A beta trailer showing off the new capabilities of the wonderfully old-school Lunar Flight is now on the tubes.
Back in May we learned about Lunar Flight, a new take on the old classic Lunar Lander, which has been with us in one form or another since the early 70s. But the new game from Aussie indie Shovsoft is a lot more than a two-dimensional low-grav parking simulator. It’s a fully-realized spaceflight sim, and while the “fuel and physics” gameplay of its predecessors remains intact it’s been augmented with multiple mission types, experience points, pilot challenges, module upgrades and more.
It’s obviously a complex sim [trust me, you’re not going to yank-and-bank your way to victory on the moon] but creator Sean Edwards, a ten-year veteran of the Australian games industry, says Lunar Flight is also designed to be accessible and entertaining. Realistic Newtonian physics may not be the hottest box blurb ever but it looks good, sounds good and actually supports Xbox 360 controllers by default.
Shovsoft is still taking donations to support development of the game and offering beta access plus a copy of the full release when it’s available to everyone who kicks in at least five bucks.
“The response has been hugely positive,” Edwards said. “A lot of people make mention of the fondness of Lunar Lander and how Lunar Flight brings back a lot of great memories. People seem to really like the direction I’ve taken it and I continue to receive donations, often more than the minimum $5.”
Edwards is about halfway toward recouping the license cost of the Unity Pro engine used to power the game so if you’d like to help out or just want to learn a little bit more about it, hop over to shovsoft.com and have a look around. No release date has been set but Edwards said he hopes to have Lunar Flight out sometime in early 2012 at a cost of $10.
