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Nova Drift
Nova Drift distills the mechanical depth and strategy of an ARPG into classic arcade space combat. Control an endlessly evolving bio-mechanical ship, face legions of strange and deadly foes, and ride the wake of a dying star across the void.
Recent Reviews:
Overwhelmingly Positive (137) - 95% of the 137 user reviews in the last 30 days are positive.
All Reviews:
Overwhelmingly Positive (9,926) - 96% of the 9,926 user reviews for this game are positive.
Release Date:
Mar 27, 2019
Developer:
Publisher:
Pixeljam
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Features
Languages:
Interface Full Audio Subtitles
English ✔
French ✔
Russian ✔
Simplified Chinese ✔
Traditional Chinese ✔
Japanese ✔
Polish ✔
Portuguese - Brazil ✔
Korean ✔
Spanish - Spain ✔
See all 10 supported languages
Includes 40 Steam Achievements
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all 40
Awards

Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“Nova Drift is mechanically deep and offers near-endless player configurations, making game balance an ongoing challenge. As a living game, Nova Drift will continue to receive a steady flow of content, adjustments, and features. The wealth of player feedback, experimentation, and data that Early Access provides will make the game as solid as possible leading up to its full release.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“The full release is expected to take place in 2024.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“Early Access focuses on the meat of the game: The upgrade system and game balance. Nova Drift's endless mode is a perfect arena to focus test player abilities, enemy capabilities, and game flow. The full version will include the campaign: a game mode with exposition, an introduction, and a game ending. Additionally, the final version will include the game's final boss fight.

During early access, the game will also gain additional features such as new upgrades, greater challenges for veteran players, optimizations, more musical tracks, polish, and more game customization.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Nova Drift is stable, highly player vetted, and dense with content. Players are limited to choosing endless mode or practice mode, with the campaign unavailable.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“The price might increase once we transition out of Early Access.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“Nova Drift has been community driven for the greater majority of its development cycle, thriving on feedback and player suggestions. The game will continue to value this relationship throughout its lifespan, long after full release, as more content is deployed.

The best way to get involved is through our Discord server.”
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Check out the entire Pixeljam franchise on Steam

Buy Nova Drift

$17.99
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Buy Nova Drift Game & Soundtrack

Includes 2 items: Nova Drift, Nova Drift OST

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-20%
$22.38
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Reviews

“Its integration of rogue-lite unlocks and a ridiculous level of ship customization transforms the game into something magical.”
Game Informer

“Nova Drift is a big, endless, beautiful universe of arcade combat, fusing the modern indie gaming style with the deepest roots of gaming history.”
Hardcore Gamer

“It’s not only sleek and sexy looking, but it comes with smooth-as-can-be controls with enough personalization in the upgrade modules to make your head spin.”
Manablast

JOIN THE DISCORD COMMUNITY

Click here to join us on Discord! Nova Drift is a very community-driven project. We take all feedback seriously and a lot of the features in the works are from player requests.

JOIN THE LOCALIZATION EFFORT

Click here to help us localize Nova Drift. We're using Localizor to help the community translate the game into as many languages as possible.

About This Game

- SURVIVE - EVOLVE - DOMINATE -


Nova Drift is a 'rogue-lite' space shooter that melds a classic arcade experience with modern action-RPG elements like theory-crafting and deep player choice. Your ship rapidly evolves as you defeat enemies, allowing you to shape its abilities and weaponry to your desires in a matter of minutes. Unlike many ARPGs which can absorb hundreds of hours of time, Nova Drift allows you to take a ship build from inception to execution in a single game session.



Features

  • Create a unique build every run. Games are quick, allowing for rapid experimentation, iteration, and advancement.
  • Cunning and creativity are rewarded as you chain upgrade modules for powerful synergies, reminiscent of deck-building games.
  • Access over 200 modular upgrades as you progress and expand your arsenal.

  • Build to play how you want. Snipe, command a drone army, discharge your shields, charge up, burn enemies with your thrusters, or smash right through them... there's a way to make it work.
  • Unlock various challenge modes, providing greater risk and rewards. The stakes are high, as death is permanent!
  • Every game is randomly generated, keeping the fight intense and unpredictable. Fight through the campaign or play endlessly...

Nova Drift is a living game. Frequent updates will continue to expand the depth and content of the game world.




Upcoming Updates:
  • Full Campaign Mode

Ship Evolutions

Mods & Gear can be unlocked, upgraded and combined to make unexpected and powerful combinations:

Example Build #1: Seeking Cluster Grenade

Grenade + Body: Assault + High Explosive + Splinter Shot + Heat Seeking + Charged Shot



This build focuses on creating as many grenade splinters as possible using the Grenade weapon and sends them tearing toward targets using the Heat Seeking mod. The overlapping blasts from the initial explosion add up to a huge amount of damage at the epicenter, while the seeking clusters handle crowd control.

Example Build #2: Celestial Shield-Bomber

Hullbreaker + Amp Shield + Volatile Shields + Flash Shielding + Emergency Systems + Celestial Lance



This build takes advantage of the Hullbreaker's speed and resilience to crash damage to slam directly into enemies. The fragile Amp Shield is used not for defense, but to augment Hullbreaker's strongest aspects, gaining increased speed and force. The shield will break on impact, but we can capitalize on that using the Volatile Shields mod, which detonates the shield when it goes down, blasting all nearby enemies. Flash Shielding gets it running again quickly while Emergency Systems grant a moment of damage immunity, making charge attacks safer. Finally, Celestial Lance is used to deal burning damage to everything around the ship at high velocities!


Nova Drift is developed by Jeffrey Nielson of Chimeric, a mostly 1-man development team, featuring music and audio by Miles Tilmann of Pixeljam.

System Requirements

Windows
macOS
    Minimum:
    • OS *: Windows 7 or higher
    • Processor: 2 Ghz CPU
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 or equivalent, Integrated cards also work
    • Storage: 500 MB available space
* Starting January 1st, 2024, the Steam Client will only support Windows 10 and later versions.
    Minimum:
    • OS: 10.10 or higher
    • Processor: 2 Ghz CPU
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Storage: 500 MB available space
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What Curators Say

153 Curators have reviewed this product. Click here to see them.

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