The Planetologist (Early Access)
Download the Windows version for a better experience!
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Gameplay
Synopsis
The Planetologist is a pixel art local multiplayer coop top-down shooter game. You take on the role of a daring scientist equipped with a portable scanner and laboratory. Your mission is to travel through diverse and perilous planets in your trusty spaceship, gathering invaluable data from the far reaches of the galaxy.
Story
As a Planetologist or planetary ecologist, your mission involves traveling to various planets, studying their diverse ecosystems and documenting your discoveries. Upon reaching your current destination, you encounter what seems to be some kind of pathogen that can infect all forms of life and somehow spread to other planets light-years away.
You realize that, by scanning this planet with one of your devices, you can trace the planet that infected this one. After some calculations, you estimate that the main source of the infection should be ten planets away. The universe's only hope now is to locate and eradicate this infection at its source.
Main Features
- 3 different game modes (Story, Survival and Extraction)... but maybe more!
- 10 unlockable worlds with stunning backgrounds and immersive environments.
- Level design based on each world's unique size, gravity, biome and atmosphere.
- Procedurally generated world layouts, ensuring a fresh experience on each visit.
- 12 unlockable characters, each with unique playstyles and abilities.
- Character leveling system with 17 different skills.
- 12 unlockable robot companions to add utility, support or raw firepower to your party.
- 3 unlockable ships for you to buy, upgrade and equip with special power-ups and weapons.
- Local coop multiplayer up to 12 players... if you find a way to hook up that many controllers!
- Steam achievements.
- Based on pixel art by Penusbmic and other awesome artists.
Game Modes
Story mode
![](https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzE2NzkxOTg1LmpwZw==/original/A9ukM9.jpg)
Find the origin of the cosmic infection that's consuming civilizations and worlds. Scan infected planets to locate hives, abandoned equipment, bosses and other survivors to join your party. Buy ships and equipment to trace the infection to its very core and eradicate it from the universe.
Estimated play time: 14 hours to complete all 4 scan missions in all 10 worlds and a lot more to satisfy your greed for experience and equipment.
Survival Endless
Estimated play time: Depends a lot on your thirst for experience and brutal carnage.
Survival Extraction
Same as Survival Endless, except someone might actually bother to rescue you. The only caveat is you need to be at the right place at the right time or else your galactic-uber might rather "take another trip".
Estimated play time: 5 hours to complete all worlds with a single character. 60 hours to complete all worlds with all characters.
Art Samples
Characters
Companions
Ships
Worlds
EnemiesStatus
Feature | Demo | Early Access | Full Release |
Max Players | 1 | 1 | 12 |
Story Mode | No | No | Yes |
Endless Survival Mode | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Extraction Survival Mode | No | No | Yes |
Characters | 1 | 1 | 12 |
Companions | 0 | 0 | 12 |
Ships | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Ship Specials | 0 | 0 | TBD |
Worlds | 1 | 1 | 10 |
Enemies | 6 | 6 | 65 (aprox) |
Bosses | 0 | 0 | 4 |
We don't want to promise anything because we've been working on this project for over a year now, and if there's one thing experience has taught us, it's that things in game development don't always happen within the estimated timeframe. However, we do want to share our ambitious aspirations regarding the progress of the game's development and the number of features we plan to release monthly.
Let us dream =)
Credits
Game by
Engineering by
Art by
Music by
Made with GameMaker
Support us in Patreon
Updated | 2 days ago |
Status | In development |
Platforms | Windows, HTML5 |
Rating | Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 total ratings) |
Author | JamesChappFillmore |
Genre | Action, Shooter |
Made with | GameMaker |
Tags | 2D, Atmospheric, Dark, GameMaker, Indie, Pixel Art, Sci-fi, Shoot 'Em Up, Top-Down |
Average session | About a half-hour |
Languages | English |
Multiplayer | Local multiplayer |
Player count | 1 - 4 |
Download demo
Development log
- The Planetologists Game Development #092 days ago
- The Planetologists Game Development #0824 days ago
- The Planetologists Game Development #0737 days ago
- The Planetologists Game Development #06Oct 17, 2022
- The Planetologists Game Development #05Sep 29, 2022
- The Planetologists Game Development #04Sep 29, 2022
- The Planetologists Game Development #03Sep 26, 2022
- The Planetologists Game Development #02Sep 25, 2022
Comments
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Mac port :(
Hi itchy do io!
Sorry, there’s no Mac port at the moment :/ Neither of us (all two team members) own a Mac, which is sadly a requirement to build the project for Mac. It will happen sometime in the future though, so stay tuned! :)
Regards!
¡Felicitaciones campeones! Espero ansioso el contenido futuro :)
MUY BUENOO!!!!!
Genial!
MUY adictivo!! Me gustó mucho que cambien las opciones de posibles upgrades en cada nivel, hace que cada partida sea distinta. Me encantó y muy fan del pixelart (L)!
This is going great! looks awesome =D
Thank you Teweport =)
great looking proof of concept! this could be a great game!
Looking good James :)
Hi, Penusbmic. After 2 years of publishing the prototype and another year working with Guillermo on this project, we finally managed to release the demo and reactivate the project!
We will be updating the project weekly. =)