Our game for the SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive, Irena Genesis Metal Fury is still in development and we are happy to announce that the project is progressing well. As stated in the previous news, we avoid revealing too much information in order to avoid spoiling the players who want to keep the pleasure of discovering the project at its release. However, it is important to know the status of the project and we are still excited to share some of the content from the game. Let’s take a look at the possible improvements, changes and the general progress of the development.

Optimization

In an effort to make the game experience more fun, we’ve added some new features to the engine that have resulted in noticeable performance drops on some runs. These slowdowns are present in the latest version of the playable demo we released. In order to improve the experience, we have optimized the game’s code to gain in fluidity and stability.

Depending on the revision or model of your hardware, it is possible to notice some slight slowdowns, but overall the image is stable as shown in this video which image comes from a SEGA Genesis model II. We have also fixed some minor bugs and performed extensive testing to ensure that the game does not crash on various consoles.

Take a break with popcorn

As you already know, Irena Genesis Metal Fury will have a total of four cutscenes that will reveal more details about the storyline as you go along. In the first cinematic, the heroine Celina will wake up from her hibernal sleep before starting mission aboard the Rayden MG-323. In the second cinematic, you will have the opportunity to discover for the first time the Emperor Shungor annoyed by Celina’s progress and will order his right-hand man “Valkun” to capture her.

The third cinematic will show Celina and the rebel forces preparing for the final battle against Shungor’s army. Then comes the last cinematic which will be the final sequence before the end game screen. To help our pixel artist to realize the cinematics on SEGA Genesis, RedKeas has drawn various concept arts that you will find in the artbook of the game. Here are some drawings that will help you imagine the different cinematics that will be present in the game.

Increase your best score !

In order to encourage players to continue playing Irena even after completing the entire game, we have added new bonus points to be earned with a new screen showing the end of game statistics. So to increase your score, you’ll have to complete certain challenges:

• Don’t lose lives.
• Don’t use the special attack.
• Preserve the shield.
• Don’t change the ship’s speed set by default in options.
• Finish the level in less than six minutes.
• Don’t change your weapon.

Now it is possible to earn extra points when the player picks up the powerup of an upgraded weapon at its maximum. The best of you will be able to get very high scores and be in the top of the world ranking thanks to the MEGA SCORE platform.

Over the weeks, we have been working on the different levels and re-imagined some of them to better match the idea we had of the Irena Genesis Metal Fury universe. For example, in stage 4, Celina goes to a futuristic city to attack the defense forces. The objective is to create a diversion while the rebel forces attack a data bank where vital information is stored. This information will help locate the penitentiary where a mysterious hacker is able to determine the exact location of the source of the magnetic field holding Celina’s mother ship.

This level will take place in two stages like the previous levels and will offer new units to face. For your viewing pleasure, the first stage features a warp effect to simulate relief on the water, but don’t get too distracted, because this level will feature intense action! Afterwards, Celina will go to the penitentiary in order to free the hacker before attacking a train carrying a powerful weapon to the south of the planet.

Today, we can estimate that the development is 70% complete. Indeed, we still have to work mainly on the second part of some levels and the improvement of the level design. We also need to adjust the difficulty, detect/fix the bugs and make the different cinematics.

It is still difficult to announce a release date, but we are aware of your impatience and we hope to complete the project by the end of the year. The White Ninja Studio team thanks you for your patience and understanding regarding our delay.

We remind you that you can follow our progress by following our Twitter account and come and ask us your questions on the Discord server of Irena Genesis Metal Fury.