Universal Phoenix II

Phoenix 2 is on its way! It still needs a bit of work but we are aiming to release it this summer. Time to let you guys know what we’re doing. Right up to the release this thread will be the place to find information and discuss Phoenix 2.

Feel free to post any questions, remarks or witty comments, I definitely read them all and will reply if possible.

Some of you might have seen Eli’s hands-on from GDC 2015 and a lot has happened since then (and I mean A LOT).

Phoenix 2
Phoenix 2 is an explosive, fast paced and overall amazing shoot’em up. It’s all about short adrenaline pumping games, active competition on every level and a great way to tickle all of your senses at the same time.

This description could almost be used to describe Phoenix HD, but besides some shared DNA here and there, this is a very different game.

Phoenix 2 offers a daily stage, it is unique to that day and is the same for everyone around the world. This means you’ll be able to play the same stage multiple times to make sure your High Score is the best you can do. Stages are short, ramp up in difficulty at a blistering pace and can be completed (unlike the endless Phoenix HD onslaught).

Phoenix 2 features a ton of player ships, all with a unique style. I hope you like collecting different ships, because there are many of them. Each ship has its own unique weapon and a combination of special abilities.

Found a ship you like? Upgrade it like there’s no tomorrow! All of the abilities can be upgraded individually to improve your favorite ships exactly the way you like.

Gorgeous, eye popping graphics. Our own custom engine is upgraded to support all of the latest graphical features like bloom and anamorphic lens flares. Animations and particle effects are more complex, more rich than before and unfold at a silky smooth 60fps.

Within the game we also allow the creation of communities. These are groups of players that want to compete together on their own grounds. Each community will have its own unique stage generated for them that will run as a mini competition for three days. I’m not sure if there should be a separate #toucharcade_shmup community or if #toucharcade will suffice, but anything goes!

Below are some in-game screenshots I just took on my iPhone 6. It’s still work in progress, but should give a good impression.

I will be posting more details as the discussion moves on.

Both me and my colleague post screenshots almost daily. I do not intend post them all here as I’m not a big fan of image heavy threads, though I will if appropriate. They can always be found on my twitter account, my colleague’s twitter and we generally retweet stuff using the Firi Games twitter account.

 

Our engine is designed specifically for the latest generation of iOS devices with Metal and 64-bit cpus. So my indication at this point is iPhone 5s and up (and equivalent iPads). We really want to push the limit, like we did with Phoenix HD 5 years ago.

 

Nice to see such positive responses!

We have yet to decide on the testing, but a soft-launch might be in order. I'll keep your beta-testing offers in mind, though no promises

 

Well I'm really hesitant to mention exact dates because something always comes up. It's not that it's a secret, it's simply that we don't know for sure. We're a very small team and all our task lists are packed I'm always open about development, so I hope that will give an impression over time. In general we're talking weeks of work, not months

At the moment I'm working on visual effects for enemies that are equipped with additional armor or shields

 

Hate and Love go hand in hand, or so they say

So yeah, each ship has three upgrade tracks with 5 levels each.
- Weapons
- Aura ability
- Zen ability

Each ship has one weapon system. Increasing its level increases its damage output and often something like the rate of fire or making the pattern denser. Each ship has a unique weapon system and they vary from lasers and projectiles to missile swarms.

The Aura ability is the special ability related to the big circle, Aura, shown around the ship in the various screenshots. The size of the Aura represents the energy the player has and often the area that is affected. There are various Aura abilities, both offensive and defensive. Each ship has one Aura ability. It is triggered by Force Touching the screen or tapping with a second finger if your iOS device does not support 3D Touch.

Finally there's the Zen ability. This is triggered when the screen is released and exist, like the Aura ability, both as offensive as well as defensive types. Each ship has one Zen ability. Zen abilities sometimes consume energy, which is drained from the Aura.

The combination of the unique weapon and these two abilities determine the play style of each ship.

 

@ScotDamn: That's awesome We are really happy with the iap model for Phoenix HD, we intend to add more ships in the future. It will exist side by side with Phoenix 2.

Phoenix 2 will also be free to play, but follow a very different model than Phoenix HD. We are still finalizing this as we feel it's very closely related to how the game plays and we're still finalizing that as well . There will still be no ads, we simply don't like seeing them in games so we're not putting them in ours.