Fusion Shift was started as our very first project, almost 4 years ago before we had even formed Orbital Games. I was learning to program games and had created a (very) simple 2D scrolling shooter. With some ‘basic’ graphics from Charlie, we evolved the simple prototype into a game concept.
Unfortunately, as I was still learning programming, I had to abandon or restart the project entirely several times. Each iteration of the prototype would be closer to the game concept we imagined, but the challenges I faced as a beginner programmer meant that it was unrealistic to release the game as a commercial product.
During this period, Charlie’s assets continued to pile up – it seems his learning curve was not as steep as mine and many of the assets created for the earlier versions of Fusion Shift are still usable now and have been incorporated into the game.
Today, as my programming abilities have developed, and after the release of our first game Octopede, Fusion Shift is a great project for us to move on to.
Throughout the past few weeks we’ve been working full throttle towards getting a build of Fusion Shift ready for release. This will be on our usual platforms of PC and Xbox 360 and through our distributers Desura, Indivania, Playism and Xbox Indie Arcade. We still have a few more weeks to go until we get it into the polished and balanced Gold release stage, though we are ready to start showing it off and getting some much needed feedback from the community and players.
Over the next few days and weeks we’ll be sharing Fusion Shift screenshots, gameplay videos, insider development blogs and even releasing several beta and demo versions.
As mentioned earlier, Fusion Shift is one of our oldest projects. We have been looking forward to taking it off the shelf, dusting it down and parading it around for a while now. We hope you like what you see and are interested in helping us make it even better!
