Alien Video Game Scientist
A 3D platformer collectathon featuring puzzles, mazes, and a bit of speedrunning in a retro-minimalist package evocative of the PS2 era. Can YOU figure out how to grab all the things, and do it efficiently? FOR SCIENCE!
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Release Date:
Dec 4, 2024
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Coming Soon To Early Access

The developers of this game intend to release as a work in progress, developing with the feedback of players.

Note: Games in Early Access are not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“The game features time trials and other optional challenges; we want to make these achievable with some practice by most if not all motivated players, and this requires fine tuning based on actual play.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“As long as it takes to collect feedback, around a couple months if the game is decently popular.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“Fine tuning of current levels will be the primary difference, but we may also add a few new levels depending on feedback about which are most popular.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“All the features in the "About This Game" section are fully implemented.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“The price is not expected to change.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“In game option to submit feedback; optional uploading of time-trial results, and forums for longer-form discussion.”
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This game is not yet available on Steam

Planned Release Date: Dec 4, 2024

This game plans to unlock in approximately 7 days

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About This Game

A 3D platformer that alternates between mazes, puzzles, and collectables (and snarky narration)

Each level is a navigation puzzle: how do I find the exit while collecting all the necessary or optional objects along the way, some of which may be hidden, or hard to reach?

Levels are small & bite sized, but open ended with multiple paths. Find a fast enough path to unlock extra content, or just muddle thru for a casual experience, skipping challenges that don't appeal.

Features:

  • Not a precision platformer

  • Death just means quick travel back to the last (user specifiable) checkpoint

  • Mazes always have a tell, leading you in the right direction (But wander randomly, if you must)

  • Causal/chill vibe players can ignore as much speedruning or collecting as they want, and even search out the hidden skip level option if desperate

  • Soundtrack can be muted AT ANY TIME (but we hope you won't want to)

  • Plays equally well with gamepad or mouse

  • Visual Minimalism is inspired by PS2 era, but does not try to be intentionally ugly in some kind of misplaced Retro Fetishism

A STORY that doesn't get in the way

An alien spacecraft just entered the solar system, but all that's on board is a video game? As the world's Preeminent Video Game Scientist you've been tasked with solving this mystery. But you won't be alone; the unseen snarky narrator will be at you side the whole time, making sure you don't get all the credit and glory.

Our GAMEPLAY: a philosophical treatise

A good collectathon lets you choose: the best path to get to the end, which collectables to get, and how efficient to be about the whole nonsense. That's the philosophy behind our levels: there is no single path through them, but there's probably a BEST way, which may not have been discovered yet (or even intended by the designer).

Because large sprawling open world levels can get tiresome, with a lot of backtracking or getting lost, our levels are smaller, bite sized floating platforms where completing a level should never take more than 5 minutes.

Gameplay is flexible too: the only requirement is to get to the end of each level; most collectables are optional. But if you want to unlock the full game + after story you'll have to collect all the things and do it (relatively) quickly. Rather than competing against a world leaderboard with ever diminishing odds of ever placing, our speedrun challenges are designed for a moderately motivated and moderately agile player to achieve given some planning, knowledge of the level layout, and at most a few retries to get it right. Rather than relying on split second timing, you'll get a lot further thinking about which regions to visit first, where to place the re-spawn point, etc.

System Requirements

    Minimum:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: 10
    • Processor: i5 7200u
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Intel HD 620 iGPU / GTX 920M / Radeon Vega 3
    • Storage: 250 MB available space
    • Sound Card: Sound Blaster PRO
    • Additional Notes: Playable on most modern laptops, eg 8th gen Intel or newer, with options to reduce resolution/video quality to reach 60fps even on low end machines
    Recommended:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: 10
    • Processor: Slightly better than potato
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Intel Irix Xe iGPU / GTX 960M / Radeon Vega 8
    • Storage: 250 MB available space
    • Sound Card: Advanced Gravis UltraSound MAX 64 PnP
    • Additional Notes: Keyboard + Mouse AND/OR gamepad supported, gamepad prefered for all gameplay except menus/launcher.
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