Nova Drift by Pixeljam

Nova Drift distills the mechanical depth of an action RPG into classic arcade space combat. Control an endlessly evolving bio-mechanical ship, face legions of strange and deadly foes, and ride the wake of a dying star across the void.
Your ship rapidly evolves as you defeat enemies, allowing you to shape its abilities and weaponry to your desires in a matter of minutes. Unlike many action-RPGs which can absorb hundreds of hours of time, Nova Drift allows you to take a ship build from inception to execution in a single game session. 
Follow the development of the game here.

Features: #

• Create a unique build every run. Games are quick, allowing for rapid experimentation, iteration, and advancement.
• Cunning and creativity are rewarded as you chain upgrade modules for powerful synergies.
• ****Access over 250 weapons and mods as you progress and expand your arsenal.
• Build to play how you want. Snipe, command a drone army, discharge your shields, charge up, burn enemies with your thrusters, or smash right through them… there’s a way to make it work.
• Unlock modular challenge modes, providing greater risk and rewards. The stakes are high, as death is permanent!
• Every game is randomly generated, keeping the fight intense and unpredictable. Fight through the campaign or play endlessly.

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Nova Drift is a living game. Frequent updates will continue to expand the depth and content of the game world. #

Delivered updates:

• ENEMIES 2.0 – A major overhaul to the entire enemy encounter system

• LOCALIZATION – French, Russian, Chinese (both traditional & simplified), Polish, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese

• MAYHEM – New Super Mods, Body Gear + Game Mode

• VIRULENCE – New Super Mods, Weapon, Shield + Body Gear

• WILD METAMORPHOSIS – extremely rare mods that have a variety of powerful and/or bizarre effects, enhancing the rogue-like and deck-building aspects of the game.

• FISSION– 2 new body gear (firefly / spectre).

• APEX – a complete overhaul of advanced constructs.

• New Gear: Thermal Lance / Shockwave Shield / Carrier Body

Planned updates / Roadmap:

Ship Evolutions: #

Mods & Gear can be unlocked, upgraded and combined to make unexpected and powerful combinations: 

Example Build #1: Seeking Cluster Grenade #

Grenade + Body: Assault + High Explosive + Splinter Shot + Heat Seeking + Charged Shot

This build focuses on creating as many grenade splinters as possible using the Grenade weapon and sends them tearing toward targets using the Heat Seeking mod. The overlapping blasts from the initial explosion add up to a huge amount of damage at the epicenter, while the seeking clusters handle crowd control.

Example Build #2: Celestial Shield-Bomber #

Hullbreaker + Amp Shield + Volatile Shields + Flash Shielding + Emergency Systems + Celestial Lance

This build takes advantage of the Hullbreaker’s speed and resilience to crash damage to slam directly into enemies. The fragile Amp Shield is used not for defense, but to augment Hullbreaker’s strongest aspects, gaining increased speed and force. The shield will break on impact, but we can capitalize on that using the Volatile Shields mod, which detonates the shield when it goes down, blasting all nearby enemies. Flash Shielding gets it running again quickly while Emergency Systems grant a moment of damage immunity, making charge attacks safer. Finally, Celestial Lance is used to deal burning damage to everything around the ship at high velocities!

Nova Drift is developed by Jeffrey Nielson of Chimeric, a mostly 1-man development team, featuring music and audio by Miles Tilmann of Pixeljam Games.
Chimeric is dedicated to creating light, streamlined games with an emphasis on deep, mechanical interaction and player agency. 
We love player input and collaboration, and welcome any ideas or feedback you may have: chimericgames@gmail.com.
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Join the DISCORD community and suggest features, report bugs or just hang out and talk strategy!
MAC USERS: you may have to place the game in the Applications directory for it to launch correctly.