screen, or all your attacks get teleported to the mouse cursor when engaging. You'll need to make the best of your jets emergent abilities, since difficulty ramps up fast and before you'll know it you'll be chased by homing missiles and advance enemy jets, while fighting screen filling bosses.
Sleeper Games is looking forward to gathering broader feedback after the alpha launch on itch. “There is still tons of stuff I want to do with this game” lead designer Stefan Widany said. “And with the help of the itch community we'll make HDog the best game it can be.” The self-titled “Ace Access” program Sleeper Games is running gives players first hand access to the game and all following iterations. Ace Access users also buy the game at a reduced price. The next alpha update will further extend the games item pools and is planned to go live in about a month time.
