Comments - Nerd_Commando

Another take on our moving barriers arena, just to prove that those barriers do move (and to showcase another of our beautiful backgrounds).

Our game has some arcanoid roots, so it wouldn't be fair to leave it without some kind of homage to it. The situation here is pretty classical - just a bunch of destructible blocks separating two players.

Here the clear line of fire towards your opponent is blocked by some indestructible barriers, forcing you to ricochet once again, and those quad assault phasers in the corners of the arena shoot laser bolts periodically, spawning some chaos into action (though no one prohibits you to manipulate their fire to your benefit).

One of the key points of Cyberkast dueling are tricky arenas - after some testing, we've found that just staying across each other, slinging spells (as was seen in older screenshots) was not building the level of fun we want to achieve.

So we've upped the stakes a little, producing some complicated arenas - here, for example, you can't land a direct hit on your opponent, you must ricochet from the upper wall and, to make it even harder, those three platforms move slowly, but constantly, so you can't just spam spells at the same ricochet point.

One of the very first screenshots of our game (extremely early build at that stage). It's here for the historical purposes, I guess.

Blue and red candy-looking things are Graviton Barriers in the push/pull variations. They work similarly, only one pushes away all moving spells that get into its area of effect, changing their trajectories sligthly, and the other ones pulls them.

Round jellyfish thingie is a Proximity Mine and it works in a very predictable fashion - you place it on the arena, it's hidden from your opponent. A spell tries to fly past it - boom!

Here you can see another solar matted based spell - Sunburst. It's the elongated one and, well, it's our sci-fi take on the fireball. It hits - it explodes in a huge circle of a fiery annihilation. The only problem is, it's overeager to explode so it pops on its first collision, whether you want it or not.

Blue cloud is the Fast Time zone - it's like a slow one, but, y'know, fast. All spells rush through it at twice the speed.

And that lonely green charge is a Laser Bolt - the most basic spell in our game. You fire it from your casting point and it flies in a chosen direction. If it hits something, whether it's wall of arena, some summoned object or even another spell, it gets deflected. It gets deflected too much - it loses its power and gets dissipated. It hits your enemy - it hurts. Really basic spell.

Another old screenshot, with some of already resolved bugs (like those huge tails of laser bolts, not to mention that laser bolts now actually look like laser bolts). Two actual spells here.

Violet clouds (we'll change them soon) are the Slow Time Zones - all spells move through them with 50% speed penalty.

Metallic balls are actually Plasma Spheres (they need some plasmy-ness, oh they do) - they're a combat spell, but not your usual one. You place them directly on the arena and they begin immobile, but once another spell hits them, they begin to move according to the laws of physics (sorta). They're powerful, but tricky.

Now we get to the older screenshots, where lots of things are already obsolete. As you can see, we've implemented new casting gates (the point where your moving spells are summoned at), rescaled the arena, changed lots of graphics.

One actual spell here is Forcewall Pylon (graphics need an upgrade, though) - you place two pylons together and wall of pure energy appears between them. Pylons are them are destructible, but wall is invincible.

White squares (well, they're not supposed to be white, it's a bug - visuals are heavily WIP at the moment) are Energy Barriers - basically, walls. A very basic spell, meant for protection of your more valuable assets.

Like the balls behind them - Fusion Nodes. It's an economical spell, an energy generator of sorts - you pop it and it starts to replenish your energy slowly, but steadily. One warning is that they are volatile and, when destroyed, produce a strong explosion.

Gate-looking things are, well, Warpgates - you build them in pairs, and whenever a spell enters one side of the gate, it exits from the similarly coloured side of the linked gate.

Fiery balls are Prominences - they're fast, hardhitting and infinitely durable, but, unlike most other spells, they can exist on the battlefield for a very small amount of time. Also, as they get closer to their expiration date, they become more and more powerful.

Segmented circles are Assimilation Fields - whenever a moving spell goes through them, said spell loses a part of its power and field's owner gains a small amount of energy (for which spells are casted).

Blue waves are kinetic charges - they start slow and weak but whenever they collide with any kind of spell, deflecting for it, they gain a bonus to their parameters.

Yellow waves are nanite servitors - it's a healing/buffing spells. It heals players if it hits them (even your enemies - such usage is not recommended for duel mode), it repairs and upgrades stationary spells (walls and such) and it recharges and buffs moving spells (like those kinetic charges, for example).

Red things are assault phasers - you summon them on the arena like a wall and there they stay, periodically phasing in some kind of combat spell. They're basically turrets. And the kind of spell they phase in is for you to decide - you choose it while adding the spell to your spellbook.