Epsilon Jump

A Tough, Retro, Twin-Stick fighter with Unique Warping Mechanic

Epsilon Jump is a retro, Geometry Wars-inspired arcade game that is coming out for Mobile and PC/Mac devices. The free version is out now for Android and iOS, and a paid version with expanded content and modes is in the works slated to come out for Steam Greenlight. The game is based on a unique warping mechanic where you warp through enemies to destroy them, chaining warps together to get a high score.

Background

Epsilon Jump started out as an idea for a game based around an interesting jump or warp mechanic I saw as a small part of another game. Pikachu, the pokemon, is a main character in the game Super Smash Bros, and one of his skills in that game is a quick-attack where he can quickly move from one position to another. Seeing this as an interesting and very skill-intensive mechanic, I decided to build an entire game centered around that one type of motion.

Starting from this stem of an idea, I first built out a demo which I called Energize Sparq (and is playable in the games section of this site) which tested out the idea. The project lay dorment for a few years as I finished up school, but when I finally came back to it, I delved deep and really started to build out the core of the game.

After about 3 months, I had designed a number of different enemy types, ironed out all the gameplay bugs, and created three different game modes. I felt that this was a lot of content and very good for a free-released game.

Epsilon Jump went live on iOS, Android and Steam Greenlight on January 16-17 2017.

Art & Inspirations

The game is inspired heavily by retro and neo-retro twin-stick shooters such as Geometry Wars, and Pew Pew. There are ample particle effects as enemies throw off particles as they give chase and explode into dozens of pieces when they die.

Furthermore, I implemented an amazing VectorGrid background designed by misterSquare on the Unity Asset Store. After finding it online, I knew it would make a wonderful addition to the game and bring it over the edge in terms of look and feel.

Gameplay

Gameplay involves a unique jumping mechanic on cooldown timer. When the player clicks (on desktop) or swipes in a direction on a joystick (mobile/desktop), it activates a jump which renders the player invulnerable for a fraction of a second as they are quickly warped in the direction they activated the jump in.

The game is currently released with three different game modes: "Chaos Theory," Enemies spawning consistently and getting harder with a higher score. "Collector," Jumps are limited and enemies spawn when you collect point pickups. "Strategem," enemies are spawned in waves and movement is severely limited so you have to rely on strategic jumps.

By earning a high enough score on each game mode, medals unlock which in tern unlock different ship types. More game modes and challenges are in the works along with leveled missions and boss battles.

Available Now!

Game is currently released for free on iPhone and Android systems with a paid, premium version in the works! The premium version is also up on Steam Greenlight for voting and hopefully will be greenlit soon!

Click here to vote for us on Steam Greenlight!