A handful of enjoyable twin-stick shooters have burst onto the indie scene in recent years, yet few shine quite like Artificial Intelligence Police Department.
Frankfurt-based developers Blazing Badger transformed their once-explorative indie title Artificial Intelligence Police Department -- or AIPD for short -- into a frantic battle for a high score, with player customization and interaction centered firmly in the core of the design.
“There’s a lot of freedom to create your own experience and adjust the difficulty of the game so that it suits you perfectly and you’re not overwhelmed,” designer Sascha Wagentrotz told PCGamesN. “Players don’t like handholding. So we thought, ‘Hey, you can mess around with the game design itself.’”
Blazing Badger chose Unreal Engine 4 to power AIPD because of the open nature of the platform. Access to UE4’s source code was important to the developers, which “no other engine is doing that right now.”
AIPD impressively boasts over 100,000 possible rule combinations, and the designers could really let their creativity shine thanks to Unreal Engine 4. Due to the flexible nature of the engine’s intuitive Blueprint system that the team was able to introduce features without consulting programmers, instead focusing on what they truly love - design.
The busy shapes and colors of AIPD burst off the screen in a radiant fashion that will take many by surprise, powered by UE4’s ability to produce unique effects.
“Unreal Engine 4 is pretty great with these glowing, emissive materials,” said Wagentrotz.
Rather than directional light staging the game, as the sun does for example, objects buzz with inherent neon-warmth; illuminating where other games would be utterly devoid.
Despite its name, Artificial Intelligence Police Department is a game that is, ironically, being improved in many ways by the infusion of human input, both in design and creation .
The game slated for a release in Fall 2015. For more information on Blazing Badger visit http://www.blazingbadger.net/ and follow them both Facebook and on Twitter.