Planned Release Date: Aug 18, 2025

About This Game

Stahldrache is a top-down shooter, putting you in an aerospace fighter in the skies of distant planets. The AI controlling the planetary terraforming systems has gone rogue, and someone needs to neutralize it before the colonists arrive. That someone is you!

It is 2375. Seven years ago, news of the disaster at Arachne Quintus arrived at Earth; a colony ship lost with all hands in a vicious attack. With thousands of other ships in transit to other worlds, authorities scrambled for answers...

Nearly a century before, colony ships had begun leaving for new systems. The ships were big and slow, so small, fast automated ships were sent in advance; these would arrive decades earlier, and begin terraforming and establishing infrastructure for the colonists. This was the DAVIT (Durable Automated Vanguard Infrastructure & Terraforming) Project.

Something had gone wrong with the DAVIT systems; on every planet, they had turned hostile and would attack anything that approached. They had to be neutralized, or the Arachne Quintus disaster would repeat a thousand times over.

A new project (the Stahldrache Project) was thrown together as quickly as possible. Since the time of the colonial exodus, technology had advanced, and superluminal travel became practical.  Or at least, practical enough to be used in desperation in a series of emergency rescue missions...

A series of small carrier ships were built, capable of jumping to an afflicted system and dropping a drone fighter and a supply base to the planet. You are flying that fighter, using a hyperwave link; you must destroy the AI control nodes to neutralize the DAVIT systems. Your supply base can build new fighters and repair and rearm you, so you can keep going until the mission is complete.

Except... the AI systems are building hyperwave jammers. If you can't destroy the control nodes before the jammer is completed, contact with the system will be lost, and the carrier will have to resort to orbital bombardment to neutralize the AI. That will leave the planet in rough shape for the colonists.

Choose Your Fighter

Whenever you return to your landing pad, you are refueled, rearmed and repaired.  You can switch between any of four fighters; a light dogfighter, a heavier multirole fighter, a fast bomber and a heavy bomber.

You can also choose your loadout; a variety of bombs, guns, other weapons, countermeasures and upgrades are available to customize your fighter. Mission success allows you to unlock more weapons and equipment as you play.

You can even deploy new landing pads; expand your reach into enemy territory by air-deploying new bases!

Pick Their Defenses Apart

The enemy has gun and missile turrets, shields, radar coverage, fighter cover... layered defenses protecting their control nodes. You'll need to consider your strategy. Will you try to drill a hole in the defenses you can slip through, or will you erode the edges until your objectives are within reach? Will you try bulldozing in to try to knock a node out before your armor gives out? Will you fight everything in your way or try to weave through the fire?

Remember, you're on the clock; that jammer is gradually coming online...

There's More Where They Came From

There are untold thousands of worlds to be saved, and the Stahldrache Project needs every fighter pilot they can muster. Come help us save the galaxy!

Features

• Top-down Fighter Battles: dogfight waves of fighters, dodge swarms of missiles and ground fire

• Large Unique Maps: large, procedurally generated planetary maps, with six different planet types

• Equipment Options: a variety of weapons, upgrades and fighters

• Layered Enemy Defenses: DAVIT forces have overlapping defenses that need to be picked apart

• Choose Your Challenge: mission difficulty can be set from "casual" to "nightmare"

• Lunchtime Warrior: missions are designed to be fun without dragging too long