For nearly as long as there has been a video game industry, there have been shooters: a genre decades in the making, which has given us a legion of legendary or well-known series, and hundreds of thousands worth of imitations or clones. Kromaia hopes to change all that.

Kromaia, the creation of Indie game developer Kraken Empire, takes place in a world where the original Universe has presumable collapsed, leaving behind an infinite void that serves as an access point to the several parallel realities that were left behind. The main character you play is an amnesiac who awakens in a weird shrine, sealed inside a mechanical unit, who must explore these wolrds searching for long-forgotten devices while taking on hostile creatures, guided along the way by a familiar voice who claims to know the protagonist's mind better than the protagonist.

Where Kromaia differs is in its emphasis on physics-based play, requiring the players to master different ships that have varying degrees of maneuverability, ddificulties, and playstyles. Advanced players will be able to push the ships "to their limits" with quick turns, extreme dodging, powerful multidirectional boosts, and pure speed. Players will also be given special weapons, like homing missiles, gravity bombs, and energy blades for flying melee combat.

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All of this will be to take on giant god-like guardians, ancient temples with contraptions and treasures, and enemies with "insane enemy patterns." Kromaia also promises to bring a certain "visual ecstasy" to players, making the game as fantastic to play as it is fantastic to watch. Kormaia will be based in a mythology-based world

Kromaia also promises to special emergent gameplay, including an "advanced A.I. system" that, in short, can predict and react to what's happening in the game and adapt into different formations and tactics, bringing something new every time the game is player. Players will also be able to apply their weapons and the physics of the world to take on enemies: like using a gravity bomb to pull a giant's gaze away so that you can dodge his energy beam and exploit his weakness. This is in addition to an interactive destructible world with asteroids and structures floating about, and the ability for players to mod content using plain text (XML), including objects, weapons, players and A.I. units.

Kromaia was awarded as a finalist in 2011 Freeplay competition for ‘Best International Game’ and again a finalist for the 2012 Burger Awards for ‘Best Original Design.” Kromaia is set to release in late 2014 to the PC, Mac and Linux, and will have a Score Attack (Arcade) Mode, Story Mode (Adventure) and Timed Circuit (Racing).

For more on Kromaia, check out the Kromaia website; to support Kraken Empire, which is at $511 of its $40,000 goal, check out the Kromaia IndieGoGo crowdfunding page. For a closer look at the game, check out the trailer and screenshots below.

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