A downloadable game for Windows and Linux

You're a lone corporation contract worker sent to salvage lost cargo on a distant uncharted planet full of hostile lifeforms. Mow down waves of unique enemies earning access to better equipment and customize your weapons to suit your play style. Protect the cargo and live to enjoy your reward.

Phobos Down is a minimal semi-casual twin stick shooter with focus on smooth controls and satisfying action. The plan is to keep things simple. Instead of adding tons of features, complex skill trees and crafting, this game will only have the bare essentials needed for engaging twin stick shooter action.

The game is currently in development with an early alpha version available. Note that while the core game is playable with all major mechanics implemented, it still lacks a lot of the planned content, polish and balancing.

Wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2754880/Phobos_Down/

Any feedback will be appreciated!

More information

Download

Download
phobos-down-linux.zip 23 MB
Version 0.0.10 38 days ago
Download
phobos-down-windows.zip 23 MB
Version 0.0.10 38 days ago

Install instructions

Extract the package to any folder and run the executable from there.

Microsoft Defender likely warns you about "unrecognized app" when launching this game. This is because you're one of the first people to ever run the executable, so Defender knows nothing about it. You can either click "more info" from the dialog and then "run anyway" to let it run despite the warning or install the game through Itch.io application instead.

Development log

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Comments

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theoratkin1 year ago(+1)

Very nice twin stick shooter! I like the simplicity of it, which is what you were going for. The graphics are very nice! And the upgrade mechanics is pretty good.

I have only one major gripe - the aiming feels very cumbersome. I keep hitting the terrain or shooting over the enemies, especially the flying ones. And I think it’d be nice if the crosshair wouldn’t be locked at a fixed distance from the character.

I think it would be nice if the game paused at the beginning to let you read the tutorial.

I also think the game could use some music!

Very nice job overall, good luck with this game!

Reply
FRACTiLE Games1 year ago(+1)

Thanks for giving it a go!

I will consider making the mouse aiming crosshair behavior an option later on. There is room for improvement in the vertical auto-aiming but it will never be perfect. Luckily missing some shots is not that bad when the ammunition is infinite.

The control guide text at the beginning is just something I slapped in at the last moment when I realized there were no in-game instructions at all. It will be improved.

This is a very early version with a lot of things missing. Music is one of them. I intend to add music at least in the menu. I'm not sure about background music during gameplay. I generally prefer using a lot of ambient sounds instead..

Reply
slembcke35 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

My thoughts are similar playing the 0.9 alpha. It looks good and is fun, but the aiming can be a bit frustrating. You don't really know if you are aiming into the terrain or not, and I need something more than a fixed distance crosshairs to know where I'm aiming. A laser sight would fit with the theme, and solve the distance and terrain collision issue I think.

edit: Oh, I ran into an issue with the keyboard controls by the way. Up and down worked fine, but left and right were really flakey. It's like it was getting random keyup events or something, so I would have to keep tapping it. (This was on Linux, PS5 controller worked fine)

Reply
FRACTiLE Games34 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks for testing!

The "free" mouse aiming mode (aim cursor can move freely around screen, not limited to fixed distance from player) should have been the default setting since 0.0.9.  Is this what you mean by "fixed distance cross-hair"?

There is a laser sight weapon modifier that can be installed into any weapon but obviously you would need to get it first. Perhaps I should remove the modifier it and make the laser sight constantly available in all weapons and toggelable in settings.

Did you have the PS5 controller plugged in while playing with keyboard? There is known bug in Godot that makes keyboard movement work very badly with PS controller connected. I should make some sort of workaround to this because I don't think it's going to get fixed in the 3.x any more.

Reply