"Alpha 7" is the latest project by Talos Studios. The development team is made up of designer/programmer/project lead Peter Kuchnio ("voodoovb") and artist/designer Andrew Thomas ("AT"). The game is touted as an "intense space combat" game in a campaign/mission format, allowing the player to advance in rank, customize their ships, and command wingmen.

The freshly-built tech demo of the game that I received for this preview was essentially the same thing as the publicly released demo with a few additions: an extra maneuver (double-tap S to flip and reverse heading), 2 extra weapons (an enemy-seeking missile, and an area effect weapon), and the ability to link-fire all 4 weapons at once. The demo was simply a never-ending skirmish mode where a single type of enemy craft is added in numbers to the playing area and the player's only goal is to destroy as many of them as possible before being destroyed.

The Direct3D8-driven graphics engine is extremely smooth; offering up very fast FPS counts on this author's modest machine (P3/500, 16MB Voodoo3). The combination of finely created graphics, smooth animations, and well coordinated sounds gives a very enjoyable playing experience for a 2D space shooter. The mouse+keyboard ship controls, while initially awkward, proved to be a good way to maneuver while in combat.

Kuchnio warned me that the link-fire with 4 weapons would make this new build of the demo "a bit unbalanced." And he wasn't kidding! With the original demo, I tended to average between 10 to 15 kills in a game. With the new build, I'm averaging 140 to 180 ... ;-D The near-invincibility and constant slaying does get old after a while, but Kuchnio was quick to answer: "It won't be unbalanced when we have the system properly implemented :) Basically, each ship has a limited number of weapon slots that you can fire projectiles from." He also went on to mention that an ammunition limit and (possibly) a weapons-heating limitation would be in place in the game.

Which leads me to my only problem with the demo ... while it may show how the in-battle graphics, sounds and controls will work, it really doesn't show much of what the overall game will be like. From conversations and e-mails with both Thomas and Kuchnio, and from looking through the "Alpha 7" website (http://www.talosstudios.com/alpha7index.html, I've been lead to believe that this will be an immense, strategic game with a well-developed story. So, I had a little Q&A with Kuchnio:

Q: Since the game will have strategic elements within the different missions, what type of interfaces do you plan to provide to the player to help them with the strategic planning part of the game?

A: First, the player will have a radar. They will also have navigation aids which point to the nearest enemy, next mission objective, etc.

Q: You've added some new weapons in the demo that you gave me ... what other types of weapons can we look forward to?

A: There will be different types of missles with different turn rates. Some are very maneuverable but do weaker damage and are better for close in fighting, others are more like lumbering cruise missles. We are also adding auto-turrets that point automatically towards the nearest enemy ships, sapping weapons that drain an enemy when they attach themselves to them, beam weapons, etc.

Q: The demo is a generic, never-ending skirmish mode that gives the players a chance to test-drive one of the ships. However, the indications are that "Alpha 7" is a campaign/mission type game. What different types of modes will be available to the player?

A: The mission modes set in stone in the design are the campaign and a skirmish mode, exactly like you described. You will probably have to unlock the ships by getting them in the campaign before you can play with them in skirmish mode. We will also allow the player to play individual missions that they have already beaten, so if there is one they particularly liked, they can replay it again and again =)

Q: How are things coming in the project overall? What are the major milestones you're working towards?

A: Okay, good question. The basic design of the game has been completed for a while. What we are working on now is solidifying all the details. We're almost finished with the mission design. After that, we will design all of the weapons, armours, shields, and other items that will be in the game. Coding wise, I'm working on implementing all the weapon abilities and finishing off the editors. There is still a lot to do on every aspect of the project though =)

Also, through IM chats with Thomas, I've been given the impression that there is a very well-developed story which is played out through the missions. The player will even encounter huge capital ships, which they will either be defending or attacking. The amount of art content for this game seems a monumental task. But, from what we've already seen of Thomas' art, things should look very good.

Overall, the scope of the game looks to be quite large ... which is usually a bad thing for indy VB game developers. Will this project fall victim to the old "it's just too big" bug familiar to us all? I'd like to think not ... both Kuchnio and Thomas have completed very large solo projects in the past -- there's no reason to believe they can't do this one together.

Based upon the design, and Kuchnio's and Thomas' ability to put it all together, completion of this game will set a new standard -- not only for indy VB-coded games, but for 2D space shooters.

Article by: Brykovian
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