I'm Making Another Game!

   PGDX 2025 is about to arrive this July. While I could showcase Toaster Launcher again, I thought, "why not showcase another game?" So that is what going to happen. As the title says, I am now developing another game alongside Toaster Launcher, and it is a remake of one of my other college projects: Alien vs Ancients!

   Alien vs Ancients is a top-down shooter (yes, another shooter) that features a time-travelling UFO that got accidentally sent back to the past and must now time travel its way back to the future whilst defending itself from the native inhabitants who are attacking it out of fear. 

    

    While the gameplay would be mostly the same, some design changes have to happen to avoid legal issues by the History channel. The most obvious, the title of the game. It is going to be renamed Through the Ancients. The pixel art design from Toaster Launcher will return. However its resolution is now upscaled to feature more detailed sprites, and most of all: Chester and The Professor are back!

Sprites featuring two variations of the UFO, Chester and The Professor, and tow cavemen in top-down view.

    

    This ties into the UFO, as story-wise, this game takes place after the events of Toaster Launcher. (However, in terms of installments, this game is not a direct sequel to Toaster Launcher.) The UFO would be an invention by The Professor, who, along with a human Chester, traveled to the past but somehow got stuck—forcing them to be the ones to take the time-traveling journey instead of the original unidentified pilot in the original game.

Sprites featuring expressions of Chester, who has returned to human form after being a toaster.

    For now, in the PGDX, the game would feature at least three levels taking place in a jungle during the Stone Age. The Player is not limited to a laser and could choose between it and three new weapons, as well as having a rear shield. Power ups would also be in the game, but there would be no bad ones (considering that in Toaster Launcher, they were made by the source of the explosives in the first place).

Sprites featuring the weapons (from top to down, left to right): Basic Cannon, Gatling Gun, Sonic Pulse and the original Laser (with the rear shield attached).

    Right now, most of the visual assets have been made and the coding and development in Godot would begin shortly and would end by the end of March.

Entire map of the first level with references to scale. A camera will be added to zoom in.

Entire map of a level with a stream going through the middle.

Entire map of a level featuring a river. Particle effects would be added to feature bright reflections.

Make sure you stay tuned for updates! 🛸🌳

- Arolf Delano Santos