- Flight of the Athena V1.1 live - Achievements are in! - 3 May 2022
This V1.1 update to Flight of the Athena adds Steam achievements to the game - 9 campaign achievements have been added, and can be earned from various boss victories and game wins. A small note: The Ultra 1CC Omega achievement is incredibly difficult! Any feedback / queries, let me know. Timothy Williamson
- Going Rogue, achievements incoming in V1.1 - 2 May 2022
Flight of the Athena is currently 50% off as part of the Going Rogue: A Festival of Persistence event - being a fan of roguelikes / roguelites, I will definitely be having a good look through what's there! I'm also working on new game update to V1.1, which will integrate Steam achievements. Barring any major holdups in implementation & testing, this update should go live within the next few days. Timothy Williamson
- Flight of the Athena V1.05 - 13 November 2021
V1.05 is the first update for Flight of the Athena post release - it contains a few updates based on player feedback, as well as a new Key Event (Orbital Strike). Patch details below: Flight of the Athena V1.05 Changelog: -New key Event, Orbital Strike - avoid the orbital barrage from Imperium Fusiliers. -Level length - a small reduction in the level length time across the campaign. -Updated campaign map - The campaign map now combines the regional background with the updated node bases, the previous update with just the node bases looked a little sterile. -Player secondary weapons - The turret rotation speeds have been increased (more so for non-missile secondaries), whilst MkIV and MKV vulcan cannons now fire the larger vulcan cannon projectile. -Player weapon projectiles - The power of these has been increased across the board, with bigger increases on some that needed a bit more of…
- Flight of the Athena, Full Release - 26 October 2021
Flight of the Athena, a twin-stick shooter + roguelite has left Early Access today! It has been a pretty tricky dev journey trying to meld together shmup & roguelite elements; I'll put together a dev retrospective covering these aspects when I can collect thoughts (and perhaps find some early prototype screenshots!). For today though, I'll be blasting through some enemy squadrons alongside the Athena. Timothy Williamson
- Flight of the Athena, V1.0 - 25 October 2021
This is the V1.0 build for Flight of the Athena, in readiness for leaving Early Access tomorrow! Only a few minor changes so as not to risk breaking anything before launch, but contains: Level updates - Some of the levels have been reconfigured with extra vehicle pathing, as well as ground placement Extra wave data - A few more enemy waves have been added for the earlier stages of the game Minor fixes and updates Till the launch tomorrow...
- Flight of the Athena, V0.95 - 21 October 2021
This update has revamped the campaign map - instead of a static image, it now uses the node grid to draw the region, the route the player takes, the area mission being targeted, etc. The demo has also been brought inline with V0.95 to get this campaign map update (as well as the other updates from interim versions since the last build). Full release on 26th Oct is on, with V1.0 live most likely on the 25th!
- Minor patch update (V0.91) - 15 October 2021
Location descriptors - these have been added to the campaign map describing what happens at node locations (when the location POI is known). Takes some of the opacity out, allows for better route planning. Updated the credits screen.
- Flight of the Athena V0.9 is now live in Early Access - 11 October 2021
The latest build for Flight of the Athena is now live - it brings a host of quality of life updates, as well as some additional content with the additional Onslaught and Airstrike events. Full changelog below: Flight of the Athena V0.9EA changelog: -New key event, Onslaught - survive a sustained ambush from Imperium forces -New key event, Airstrike - destroy the Imperium ammo dumps -Game selector update - The game select screen now displays the regional boss info, i.e. which is the current boss & act, which bosses have been previously eliminated -Level length alteration - The average level time has had a small reduction across all acts -Options -> Controls - A controls settings section has been added, listing controls and giving the option to turn off controller vibration -Vulcan cannon - reduced the controller vibration amount when firing the vulcan cannon -Updated graphic, Athena - up…
- New release for Flight of the Athena (V0.8) - now playable from start to finish! - 5 October 2021
This release is a significant milestone for Flight of the Athena - final chapter + final boss content has been added, so the game is now playable all the way through! V0.8 brings: -Final boss integration - The final boss and game completion has been integrated into the procedural engine. FotA is now playable from start to finish! -Final Act content and cutscene - Level content for Act V and the game completion cut scene have been added. -Speed -> Mobility - The terminology has been changed from speed to mobility, as this value encompasses not just top speed, but acceleration also. -Various tweaks and fixes The next updates will focus on readiness for V1.0 release on October 26th - polish, fixes and extra content as time allows!
- Flight of the Athena release date, new Early Access version - 22 September 2021
The full release out of Early Access for Flight of the Athena now has a date - October 26th, 2021. The major remaining components to go in are the final Act and the final boss, but both are progressing nicely. The remaining dev time before launch will go to fixes and extra enemy waves / key events, time permitting. A new version has been released to Early Access, version 0.7. These changes were going to be held for the next major release, but the boss and texture page updates are both good updates, so it seemed good to get them live: Flight of the Athena V0.7 changelog: -Boss, smoking fractures - Smoking fractures will open up on the bosses as they move through the damage phases. A useful visual indicator and effect, a heavily damaged boss is also at its most dangerous! -Textures, prefetch - Texture prefetching has been setup, which should reduce if not eliminate in battle stutters whil…
- New Early Access build for Flight of the Athena is out now (V0.65) - 13 September 2021
This mid-sized update has been mainly focused on fixes and quality of life, but all are helping to bring the game close to V1.0. The title and logo updates have been on the todo list for a while, and the ability of enemy Colossus transports to summon reinforcements has added some spice to that key event! The full list of changes is below: Flight of the Athena V0.65EA changelog: -Logo and title update - The logo and title screen assets have been updated in game & on Steam. -Battle controls popup - A popup with the controller layouts appears in the main battle screen for the first mission now. -Key event, Colossus reinforcements - The Colossus transports encountered can now summon reinforcement waves, take care when raiding! -Hi-score campaign progress - Progress data has been added to the hi-scores data, i.e. whether the campaign was successful, if not which Act was reached. -Location op…
- Homing missiles & more - new Early Access build (V0.62) for Flight of the Athena - 31 August 2021
One of the main appeals of building a shmup + roguelite hybrid is the ability to add new content, be it weapons, craft, events etc, and "feed" it into the procedural generation engine, where it can be incorporated into the main game campaign - it has benefits for the developer, as well as the player! The Screamer Missile has been added, a primary weapon which has semi-homing capabilities, and can be found / bought / traded like other weapons in the game. A couple of new enemies have been added which are also equipped with these, so watch out whenever they are on screen. A few other tweaks and quality of life updates have gone in, see below for further info. Flight of the Athena V0.62EA changelog: -:New weapon: Screamer Missile, player - these semi-locking missiles are available as a player primary weapon to find / trade / buy within the main campaign. -Screamer Missile, enemies - these…
- Flight of the Athena V0.6 Early Access is now live! - 12 August 2021
The V0.6 Update for Flight of the Athena is now live! This is a fairly substantial update over the previous version - key updates include: Act IV content - Campaigns can now be generated up to the penultimate act, bringing higher level weaponry, but also the heaviest enemy forces yet! Lowlands, new region type - The lowlands has been added; it brings an improved chance of merchant nodes, however node visibility intel is lowered, so careful route choices may need to be made. Weapon balancing - The laser and bolo projectiles have been given a bit more punch, and the secondary vulcan and laser turrets rotation speed has been increased to make them a bit snappier. Craft balancing - the movement force has been increased (acceleration, ability to change direction) across the board, and the speed ranges of ships has been refined. The initial Mk1 ships will still need upgrading eventually, but…
- Flight of the Athena V0.6, hitting Early Access mid-August - 4 August 2021
The next version of Flight of the Athena, V0.6, will go into Early Access in a couple of weeks, including content generation up to Act 4, some balance updates and fixes also. The enemy formations and attacks at this stage of the game will be pretty fierce, so the stronger the ships and weapons available in the Athena's hangar bays, the better! Work is also ongoing on creating the final boss, Omega, who packs an array of weaponry and tools (obligatory giant laser included!). He will be the final adversary at the end of the last Act, Act 5. Looking forward to getting this release out!
- Flight of the Athena V0.5, now out in Early Access - 23 June 2021
Flight of the Athena V0.5 is now out in Early Access! The biggest addition with this update is scoring; harder difficulties and game modes both increase the campaign score multiplier. So a brutal difficulty rogue run has the potential to greatly outscore a normal classic run - depending on how far the player or players get... Alongside this, high score tables are now implemented and campaign run scores are saved (if a high score is achieved). Other notable inclusions with this release are; -Craters: Ground object explosions (turrets, vehicles etc) now leave craters where the explosion occurred -Large enemy bolo turret: These larger and more destructive enemy turrets can be encountered, with full 360 rotation. -Boss update (Aegis): Aegis's shield generator will no longer always stack to two full rings of shielding before an overload burst, and can fire them off earlier. Although dangerou…
- Flight of the Athena V0.48 Early Access is out! - 27 May 2021
Flight of the Athena V0.48 has been released! Originally these changes were being saved for a more substantial update with V0.5, but there is some good stuff that has gone in so it made sense to get it out. The change log for build V0.48 is as follows: -New player ship, the Renegade - an advanced corvette class ship with 3x forward hardpoints & 1x turret hardpoint. -New player ship, the Skymoth - a new corvette class ship with 1x forward hardpoint & 2x turret hardpoints. -Minefield tweaks - shorter but a little more dangerous! -Campaign event balancing - slight raising of the odds for a shipyard or a ship selling black market to occur. -Economy rebalancing - resource events reward less of a bonus, destroying enemy ships rewards more (a little less R in the RNG). -Region complete cutscene - interstitial after beating a boss and moving to the next region. -Controller update - enabled left…
- Flight of the Athena V0.47 Early Access, out now! - 20 May 2021
Flight of the Athena V0.47 is now available through Early Access! This provides a couple of key issue fixes and updates: -Vehicles sometimes overlapping - Ground vehicle collision code updated to fix this. -Bullets occassionally disappearing - The bullet garbage collection code has been rewritten to fix this issue. -Eliminated text - Added to the campaign info screen to highlight the boss / bosses already beaten within that run -Beam laser power - slight tweaks to rebalance the power for the higher mark weaponry The next game update will likely focus on content, potentially player weapons, ships, enemy types, etc; content TBD. Any thoughts or feedback, feel free to drop here or in the discussion threads!
- Flight of the Athena V0.46 Early Access, out now! - 18 May 2021
Flight of the Athena V0.46 is now available through Early Access! The key addition with this update is the extended campaign content now available. -Campaign generation extended to 3 Acts (2 previously): Content will be generated for the first 3 acts now (bosses, levels, campaign map etc) -Various bug fixes and updates Note: There are a couple of known issues regarding ground unit placements and collisions, fixes for these will be determined and incorporated into the next build.
- Flight of the Athena V0.45 Early Access - 11 May 2021
*Flight of the Athena V0.45 has a greatly updated save game system - if any previous saves are causing issues, going to Options > Data will allow a data cleardown* Flight of the Athena V0.45 has some major updates over the previous version. Key updates: -Additional boss (Codename: Warlock) - brings the boss count to 5. Available to battle in the main Campaign, and the Bosstiary. -Major UI overhaul - the campaign interface has been greatly streamlined to try and reduce any confusing aspects. -Special mission overhaul - previously, these missions (e.g. transport raid) were separate distinct levels, but this really broke the game flow in an unsatisfactory way. Now, they have been integrated as Key Events that can occur within a standard battle mission. Current key events are the transport raid, minelayer takedown and enemy convoy, with more planned. Be ready! -Weapons updates - beam lasers…
- Flight of the Athena - back in the flying seat! - 14 April 2021
Flight of the Athena - status & development update Flight of the Athena development has been on a long hiatus, for a number of reasons. The largest of these by far was hitting a real impasse on the game design elements of trying to bring together a shmup with experimental ideas & procedurally generated elements. Ultimately, too much was trying to be done together, and it was proving a real detriment to progress. One of the more unique elements I had built into FotA was a range of level types: An intercept level type for raiding enemy transports for credits, a minefield level type to traverse, with the aim of building up more of these separate level types. The problems with this was not just the added technical complexity, but also whilst fun for a short burst, it was breaking the game flow far too much as a replacement for standard levels. The solution to this has been to integrate thes…
