Jan 2021: Teaser Commentary

Hey, fans! The latest teaser for The Day We Fought Space dropped today!

This latest teaser covers a lot of ground, feature-wise, so our team figured it would be worth it to go through it scene-by-scene and give some developer insights into all of the details you might have missed.

Opening (0:00) - New Sprite Artwork

If the last time you saw our game was in the previous trailer, then right off the bat, the first thing to point out to you is the new sprite artwork style. Based on user feedback from conventions we attended in 2018 and 2019, we shifted from our old style of vector art for player and enemy sprites to a crisper style with more comic-inspired outlines — it’s a decision we’ve discussed before on the dev blog, you can read about why we made this decision, as well as how we made it happen, from a technical and an artistic standpoint. It was a process that took about a year and a half to complete, and we’re thrilled to present you with the results.

Environmental Hazards (0:03 to 0:13)

This next section showcases the range of challenges you’ll face from planet to planet. We’ve been working to perfect this, both so that the four different planets feel different from each other, and so that they’ll feel more like living worlds, part of a greater whole that serves as the setting for an epic space opera to reclaim the Solar System from alien invaders.

In order of appearance in the trailer, first you see Mars, a world prone to increased dust storm activity from the alien’s industrial influence. You’ll be challenged to fight enemies in the sky and on the ground at the same time when storms roll in, and you’ll need to watch out for irrigation ships and turrets, whose water-based attacks can short out your weapon systems.

Next up is Venus, in the midst of being terraformed by alien extremophiles, home to many bizarre biological and biomechanical experiments. Here you’ll have to contend with spores and secretions that have all sorts of odd effects on your craft, like armor and vision degradation. Your weapons will also need to contend with higher gravity and a dense atmosphere on this world, so choose carefully.

Third shown is Comet Borrelly, an icy rock being strip-mined by the aliens for water ice and other raw materials. This world challenges you to adapt your combat skills to a zero-gravity environment: with nowhere to fall to, debris from enemy fighters continues along its trajectory and can quickly become a hazard of its own. Floating ice chunks can be used to your advantage, using them as defensive shielding to hide behind or flinging them at enemies with kinetic weaponry.

Finally we see a glimpse of the protoplanet Vesta. This mining and manufacturing hub where you’ll start your epic journey still plays host to some surprise hazads, like the occasional meteor shower.

Customize your Ship (0:13 to 0:27)

This section, in the middle of our video, is the crown jewel, the feature we are most excited about revealing: ship customization!

The section opens with the blueprint editor — the system by which you select modules, link them together, and install them onto your fighter drone. With customization being such a critical part of the gameplay loop for The Day We Fought Space, we didn’t want to settle for something with simple drop-down menus or progress bars; we wanted the act of customizing your fighter drones to feel like a little game in itself, and also visually communicate information about which upgrades can be paired with which other upgrades. Cannons and launchers all have slots built into their module design, and you need to find ammo modules that match. Some upgrades, like your engine and your hull, have unique shapes that only fit into one slot; other upgrades like rate-of-fire boosts and extra hitpoints, can go nearly anywhere.

The next scenes show off some of the countless custom builds you might create. The first we see is a fan favorite, the black hole cannon, a slow-charging weapon that creates a powerful tear in the fabric of space and time to wipe out an entire screen of enemies at a time.

The second loadout we see is a high DPS design, equipped with the ever-satisfying high-velocity cannon as its primary fire weapon and a fireworks launcher in the secondary weapon slot.

Finally, we show off a melee-only loadout, which eschews a cannon for a flaming sword and a deflector shield, two upgrades capable of reflecting enemy bullets, and the sword packs a destructive punch of its own when swung in close proximity to an enemy.

These are just three of the countless possibilities you’ll be able to tinker around with. If you want to try it out for yourself, head to our Discord community to get access to the latest beta! This is the kind of feature we would have loved to test out in-person with fans at a convention, but circumstances have kept that option off the table, and we would value any feedback you have on the new features.

Relentless Bosses (0:27 to 0:42)

The teaser concludes with some scenes of the biggest and baddest enemies you’ll face in The Day We Fought Space.

First off is the Space Dragon, a bio-mechanical terror you’ll encounter on multiple worlds. This thing brings some heavy weaponry to the table, but its complicated mechanical design makes it extra susceptible to the various physics-powered weapons you’ve got in your arsenal. Try weighing its head down with chains so it can’t aim at your ship, firing ricochet shots between its segments, or smacking it’s tail into its face with a well-positioned kinetic burst!

The next boss in the showcase is one of the massive bosses that blur the lines between “enemy” and “environment.” On Vesta, you’ll encounter a floating factory that churns through resources and cranks out enemy fighters. Destroy the buildings on top to slow down production! Each planet has a unique boss like this to not only give you a challenge but to round out the narratives of each of the worlds. On Mars, you’ll encounter terraforming tractors that are spraying the ground with various chemicals and kicking up massive dust storms and hurling stones and ice chunks as they go along. On Venus and the Comet… you’ll just need to play and see.

The final bosses we introduce you to are a trio of enemy aces that the dev team has nicknamed the “Awesomebosses” — whether that name will stick as official game canon or not is still up in the air. The Day We Fought Space gives the player a wide array of zany and terrifying weaponry to choose from; the Awesomebosses are where that same weaponry gets turned around and becomes a challenge that the player has to contend with! These guys come to the party equipped with wrecking balls, acid cannons, homing missiles, ultra lasers, and more.

To try out all of these features and more, head to our Discord server for details on TestFlight access!