Antibody Announcement
“You Are The Cure”
Antibody is the unique new shoot-em-up by PunchButton Studios. The game is a spiritual successor to Williams’ Defender and offers a delicate balance between strategy and dexterity. On a distant planet you and your loyal companions, the Chonklers, fight a mysterious invasion.
Antibody continuously forces the player to stay alert, adapt and improvise. Merely staying alive is not enough. You need to alternate between protecting the Chonklers, relocating them to cleanse the planet Sanguon, and fighting off the invading Viroids. This Spring, PunchButton presents a modern vision of a video game classic.
Gameplay
PunchButton Studios started pre-production of Antibody in Fall 2019, with their own vision on the strategic potential of shoot ‘em ups. The ‘shmup’ is one of gaming’s most classic and pure genres, and has challenged players since 1981 to recognize patterns, manoeuvre with dexterity and improvise constantly.
The enemies in Antibody are all based on different viruses, each having their own strengths and vulnerabilities. It’s not enough to simply evade their attacks and return fire: to make it through Antibody, you have to learn and exploit your enemies' weaknesses. Constant offense, however, will not be enough.
Alpha gameplay - the player is shooting at a viroid.
In Antibody, it’s essential to protect your Chonklers. They stand alongside you to fight the infection that’s threatening Sanguon, by sucking out the corruption like poison from a wound. Subsequently, the neutralized matter can be used to upgrade your ship.
Alpha gameplay excerpt - a Viroid (left) is corrupting the environment.
Regrettably, even the most loyal Chonkler can be corrupted. The enemy will do anything to turn your companions against you. If you’re not careful, your Chonklers will be taken and infected. If you lose your last Chonkler, it becomes impossible to fight the virus and Sanguon will be hopelessly lost.
Alpha gameplay - the player is fighting a mutated Chonkler.
These elements come together in a challenging, dynamic experience: enemies with unique characteristics force you to constantly keep an eye on your surroundings and adapt your tactics. Even the weakest enemy can cause trouble for you and your Chonklers. Antibody offers continuously engaging gameplay that remains fresh and exciting.
Story
Datalog 8119: The Pilot
While transporting a cargo of Chonklers, the Pilot receives a distress signal and sets course to Sanguon. Upon arrival there are no signs of life, except clusters of hostile lifeforms scattered across the planet surface. Contacting Earth or nearby stations proves impossible; all communication systems are down. Hostile activity meanwhile keeps increasing, as if the enemy is reproducing. If left undefended, the planet will soon be completely lost.
Datalog 0013: Sanguon
Looking for a possible ‘sister planet’ of Earth, a probe was sent to Sanguon in 2070, with shocking results. The planet’s surface consisted of complex carbon structures, resembling organic tissue. The atmosphere of oxygen and local emissions of carbon dioxide seemed to suggest a metabolism of enormous scale. A scientific expedition was set up in hopes of answering questions about life, the universe and everything. In the first months, a steady stream of updates and discoveries reached earth. One day, contact was suddenly lost.
Datalog 1463: Chonklers
Found in the most uninhabitable regions of Ailuris: acid lakes and radioactive zones. Highly social creatures. They possess the ability to ‘cleanse’ parts of the area and make them inhabitable, using their hazardous surroundings as a defensive barrier. There was immediate interest from Earth: they could play an important role in terraforming new planets.
Chonklers
Datalog 2020: The Enemy
Discovered after contact with Sanguon was lost. Its origin remains unknown. The enemy seems to thrive just above and well below the surface, reproducing rapidly and attacking in numbers. Their presence has a corrupting influence, as if infecting the planet. Keep Chonklers away from their grasp.
Viroids
Datalog 0426: SRNG
An experimental ship. Small but manoeuvrable, mostly used for unmanned surface recon. The SRNG is just strong enough to carry three Chonklers, thanks to a number of quick augmentations. Despite being a lightweight ship, it is very easily upgradeable. Not designed for combat, avoid planetary invasions.
The Pilot’s ship, SRNG
Audio
The music and sound design of Antibody is created by Bas van Win and Jeroen Jaspers of Nozem Audio. They approach the game like a collection of scenes. The music isn’t based on specific genres, but on what each scene needs. This results in a coherent yet varied soundtrack, that reacts to what’s happening on the screen. For instance, the timbre of the instruments will change as the environment becomes more infected. Additionally the sound design of Antibody plays with the contrast between living and nonliving. The Chonklers sound organic, the ship on the other hand sounds mechanical, while the Viroids are right on the edge. The audio of Antibody reflects the complex, mysterious planet and the constant threat that the player is under.
PunchButton Studios
PunchButton Studios is a Dutch game developer, founded by four students at HKU University of the Arts. PunchButton believes in bringing people together through gaming, from the crowd around the arcade machine, to you and your friends on the couch, to the thousands at home watching a live stream. Their first game, Counterspell, a fast-paced local multiplayer free-for-all, was released in July 2019. Antibody is their sophomore project.
