What is GEARBEASTS?
GEARBEASTS is a side-scrolling action-shooter, being developed by DIGITAL HAVEN ENTERTAINMENT (formerly PixelxCore Independent Gaming). In GEARBEASTS, the player takes the role of ace pilot of the Jupiter Orbital Marines (JUPOMA), Dixon Accel. Accel is the pilot of the A-GRADE Gearbeast, Jago.
Gameplay
GEARBEASTS is an action game to its very core. Piloting Jago (Sin in v0.7a of GEARBEASTS), the player can fly in all 8 directions and aim their weaponry with the mouse. Double-tapping a direction peforms a Boost Dash in that direction, which boosts the player in a direction while also giving them a short period of invincibility.
Jago is equipped with a rapid-fire blaster, power attack, melee pistons, lock-on missiles, and a plasma shield. The player must use all of Jago's tools in order to defeat their opposition and survive.
As of now, there are 3 gameplay modes confirmed, the focus for now being the Arcade Survival mode. Arcade Survival is a wave-based endurance game in which the player must survive wave upon wave of enemies, each wave packing a different challenge. While focusing on survival, there is also a focus on score chasing and time attack. There will be multiple Arcade Survival maps to be played on, each one hosting its own challenges.
Development
GEARBEASTS started on June 30, 2012, with the creation of the game's design document. The original concept of the game was to create a high-speed, deep and engaging action game with a focus on weaponry and strategy-- and put a whole bunch of robots into it. This concept slowly evolved to become GEARBEASTS.
In the first 2 weeks of development, the game was being designed around the Gearbeast, Sin, and his pilot, Demitri Cornell. The game's storyline involving these two was written to give the game a much deeper feel outside of gameplay, and would make the overall game feel like an interactive experience.
However, development for GEARBEASTS quickly rose in pace, and I realized that for how quickly this game is being developed, it would be more advantageous to use a simpler storyline that would be used mostly to carry the gameplay even further. This is when Jago and Accel were designed.
Writing the "second storyline" gave me a whole leftover storyline going unused, and that's when I decided that I wanted to link the two storylines together. This allowed me to go "deeper" into the GEARBEASTS universe, and expand roles of specific character, making them have roles in both storylines.
Closing Comments
It has been incredibly fun developing this game over the last month. Watching and feeling it shape up like it has is truly an amazing experience, and I'm really looking forward to letting you guys get your hands on one of our playable builds very soon.
Until then, if you'd like to be a saint, you can help me spread the word for GEARBEASTS! Show this page to your friends, or check out the official DHE twitter accounts (@DigiHavenENT for general DHE news, @DHE_alphasix for updates on GEARBEASTS and whatever else work I'm doing at the time) and help generate attention!
Thank you to everyone who has visited and helped spread the word so far. With your help, we can really make this game go places!
