In a matter of days, the long months creating the novaWARS public open Early Access game will finally conclude with its release on Android Beta and Steam Early Access. Taking the concept to a complete gameplay experience worthy of players' time has taken a fair few months past the original Spring release, but it's worth it as the game is now a proper game. From here on in it's just a matter and taking feedback and refining and adding content.
One of the most striking changes, apart from the improved visuals, is of course the name change. novaWARS is novaWARS no more, but ionAXXIA. This change was started by a copyright infringement claim on iOS, where a developer claimed they already had the IP registered. In truth, they had registered the trade mark "Nova Wars" in Korea, despite a couple of games having already released with that name, right about the time I registered novaWARS on iTunes Connect. That situation remains unresolved because the company hasn't engaged in any communication, but I took the opportunity to reshape the game's identity.
The original name novaWARS came from a friend's suggestion while trying to find something appropriate that wasn't already taken. Something reminiscent of the Star Control that inspired the game. Of course, every combination of 'space' and 'war' is taken, but 'nova' sounded suitably spacey. When it came to looking for a new name, recognising every obvious name is already taken I decided to go with a virgin brand - a name without conflicts and a zero presence on the internet. Google/Bing 'ionAXXIA' and it's all about this game!
