So...I certainly doubt any of you recall when I switched gears off of the old Ice Cube Game project for something that I intended to be a bit smaller and simpler. Well it seems that I still don't have sufficient time to dedicate to even something "smaller in scope", nor do I seem to be able to grasp the concept of a game that's "smaller in scope". I've only in recent weeks managed to carve out the time to start turning any of those concept images from so many months ago into something playable, and the game has slowly grown in that short time to be something very different from what I originally intended.

As you have no doubt have forgotten, Escape to Alpha Centauri was to be a hybrid of an old-school vertical-shooter and Oregon Trail style resource management. Well, as I have discovered, all those fond memories you have of Oregon Trail probably have less to do with its thrilling gameplay and more to do with the fact that it got you out of doing actual schoolwork because your teacher thought it was "educational". I'm here to tell you once and for all, Oregon Trail was never actually fun (except for maybe those hunting parts).

After extracting all the resource management, what remains of EtAC is a fairly traditional vertical-shooter. I hope to still be able to spice it up here and there. A simple upgrade mechanic, fairly refined gameplay (for a flash-game), and a few curveballs from the norm here and there will hopefully be able to hold interest throughout the full length of the thing.

The demo here today is most of what I have so far that's actually playable. No enemies, no obstacles, no sounds, and no levels. Just the basic flying and shooting mechanics are in there, but I'm just here to prove that there is still a flicker of life in this project.

Demo Notes:

• Only "Escape Mode" is available. Clicking any other option on the title screen will probably take you to a blank screen.
• Don't adjust your volume. There really are no sounds in there.
• Not sure what's going on with the BG color during the initial load. Something with the way GB embeds work seems to be ignoring that parameter.
• Arrow Keys - Move. X - Shoot.