DRONE SMUGGLER is an old-school, top-down space shooter with a few fun modern twists. DRONE SMUGGLER puts you in command of a shadespace DRONE (Deep-shade Remotely-Operated Nanowave Encryption) ship with one objective - SET THE HIGHEST HIGH SCORE! Customize and pilot your data-smuggling vessel through increasingly-populated-and-dangerous shadespace routes and use your ship's characteristics to out-maneuver, out-wit, or out-gun enemy ships while avoiding other shadespace hazards.
DRONE SMUGGLER is meant to reproduce the feelings of the best re-playable arcade-y classics while adding to classic formulas through procedural upgrades and scenarios that evolve as your gameplay does. The core of the game is your ship (which you can name each time it is destroyed) and its four attributes:
SPEED determines the maximum speed the player's ship can accelerate to. In enemy space objects, it determines the vertical speed of the object.
AGILITY determines how quickly the player's ship can accelerate or decelerate. In enemy space objects, it is factored into the rotational velocity of asteroids but does not currently have an effect on ship mechanics. Ship engine noise is modified by this value to give higher-agility ships a distinct sound.
POWER determines how quickly the player ship's projectiles travel as well as how much damage an enemy space object takes when one of those projectiles collides with it. It has the same effect on enemy ships but does not affect the behavior of asteroids at this time.
HULL determines the amount of damage the player's ship, as well as enemy space objects, can take before they are destroyed (when they reach a damage total higher than the value of their hull attribute).
The initial early access release has just a basic arcade game mode, but a full career mode, called Privateer Mode, with roguelite (emphasis on lite) procedural upgrades and challenges will be implemented for the full release. Full controller support is planned and already in development, and some controller functions for gameplay are already in place (it's a lot of fun to play with controller rumble for flight feedback. That said, as of Early Access release, the game features randomly generated levels with basic ship customization, so there's plenty of replay potential already.
See you in shadespace, pilot! o7
