Thrustburst

By: Derek Yu

On: May 20th, 2008

Thrustburst is the first release from Umlautgames, and it’s definitely a strong start for the fledgling team. Your goal in the game is to fly through a narrowing tunnel to seek out the dark heart of a mostly-barren asteroid. Along the way you’ll contend with various automated defenses deployed by the core, as well as the walls of the asteroid itself.

According to the team, the game is based on Urthworm (scroll down), an old DOS game, which is in turn based on SFCave (Java version). Thrustburst, however, adds some rudimentary combat to the mix, which includes an interesting mechanic – in order to power your Energy Shield and Defender Cannon you must skim the tunnel walls without hitting them. As the walls close in deeper into the asteroid and your ship’s speed increases, this becomes a very nerve-wracking and tense prospect.

The art in this game is also pretty phenomenal, and is filled with little details that belie the game’s relatively sparse approach to visuals. And no wonder, the art/design team is headed by Helm and ptoing, whom, I would venture to say, are two of the leading “academics” in the field of pixel arting today. They also help administrate the well-regarded Pixelation forums. Strangely enough, I think this is the first finished (non-commercial) game project I’ve seen them work on (and hopefully not the last).

So yeah, get ready to thrust and burst! (groan)

(Many thanks to Adam for the news! Definitely a pixel ninja in his own right, so check it out.)