Steambirds Alliance - a game about strangers becoming friends in the face of impossible odds



So while I'm based here in South Africa, for the last 2 years I've been working with a bunch of lovely folks all around the world on a very special game: Steambirds Alliance. It's a tiny team for a huge project - Steambirds is a co-operative MMO bullet-hell. Last week we crossed the biggest milestone the project has had so far: world-wide release on Steam! Since then it's been super hectic trying to fix all the issues that came up and get things to be as stable as possible. Making an MMO is hard, eh!

It's been a long road so far - the project is about 6 years old - but it's not the end of the road either. We plan to continue working on the project for a long time, methodically working on new exciting features and improvements, to make things better and better. We have a lovely blog post on why we made the game, and we'll continue to work towards that long term goal of building friendships <3

If you play the game and like it, pls leave us a review on Steam. We've been battling the initial shock of some server issues at launch, so any push in the positive direction is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions about the game or what it's been like to work on a project like this, pls shoot away.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/386010/Steambirds_Alliance/
Discord: https://discord.gg/steambirds

Good skies!

Comments

  • I've been playing since launch and I've been having fun! Would love to hook up with some peeps for some of the harder missions
    Thanked by 1francoisvn
  • @Fengol: Thanks for playing! There's quite an active Discord community, and they've made some cool systems for grouping up and calling out cool content like Meowza and bounties. You might find that quite useful :)
  • Congratulations! Looks so good!
    Thanked by 1francoisvn
  • Great trailer. Very cool/
  • edited
    I don't think I'm getting Steambirds. I've been playing it every day since launch and even spend some cash to buy some paint but I don't think I understand the gameplay or what I'm supposed to be doing. It feels like there's a meta I'm not getting.

    There's this talk about dungeons and bosses and things to hunt but I cannot find any of it and I die so quickly from unavoidable bullet hell.

    Also the "loot" doesn't make sense. 90% of it shows a red down arrow which I presume means junk and I never feel like I pick up something cool or interesting like in a standard MMO.

    @francoisvn am I missing something I was suppose to do or see?

    I do find the basic game play cathartic which is why I play it
  • @Fengol: so there is a meta that I believe we try explain in the tutorial, but it's probably easy to miss. There are a couple of loops in the game:
    • As you play you can gain XP from being near enemies as they die (everyone gets the same XP, whether you helped or not), and if you gain enough XP you can level up to L20 to do more dmg, have more health, etc.
    • When you start the game, you only have one class unlocked, but by levelling up the class you can unlock more, and then levelling up those you can unlock others...
    • Each class has its own set of abilities and skills. You unlock the skill system on your first death and then subsequent deaths can unlock more skills and skill points to spend on them. You get more unlocks if you gain more XP (you can also continue to gain XP past L20 for this).
    • You can also upgrade your planes with various permanent upgrades. These are fixed to your plane and lost on death, but they can be super powerful passive bonuses.
    • Most of your time you'll be spending in worlds/islands/overworlds (terms are overlapping). These are the servers you connect to from the Rebel City. They get progressively harder as you venture outwards from the spawn point, with harder enemies that also have better loot on the outsides.
    • Scattered around the world are various "setpiece" bosses. You'll generally recognise these by their distinctive terrain and the way it zooms out so you can see the entire fight. These are generally a lot harder, but give much better loot, including things like upgrades.
    • Setpiece bosses will frequently drop a portal to a dungeon. These show up as blue icons on your radar. Dungeons are procedurally generated, and are all quite different. Often they are themed in some way, and they almost all end with a big boss.
    • If all the setpiece bosses on a world are killed, then the world starts to collapse, shaking a bit, and everyone gets sent to Meowza. Meowza is a big super-hard boss with a lot of interesting bullet patterns, but the reward is also pretty good.
    • If you defeat Meowza and are strong enough, sometimes a portal to the 3 Brothers will spawn. These are harder versions of 3 event bosses that you have to fight all at once (event bosses are like setpiece bosses, but they only show up sometimes when an event boss is killed).
    • if you defeat the 3 Brothers, then you can tackle "Meowza 2", or Meowza's Inner Sanctum. This is currently the hardest boss in the game, and basically only the top players in the game are able to beat it. Many planes have fallen to Meowza and her final form!
    This is not even speaking about the questing, crafting and other systems in the game. So there's a lot of different things you can do. Ultimately a lot of it comes down to player skill - the best players are amazing at how they weave between bullets. They've had planes they've been nurturing for months, maxing out all the upgrades, and they can take on the hardest bosses without dying. They also maintain a wiki with some useful stuff like a getting started page.
    Fengol said:
    Also the "loot" doesn't make sense. 90% of it shows a red down arrow which I presume means junk and I never feel like I pick up something cool or interesting like in a standard MMO.
    That might be loot other players are kindly dropping, which can be useful for new players that are trying to level up quickly, or it could be that the enemies you're fighting are generally a bit low level. I'd recommend trying to use the quests that are level-approriate, and following that around. The game is also designed to be cooperative, so forming groups with other players is a sure way to get access to the better content.

    Hope that kinda answers your questions! :)
  • The "dungeons" are those the aircraft carriers that appear in the world and teleport you to another map with room-like architecture?

    I think the main problem is I'm flying mainly solo, helping the people around me. I think I'm so being too risky if you say players have been looking after their planes for months.
  • Fengol said:
    The "dungeons" are those the aircraft carriers that appear in the world and teleport you to another map with room-like architecture?
    Yip! Those maps are the dungeons. There are more than a dozen of them. High tier dungeons can be quite hard!
    Fengol said:
    I think the main problem is I'm flying mainly solo, helping the people around me. I think I'm so being too risky if you say players have been looking after their planes for months.
    Maybe? Most players die much more rapidly. Those top players have been playing the game for years, with some having 1000+ hours. If I play I'll usually be able to get up to L20 in an hour or so, depending on if I know the class well or not, and then I'll probably tackle something too hard and die in the next 15 minutes ;P The game is definitely most fun when you play with others. Usually the servers will have a group or two that flies around taking on bosses and dungeons. If you can join a group like that it can be a lot of fun. That said, I've been way too busy to play properly since launch, and my attachment to items is quite different when I can cheat to get more, so YMMV!
Sign In or Register to comment.