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Wings of Saint Nazaire - indie X Wing-like still alive, play the current alpha

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Download the alpha here or play in browser (requires Unity)
Gameplay Trailer
Wings of Saint Nazaire is an action-orientated space simulation game reminiscent of titles such as Wing Commander™ and the X-Wing™ series. Wings is designed to be an easy-to-play but hard-to-master game - that means you can jump in, fly around, kick ass and have a ton of fun as a newbie but the game also offers core players enough gameplay depth to keep even the veterans of the genre interested. Good players, for example, will use the afterburner in very short bursts for super quick acceleration, they will use the correct weapons against the enemies they are facing and they will always be on top of their ship energy flow, making sure that the systems that need the most power in any given situation, get that power.
We've been working on this since April 2010 - A lot of the work had to be scrapped when we moved to Unity. As of now, the game is planned to be released free, and we've discussed all the options, Steam, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, even Patreon. We're currently focusing on finishing the content we need to release a multiplayer combat game, with TF2-style game modes.
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When will the game be done?
As much as we'd like to give you a release date, we simply can't at this point.

How much will it cost?
We are developing Wings to be a free game but we can't rule out changes in the business model in the future. If the game ends up not being free, it will definitely not be anywhere near as expensive as a full price title however.

Are you considering crowdfunding?
Yes. More details on that later!

On which platforms will the game be available? Will it be on Steam?
Wings will definitely be released on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux - in addition, we can target anything that Unity3D runs on. How many consoles and which we target is not yet decided and also largely depends on whether or not we can afford the respective SDKs. We would absolutely love to see Wings of Saint Nazaire on Steam™, if it's possible at all, to reach the biggest possible audience.

Can I use my joystick/flightstick/gamepad with the game?
Yes, absolutely. While we spend a lot of time trying to tweak the keyboard and mouse controls for Wings, we also know how important it is to a lot of people to play a game like this with an external controller. The options menu allows you to fully configure your controller too, so no pre-set or locked button combinations should hinder your game experience.
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Yes, Wings IS a 2D game - although we are using 3D acceleration of course, all ships that you see are NOT 3D models! We pre-render 2D images for every possible angle that you can see them from (544 for a normal fighter) and then display the right sprite. This is exactly what the early Wing Commander games did - we're doing it this way because we absolutely love the retro effect this has. It's hard to tell for most people but almost everybody agrees that it, almost subconsciously, has a really neat nostalgia effect!

Wings is a 2D game in the sense that while we are using a 3D engine, the vast majority of the artwork displayed is pre-rendered, placed on simple flat planes. That makes most of the art 2D. The source is of course 3D assets, but they're 3D assets rendered in such a way as to resemble mid-nineties dos-era games.
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Danneee

Member
Looks fantastic, buuuut, I'm pretty sure the bigger ships are 3d models. Looked like that in the video when he flew through it and shot it up close.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Multiplayer deathmatch only?

Ugh. I remember back in 2010 when this was going to be a Wing Commander type game.
 
Looks fantastic, buuuut, I'm pretty sure the bigger ships are 3d models. Looked like that in the video when he flew through it and shot it up close.
Devs talks about the visuals here:
Yes, Wings IS a 2D game - although we are using 3D acceleration of course, all ships that you see are NOT 3D models! We pre-render 2D images for every possible angle that you can see them from (544 for a normal fighter) and then display the right sprite. This is exactly what the early Wing Commander games did - we're doing it this way because we absolutely love the retro effect this has. It's hard to tell for most people but almost everybody agrees that it, almost subconsciously, has a really neat nostalgia effect!

Wings is a 2D game in the sense that while we are using a 3D engine, the vast majority of the artwork displayed is pre-rendered, placed on simple flat planes. That makes most of the art 2D. The source is of course 3D assets, but they're 3D assets rendered in such a way as to resemble mid-nineties dos-era games.
 
Annnnnnd I just lost interest. Give me a single player campaign or bust. I love the direction they're heading in with it though (2D assets ftw). It's a genuine shame it's MP focused. It's just not for me I guess.
The alpha is single player, so I don't think the game is going to be multiplayer only. I'll ask the developer
 
J

JoJo UK

Unconfirmed Member
Battlestar Galactica: Viper Pilot Training 101.

Will be keeping an eye on this, great find OP.
 
I tried the demo a while back, looks absolutely fantastic. Yes, the capital ships and some other large structures are full 3D (you can fly to the capital ships in the background in the demo), but I think they did a pretty good job of making it all blend in very nicely, especially with the low resolution.
 
looks very nice. there's definitely something to doing it like this, in 2d, not just nostalgia.

and yeah, the newer 3d space sims are definitely lacking in over the top special effects.
 
Indie's continue to surprise me more and more.
This looks brilliant.

As always, thanks More_Badass, Toma and indie-gaf in general to put some light on these games.
Y'all doing good work!
 
Saw this game about 2 years ago and loved its look. Amazing to se it is stillbeing worked on.

TBH, I hope they release it retail for a price. The deserve some compensation for this on some level.
 
Annnnnnd I just lost interest. Give me a single player campaign or bust. I love the direction they're heading in with it though (2D assets ftw). It's a genuine shame it's MP focused. It's just not for me I guess.
Here was the dev's response about this:
The first release of the game will be a MP game. The second release, however will be a single-player campaign, one where the space combat is melded with a lucas-arts style adventure game. Here's a couple of shots from that portion:

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News on the alpha update
We're going to be working on getting this polished up for you, and the next big Alpha update will let you fly 4 of the 5 different ships!

And a new GIF of the ship selection screen:
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New Alpha is available
http://www.wingsofstnazaire.com
This update lets you fly 3 of the 5 human fighters. Available are the Boomslang, Copperhead, and Cobra.

Things to note are the adjustment of the the double-tap barrel roll into a tap-and-hold strafe roll, improved dynamic music, the removal of the old testing explosion spheres, Better collisions for the alien fighters, removal of player invulnerability, better enemy wave timing, better text and font rendering, and tuned weapon sound FX.

For fun, try the Gamma Burster weapons on the Cobra. Think of them as dual-mini-deathstar lasers. They will wipe out your gun capacitors, but they will kill most light-to-medium fighters in a singe sustained shot. You have to maintain beam contact, however.

There are many more minor changes, so keep an eye out!
 
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The olden days treasure chest looks really out of place. This is set on a space ship in the future right? Shouldn't the chest look... I dunno... futurey?
 

drotahorror

Member
Very cool but, atleast on the browser version it was near impossible to control. I've played quite a few games like this and they were never this impossible to fly. Maybe it's because I have multiple inputs plugged in.

Looks amazing though, love the graphics. Gonna check out the exe version.

**Much much better on downloaded version. Really hope this becomes a full fledged thing, best of luck to the people working on it.
 
New update from the devlog
Finished the missile locking system and the Power management systems! Here you can see me quickly locking onto a Dfhertas and ripping off a Phoenix heatseeker. Just before it hits, I manage to lock on and fire a Cyclops Image Recognition missile as well.

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Here, I just hit a Dfhertas with a Phoenix and then mess with a bunch of power settings after it explodes.

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Here's a breakdown of how each power system works. Low is 25% power, high is 100%. Unpowered is < 25%.

Shields: Low 50% recharge rate, high 150%. Unpowered, shields drain.
Guns: Low 25% recharge rate, high 175%. Unpowered, gun capacitors drain.
Engines: Low 66% speed on regular and afterburner, high 133% + 150% fuel consumption. 200% consumption on Afterburner! Unpowered, afterburners are disabled and fuel consumption goes up.

Here's an example of the Boomslang with its engines at 100% over powered. It's pretty much the fastest thing in the game - but it's going to have a hard time shooting anything or taking more than a couple of hits.

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Anyhow, now I just have to add Top/Bottom armor displays to all the cockpit status displays. Then I'll be working on further damage modelling for individual components.
Enjoy!
 

jblank83

Member
This is very interesting. I loved Wing Commander. The graphic style is very unique.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTcHSGn2h1s
http://www.siliconera.com/2014/10/03/everything-see-space-combat-sim-wings-st-nazaire-2d-really/

If you&#8217;re a fan of retro space combat sims such as Wing Commander and X-Wing then you&#8217;re in for a treat. Wings of St. Nazaire is an impressive, currently in development, attempt at recreating those older games in look and play style but for systems of today.

It may be hard to see in screenshots, but Wings of St. Nazaire&#8217;s visuals are telling of the effort that the team behind it is aiming for. Although it might not look it, everything you see in the game is 2D &#8211; yes, really.

Hopefully it plays well, has good design and content.
 
love the looks of it and the ability to play it in a browser is genius! but mouse controls? ugh, horrible.
Well...about that

From the FAQ:
Can I use my joystick/flightstick/gamepad with the game?

Yes, absolutely. While we spend a lot of time trying to tweak the keyboard and mouse controls for Wings, we also know how important it is to a lot of people to play a game like this with an external controller. The options menu allows you to fully configure your controller too, so no pre-set or locked button combinations should hinder your game experience.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Oh hey Wings of Saint Nazaire back in development? Sure looked amazing a ~decade ago, fingers crossed it takes off in all its old school but high def glory now.

Dude's last work otherwise was in Rebel Galaxy game art (or just Outlaw, Idk). This always looked so much better though, in intent and art style and everything 🙏

Don't freaking warn me for a necro bump, the thread title and everything is perfect for this minor bit of news regarding the same damn game, why make another?​
 
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