Agent Notes on Hominids: 14 Years of Alien Evolution

February 28, 2007 2021
CONFIDENTIAL
FROM THE DESK OF AGENT A

14 YEARS OF ALIEN EVOLUTION

Today marks 14 years since the Alien Hominids first made their way to planet Earth… and what a long 14 years that has been.

While we were able to quell the beasts for some time, but now they seem to be resurging more than ever. Only this time, they’ve evolved into something that’s much more… extreme.
Shape – These Aliens have grown more lithe, more funky, more deadly, and their physical form reflects it. Their bodies are smaller and their heads are rounder, meaning that they’re now the ideal shape to dodge our attacks and also probably store massive amounts of important information in their noggins.

Movement – Movement is by far the most significant change that we’ve seen them take on. 14 years ago they would jump and run and dig, and now they’ll double-jump and run and dig all while moving… and then flip and dive and head-ride and dodge and throw us around like ragdolls.

Weapons – When they advanced, so did their arsenal of weapons. The blaster was easy enough to defend against back in the day, even with its occasional upgrades. But now, we have to be prepared for any number of projectiles — lasers, energy bullets, even ice and sword swipes. Oh, and their upgrades are much more technical now, plus they can mix and match them so every Alien hits differently.

Fashion – Co-opted hats used to make it easy for us to tell our Alien enemies apart from one another, sure. But with all their time on Earth, they’ve somehow managed to imbue stats onto their fashionable headpieces. Each hat has a different effect even if it looks the same as another, so if an Alien is flying at you and lookin’ fresh, watch out.

Mutations – When we say the Aliens have evolved, we really mean it. They can now shift and mutate, stealing life from our Agents, breaking the sound barrier with super speed, or even taking to the skies to fly. These mutated Aliens provide a whole new level of threat to us.

Chaos – The Hominid’s attack patterns are like nothing we’ve ever seen before. They used to move in a straight and uniform line, moving from point A to B with one goal in mind. Now they tear through city blocks every this way and that, causing absolute destruction in any chosen path. Once they select an area to attack, there’s no saying which way they’ll go — the only sure thing is that they’ll go anywhere.  They can even go LEFT at will!

Squads – In years prior, our teams would only have to face one or two Aliens at a time. Now, they arrive in packs of up to 4 Aliens. They work together like a well oiled space machine, riding on each other’s backs in intimidating stacks, and teaming up to get extra height, speed, and dodging capabilities. The Alien stacks also provide new vantage points for them which work to counter our jetpacking Agents.

14 years has granted a lot of change to these little guys… if we want to keep up, we’ll have to fight back with the firepower to match. I bet they can’t wait to find out what changes 14 years brought to us.

Alien Hominid Invasion Developer Notes & Stream Recap: A Visit from Your Old Boss

If you tuned into our last livestream, then you know that Alien Hominid Invasion development is still well underway, and that we’ve been working on a spaceship-full of new and exciting features! If you didn’t tune into our last livestream, Mothership knows, but you can still catch the non-live recap right here:

And if you like to use your readers rather than your watchers, here’s a list of the latest and greatest features from the last couple months of development.

…Well, the ones we’re willing to reveal, at least.

  • New level type: bonus levels with enemy waves. In these bonus levels, death doesn’t matter, and you can rack up rewards. HUD elements will also be orange instead of purple, fun!
  • New boss…? Or something… Who knows. We’re great at teasing.
  • But when you do beat a boss, they begin patrolling the city blocks on your next rampage through the streets
  • Installball has new attacks… like shooting bullets from his eye!!!
  • Megabot now has spinning buddies to aid her. Terrifying!
  • Armored enemies now throw the alien off of them and cannot be thrown themselves
  • Snipers now run away when you get too close
  • Flybots are more fun to break (because they explode on the ground)
  • Uzi and “Lozenge” enemies have deliberate bullet patterns now instead of unpredictable spreads 
  • Sawedoff now pierces armor by default
  • New boost types introduced in loot – damage on roll, damage when picking up coins, damage to robots, revenge damage when being hit, and other gameplay changers 
  • Coin rain now grants larger coin value per pickup – coin stacks!
  • The grenade explosion look is now more concise to help with game clarity
  • Players are now graded in the post-game screen, so stay in school! Or something like that
  • DPS readout for + or – is now reflected in the player setup UI

Development is a long road, and even longer when it goes all the way through space. We appreciate each and every one of you sticking with us while we continue to mold and shape Alien Hominid Invasion into something awesome!’

Wait… what is that? It doesn’t look friendly…