The Steam summer sale dates were leaked well in advance, with hints being dropped about it starting on June 21. The sale’s start was usual, with the large number of server outages and frequent downtimes as Valve’s servers fail to control the onslaught of eager buyers who would never play the games they purchase during the sale. But there was a bigger surprise in store this sale. There is a neat Space Invaders style mini game that allows players to earn Steam community items which can be used in the game, and also enable them to participate in giveaways for certain games.
In the game, you’re a species of alien called Salien. Your species are on an intergalactic mission to locate certain important “treasures” (aka games) on certain undiscovered worlds. The natives of the world won’t take kindly to the aggression, so all Saliens are equipped with special bonus moves of mass alien destruction, besides a standard laser cannon for holding the line of defense against the natives of the planet.
Represent your group, and lead them on to victory! Each planet has tiles of varying difficulty. When your community progress on the tile reaches 100%, you claim the tile for your group. The names of intergalactic conquerors are flashed everywhere, so expect a lot of competition! You can customize your alien with unique items, which you get as drops for playing the game. Moreover, whenever you visit a planet and battle for a tile, you are entered into a giveaway for a set of games. Every bit counts, as you level up your Salien, unlocking powerful abilities, making powerful enemies a breeze.
This is quite a decent way of engaging the players on Steam, considering that the summer sale was highly lackluster in terms of the discounts offered. But hey, atleast we get some cool cosmetic items for dressing our Salien,right?