Embers of Humanity

[Fishlore]

Hey all, long time no see. I've been hard at work on a new game and I feel like I'm finally at a point where I can share with you a free, public, alpha.

Imagine Star Control meets a spaceship MOBA.

Embers of Humanity is a multiplayer only, online only, twitchy, action, spaceship, combat game in 2D with an overhead view. The free public alpha contains one game play mode, called Fleet mode, with many more to follow. I plan to have a MOBA in space in a playable state in several months. It's deep in development at this time.

A few things to keep in mind:

• This is a multiplayer only game and the only dedicated server is in California. Performance may be an issue for some.
• Since this is a multiplayer only game, and since the community hasn't had a chance to grow yet, the game can be pretty boring by yourself. Bring a friend.

The control keys are A (rotate CCW), D (rotate CW) and W (thrust). The action keys are Up, Down, Left and Right arrow keys. Each ship in fleet mode uses two action keys, usually up and down although a few Orange ships use left and right instead. The MOBA will allow use of all four.

A Fleet game can hold up to 8 players. In this mode you select a fleet of 8 ships. Each ship is different, with different attributes, weapons and abilities. Each player pilots their ships one at a time. When their ship explodes it's removed from the list and the player selects a new one. The last player with ships wins.

More fleets, weapons, abilities and game modes will be coming in the future.

You can play the game here:

http://embersofhumanity.com/game/embersofhumanityweb.html

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments or concerns. Please let me know if you encounter any bugs or any other issues. I know the alpha isn't perfect, but it is being improved upon every single day and any help from this community would be unbelievably helpful.

Thank you.

 

[Lolcomputer]

Woah!

I was wondering when you were going to post your game. You said in a post, a half year ago I think, that it would take 2 months to finish the alpha; but turns out plans have changed. Happy to see it's not dead, had thought for the worst.

Regardless, looks really cool. I will most likely play this one day (I live in Denmark, the server is most likely not ony my side,) cause it looks pretty fun. The sound design really bugs me though in this video; I know that it's an Alpha, and it's not perfect, so it's not a big problem in any way.

Good luck with the game.

 

[Fishlore]

How have you been? Yeah, you got me, I blew that deadline alright . I had a really hard time finding someone to help me test and I also had a single, rare, show stopping bug I couldn't get rid of until recently.

I plan to get a Europe server up and running in a month or two so that it's ready for the main MOBA alpha release. No... seriously, I mean it this time . You wouldn't happen to know any decently priced companies that host dedicated servers in your neck of the woods, would you?

I am definitely going to put up a better video. I was foolish to cut up something with background music in it. Plus that was a pretty old build.

I really appreciate the suggestion. Thanks!

*edited* I wanted to add, that no matter where you're located, you could still hop into a game alone to check things out. I'm curious if you were in-game and didn't like the music, or if it was the music in the video you were commenting on.

Thanks again.

 

[Lolcomputer]

You wouldn't happen to know any decently priced companies that host dedicated servers in your neck of the woods, would you?

Well, I don't, but this does.

https://robot.your-server.de/order/market#368981

I wanted to add, that no matter where you're located, you could still hop into a game alone to check things out. I'm curious if you were in-game and didn't like the music, or if it was the music in the video you were commenting on.

The music ingame seems fine. Feedback for the future versions: Pace your music and make the sounds more interesting. I know it's an alpha and all, but feedback is feedback amirite?

I just went in and played it a bit, by myself, and I really liked the idea. Reminds me a bit of SPAZ, if you've ever heard of that. Liked the artstyle, although a bit less fond of Machos design, but still looks cool for what it is. Perhaps we can announce an event so we people can play together?

 

[Fishlore]

I love the feedback and completely agree. I was definitely planning on different paces of music and blending them throughout the course of the game depending on different variables. I bought some royalty free music and I basically took the first few decent bits I found and looped them over 30 seconds. Basically placeholders I'll be revisiting in the coming weeks. The sound effects are pretty much the same way. There will definitely be a lot of changes in these two areas before the MOBA hits.

You have a good eye. The Macko fleet was made by a print artist in my office who probably has never played a video game in his life. Those were the only ships I had for a while and might not make the cut later on. I'll be adding more fleets over time. I've got a yellow fleet pretty close, but still needs a bit of work. It'll be adding a new weapon called a beam weapon very similar to a laser, but instead of damage over time it does healing over time. So I can shoot a beam weapon at a teammate and augment their shields, or slowly fix their hull, or give more power to their weapons, etc. Sort of like a healing/buffing class in an rpg.

I would love to plan a time to play. That would be great.

Also thanks for the link, I'll be looking into it.

 

[Fishlore]

Hi everyone. Just wanted to check back in and let everyone know development continues. Star Control meets a spaceship MOBA.

I just set up a server in Paris so folks in Western Europe will now be able to play and get good pings. Please bring a friend and play as many free games as you can stand.

http://embersofhumanity.com

I've added a new fleet of ships (yellow) and created a new video. The MOBA is about 80% done and should be entering a free public beta in the autumn. The purple fleet is coming along and should be released before the MOBA mode.

Any questions or comments just let me know. Join me on twitter at @EmbersOH

Take care.