Shadowgrounds

Lore & Background

Shadowgrounds is a fast-paced top-down shooter reminiscent of the Alien Breed series. The plot of a monster attack on a space colony serves primarily as justification for action, with plentiful monsters and large weapons. Light and darkness are vital components: the game is largely dark, and the hero carries a motion scanner and a flashlight with a regenerating but limited power supply. There are ten weapons, each with three upgrades, and players collect upgrade pieces from killing monsters. Medpacks, weapons, and ammunition are found in stores and near dead soldiers. Players explore indoor and outdoor facilities to complete linear tasks such as disarming force fields or fixing machinery, while clearing progressively more powerful creatures. Occasionally, invulnerable NPCs fight alongside the player. Vehicles appear in cutscenes but are not player-drivable.

Cooperative gameplay was added late in development, allowing one player to control protagonist Tyler via keyboard and mouse, and up to three others to play as unnamed characters using gamepads on the same computer; there is no Internet or LAN support. In co-op, respawns are shared, weapons and upgrade parts are shared, but ammunition is not.

The plot follows Wesley Tyler, a senior mechanic on the IGTO Repair Base on Ganymede. After repairing backup generators, he encounters alien creatures, rescues Corporal Jane Awryn, and works with Lieutenant Dan Baxter, Dr. Harold Weiss, and Colonel Roger Smith to combat the invasion. The story culminates in a mission to the alien mothership, where the aliens' collective consciousness reveals they invaded to prevent humanity from misusing a powerful energy source that had destroyed their own home planet. The bomb is deactivated, and the aliens promise to never meddle again.

Frozenbyte released extensive documentation for modding, including a Level Editor first available for retail versions on June 29, 2006, and for Steam users on July 13, 2006. After the game was included in the third Humble Indie Bundle, the source code (but not graphics or level editor) was publicly released under a license prohibiting commercial use.

Reader's Guide

Shadowgrounds holds significance as an early indie title that leveraged digital distribution, appearing on Steam in May 2006, Gametap from January 2008, Good Old Games from March 2011, and Desura from April 2011. Its Linux port, released in September 2009, was handled by IGIOS and published by Linux Game Publishing, reflecting the growing interest in cross-platform indie gaming. The game's cooperative mode, added late in development as a fan bonus, was notable for being local only, with no online support. Its inclusion in the third Humble Indie Bundle alongside its sequel Shadowgrounds: Survivor and other Frozenbyte titles helped popularize the pay-what-you-want model. The release of the source code under a restrictive license allowed modding but limited commercial reuse. Reception was mixed or average according to Metacritic, but the game's use of light and darkness as gameplay mechanics and its homage to classic top-down shooters like Alien Breed gave it a niche following. The sequel, Shadowgrounds: Survivor, released in 2007, continued the story with three separate characters.

Did You Know?

• Cooperative mode supports up to four players on the same computer using gamepads, with no Internet or LAN support.
• The source code was publicly released after the game was included in the third Humble Indie Bundle, but the license prohibits commercial use.
• Vehicles such as an alien ship and an earth mover appear in cutscenes but are not player-drivable.