Summary
- The world of Skycadia is overflowing with Sky Pirates – and there is a profit to be made!
- Soar to the skies and collect bounties by shooting down the villains in this carefree flying adventure.
- Handcrafted with love from pastel pixels and a chunky retro taste
Skycadia is a fast-paced arcade dogfighting game where you battle for the highest bounty in a colorful, pixelated world. It’s been seeping away for several years, going through many different iterations, and is finally ready for you to enjoy.
I am a full-time game development teacher at a community college in the Midwest, married, father of four, and I’ve spent the past 15 years in professional game development, from starting two indie game studios to working for large corporations as an artist and senior game designer. Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to share my passion for game development with hundreds of students and mentees.
The earliest idea I had Skycadia was a mix of the depth of Mount & Blade with the arcade gameplay of Star fox. After creating a simple prototype that would fly around and shoot enemies with colorful, expansive imagery, I felt set on something interesting. I started adding things to do between combat and navigating a world map with item shops and enemies, but after testing the game it was clear that the real fun was focusing on the frenetic flying and shooting .
After making the game playable enough to be shown to others, I took a build to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and introduced it to the great team at Microsoft. I was nervous but they were encouraging and liked the concept, so they gave me permission to develop Skycadia for Xbox One. It was a dream come true to develop my own game for a large console!
A former student, McGuire Leiting, graciously agreed to help me finish the game by using his artistic skills. So we started thinking about how I could turn what I had already done into a complete package. We had a lot of ideas, but we focused on arcade action and high score hunting. McGuire developed the distinct visual style it has today to add to the mood of the game. He also kept me updated to finally complete the project!
As a lifelong game developer, I’ve played and made games for many years, but this is my first major console version of a personal project. I can’t wait for you to get your hands on it Skycadia and let me know what you think. Feel free to send me a message on Twitter with your feedback and I look forward to seeing your high scores above mine on the leaderboards.
Skycadia
Studio Nisse Press
$ 9.99
The world of Skycadia is overflowing with Sky Pirates – and there is a profit to be made! Soar to the skies and collect bounties by shooting down the villains in this carefree flying adventure.
