Arc Aether Anomalies is a six-degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) arcade action shooter inspired by such titles as Descent, Geometry Wars, and Every Extend Extra, and visually influenced by Innerspace, Metroid Prime, House M.D., flOw, and electron microscopy.

    Arc Aether Anomalies is freeware. As an alumnus of the Guildhall at SMU now happily employed in the games industry, I am not seeking job offers or publishing/distribution deals. I developed this game in my spare time as a hobby, and I am making it freely available in the hopes that others will find it enjoyable as well.

    -- J. Kyle Pittman, October 2008

http://www.j-kyle.com/
jpittman at gmail dot com



Download (updated October 31, 2008):
Anomalies_Install_2008-10-31.exe (8.02 MB)

Screenshots:

Arc Aether Anomalies

Arc Aether Anomalies

Arc Aether Anomalies

Arc Aether Anomalies

Arc Aether Anomalies

Gameplay footage:



System requirements:
  • Windows XP/Vista
  • Intel Pentium IV 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon 1.8 GHz
  • 64 MB RAM
  • 16 MB available HD space
  • Direct3D 9 and Shader Model 2 compatible video card

Controls:

The Xbox 360 controller is currently supported, as well as WASD/mouse.

WASD/mouse or analog sticks: fly around
Left mouse button or right trigger: fire laser
Right mouse button or left trigger: fire arc beam

The laser is straightforward. Shoot baddies ("spores"). Blow them up. Collect the cells they drop.

The arc beam is where it gets interesting. This will freeze baddies in place. If you keep it locked on a baddie for a little while, he'll mutate into a bigger, faster baddie (a "superspore"). When you shoot these guys, they'll drop more cells and split into two smaller guys.

Grabbing cells (by running into them) increases your score multiplier and the remaining time. There's no health bar -- you play until you run out of time, so grabbing cells is important to stay in the game. The longer you play, the less time you get per cell, so it's best to collect as many as you can early in the game.

Enjoy!

Copyright © 2008 J. Kyle Pittman.  ARC AETHER™ and ARC AETHER ANOMALIES™ are unregistered trademarks of J. Kyle Pittman.  All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners.