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For the demo, see Flightless Demo.

Flightless is a platforming-exploration game that was being developed for the Mac and Windows operating systems[4]. The game was first announced through a preview image on September 27, 2011. More information about the game was revealed on October 15, 2012 and it was on this day that Nitrome posted the game to Steam Greenlight and released the game's demo. The game was greenlit on August 28th, 2013.

As of March 2021, the game is not being worked on and Nitrome has no current plans to continue development[5]. Despite this, they are still open to resuming development[5].

Gameplay[]

Main article: Flightless Demo#Gameplay

In Flightless the players controls a duck that cannot jump but can instantly create ladders and is tasked with collecting gems scattered throughout the game. Created ladders stretch from the platform they were on up to the first platform or solid object they hit. Ladders are primarily used for climbing but can also be used for killing enemies and collecting gems, although the player is only limited to one ladder at a time.

Unlike other Nitrome games, Flightless does not have traditional levels, rather, the game is made up different large and explorable dungeons that are made up of interconnected rooms. As seen in the demo, when the player dies, they are taken back to the entrance of the room.

Story[]

The setting of Flightless is that the ducks that serve as the main characters have been caught stealing from an entity or entities by an external organization. As punishment, they have had their wings clipped and have to repay a sum of money to those stolen from by collecting gems from different dungeons they are sent to[6].

Dungeons[]

Forest dungeon[]

A dungeon that has temple-like architecture and is partially overgrown with plants. Part of the forest dungeon appears in the demo, and the rooms that appear there can be seen here.

Fire dungeon[]

The fire dungeon appears to be set in a refinery. It can be seen in the Flightless trailer.

Demo[]

Main article: Flightless Demo

Enemies[]

  • Blue bats - Fly horizontally.
  • Purple bats - Reside on ceilings. They will divebomb the player and then return to the ceiling.
  • Green beetles - Walk horizontally.
  • Spiked beetles - Walk horizontally, based off their behaviour in the Flightless slider animation.
  • Normal slimes - Make short leaps in the direction of the player.
  • Magical slimes - Act like normal slimes but can spit out liquid globules that can destroy the duck's ladders and kill the duck.
  • Giant beetle - A boss encountered in the forest dungeon. Unknown behaviour.
  • Guards - When directly above the player, they walk so that they are constantly parallel with them, based on the Flightless slider animation where this happens.
  • Spiders

Hazards[]

  • Spikes - Kill the duck on contact.
  • Barrels - Horizontally roll and rebound off walls.

Interactive objects[]

  • Arrows - When a ladder is created and crosses an arrow, the ladder will be directed 90 degrees.
  • Buttons - Activate game components.
  • Red gems - Re-spawns enemies and interactive objects.

Obstacles[]

  • Slime - Prevents ladders from being created and serves as a spawning ground for magical slimes.

Development[]

Flightless was being developed during the development of the Nitrome 2.0 skin, which was released on August 25th, 2011, and contained a cameo of the Ducks from the game. The game was formally announced on September 27th, 2011, where a preview image was shared but no other information[7]. The game as referred to by Mat Annal in a Gamasutra interview that was posted on September 28th, 2012, though not by name.[8]

On October 15th, 2012, Nitrome officially unveiled that the game was going to be a premium PC game and that the concept had been submitted to Steam Greenlight[9]. They also released the game's demo on this day[9]. At this point, Nitrome had to get enough votes in order to fill a bar up to 100%. This bar had been filled to 98% by mid November[10] and was fully filled by early December, whereupon the game entered the top 100 Steam Greenlight games yet to be greenlit[11]. From then on to when it was greenlit in August 2013, Flightless mainly wavered between between spots 80-70 of the list[12].

The game was finally greenlit on August 28th 2013[13]. As the game had taken a long time to be greenlit, Nitrome did not believe the game would ever get greenlit so the game was put on hold during this period[14]. When the game was greenlit, Nitrome was not able to return to development as they had shifted to working on mobile games and were not able expend the resources to return to development on Flightless[14].

In March 2017, Nitrome mentioned that they were not working on Flightless due to several things changing since when it was greenlit, most notably that the game was done in Flash when Nitrome had moved on to Unity and that several of the staff members on the project had left the company[14]. As of March 2021, the game is not being worked on and Nitrome has no current plans to continue development[5]. Despite this, they are still open to resuming development[5].

Nitrome mentioned on the Flightless website when it was launched in October 2012 that after launching the game on Mac and Windows, they would look in to porting Flightless to other systems, including Linux[4].

Previews[]

55?cb=20120317190109 Incomplete section

This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.

September 27, 2011[]

Nitrome released a preview image of the game they were currently working on, also announcing the artist of the game.

September 19, 2012[]

The game's programmer, Aaron Steed, announced on his Twitter account that he wanted play testers for it before it was pitched to Steam Greenlight[15]. Playtesters assisted in the development of Flightless' demo.[16]

September 28, 2012[]

This game was accepted by Steam Greenlight.[17]

October 15th, 2012[]

The game's name was announced and a few videos were uploaded by Nitrome. A demo of the game was released on Nitrome.com.

Advertisements[]

Main article: Advertisements

There are several advertisements Nitrome made in order to promote Flightless.

The first was a small advertisement placed in the "Nitrome" section of the main page. Clicking on the ad would link the player to the Flightless Greenlight page.

The second was an advertisement "banner" that was uploaded to Nitrome's Facebook page. This ad encouraged fans to vote for Flightless on Steam.

Also, another ad can be found when waiting for a distributable Nitrome game to load. After the sponsor ad, a randomly selected ad made by Nitrome will pop up- one of these being for Flightless. The ad encourages fans to vote for Flightless on Steam.

On December 12, Nitrome updated their site, adding several larger ads to their website. These ads included ones for Flightless. These advertisements encouraged fans to vote for Flightless on Steam.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Aaron Steed tweet: https://twitter.com/st33d/status/248423171806617601
  2. Nitrome blog post: Game Preview! 27 September 2011
  3. Flightless on Sound Cloud: Flightless by Dave Cowen
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Flightless Greenlight Game | Nitrome - What will Flightless actually be released on?
    We'd primarily be releasing Flightless for PC and Mac on Steam. We will then look into Linux and possibly other platforms.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Nitrome tweet, March 6, 2021, retrieved March 31, 2022.
  6. Nitrome: Flightless Greenlight Game, 15 Oct 2012, retrieved 2 Apr 22.
  7. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Game Preview!, 27 Sep 11, retrieved 18 October 17.
  8. Gamasutra - Exploring smartphone-controlled browser games with Nitrome → You can also expect smartphone games from Nitrome in the near future -- including Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage -- and a full-blown PC game too which will be appearing on Steam Greenlight in the coming weeks.
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 Nitrome blog: - Flightless Demo Released!
  10. Nitrome blog: - Friday Update!
  11. 11.0 11.1 Nitrome blog: - Friday Update!
  12. 12.0 12.1 Nitrome blog: - Flightless has been Greenlit!
  13. List of games Greenlit on August 28th 2013
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Steam Greenlight: Please help us Greenlight our new game Bomb Chicken!, 18 Mar 17, retrieved 23 Apr 22.
  15. 15.0 15.1 Tweet by Aaron Steed (@st33d)
  16. Frequently Asked Questions: "Can I help you/are you looking for beta testers?"
  17. 17.0 17.1 Gamasutra - Exploring smartphone-controlled browser games with Nitrome - and a full-blown PC game too which will be appearing on Steam Greenlight in the coming weeks.
  18. Aaron Steed's Twitter account tweet: [1]
  19. Flightless Steam page -

    Nitrome [author] February 22nd, 2013, @ 9:06 PM

    @Cokerow the game is made using Flash, we will be able to release it for Windows, Mac and Linux.

    @MrMollusk if I can't buy food or pay the rent, then how will I make more games when I am hungry and homeless? :(

    The price the game is sold for really depends on how much money is spent making it, it's still not finished - haven't even started the water levels yet (that's water done properly like we did ladders properly - not moving around like a snail hunting for air bubbles).

    FlightlessComment1

    Image of the comment


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