Gunpoint dev reveals new gameplay from stealthy space adventure Heat Signature

Earlier this year Gunpoint developer Tom Francis revealed some prototype footage of his upcoming space adventure Heat Signature and now he's uploaded another video showing how it's shaping up.

Heat Signature puts players in the role of a thief or assassin as they travel the cosmos plundering ships and acquiring loot. The game gets its name from its ships' defense systems that can only detect you if you're coming in too hot/fast. As such, you need to slow down and gently glide yourself to dock onto a ship's airlock.

Once on board, Heat Signature become a more traditional stealth game where you avoid patrolling guards to snatch a package or assassinate your target. You can also accept new missions by hacking into a vessel's computer.

One of Heat Signature's most interesting mechanics is that it lets you steal other ships. Once on a larger spacecraft, you can use its guns to break apart other ships due to their module-based design.

For examples, if an enemy ship contains a narrow bottleneck section, you can shoot this area to break the vessel into two. Time it right and you can escape in your own little pod, then float away while the enemy attacks the spacecraft you just fired from. Now you can board the piece of the ship that your target is on while not worrying about the rest.

You can also control your personal pod remotely, so if an enemy captures you and tosses you out of an airlock, you can pilot your ship from afar, Batplane-style, and have it swoop you up before you suffocate.

Right now Heat Signature's graphics are simple placeholder art, but Francis is looking for an artist and a composer to lend their talents to the project. For more information about this, check out Francis' job listing on his blog.