After its Kickstarter campaign in 2017, German solo developer Julian Laufer created an intriguing adventure about the Old Gods, strange creatures and the remnants of a lost world. Headup is very happy to support Julian's efforts by publishing this wonderful old school game for PC and later on for consoles, too.

Players will experience real non-linear Metroidvania gameplay and uncover five distinct areas, all with remarkable puzzles, environmental hazards, epic boss encounters and captured Wozan to uncage. The helpful Buddy unit will procedurally map the area and function as a handy quality of life tool that can be controlled at will to manipulate your surroundings using various abilities like hacking, scanning, and telekinesis.

Outbuddies features a highly skill- and mechanics-based progression system, both in terms of combat and platforming abilities. Each of the game's four upgradable weapon systems is also an essential survival tool, that has to be chosen wisely in order to stand a chance against Bahlam's various traps and unforgiving foes. Bosses were designed to live up to genre highlights such as Dead Cells, Dark Souls and Hollow Knight and will require split-second reflexes and profound memorization of attack patterns to stand a chance.

The local co-op option invites a second player to explore and experience Outbuddies together by taking control over the invincible "Buddy" unit. Support each other on your journey home, solve puzzles and overcome Bahlam's hostile maze. This will also provide an opportunity for team-speedrunning as a very unique take on the scene.

Outbuddies uses ranged weapons and classic 4-way shooting, which was chosen by intention and forces the player to directly engage all types of foes. Poisonous bugs and spiky crawlers inflict contact damage while bigger enemies can be passed-by and use both ranged and melee-type attacks to kick your ass.

All types of hazards can be dodged by steam-rolling and a late-game upgrade, the Spin Blade, even allows to harm enemies by dodging them. All four up-gradable weapon systems also function as a selective tools and there are two weapon slots available, that can be equipped in parallel to create some interesting mix-ups. All four weapons and their functions at a glance:

• The Seahorse Revolver: Your standard plasma gun and best friend. Unleashes a powerful vaporizing beam when charged-up. Has a high fire rate and good damage output.
• The Missile Launcher: Your best choice when facing heavy duty like boss encounters or multiple tanky enemies at once. They can even break stones, but your storage is very limited and has to be upgraded by searching for missile tanks.
• The Bubble Beam: A tactical weapon that fires organic ooze that can immobilize enemies and turn them into a suitable platform to step on. When charged, immobilizing clusters will spread to stun whole groups of foes.
• The Corridium Galvanizer: Energizes wall structures and can re-power shut-down facilities. When charged it unleashes a powerful dash that can connect to a spider-ball like wall run and enables you to reach every corner of Bahlam. 

"Movement in Outbuddies is very fast-paced, like also seen in Hollow Knight or Dead Cells. Controls are also tight, allowing for split-second decisions and various cancels to survive heated combat situations. To spice things up, I've implemented a (mostly optional) stealth system, so large enemy groups and security systems can be sneaked-by", adds Julian Laufer.

"Your droid Buddy is equipped with telekinetic abilities to use the environment against your enemies and collect-able hacking protocols enable Buddy to even modify enemy behavior to your advantage."

Key Features:

• Explore an open vibrant fantasy world
• Real Metroidvania gameplay with lots of gear, puzzles and Easter eggs
• Unique dual-hero scheme with local Co-Op support
• Epic boss battles & believable enemy AIs
• Intriguing narrative and memorable characters
• High freedom of movement @ 60 FPS
• Handcrafted pixel art with distortion-free scaling to your native display resolution
• Support for various input devices & key rebinding
• Original soundtrack by OGRE music

Outbuddies will be available for PC (Steam) on October 15, 2019, with Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One versions to follow in Q1 2020.