January 22nd, 2013 | By Emerson Smith
Tagged in: futuridium | mixedbag | skyrise
Longing for some chunky retro vibes and aesthetics with a modern gameplay twist? Skyrise and MixedBag are offering to let you join their development by participating in beta builds of their free game, Futuridium.
Futuridium is a fast-paced, action-packed, classic shoot-’em-up, but with an extra dimension. The visual style hails to classic arcade-style saturation of colors and overlays similar to how the pixels on older machines would burn into the screen and blend together. Rather than stick to the classic shooter conventions, Futuridium is a 3D arcade shooter that gives the player a camera following their ship from behind and the ability to turn their ship 180 degrees. Each level is a massive alien flagship, and it is up to the player to fly back and forth along the length of the ship and destroy all of the blue energy cubes so the player can reveal the golden power cube and take the ship down. Without any upgrades, special powers or bonuses, Futuridium focuses on pure player skill to adapt to the different ships and scenarios you will face.
Your score is determined by a chain multiplier that continues to increase until you die. By destroying the blue cubes in fast sequences, you can make the chain longer, giving you a larger bonus score when the chain stops. Alternating between enemies and cubes will raise your score even higher.
You can download the free Beta build for Windows, OSX or Linux from their official website. The official soundtrack is also available for free, and the upbeat, funky tunes are definitely worth a listen.
Emerson Smith (73 posts)
I am an independent developer currently in school. I've designed smaller flash games as well as some larger projects. During the summer I teach game design with iD Tech Camps and during the school year I write for The Indie Game Magazine as well as other incredibly awesome extracurricular activities.