_init Price Override Protocol… Success
_init Summer Mood Capacitators… Success
_calibr Sunburn Module… *sigh*... Success
_run Steamy Summer Sale.wav/melting(Robot voice)... standby

Ain’t no rest from the tropical heat waves engulfing this Summer Sale. Good thing that in PositronX you will always be in the shades while mowing through endless waves of machines.
We don’t know if they have been driven mad by the scorching temperature, but just to make sure everyone can get in the fun we slashed the price by 50%.

With no danger of overheating or succumbing to the fever of fun, Atom is the character you can always count on to reach the boss and send it packing with the unleashed fury of all the furnaces of Hell.

So close the shades, make sure you stay hydrated and see how fiery the action gets in PositronX!

Have a great Summer,
The Scorpius Crew

We are welcoming the Year of the Ox with a 20% discount for all the machine blasting enthusiast out there.

It is believed that Oxen are the hard workers in the background, intelligent and reliable, but never demanding praise.

We like to think that if our characters would have a specific creation year, Proton would be created in the Year of the Ox.
Loyal to it's purpose and very sturdy, Proton is the character you can always count on to steadily push through countless waves of machines and still have enough resources to face the boss.
Like all the other oxen in our lives, Proton is definitely one of our favorites and the one to call when worst comes to worst.


May this new year bring happiness, health and good fortune to all of you!

Have a happy and healthy year,
The Scorpius Crew

_init Price Override Protocol… Success
_init Holiday Mood Capacitators… Success
_calibr Ugly Sweater Module… *sigh*... Success
_run Happy Holiday Wishes.w/creepy(Robot voice)... standby

Happy Holidays, Positrons!

It seems you have almost completed one of the toughest roguelite stages in recent history - the year 2020. It’s hard to say what 2020 DIDN’T have: a raging pandemic, suffocatingly tense elections, more online flame wars than we could’ve ever expected and much, much more. 2020 has been a tough cookie. But it had its moments.

For us at Scorpius Games, it’s been the release of PositronX, a little nugget of joy in a sea of stress. And for us there’s no better way to relieve stress than blasting, crushing, shredding, pounding and obliterating entire rooms of enemies at a time.



And what better time to do that than now, in the snug comfort of your home, boasting your ugliest Christmas sweater and downing mug after mug of the cinnamon-y beverage of your choice, all while trying to get that Sinatra song out of your head, the one you probably heard over two days ago at the mart. Ugh. Yes, blasting robots helps. It always does.



And to that end, we’re overriding the standard pricing protocol and we’re implanting a 20% discount. Wallets need love too, we know that, PositronX has you covered.

Oh, and if you decide to spend part of your holidays crushing robots, share your robo-murder work on our community! We’d love to see a gallery of Winter-y fireworks to keep us warm.

And don’t forget to say “Hello” on our Discord server !

Happy Holidays to you all!

Signed
-the Scoripius Crew

We have always had a special place in our hearts for games that encouraged creative problem solving but also made you feel like a badass, so we knew from the start that PositronX will be a game about tight gameplay above all else.

The first person perspective opens up an entire array of gameplay possibilities but we wanted it to be a game that is both challenging while also giving a sense of freedom when it comes to how a player can approach a situation.

This is how Positronx came to be a futuristic rogue-lite fps featuring fast-paced combat, creative movement, time control mechanics and breathtaking visuals, each playthrough giving you a unique experience.

Without further ado:

For all the times you tried every weapon and you still could not clear the room...


For all the times you forgot to look down and got blasted by Rollers...


For all the times you activated the implant a second too late...


Embrace your love-hate relationship with the rogue-lite elements from PositronX and nominate us for "The best game you suck at" award!





Sincerely,
The Scorpius Crew

4 years ago we set on this journey to create the game that encompasses the core mechanics we loved and wished for in our favorite games.

4 years ago we longed for “the good ol’ days”. We wanted gunplay, we wanted tight gameplay, we wanted to control time, to control space, to blast trough some enemies with big guns but to sneak behind others, to feel the rush of a gaming session that will never be the same twice.

2 years ago we noticed we weren't the only ones, so we launched our game into early access, eager to listen to other gamers around the world who longed for the same game as we did. And so, PositronX grew and evolved as our community supported and guided us with precious feedback and insight we might have otherwise missed.

Every step of our journey, has led to this moment.


PositronX fireworks


Our project evolves into PositronX v1.0.0 today and with it some new feature have been added to round out and complete your PositronX experience.

3 new characters are waiting for you in the lobby, ready to test their mettle against the machines. Joining Positron, Proton, Electron and Atom will be:

• Quark - a silent but deadly assassin,
  
• Neutron - a devastating damage dealer
  
• Graviton - a master of Time.

The arsenal at your disposal has increased with two new weapons to unload on your opponents: the Core gun and Time gun.



Pick your character, upgrade your weapons, install your implants and get ready to explore the 4th stage of the game.

And this wouldn't be a proper roguelite without... you guessed it, the final boss at the end of the final stage - Machina.

if you can get past them...



To celebrate leaving Early Access we took a shot at the price and managed to deal a 10% damage for a whole week (October 29th - November 5th).

Take that, price!


It has been a long road and we want to thank each and everyone of you for helping us in our journey!

We had an amazing time making it, we hope you'll have an amazing time playing it ːsteamhappyː.


Happy robot hunting,
The Scorpius Crew

Hello Positrons!

Let me start by thanking everyone for the fast and helpful feedback you have offered us since the last update!

Here’s what’s been fixed in version 0.9.3:

• fixed hidden room infinite reward glitch - reward terminal now grants only one reward per hidden room
  
• fixed the interact prompt bug that would block a player progressing into the next room or from interacting with objects - the interact prompt will now show the correct key assigned to the command

Happy robot hunting,
The Scorpius crew

More than 2 years ago we set off on an exciting path of creating our own game, the game we would like to play, a game fueled by all of our childhood and teens nostalgia. We remember “the good ol’ days” as a time when games were about tight gameplay above all else, when games encouraged creative problem solving but also made you feel like a badass. Combine this with our love for roguelite games and well…

...this is where PositronX steps in. PositronX is our love letter to our nostalgia and to the roguelites we look up to. We wanted it to be a game that is both challenging while also giving a sense of freedom when it comes to how a player can approach a situation.




PositronX is a roguelite FPS, and the first person perspective opens up an entire array of gameplay possibilities.

We wanted to push these possibilities as creatively as possible, thus ideas like the ability to see through walls, alter time and space, deploying forcefield shields, drones, basically all sorts of means to alter as many aspects of the battlefield as possible.

In the vein of creative ways to combat enemies and a need to keep the game replayable we ended up with a game that manages to deliver unique battle scenarios which the player can tackle in any way they see fit. More than weapons, PositronX offers tools which you can combine, upgrade and adapt to your playstyle.

Which brings us to the roguelite aspect: PositronX is challenging and doesn’t hold your hand. You will have to adapt to the game’s unscripted scenarios.

This has been no easy task and this is one of the many reasons we chose to go down the Early Access path. We wanted players to have hands on access to the game as it’s being developed so we can get the most precise insight on how the game feels, because what works for us on paper, might not necessarily be the best possible experience for the player.




Now we’re preparing to leave Early Access. We’re carefully making the final steps towards the exciting launch of our 1.0 version. To that end, we’ve put together the biggest update we have ever made. Here’s what this Early Access Update brings :

(don’t worry, there’s not glitch in the matrix - since this is a HUGE update with BIG system changes, it was necessary to do)

• brand new tutorial;

• adjustments to pick-up items to ensure better correlation between visual and functionality;
  
• significantly adjusted game illumination throughout all 3 existing stages;
  
• adjustments to existing stages to ensure the legibility of enemies and points of interest;
  
• health bar now shows collective enemy health/room;
  
• directional damage FX on the screen;
  
• death FX for enemies;
  
• visual feedback on enemies taking damage;

• great improvements to weapons/projectiles FX;
  
• character movement mechanics improvements;
  
• improved animations for existing enemies;
  
• sharper, more relatable shooting animation for different types of weapons;
  
• reworked secondary attack for Pistol

• increased hitboxes on some very small or slim enemies;
  
• reworked the reward system for finishing a combat room;
  
• drops during combat now include only ammo and health (don’t worry, you can still find all the special weapon bonuses);
  
• reworked the weapons and implants upgrades system (fewer but more powerful upgrades);
  
• added an experience buff on a random character before each run;
  
• remove the old permanent bonuses, each character has now a permanent personal bonus that increases after each run;
  
• adjustments to game modes;
  
• adjustments to game difficulty;
  
• improve Echo ability functionality;

• added LOTS of lore;
  
• added Datapoints info (codex) for easier access to said lore;

• added Steam achievements;
  
• added missing icons for implants/ imprints/ weapons;
  
• overall UI improvements;
  
• new loading screen and splash screen;
  
• LOTS of bug fixing;

Since PositronX is our digital sci-fi robot-blasting baby, the full launch is pretty much a birthday for us, so we want to celebrate big time! Expect live streams, AMAs and giveaways.

Make sure you join our Discord server here to stay up to date with all our festive intentions AND to take part in the Update Giveaway!
Every day for the next 5 days, 2 random members will be selected from our discord server and will receive a PositronX Steam key.


A lot of work has gone in the game during these last 2 years. The game grew way over what it was when we first made it accessible to the public.

The current version will come with a price increase that will encompass all of our work. The full version of PositronX will still be priced at $19.99 (or its regional equivalent).




We want to get to know our players (especially you, reader!), thus we’ve launched our very own Discord server. We’ve prepared a safe-haven for FPS, roguelite and sci-fi fans, and it is our mission to make it a digital island where you can chill, exchange ideas, theories, grievances or just get in touch with us as fast as possible.

We’ll be on pretty much all the time and we seriously can’t wait to hear your thoughts (and not just on the game). It’s also where you can find out before anyone else of news, patches and our intentions.

So make sure you join us on DISCORD!
That’s pretty much it for now, Positrons. We want to give a hearty “Hello!” to those of you hearing about us for the first time, and moresoe a deep “Thank you” to all of our Early Access supporters.

In the end PositronX is a game made by its players and we wouldn’t be here if it were otherwise. Thank you again for all the support.

Best,
The Scorpius crew

Hello friends!
An long overdue update is online on Steam now and includes aside smaller fixes, 2 main issues (we believe these are the 2 main issues that were still not addressed with the game).
- Initial loading time has been addressed (it should be way shorter)
- Weapon switching issue has been fixed (please let us know if anyone encounters it still, it appears no more in all our tests here).



There is great news about PositronX awaiting to be released soon. Stay tight and thanks for sticking to the game so far.

Scorpius Team

Hello Dear Players,
We are happy to announce that PositronX is expanding. A big update just hit our Early Access version! Here is what's new:
- Number of weapons is now 15! Two more weapons are Disk Gun and Cannon Gun. We are very proud that we've been able to reach this number of guns in the game (since all our weapons support 2 shooting modes, 2 modifiers and tons of upgrades). We still have a few more to go but 15 is a nice selection, don't you think?



- Aiming and hitting enemies have improved drastically. Hit boxes and projectile-enemy hit detection are adjusted to give more satisfying results.
- Content and game build process optimizations (we now only ship the content that the game needs to run. There is a lot of content we used to work in map editing which was not yet used in the final game so this is now being removed. Size of final game is now decreased by 25% and loading times are minimized for both initial screen as well as the in-between levels. This has been an ongoing effort on our side for several months and should significantly improve the loading times for everybody!



- Started on improving secret areas and hidden levels. They are active in only some of the maps but we will enable this in most maps eventually (it will make the game a bit more difficult for people who like to search for stuff but we believe it will also make it more enjoyable).
- More Implants are in (we've yet to reach the number of Implants we've planned for this Summer update but this is our main focus for the next update).
- First version of Achievements is in (most of them are inactive still as we are testing internally), but more and more will get to be available with each update.
- Progression system has been adjusted to make it feel more interesting.
Thank You for playing our game and supporting us,

For a full change log please read here https://steamcommunity.com/app/529970/discussions/3/1640918469767464457/

FOV or field of view is a very important feature in FPS games, especially for PC gamers. Its history goes back to the Quake games where a larger field of view was used in multiplayer games as an advantage, allowing you to see more of the surroundings and spot enemies around you.

Since this project started on the PC, we’ve always designed the game with options such as FOV in mind for maximum comfort. PositronX by default is set to 90 degrees field of view as it’s common for PC shooter games and it feels alright. In many ways, you could say, it’s optimal.
This is how PositronX looks with the default FOV now:



However, soon after releasing on Early Access we started to think about the ranges of FOV for the players to adjust to. We thought it was as simple as coming up with any extremes that still looked good on the monitor, but we soon discovered it’s not quite that simple.
Our first setup was from 60 to 110 and it felt fine. The lowest setting was too low for a PC game, but we figured console players would probably want to try out the game themselves and so it was a good incentive to leave that in, while 110 felt good (Doom plays great with 110 FOV).
Changing the field of view when using Unreal Engine is a piece of cake, we added all these options and boom, done, we had it and shipped in one of our monthly updates.
60/110 FOV looked like this:


FOV of 60 without corrected projection


FOV of 110 without corrected projection

People mostly played with the default (90 degrees) so there was no feedback for a while about it. I think they were either happy with that setting or they didn't even notice the option. Luckily, after a while, the messages started flowing in and were overwhelmingly positive, at least as far as inclusion of FOV slider goes. There was a problem in there, however, that we knew we needed to address. People who used non-standard settings started noticing it.
Higher field of view makes the weapons and hands look unnaturally long and flimsy. While we knew about the technical issue, we didn't realize this can influence someone's decision about playing the game (especially since it was an early alpha), yet we soon began reading comments from people who actually decided against giving PositronX a chance because of this.
Here's what a larger FOV did to our character and weapons:



Unfortunately, there is nothing out of the box Unreal Engine can offer to help you with this issue, so we had to look for a custom solution that would make things look normal again. We searched for games with a similar problem in the past and we find quite a few ideas on how to solve it.
One fix was using the Panini projection of which we were aware since UE4 has some support for it. When applied as a post-processing effect, it made the rendered image look good but there were some artifacts showing up. We couldn't fix those artifacts in a way that would deem the current UE4 post-processing solution as usable in our case.
However, after reading multiple articles about it and banging our heads a bit, we finally came to a definitive solution. We would only apply the Panini calculations to our hands and weapons (and a few other elements we later found out we needed to). If we could undo the calculus they've done and input that to our first person hands and weapons (displacements in the vertex shader) we should be good to go.
The calculus itself turned out to be something bearable (with the help of a now-deceased game called Unreal Tournament) and looked something like this:


Vertex displacement shader function

Once we had that we made a function we used in all our shaders that required it. The final result was that our first person hands and weapons still looked like they were being rendered at 90 degrees while everything else would use the FOV the player setup. This was a huge gain because we could increase our maximum FOV limit to 130. Here is how this looks in the game:



There are still a few drawbacks about this, some of which we fixed in later updates. Because the hands and weapons were visually displaced in the shader, everything related to their in-game location had to use the same projection shader function to work properly (for example, each weapon has a point at the end of the barrel where bullets spawn after being fired). Also, each effect that happens at the start of the weapon barrel (muzzle flashes for example) needed to be using it as well. There were all these sorts of small stuff that needed multiple tries to get it to look good enough to ship.


Something that remained to be fixed is the self-shadowing of the weapon onto itself. This is bad now (because of the displacement of the vertices in the shader) and we disabled it. Luckily for us, it’s barely noticeable and it gives us a slight performance boost anyway so it's not a real issue.


All in all, it was a nice feature we knew we wanted to have but we weren't aware of the importance of it until feedback came in. The road was bumpy, but we did what we could to give the players the best possible experience while playing PositronX.

Thank you for reading this, let us know in the comments if you enjoy this sort of content and would like to know more about the development process in the future :)