Physics-driven Metroidvania with co-op, crafting sand combat is finally available for download.
Planetoid Pioneers is an interesting take on the classic Metroidvania formula. It’s completely physics-based, it’s got a bunch of features, including co-op, crafting, combat, exploration, huge asteroids with mazes, and user-generated content. Most importantly it has been developed for over 8 years! Data Realms sure took the time, but it’s nice to see the project finally available.
Data Realms is a company, which created Cortex Command – awesome real-time tactical action, which is so great, you should be ashamed for not playing it (if you did play it – we’re proud of you!). Anyway, the developers who developed this game, also worked at THQ, Rockstar, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Pixar Animation Studios. They really like to tinker with their tech, and build very smooth and engaging gameplay.
With Planetoid Pioneers the team decided to build a prequel to Cortex Command – a neat 2d project with delightful animation, physical-based gameplay, complex level design.
The game comes with a bunch of content, including half a dozen planetoids, each offering completely different game modes populated with vehicles, creatures, robots, items, and weapons. Plus there will be an editor, which helps users to generate their own content. These tools were actually available to the community for a couple of month, so fans had a lot of time to build new stuff. The editor is pretty powerful and you can create some astonishing stuff with it.
Planetoid Pioneers utilizes a proprietary custom physics engine and toolset, called Crush2D, developed by Data Realms for this and future titles. Planetoid Pioneers Game-Only Edition costs just $9.99 USD. There’s also a Contributor Edition, which is a bit more expensive. If you want to know more about the game, check out the official website.