Astebreed

About

Published by Playism in 2014, Astebreed reinterprets the classic arcade shooter game and gives it a modern twist with top-tier Japanese mecha designs, extraordinary particle effects, and 3D models. The game features six chapters of shoot ‘em up action, with various attack alternatives, including an exclusive “ex-attack”, two kinds of lock-on tactics, a blade attack, a blade dash attack, and a bullet spread.

The player takes the character of a young pilot named Roy Becket, who is submitted to constant action from enemies as he aims to level up his mech skills. The player sees a continuous stream of activity through Astebreed’s dynamic perspective, keeping you guessing on what the next threat might be.

For this project, our Astebreed partners wanted their game converted to a Fuze console, which had not yet been released. The Fuze video game console was a creation that came out of China. The console design showcased a box that closely resembled a PlayStation 4 and a controller that looked uncannily close to Xbox’s gamepad design. Although Fuze’s UI design is less powerful than its competitors, it offered a lower price and the chance for the Chinese gaming market to get on board with personal console gaming.

Challenges

Since we were working on porting a Steam game into a console that was not yet released, it was quite challenging for us to work with new hardware and software that was not yet in the production stage. Due to this, our team was in constant contact with Fuze developers as we worked with their designs, which also featured a custom Android-based operating system.

Approach

One of the most critical aspects of our approach was the optimization of a Steam game to Fuze’s low-end software and hardware. Our team paid close attention to optimizing memory management and correctly developing the shaders according to Fuze’s GPU. Additionally, like any other porting project, we introduced the Fuze ecosystem into the Astebreed design. After a lot of obstacles, hard work, and plenty of learning opportunities, Astebreed was never converted to Fuze. And in the end, the Fuze console project was not released to the public.