Project Aether

A mission-based 2D shooter where firing is not always the best answer.

Project Aether is a science-fiction shooter currently in development for Android. You play as a pilot working alongside a small team of specialists, responding to missions whose consequences extend beyond the immediate objective.

Combat is important, but destruction is not always the only—or best—answer. Some encounters can be resolved through observation, restraint or the correct use of mission intelligence. What you do during a mission may affect its debriefing, the information available to the team and the way later events unfold.

Current Prototype

The prototype contains four connected missions built to test the game’s central ideas:

• Mission briefings and debriefings.
• Fast 2D shooting designed for mobile controls.
• Optional objectives and alternative solutions.
• Intelligence gathered and interpreted between missions.
• Persistent consequences across the campaign.
• Encounters where understanding the situation matters as much as surviving it.

The fourth mission brings several of these systems together in a larger encounter with multiple waves and more than one possible resolution.

More Than a Score

Project Aether began with a question: could the immediacy of a Flash-era shooter support a story in which the player’s judgement matters?

Instead of presenting choices through dialogue menus alone, the game places them inside the action. Choosing when to fire, what to investigate and whether to follow an instruction can become part of the narrative.

The intention is not to punish players for enjoying combat. It is to make combat one tool among several—and to make the consequences of using it feel meaningful.

Development Status

Project Aether is an early prototype, not a finished game. There is currently no public build available.

I am preparing a limited Android playtest to evaluate:

• Whether the controls feel comfortable on different devices.
• Whether mission objectives and alternative solutions are understandable.
• How players interpret the briefings and intelligence reports.
• Whether choices and consequences remain clear across all four missions.

Follow the project and jpb18 on this platform to receive future development updates or information about the playtest.

Temporary Assets

Most of the current visuals consist of functional line art, geometric shapes and effects drawn by the engine. The soundscape primarily uses simple 8-bit-style effects and temporary synthetic voices.

These assets allow me to test the game’s mechanics, pacing and narrative structure before committing to a final presentation. If the project moves beyond the prototype stage, the intention is to work with human artists and audio creators on the production assets.

AI Usage Disclosure

AI-assisted tools were used during the development of the prototype.

• Code: AI tools assisted with implementation, debugging and iteration.
• Text and dialogue: AI was used while drafting and refining mission content, dialogue and narrative material.
• Sound: Temporary character voices were synthesized using Piper TTS. Some sound effects were generated procedurally through code.
• Graphics: The in-game graphics are not AI-generated. They currently consist mainly of engine-drawn line art, shapes and effects.

Creative direction, game design decisions, system design, editing, integration and final selection remain human-led.

Development Log

The first development log covers the origin of the concept, the self-imposed limits placed on AI use, the creation of the proof of concept and the development of the first four missions:

Building a 2D Shooter Where Shooting Is Not Always the Best Solution