The game
The Drones have swept through three galaxies, relay by relay. Station after station goes dark. Command has one answer left: you, a ship, and whoever you can convince to fly with you.
Space Defender: Frontier Squadron blends twin-stick space combat with RPG progression. Between fights, players dock at stations to trade, buy ships, research upgrades and recruit pilots. In the field, they take on 13 kinds of contracts, from convoy escorts and holdouts to hunts, rescues and fleet battles, against Drones that each fight in their own way.
Key features
- Wingmen. Recruit pilots at stations, give them ships from your hangar and fly with up to three of them. Downed wingmen eject in rescue pods.
- 13 contract types with modifiers: asteroid fields, elite leaders, reinforcements, time limits.
- Enemies with distinct behaviours: snipers, minelayers, carriers, missile jammers, shield-support hulls, elites and packs.
- 8 ships and over 60 pieces of equipment, from lasers and railguns to flak cannons, guided missiles, turrets and shields, with energy management.
- A three-act campaign of 13 story missions with Admiral Voss, Ilse Marin and ARIA, ending against the Nexus.
- Ranks from Recruit to Admiral, a research tree, a mission journal and three difficulty modes.
History
Space Defender is Guillaume's first game, developed alone alongside a full-time job. It entered Steam Early Access in May 2025, and player feedback shaped the 1.0: the wingmen system started as a player suggestion.
The 1.0 update adds the story campaign, nine new contract types, enemy behaviours, new weapon families, a redesigned interface and a full balancing pass, and renames the game Space Defender: Frontier Squadron.
Assets
Click to open full size. Everything here may be used freely in coverage of the game. Screenshots (10 × 1920×1080 PNG), GIFs and every logo are in the asset archive. Fact sheet as plain text: English · French.
Credits
- Design, code, writing
- Guillaume Merle
- Music
- Alkakrab (alkakrab.itch.io)
- Sound effects
- ZapSplat
- Font
- Exo 2 by Natanael Gama (SIL OFL)
- Engine
- Unity