SkyRoads

Overview

SkyRoads (a polished-up remake of the game Kosmonaut) is a racing game set on ten different stages ranging from the Sun to the fictional world of Druidia. The goal of the racing game is to get to the end of the level with jumping from platform to platform without crashing, running out of oxygen, running of of fuel, or falling of of the track. The soundtrack is particularly notable, and is available for download from the developer's website.

Gameplay

The controls are simple, with the spacebar as jump and the left/right keys are used to move and the up/down keys to speed up or slow down. Meters at the bottom indicate the ship's speed, oxygen levels, and fuel levels. The meter to the left indicates how far players are into the level, next to a grav-o-meter that describes the planet's gravity with 100 is the lowest, giving a weightless feeling, and 1700 is the highest, allowing no jumping. The ship was very fragile, and colliding head on with anything at all but the lowest speed would cause the ship to explode.

The simplicity of the game belies the various kinds of challenges the mechanics could provide. Given the variables of oxygen, fuel, gravity, and track type, many combinations were possible to test the skills of the player. Some stages were set up to stress quick completion by increasing the rate oxygen was depleted, some were extremely technical and required the player to carefully manage resources by jumping on track pieces that would add more fuel and oxygen, and some had the player always on acceleration tracks which meant quick reflexes and exact timing were necessary for success.

The demo and full versions of both games are now available for download as freeware from the developer's website.