Games Like NETRUN

About NETRUN

DUAL-WIELDING GRAPPLING ACTION

NETRUN offers an ambidextrous twist to platforming. To maneuver, you use the analog sticks to control the arms of your character - with each having independent access to the same basic toolkit: a pair of grappling hooks and thrusters.

Mastery of these traversal tools requires the active coordination of both hands:

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Swing on the rope with one hand, while lining up your next shot with the other

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Charge up a dash maneuver with your left stick, while readying your right thruster for a wall jump

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Launch both grappling hooks simultaneously to save yourself from a deadly fall

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Chain a series of grapple shots together by alternating hands, and avoid cooldowns

Using only three basic inputs - the sticks, the shoulder buttons and the triggers - NETRUN provides a simple, addictive, and immensely deep way to traverse a 2d environment, with a heavy emphasis on navigational freedom.

CARVE YOUR OWN PATH

Tackle the challenges the way you want, with hundreds of handcrafted levels designed with both variety and player expression in mind:

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Explore open-ended stages featuring spatious environments, and dynamic enemies reacting to your every move, rewarding quick reflexes and an ability to improvise

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Undertake infiltration missions in levels featuring complex and varied geometry, with enemies reliant on line-of-sight. Storm your way past the security, or take to the shadows and instead rely on finesse and precision - the choice is yours!

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Challenge yourself to clear enclosed obstacle courses - hallways, mazes, puzzle rooms - typically with their own repertoire of static hazards, and predictable traps. These stages reward planning and careful execution, whilst still always providing meaningful choices in how you navigate the terrain.

In NETRUN there is never just one definitive way of tackling an obstacle - avoiding an enemy, taking a corner, or landing a jump.

...Or indeed missing a jump! With success depending on not just the timing of a button press, but the precise inputs from two analogue sticks, you will always find yourself making micro-corrections to line up your trajectory with the route you planned. In this regard NETRUN can at times resemble a racing game as much as a traditional platformer.

LOSING IS FUN

With a one-of-a-kind control scheme, you may find that many of your skills from more traditional platformers do not immediately carry over. Indeed, playing NETRUN initially feels a little like trying to learn how to walk for the first time. In your first hour of gameplay you will inevitably find yourself aiming with the wrong stick, releasing the wrong rope, falling, floundering, panicking, etc...

But with each mistake, you will find yourself rapidly improving, constantly tackling previously unsurmountable obstacles. ...Not to mention dying in increasingly spectacular ways! Of course, in typical precision platformer fashion, the level resets are instantaneous - no lives, no penalty for dying. Just a fast, engaging, and thoroughly gratifying gameplay loop!

To help you get into the swing of things, the Adventure Mode provides you with tutorials stages, as well as a generous helping of optional introductory levels with a more forgiving difficulty. Thanks to the branching overworld design, you can ramp up the difficulty at your own pace.

...Will you take your time to learn the ropes? Or dash straight ahead to face a true challenge?!

CO-OP & ARENA

The Adventure mode can be played solo, or co-operatively with friends, supporting up to 4 players locally.

In addition there is a strikingly fun Smash Bros. -style Arena mode, where you can duke it out with your friends.

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Multiple base rulesets to choose from, such as: Stock Battle, Collectathon, King Of the Hill, and others! Each with their own, configurable win conditions

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Mix up the action with special modifiers: Add in gravitational anomalies, deadly digital light trails to corner your enemy with, special permanent power-ups and more!

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Fine-tune the chaos to your liking with separate settings for item spawns: weapon crates, enemies, hazards, power-ups, etc.

LEVEL EDITOR AND ONLINE

NETRUN will ship with a feature-packed in-game level editor. Every level from both the Adventure mode and Arena was created with this very same runtime editor. So trust me - it is not some afterthought, lol.

At this stage of the development, the level editing tools are more or less feature-complete, but will still need require significant polish before they are ready and in a presentable state. There are some design quirks that I can very easily work around since I'm familiar with the kit, but shouldn't really expect players to have to deal with them.

As the development progresses, I will look more into how to implement the online features I wish to see in NETRUN - in-game level-sharing, leaderboards... hopefully even online multiplayer if there is enough interest in it! (I'm personally a big fan of the Arena, and it would be great to be able to play with friends online!)

If there are features you would like to see, or improvements you want to suggest, I'm open to feedback.

Please look forward to the free demo slated to release in June!