Exoroids is a real-time tactical space combat game developed by me - Maurice (Mostly made by apes) as a one-person indie project.
It started in 2021 as a small clone of the classic arcade game
Asteroids
and grew accidentally into something bigger:
Physics-based, top-down space action combat
Many different intelligent enemies that require different tactics to defeat
Local co-op for up to 4 players
Perks and weapon upgrades
Partially randomized gameplay embedded in a simple story
Exoroids is currently an advanced prototype / alpha. An early build is available on Itch:
See the linked video for the newest gameplay footage.
Below you will find development news, sneak previews and the roadmap. All posts are listed in the archive.
I would greatly appreciate any feedback and suggestions for improvement!
(pinned) Estimated Roadmap
This is the estimated Roadmap with NEW features or changes. There is no fixed timeline or order, I will develop the features as I see fit or
based on user feedback / urgency.
See W.I.P. as an indicator of features that are currently being worked on.
Enemies / Weapons:
Ice Asteroid
An asteroid that freezes nearby objects when struck or touched.
Frozen state mechanics for players and enemies
EMP Rockets / Mines
Objects that emit electromagnetic pulses, disrupting nearby electronics and disabling them
temporarily.
EMP mechanics for players and enemies
W.I.P. Asteroid Thrower
W.I.P. An enemy type that throws nearby asteroids at the player.
Done Tractor beam mechanics for players and enemies
Devastator
An enemy type that shoots splash damage projectiles that will block certain areas.
Splash damage mechanics.
W.I.P. Drones
Different drones that will be used for various purposes (helping enemies).
Done Attack drone
A small unmanned attack ship, mostly for tutorial purposes.
Perhaps later on deployable by the Drone Carrier.
Repair Drone
Repairs nearby enemies.
Defense Drone
Shoots rockets that were fired by players.
Drone Carrier
Deploys drones.
Command Ship
An enemy type that boosts the abilities and stats of nearby enemies and shoots a giant laser.
Space dividing laser mechanism that insta-destroys everything in its path.
Laser Mine
A mine that will work only in pairs: If one mine is near another one, they will span a laser
barrier as long as they are within a ceratin range to each other.
Infected ships
Biological horrors ;-)
Boss Fights
There are three bossfights planned (TBA).
Gameplay, Controls, minute-to-minute gameplay
Level / Gameplay overhaul
Done Make a much slower introduction into the gameplay and speed up later on
The introduction is too fast for new players. The handling of the ship is pretty much maxed out which leaves not much room for improvement later in the game. I don't have really touched that much on gameplay mechanics and player progression.
W.I.P. More evasion options and advanced controls.
The game needs more complex controls to better support the gameplay and provide more variety in player movement and interaction with the environment.
Testing different control schemes and player feedback to improve gameplay.
Done Player Evasion
A short evasion time in which the player can avoid incoming attacks. Works similar to the Zelda B.o.t.W. endurance system
Needs revision; I'm not sure if I like the "feeling" about it
Using Player feedback to improve gameplay.
Must test various ways to use obstacles to create more interesting levels.
Asteroids only are a bit boring, but work well with the enemies' intelligence. More complex objects like asteroids with different shapes and sizes, or even more advanced objects like pipes or complex debris may be too complicated to navigate. Therefore, it must be tested.
Bonus levels with some sort of autoscrolling and obstacles
Balancing and progression!!
Do the perks enhance the gameplay, and do they solve problems that the player does encounter?
Are perk values balanced?
Do the levels have enough variety and challenge?
Multiplayer enemy scaling
The number of players has no impact on the difficulty of the game, YET.
Music
I need several tracks for action sequences and menus
Must test AI-generated music to see if that works. This is a long shot, but it could be a good option if I can't find anyone who can create professional music for a reasonable amount of money.
Character Portraits
Need to find someone who creates professional character portraits to replace the AI-generated placeholders
Finishing story elements, cutscenes and voice-overs
Adding more story elements and creating more "cutscenes"
Voiceovers must be overhauled and redone.
Finishing localization (Text only)
Audio is always English, but subtitles should be in several languages...
Perks / Meta
Obtaining Perks:
Instead of unlocking through resources, it would be better to obtain perks through interaction with matching enemy types. E.G.: The homing rocket is unlocked by defeating enemies that have a rocket launcher.
W.I.P. Evasion updates:
Evasion Duration
Evasion cooldown
Done Different options for the primary gun:
Triple Shot
Three bullets, but only one-third of the damage
Heavy Shot
Double the damage, half the cadence
Charge Shot
Charge for more Damage
Damage Increase
Increase damage by some tiers
Range Increase
Increase range by some tiers
Cadence Increase
Increase cadence by some tiers
Decoys
Will distract rockets and mines
Repair field
Creates a field of nanoparticles that repair players or enemies within
Damage field
Creates a field of nanoparticles that reinforces damage of certain bullets or rockets that fly through it
Sniper Gun
Special Weapon like the one of the sniper enemy type.
Gravity Blast
Special Weapon that will blow away physical objects.
Bugs / Tasks / ToDos
The tractor beam effect sometimes persists after the asteroid launcher has been destroyed
Fast-forward in spawners when the player clears enemies too fast
Explosions don't affect all objects correctly
RELEASE A (completely unbalanced) GAMEPLAY DEMO / PROTOTYPE ON ITCH for feedback
The Endscreen is not shown sometimes, which prevents further gaming :-(
The 4 Player UI layout has too much Space between the selection areas
The resource asteroids should 'blink' occasionally to make them more visible and engaging
Shield Ram, Advanced Fighter and Ranger explosions must use their own assets (Using fighter's assets ATM)
Keep the music of the highest enemy tier even if there are nor more enemies of that tier to avoid abrupt changes in the game's atmosphere.
Resources are sometimes dangling so that the player can't pick them up.
Play the battle music longer after the last enemy has been killed
Statistics
Shield Generator flee behaviour: Never drop self-shield if under fire
Perks and Updates
I've added several new Perks and improvements to the game :-)
So at first, there are new primary weapons that can be used alongside the secondary weapons like Rocket Launchers and such. The following Primary Weapons are new:
Triple Shot
Heavy Shot
Charge Shot
They basically do what you would expect ;-)
The Triple Shot fires three shots in a spreading pattern, but with lower range and damage each, while the Heavy Shot fires a single shot with increased damage but lower fire rate. The Charge Shot is a weapon that charges up over time and then fires a powerful shot, but its unloaded shots are weak.
Every primary weapon except the Charge Shot can be improved in range, damage and cadence.
Additionally, I fixed the secondary weapon perks so that all perks and weapons are fully functional, yet unbalanced.
I fixed many nasty bugs, Multiplayer should work now, AND I have reworked the 10 Demo Levels to match the latest Gameplay changes.
Details (most important):
Support of static-spawned objects that are present directly at level start
The game no longer hangs after a Game-Over
Dangling Resources are now fixed
The dead player's ghost image is now controllable again in Multiplayer mode
The next steps are to release a new Demo version with the aforementioned changes. Then I will proceed with the Roadmap.
See ya!
Attack Drone: Short sneak preview GIF
Alongside the asteroid launcher, I’ve also been tinkering with the attack drone. That turned out to be trickier than expected, as I wanted a unit that was significantly smaller and more fragile than the standard fighter.
My initial designs were all too detailed for that scale, so I needed a very simple shape that would remain clearly legible in a top-down view. Plus, I didn't want to just spawn them in; I wanted them to be deployable from a spacecraft.
So now, the drones come in a neat casing that opens automatically after a short while to release them ;-)
From the archives:
"
In our glorious army, reconnaissance is everything, and our numerous drones are the prime example of this.
Distributed across strategic points in space, they monitor the surroundings and—when necessary—engage minor threats in swarms. They also serve as valuable support units, backing up our troops in space after being deployed from our drone carriers.
Small, inexpensive and available in vast numbers: these are the drones of our assault forces.
"
Current progress:
Basically finished, only needs some fine-tuning.
It will work as a tutorial unit and as a support unit in the later game.
Asteroid Thrower: Short sneak preview GIF
This is a short update to the Asteroid Thrower
I've been working intensively on the asteroid launcher and the drones over the last few days. Even though the asteroid launcher isn't finished yet, here's what it looks like so far:
From the archives:
"
Acting as a medium-class support unit, the Asteroid Launcher operates from a distance.
It uses a tractor beam to capture smaller asteroids and hurl them at the aggressor.
Powered by state-of-the-art grav-tech, the Asteroid Launcher does not betray its position via thruster signatures. Its impenetrable secondary shields orient themselves toward the aggressor, rendering frontal assaults futile.
It serves as another component of Earth's defense forces, deployed whenever conventional measures prove insufficient.
"
Current progress:
The AI, models and animations are mostly done. Sounds and explosion effects still need to be added.
I'm happy with the outcome so far, the Asteroid Thrower brings a lot of dynamism to the gameplay and if an asteoroid hits you, it hits hard. I will do a sneak preview video as soon as explosion effects and sounds are in.
Stay tuned :-)
Dayum! (and welcome)
First Blog post incoming!
The page is up and running, the Itch.io page hopefully works too and the game... Yeah, let's see how THAT goes.
I've looked it up: The first GIT commit was on 2021-03-21, which is somewhat frightening for a game with a small scope like this.
The project has begun with a simple idea, a "little" fun project: Just implement a small clone of the original Asteroids video game.
As I was fiddling around with the game and had some fun shooting up asteroids, I thought why not implement something more intelligent than a rock, and the first enemy has been born: The Fighter.
Carving out the Fighter's behavior was great fun, and after the fighter there were more enemies to be implemented.
And so, as a hobby, I've been working on the game in my spare time and have implemented more and more features, polished that darn thing to some extend and thought by myself: Okay, perhaps there is someone else out there that might enjoy playing it.
So there it is, an advanced prototype / early game downloadable at Itch.io.
I want to add some blog posts here and there where I can share my thoughts and experiences about the game development process, or simply some news or thoughts that won't fit that whole Itch thingy.
Test dat game and if you like it, I will be very happy ;-)
Is there some kind of release planned somewhere?
It really depends how much feedback I get from people who try it out. If there is enough feedback, I will consider releasing it, but there is still a shitload of work to do.
How far along is the development process?
Perhaps 40 - 50%, but most of the Levels are still missing, and there are still most of the features and perks to implement. And i hope for some player feedback to improve the gameplay. I would consider the games as an advanced prototype that may be used for production, or an alpha version. Everything may change ;-)
(pinned) About Exoroids / Media / Download
