Flak 2026-02-03

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnnXzMyeXW4 (easter egg spoiler)

It.. lives.. again!

Last year was a slow one, with work and real life keeping me busy! Around October though, development picked up again - with this version notably being the first to receive significant feedback, from friends and colleagues alike. To everyone helping shape this game - thank you!

This version finally explores some new concepts like Shields and Squads - which allow ships to survive slightly longer, and also somewhat organize. There are some new controls to back these - but fret not, they're in the... handy in-game reference card! (Rebinding is still pending. 😅 )

Also, there is a new (configurable) auto-aim mechanic that finally makes the game somewhat playable on controllers - which still aren't supported, but can be hacked in via Steam Input or similar. The game performs surprisingly well on Steam Deck, maintaining 7-9W power draw even in intense scenarios. I'm very pleased by this!

I would like to fully support controllers sooner than later, and started adopting the Enemy Starfighter mindset of "if it can't fit on a controller, it's probably too many buttons" - I think this is a great guidepost for control complexity.
(Also, if you're somehow reading this, like space combat games, and haven't played that yet - please check it out. It's awesome!)

General:

• Add capturable Bases to Sandbox, with some supporting changes:
  • Ships etc. can now swap factions at runtime, adjusting engine / weapon colors, etc. appropriately.
  • This also affects "factories" (ship spawners), causing them to begin spawning ships for their new faction instead.
  • Bases can, for now, be captured by... blowing them up! After which they will swap allegiances and heal.
• Improve projectile visuals and collision - now always visible, even at point-blank ranges or extreme speeds.
• Improve Sandbox spawning, limiting max "ambient" ships to ~100. Though Base spawners can exceed this limit a bit!
• Add initial cruise mode! Allows travel in larger scenes like Sandbox, but locks out weapons - kinda like Freelancer.
  • "Shift+W" to engage cruise. Currently no windup, so can be used as a bit of an evasion tool ATM too.
• Add "death cam," freezing camera in place for a second to admire your exploding ship.
• Allow rotating camera directly when aiming too far to the sides. Mouse flicks should feel much more responsive!
• Improve input response, and draw aiming-related UI elements right after consuming input, instead of next frame.
• Add Shields!
  • All ships now have shields (even cruisers!), making them slightly easier to hit.
  • These recharge slowly over time, allowing some damage recovery.
  • HP values are now mainly concentrated here; the smaller hulls now only need a few hits to splash.
• Improve various visual effects:
  • Resize some existing ones for comfort / clarity.
  • Add a cute "pop" effect for spawning ships.
  • Add faction-colored aiming lines.
  • Add subtle "fizzle debris" effect to exploded ships.
  • Fogify Sandbox a bit, toning down all that color!
  • Add WIP "space dust" for some motion reference in empty space.
• Improve targeting:
  • RMB now just a "click once" control, targeting whatever is radially closest to your crosshair.
  • Mouse Wheel now consistently cycles targets left-to-right, by world angle (for consistency).
  • Now much more responsive - see Networking!
• Improve UI legibility - clean up sizing, add HP / Shield bar for own ship, etc.
• Add Squads! Players and AI can now group up, with some simple target sharing:
  • "I" key invites to squad (or joins existing), "Shift+I" leaves.
  • "Q" key assigns current target to the nearest appropriate squad member.
    • Can be repeatedly pressed to assign multiple ships.
    • Prioritizes ship type (fighter, capital) first, then squad members' distance to target.
    • If no target is selected, simply recalls ships to follow instead.
  • New Squad HUD shows members, ship type, health, and whether or not they have the same target.
  • "F1"-"F8" keys target current squad members, in the order they're shown on the HUD.
• Add "key ship" HUD info to top of screen - important ships w/ factories, bases, etc.
• Add weapon lock / auto-aim for hostile targets - lead indicator will slowly turn red as auto-aim kicks in.
• Add initial "overcharge" mechanic - ships out of energy now kick out a heat sink, and begin to rapidly recharge.
• Add new persistent sensitivity and auto-aim options to pause menu, with a quick reset button.
• Cleanup (and a lot of it!)
  • General performance pass - more events, less polling.
  • Fix various issues, exceptions, etc.
  • Probably add some new issues too.
• Update Unity / Mirage to latest LTS versions.
  • Addresses Unity CVE-2025-59489.
• Add some silly easter eggs...
  • Try hitting P in the main menu!
  • Alternatively, try looking behind an unassuming planet in Sandbox...

AI / Bots:

• Tweak general movement / aiming habits. Easier to fight now!
• Add support for new behaviors - cruise, squads, etc.
  • Use cruise to chase far-away targets, sometimes engaging it for evasion too.
  • Passively form or join squads, leading to some interesting self-organization over a match.
• Prefer closer targets (or squad targets) when searching for new ones.
• General cleanup, adding small reaction times to aiming, target switching, etc.
• Fix surprisingly old spinning bug! Where AI would sometimes just spin wildly, while appearing to fly straight.
  • AI actually use the same controllers players do, but previously had camera smoothing speed set to 0 - so they were effectively contending with infinite camera rotation speed. Oops!
• Allow AI to persist in player squads, swapping ships on death the same way players do.

Networking:

• Generally improve experience, fixing issues with edge cases, consistency, bandwidth, etc.
  • While still not ideal, playing under high ping or (some) packet loss should feel much better!
• Write a new position sync system, to better support some of the previous client prediction work.
• Handle targeting client -> server (like input), improving responsiveness.
• Allow network HUD to display issues encountered connecting, etc.
• Add in-game bandwidth profiling via "Shift-0" key.

NetFlak Test 2024-09-30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ0xnvSA2PA

It's back! This release has many under the hood changes that allow me to start building more layers.
It's mostly the same on the surface, but does have some visible features:

Networking:

• Client-side prediction - very basic and a bit "wobbly" under duress, but still a big step!
• Improved network input handling
• New networking menu, replacing the temporary Mirage sample UI
• Support command line arguments for multiplayer
• Automatically start a local (singleplayer) session, instead of always having to host first
• Increase maximum connected clients to 8 (9 players including host)

General:

• Add WIP Sandbox scene, using SkyboxPlus by Keijiro Takahashi (MIT License)
• HUD team indicators and name tags for other players (currently just device name)
• Scale UI to resolution (using height as reference)
• Various AI tweaks (slightly smarter, slightly easier oops)
• Add throttle controls and HUD elements
• Add handy control reference to PauseMenu
• Improve many small things
• Removed the silly controller cube

Enjoy! Please note the gameplay is still pretty rough - at some point, I need to go in and dial in the game feel a bit, as it's way too frantic and difficult to land hits. I think bigger hitboxes and slower, smoother movement could help (as well as mechanics like shields, missiles...). But I've held off most tuning in favor of continuing to build the general framework for now, as that's where the momentum's usually at when I do work on this. Eventually, though!

NetFlak Test 2023-09-06

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCAA51I1Ih8

This release hits multiple big milestones for me:

• Networked multiplayer! Using Mirage Networking
• New pause menu, using Unity's newer UIToolkit
  • Removes UnityResolutionDialog, but implements the same options
• New main menu, featuring a basic menu <-> match flow and options screen
• AI improvements, including more forgiving aim
• Respawn improvements, favoring ships on same team and with higher HP %

As you can probably guess, adding networked multiplayer had significant ramifications on the design and implementation of core game systems. It's a heavy work in progress - particularly on the client-side overall feel - but I'm pleased with the results so far and Mirage has been amazing to work with. I wrote about this in (much) more detail in the video description, so check it out!

Controls:

• WSAD - Move ship
• Spacebar - Toggle Auto-Level + Steering Lock
• LMB - Fire
• X - Cycle Fire Mode
• V - Toggle Cockpit Cam
• H - Toggle Relative Steering

Targeting:

• Hold RMB - Target Ahead
• MWheel - Cycle Targets
• R - Closest Target
• T - Clear Target
• C - Focus Target

Misc:

• -/+ - Adjust Timescale
• Backspace - Reset Timescale
• F - Toggle AI Control
• P - Possess Target
• K - Kill Ship
• Backslash \ - Spawn Ships

Flak Test 2023-05-03

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT_OFja9MT0

No video this time (yet?), but a new build with some new features:

• Cockpit cams and relative mouse steering (can be toggled)
• New ship explosion and weapon fx
• Targeting improvements
• AI improvements
• New HUD elements including lead indicator
• Gametype logic that conditionally spawns ships, either every few seconds or when the cruisers get shot at

Comes in "bright" (old) and "dark" (new?) lighting variants. I need to figure out a better skybox.
Dark is probably too dark lol, oops. But the colors really pop! 😅

Controls: (new)

• WSAD - Move ship
• Spacebar - Toggle Auto-Level + Steering Lock
• LMB - Fire
• X - Cycle Fire Mode
• V - Toggle Cockpit Cam
• H - Toggle Relative Steering

Targeting:

• Hold RMB - Target Ahead (still derpy, but now more accurate)
• MWheel - Cycle Targets
• R - Closest Target
• T - Clear Target
• C - Focus Target

Misc:

• -/+ - Adjust Timescale
• Backspace - Reset Timescale
• F - Toggle AI Control
• P - Possess Target
• K - Kill Ship
• Backslash \ - Spawn Ships
• RShift + R - Reload Scene

Flak Test 2023-04-15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XscFCKkyU8w

Controls:

• WSAD - Move ship
• LMB - Fire
• RMB - Target Ahead (a bit derp atm)
• MWheel - Cycle Targets
• R - Closest Target
• F - Toggle AI Control
• P - Possess Target
• K - Kill Ship
• Backslash \ - Spawn Ships
• RShift + R - Reload Scene