ORBITAL STRIKES
Aim napalm, mine pods and bunker busters from orbit and watch the ground come apart.
IN DEVELOPMENT // DEMO v0.2
ORBITAL
COMMANDO
You command from orbit through the uplink.
Your body is expendable.
- PLATFORM
- WINDOWS
- PRICE
- FREE DEMO
- PLAYERS
- 1-2 LOCAL
- UPLINK
- ONLINE
01 // THE UPLINK
COMMAND FROM ORBIT
Orbital Commando is a 2D side-on war sandbox. You're a commander in orbit, wired into a body on the ground.
Fight with it, buy reinforcements and drop them in by dropship, build out your base and call down orbital strikes. When your body dies, jump into the next soldier and keep going. Lose the uplink and you lose the war.
02 // THE GROUND
EVERY PIXEL
IS REAL
The ground is a simulated material world. Dig tunnels, blast craters, burn the grass and collapse bunkers onto the people inside them.
Bodies take real wounds. They bleed, break and ragdoll, and the battlefield remembers every fight.
- Destructible soil, stone and concrete
- Wounds, ragdolls and gibs
- Calibre-based penetration and suppression
- Fire that spreads through the grass
03 // FIELD MANUAL
WHAT YOU'LL DO
BUILD MODE
Add rooms, defences and generators to your base while the battle is still running.
SQUADS AND RANKS
Order squads, promote veterans and bring medics. Switch between your soldiers at any moment.
DEFEND THE UPLINK
Each side has one. Damage it and their strikes and drops get weaker. Blow it out and they're finished.
CO-OP AND VERSUS
Plug in an Xbox controller for player 2 and fight side by side in split screen, or go head to head in versus, each with your own base and uplink.
ENDLESS SKIRMISH
Reroll any map with random traits: caves, gold, weather, time of day and outposts. Or switch the aliens off for a straight two-army fight.
04 // HOW IT WORKS
GAME SYSTEMS
The rules under the chaos. Numbers are the defaults from the current build.
THE UPLINK CORE
Every base is built around a vault holding an Uplink Core, the reactor column that links you to your ship in orbit. Its health is your signal strength, in 10% steps.
- A weak signal makes dropship orders cost more, up to double
- Strike recharge and dropship hold times stretch, up to 2.5×
- Base power drops by the same share as the signal
- At zero, a 5 second SHUTDOWN PROTOCOL counts down, then the core goes up like a mini nuke and you lose
- You also lose if you run out of both bodies and gold
- CORE HEALTH
- 600
- PRICE AT 0%
- ×2
- SLOWDOWN
- ×2.5
- SHUTDOWN
- 5 S
GOLD
Gold pays for everything: troops, crates, vehicles, base parts and strikes. A base income ticks in all game long, and you earn the rest in the field.
- Each outpost you hold pays +1.5 gold a second
- A powered gold extractor in your base pays +2 a second
- Gold lies underground: every pixel you dig out is worth 0.5
- Dig up a wreck with the digger to salvage up to 30% of what the vehicle cost
- Aliens carry bounties: Stalker 50, Bombardier 120, Bone Worm 450, the Nest Heart 2,000
- START
- 1,500
- INCOME
- 3/S
- OUTPOST
- +1.5/S
- EXTRACTOR
- +2/S
BUY MENU AND DROPSHIPS
Press B to fill a dropship and send it down. Each side has one ship in the air at a time. It lands at your base or at any outpost you hold, and every soldier gets an order for when they land: follow, guard, take an outpost or assault.
- Up to 4 troops (Commandos) or 5 (Raiders), 3 crates and a walker slung underneath
- Every delivery has a 50 gold fee
- Ships have 420 health and can be shot down. The wreck crashes and burns
- Buggies, rocket bikes and the Kestrel are built at your base instead
- If your last body dies, a replacement Rifleman is flown in for the usual price plus the fee
| Rifleman | 120 |
|---|---|
| Sapper | 120 |
| Medic | 150 |
| Marksman | 160 |
| Heavy | 170 |
| Rocketeer | 190 |
| Walker | 450 |
Commandos pay 20% over list for troops and Raiders 25% under.
BODIES, WOUNDS AND RANKS
You are never one soldier. Hold Q and let go over any of your troops to jump into them.
- Damage lands on the head, torso, arms or legs. Crippled legs limp and crippled arms shake your aim
- Wear a limb down and the wound goes to the bone, then the limb comes off
- Soldiers bleed. Downed soldiers crawl and can still shoot, and a medic can get them back up
- The jetpack holds 1.5 seconds of fuel: tap for a hop, hold to fly
- Six inventory slots. Drag to swap, drag out to drop
- V bashes and F kicks. A bash from behind kills outright
- Hold Alt to pick a squad and give it orders. On the Tab map you can order squads and AI-crewed vehicles, and save groups to Ctrl+1 to 5
- RECRUIT0
- PRIVATE100
- CORPORAL250
- SERGEANT500
- VETERAN900
XP per rank. A kill is worth 50 XP, and a Veteran's aim wanders 40% less.
BALLISTICS
Every round is simulated. Rounds slow down and drop over distance, and what they go through depends on the calibre.
- Rifle rounds punch through dirt, sand and wood
- Sniper and heavy rounds go through walls
- Only heavy rounds pierce steel
- Near misses suppress: the AI ducks and aims worse, and your own view shakes
- RIFLE
- DIRT · WOOD
- SNIPER
- WALLS
- HEAVY
- STEEL
- NEAR MISS
- SUPPRESS
ORBITAL STRIKES
Press O and a red laser from your ship shows where the strike will land and how far it reaches. Click to fire, or right-click to hold it for later. You get one strike at a time, then it recharges.
- Bunker busters bore up to 6 metres down and go off in the first room they find. They can't be aimed over a core
- Enemy strikes give you 4 seconds of warning
- The AI starts calling strikes from its third wave
| Mine pods 3 pods, 15 mines | 450 |
|---|---|
| Sticky napalm burns 6 m each way | 500 |
| Bunker buster bores 6 m down | 600 |
| Mini nuke | 2,500 |
| War mech drop one at a time | 3,000 |
90 second recharge, longer on a weak signal.
THE GROUND
The world is made of real materials, simulated pixel by pixel: topsoil, dirt, sand, snow, rock, concrete, metal, wood, glass, scrap, gold and bedrock.
- Under the grass: 1.5 m of topsoil, 1.5 m of packed dirt, then a 1.5 m stone layer with gaps in it
- Gold is only found underground
- Loose dirt pours like sand. Unsupported ledges, roofs and slabs creak, then collapse into rubble
- Grass and shrubs burn, and fire spreads
- The dead stay where they fall. Bodies rot to bones over about five minutes, then sink into the ground
THE ENEMY
The commander AI plays by your rules. It buys troops, builds base parts, makes buggies and bikes, calls in strikes and sends waves that grow as the game goes on.
- The neutral alien nest under the Frontier sleeps until something disturbs it, then raids both sides
- Both commanders send hunters after the nest's Heart for its 2,000 gold bounty
- The Bone Collectors drag rotting bodies back to their pit on the crag
- Kill a Bone Collector and it leaves acid and a larva. With GIANT WORMS on, the larva becomes a cocoon, then a Bone Worm
| Easy | 60 s |
|---|---|
| Normal | 30 s |
| Hard | 25 s |
| Brutal | 20 s |
05 // FORTIFY
BASE BUILDING
Your base is a bunker dug into the ground around the uplink. Press N to grow it while the battle carries on around you.
- 01Pick a part. The camera roams free while your soldier holds still.
- 02Place the ghost. It shows green where it fits, and red with the reason where it doesn't: "Too far from the base", "Needs solid ground under it".
- 03Snap it on. Rooms and corridors snap onto the bunker and cut their own doorways through. Defences stand on solid ground nearby.
- 04Pay and build. You pay up front. The part rises row by row and can be shot while it goes up. Short on power, it takes twice as long.
- 05Change your mind. X sells the part under the cursor for half its price.
THE CATALOGUE
CONNECTORS
- Corridor A passage onto a new room601
- Shaft Up or down a level, by jetpack701
- Blast door A corridor with a door that opens for your side1401
ROOMS
- Barracks Posts for three more guards1502
- Armoury Refills a soldier's ammo, once every 20 s2002
- Med bay Closes wounds, tops up blood, mends limbs, puts out fire2202
- Generator room Eight more units of power250+8
- Gold extractor +2 gold a second while powered4003
DEFENCES
- Sandbags Low cover150
- Wall Concrete cover300
- Watchtower A firing deck up high for a guard1601
- Turret A turret on any flat top2202
- Gun emplacement A turret behind sandbags2802
Gold cost Power used
POWER
The main generator gives 10 units and the starter bunker uses 6, so you begin with 4 spare. Most parts draw power. Go over budget and parts go dark, newest first. A generator room adds 8 more.
CUT THE POWER
Shoot out a base's generator and it goes dark. Doors fail open and turrets sag. After 30 seconds a backup kicks in at half power. A weak uplink signal drains power too.
6 / 10 USED
OUTPOSTS
HOLD THE GROUND
Stand on an outpost unopposed for 8 seconds to take it. It pays 1.5 gold a second and your dropships can land there.
A bunker under every outpost heals and resupplies whoever holds it. Its vendor sells weapons, explosives and med kits straight into your inventory.
HANGAR
THE MOTOR POOL
Every base has a hangar out front, with roller doors, a gantry crane and a repair workshop. Buggies, bikes and the Kestrel roll out from here. Vehicles drive through built parts, but soldiers, rounds and blasts don't.
FACTION STYLE
TWO WAYS TO BUILD
Commando bases are clean concrete and steel under a radar dish. Raider forts are welded scrap with spikes and tyre walls. Inside, every room is fitted out for its job, from bunks to medical beds.
06 // THEATRES
THE MAPS
Every layout is rerollable, with a live preview before you drop in.
IN THE DEMO
THE FRONTIER
Rugged hills over a cave network, a neutral alien nest deep under the middle and the Bone Collectors' crag.
IN THE DEMO
THE PROVING GROUNDS
Four metres of concrete built for vehicles, ramped decks and two huge ruined buildings to drive under and fight through.
FULL GAME
THE EXPANSE
A map twice as wide, four regions, and walled fortresses with gatehouses and drawbridges.
07 // BELLIGERENTS
PICK A SIDE
PLAYABLE
COMMANDOS
Elite, armoured and well supplied. Clean steel bases, cyan visors and the Kestrel gunship.
PLAYABLE
RAIDERS
Scrap-built and loud. Rusted forts, rocket bikes and a habit of riding straight at you.
FULL GAME
THE SKARN BROOD
An alien hive faction of stalkers, bombardiers and a Brood Mother, all fighting for the Heart.
08 // MOTOR POOL
VEHICLES
ASSAULT BUGGY
A crewed gun on four wheels that goes over anything.
WALKER
Two armoured legs. It steps over ground that stops wheels.
ROCKET BIKE
Raider-built, fork-mounted rockets. Also works as a missile.
KESTREL
The Commandos' VTOL gunship, crewed off its own pad.
THE MECH
12 metres tall, dropped from orbit, with two manned shell cannons.
09 // FOOTAGE
THE TRAILER
10 // RECON
GALLERY
11 // TRANSMISSIONS
ULTRA17 ON YOUTUBE
Follow the build. Devlogs, new features and plenty of things exploding, straight from development.
12 // MISSION PLAN
ROADMAP
- NOW
DEMO v0.2
Boot camp, skirmish on two maps, Commandos and Raiders, split-screen co-op and versus.
- FULL GAME
THE EXPANSE + SKARN
The giant fortress map and the alien hive faction.
- COMING SOON
STORY MODE
A campaign you can play in co-op.
- COMING SOON
HORDE + ZOMBIES
Hold the line against wave after wave, then against the dead.
13 // DEPLOY
PLAY THE
FREE DEMO
Boot camp with a gruff sergeant on the radio, then skirmish against a commander AI that sends wave after wave.
Demo v0.2 · 51 MB zip. Windows 10/11, 64-bit, a DirectX 11 graphics card. Unzip anywhere and run OrbitalCommando.exe. Xbox controllers work.
CONTROLS
| A D | Move |
|---|---|
| W / Space | Jump / jetpack |
| S | Crouch / climb down |
| LMB | Fire |
| RMB | Sharp aim / alt fire |
| R | Reload |
| E | Pick up / grab / enter vehicle |
| 1-6 | Pick a weapon |
| B | Buy menu |
| N | Build mode |
| O | Aim an orbital strike |
| Q hold | Switch soldier |
| Alt hold | Squad orders |
| Tab | Tactical map |
Everything can be rebound in Options.