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Press release:
Madrid, Spain. March 16th 2023.
The Toronto-based (Canada) indie games publisher Astrolabe Games and Madrid-based (Spain) indie games developer Dr. Kucho! Games, are today very happy and thrilled to announce that their retro save-them-all action/platformer “Moons of Darsalon“, is coming to PC via Steam on April 19th, 2023 (the game will also be released via EGS at a later time this year).

After 8 years of long waiting, players will finally be able to enroll the Darsanauts Rescue Missions in challenging adventures leading their colleagues to the closest base station. Fight fierceful alien creatures using a laser gun, avoid all sorts of threats and get rid of obstacles with a jetpack, and enjoy the advanced physics engine while they destroy terrain and even make new paths with the ground maker!

“Moons of Darsalon is a challenging, charming little lemmings-like puzzle-platformer that drove me to the brink (in a good way). I highly recommend checking it out.” – PC Gamer

Moons of Darsalon puts the players in the role of a brave rescuing hero with the mission of saving countless teams of darsanauts that got lost mining on the moons of the planet Darsalon.

Once you find them, you will have to lead them to the closest base station. The darsanauts will use their AI to follow you and obey your commands, so on your way to the base, you will have to protect them from diverse dangers and enemies.

MAIN FEATURES

Fast-paced laser gun shooting action against dangerous alien creatures.

Enhanced mobility thanks to accessories like the jet pack and vehicles like the space truck and drop ship.

Darsanauts implement advanced platformer AI including dynamic terrain detection, jump force calculation, light sensitivity, inter-NPC communication.

Voice Commands to control companion NPCs.

Dynamic ground destruction and creation: Destroy terrain and make new paths with the ground maker gun.

Fully interactive and realistic liquid physics.

Realistic off road vehicle physics.

8 bit music based on MOS 6581 (SID) chip from 1982 and speech synthesis.

Graphics are generated with a unique render pipeline that combines modern lighting, 2D sprites and 3D models pixelated in real time, all featuring a restricted color palette for an authentic retro feel.

And of course, we cannot miss the good old CRT filter!

WHO IS DR. KUCHO?

MAYBE IT SOUNDS FAMILIAR…

Since he was a little kid, Kucho was passionate about games and music, he enjoyed countless hours with his commodore 64 and later on with an Amiga 500.

After several years coding and playing games, he discovered that he could also use those microcomputers to create music, which ended up capturing all his time and dedication, to the point that he ended up working in the electronic music industry and commercially releasing more than 300 songs. Dr. Kucho traveled all around the world and created hits such as “Can’t Stop Playing” which was a great success in 2005 and again in 2014, reaching number 4 on the UK Charts and won the BPI British Phonographic Industry Association “Golden Single” award.

His music has been played by top DJs like Paul Van Dyk, Norman Cook (Fat Boy Slim), Dj Sneak, Eric Morillo, Markus Schulz or Paul Oakenfold, among others…

CAREER AS GAME DEVELOPER
Dr. Kucho’s path as a game developer started in 2013, when he began developing his debut title “Ghosts’n Djs”, a homage to the 80s arcade classic platformer Ghosts’n Goblins and a satirical critic to the commercial electronic music industry.

In 2020, Kucho released his second title, Pilots of Darsalon, which introduces the Darsalon universe and presents a physics based arcade game. Finally and after more than 8 years of development, Dr. Kucho returns with his largest project to date, Moons of Darsalon, where players will have to rescue and command a squad of darsanauts, mixing physics-based run’n gun mechanics with the save them all genre, in this sequel he applied all the lessons learned about his audience, and how PC self-publishing works.

About Astrolabe Games:
Astrolabe Games is a global video game publisher based in Shanghai, China, with an office in Toronto, Canada.

Founded by a squad of industry veterans, we strive to “align the stars” for talented devs so that they can focus on visualizing and realizing their best creative ideas to bring fun and diverse play experiences for all gamers.