This page contains information on how development of the project is progressing. It was last updated on 23 December 2011.
Xenonauts is currently in the alpha stage. It is nearly mechanically complete – by which we mean, all basic game systems in the original design document are fully operational, allowing a player to play through the entire game from start to finish and use all parts of the game. Once the game is mechanically complete, we will enter the beta-testing phase where we polish and refine the existing systems to ensure the game is well balanced, bug-free and artistically of commercial quality. Once the beta test is complete, the game will be released.
Below is a list of the items that must be finished before the game is mechanically complete. This represents about 90% completion of the alpha stage of the game.
Outstanding Items for Mechanical Completion:
GEOSCAPE:
- UFO contents (crews, captureable technology) are generated as the UFO spawns
- UFO crash damage is assigned based on damage taken in combat – UFO can be destroyed outright if hit by powerful weapons, and a formula for killing some of the crew due to battle / crash damage must be implemented.
- Final mission launch code must be added
- Basic training system must be implemented
- Base maps must be communicated to the ground combat in the event of base attacks, so the layout of the base can be copied in the battle map
GROUND COMBAT:
- Alien AI must be implmented, including racial abilities and psionic powers. At the moment it is very basic.
- AI for friendly AI soldiers must be implemented
- Height levels should provide a boost to visual range and shooting accuracy
- All weapons need a melee attack
- All units need a drop shadow
- The final mission must be added, with victory triggering the Victory screen
- Fire / Smoke mechanics must be finished, including smoke blocking LOS and reducing accuracy, and fire spreading appropriately
- Buildings should collapse when enough of their walls are shot out
- Secondary mission objectives need to be added
- The following weapons must be added:
- Flamethrower
- Combat Shield
- C4 Breaching Charge
- Gas / Smoke Grenades
That represents the sum total of all the coding left to do on the alpha version of the game. There will be plenty of polishing and balancing to be done in the beta phase, with lots of little features added to make the game more intuitive and more fun, but once this list is complete it would be possible to release the game as a finished game if we so desired. This is from a coding perspective, though – there is still likely to be some placeholder art in place during the beta testing that will not be finished until the final game is released. Most notably, our in-game sprites and the tilesets need the most work (but we are working on them as we speak).
Anyone who has pre-ordered the game will get to beta test the game and try the current alpha builds. If that interests you, please head over to our pre-order page and check out the details >>
