Project Landsword
A downloadable game for Windows
The once peaceful surface of Mars has decayed into a violent battleground between arms corporations and Earthly governments.
To join the fight would be crazy. To survive would be downright psychotic.
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Landsword is a top-down mecha shooter with a heavy emphasis on destruction and gameplay that combines elements from classic shoot em' ups with contemporary action-stealth games.
Featuring fully destructible environments, players must use their wits and surroundings to outsmart and defeat enemies in combat, while still retaining an arcade feeling to its gameplay.
This early prototype demo currently includes seven different missions with fourteen different weapons to choose from.
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"D3DXCompile failed / Fatal Error in Vertex Shader Compilation"
Upon starting a mission, you may encounter an error screen that says a shader named shd_outline_old failed to compile. This error only occurs because your computer does not have DirectX9 or later, so please see if your DirectX driver is up to date or installed at all. You can download the driver patch directly from the Microsoft website. This will fix any shader compile errors if you are having them, and should work on any Windows version (including XP and Windows 7, 32 or 64 bit)
- If you are having the same issue on a Linux emulator, please use Winetricks to install the DirectX patch and then try again.
- A dedicated Linux build will also come eventually, but currently I do not have the ability to compile one.
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This demo is 100% free and the game is a work in progress, but any donations will go to paying for a proper soundtrack and some additional programming help for things such as shaders.
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Wishlist the game on Steam!
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Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Progress Report - Chateau, Weapons, Tweaks, LSDTV90 days ago
- Progress Report - Masers, Teams, Crabs, Technical ManualJan 11, 2026
- Progress Report - Pathfinding, Art, OptimizationOct 13, 2025
- LS Update V.0.8.2Jul 09, 2025
- Steam Page + Progress Report + FAQMay 11, 2025
- LS Update V.0.7.0Jan 04, 2025
- 60 FPS hotfix for Windows 10/11 usersNov 14, 2024
- LS Update V.0.6.0Nov 08, 2024
Comments
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At the end of a mission what if the camera did a flyover across the map, like a helicopter or drone view? Just a detail to make the mission completion screen a little more interesting, and it would be cool to see the destruction you caused.
100\100 buen juego
I have an idea for a mission
You get dropped off from a helicopter for tiny missions (deliver supplies for allies, eliminate enemy sniper, etc) and get picked up again
After 4-5 of those, your helicopter gets shot down my enemy anti air defence near the enemy front. And you have to either sneak out unscaved, or kill every witness, and then get to allies and extract
Heya Mezzsoft! Been playing a lot of the Demo recently (trying to S+ every mission with as many weapons as possible) and was wondering roughly how many missions are you thinking of including in the final game? And on a secondary note, will there be any sort of pseudo boss battles? Best of luck with development, take care, and if I have any decent ideas I might toss one or two your way :)
Heya, thanks for playing! The goal for at least a "finished" campaign has been 25 stages, but I also want to include some smaller one-off optional missions that may have things other than combat. Boss battles and special enemies are also planned, but we'll need to sort out the story and some setup before we can start implementing them.
Cheers!
Good to know! Especially looking foreward to special enemies / bossess, since I just found the artwork for the M777A2 'IRVING' and that feels very boss - esque.
One idea I had as well: with the revamp of Mission 2 in the works, I ended up looking back at the first Armored Core from 1997 and the "Exterminate Organisms" missions.
Inspired by the current Mission 7, a sequel to Mission 2 where the player ventures underground into some burrows or caves to burn out a nearby nesting site for Chemical Grubs to prevent a repeat incident feels to me like a neat idea for a more claustrophobic horde encounter, with the crawler smashing through walls, tunnels, and chambers to get at or get away from the Grubs.
Not sure if there are plans for them to turn up again, but I hope you like the idea, or better yet that it inspires something greater!
Hey! I noticed the shoegaze track you used in the Steam page trailer, and I really loved it! It fits the game’s art style and atmosphere so well. I’d love to hear more music like this in the game as development continues. Keep up the great work!
I'm glad you like it! I don't know if that track really counts as shoegaze, it's more breakbeat or electronic/synth? We're still looking around for composers actually. A soundtrack can make or break the whole game, so we want to get it right...
Thanks for your reply! I really think breakbeat and shoegaze could work amazingly well together. I wanted to share this album with you—it might give you some inspiration for the game's future music!:D
If you get a chance, give “Drum & Gaze: Dazey Chain” by 7mint a listen! For some weird reason, I can't seem to attach the link here.
Hi! how's the game doing? any plans on an e.a.release before the end of this year?
Hello. Despite everything and a few unforeseen setbacks, progress is still being made. Right now gamepad support for all controls and menus is being tackled along with implementing an objective handling system for certain missions.
I don't believe we'll have an early access release by this year, there's still so much to add in terms of content and gameplay. I'll have a more in-depth post explaining what we're planning for the game soon.
¡Hermoso!
I would let Valerie Sommers do heinous things to me.
Ayo
Hungry man recorded saying he would eat food
I have no shame.
The fuck r u bout?!
Good day mezzsoft :3
I have an idea for a new generator
It'll be callled the "aviation engine"
Unlike our electric brother, this one runs on kerosene, giving the player about a 35% speed boost
Additionnaly, due to the use of kerosene, it comes with a jet attachment, which doubles our boosted speed, but is secerly less controllable (we barely turn)
But since you can only bring so much jerosebe into battle, this engine is on a timer, which ticks faster when we boost, and slower when we idle
Additionnaly, when the timer runs low we can give our player a tiny additional speed boist, perhaps up to 10% when out of fuel (when we run out of fuel, our mech gets lighter, therefor faster)
If, however, we fail to finish in time, instead of ending the mission we can switch to a much slower electric generator (backup?), so we can still punish the player for being slow, but stay away from annying mechanics
That is all i got for now, hope you liked reading this, wish you luck and goodbye ;3
This is an interesting concept, thanks for the suggestion! A sort of boost-dash that decreases handling when in use might be fun to use in more open levels, though for more narrow urban ones it's probably not so ideal to pick. Having a fuel system in general might be neat if it isn't too restrictive though, I'll consider this.
i like me some mechs and girls so this's for me!! good luck on the steam release, i know i'll be looking forward to it!
Cheers! It'll be awhile but I'm working hard on it.
Hello MezzSoft, this game is at the level of real pixel art, even if I finish it, I will not get tired of playing it again, great work. And I have a question - will we see other versions of Crawler in the final game, how many will there be, and the weapons are also very interesting, how many more weapons are there besides 10? Thanks in advance, good luck with your work, I will always support you 🤝
Hello! Thank you for playing and the very kind words, I really appreciate it.
Likely, though the overall design won't change too much. I think it'll mostly be changes to the turret via upgrade modules and armor instead of different chassis or completely different mechs. If we went with the latter route I think the weapon system in the game would have to be overhauled completely.
The goal right now is to have 15 primary weapons and maybe 15 secondary weapons. We're up to 13 with the primary and 10 with the secondary, they'll all be available in the next build. Then there's also the tertiary grenade slot and soon an extra melee one, so in total we might have around 40 different weapons when the game is finished.
Thanks again!!
Thank you very much for your reply, best wishes to you 🔥
i really hope there would be a ac style terrapod, i'd love to see you make something like that lol.
Hii, i have a question
Will we visit other planets some time in the future?
Ok byeee
Wish you good luck in development ;3
I think it's unlikely with the story in the current game, but I'd say there's room for combat on Earth or some moon in the distant future; maybe a small DLC of some kind.
Niiice :3
The Aura of this game is insane
<3
Really love the game so far, probably my favorite indie project! One question: Will the game have a native Linux version or will it have to run through Proton/Wine?
Thanks for playing! Native Linux support is planned for the eventual Steam release, but for now I'm afraid don't really have a setup configured to compile Linux builds
will there be any mechs fused with organic parts? like some evil co. using organic parts for optimal performance, or parasitic organisms taking over unsuspecting mechs to boost their power?
I don't have any plans at the moment, but that's a cool concept. We'll see what happens, we certainly need more organic enemies to fight later on.
Maybe some of those a version of the crab that is a hermit crab and is using the hulls of cars, tanks, and even mecha as shells to protect themselves so you can have different sizes and power levels of them.
billions must railgun
Hey I want to get into 3d modeling and was wondering if i can use the longsword as practice? and if so could i have a proper side profile?
love the game and I cant wait for the next update
Check out the latest progress report, there's some orthographic views of it in the manual.
The game becomes more intersesting and cooler. Can't wait for full release, but demo's already such awesome
Thank you! More to come.
Hi, it's an excellent game! We're organizing a "Shmup" themed game jam. If you have a demo project or a complete game, you can apply. Thanks!
Noted, thanks!
i was looking trough the art to get references for my mech's smoke discharger and i noticed that almost every single unit has smoke launchers. i was wondering if they could be implementedd in the game? like a squad of mantis' launching their's once val kills a whole bunch of them in a short period of time. they can use the smoke to scatter and try to find some flanks. could make fights more interesting maybe? though i know that it can be very annoying as well too depending on the implementation
I had considered this before, but I think it would make more sense to have only one or two special enemies do that rather than any of them with smoke grenades, as smoke does restrict visibility quite a lot. Another issue right now is also keeping it optimized, as the smoke clouds are slow to render due to their sprite sizes. I can't really optimize them any further as the game engine just struggles with rendering lots of massive images at once, but some small use might be possible.
hi, i really don't want to bother you, i was doing my own mech design. i came pretty far with it and i want it to have a similar texture to your designs but i don't know how i can get there. could you give some pointers? also please point out any issues you see with the wip model. thank you for your time and have a good day![]()
(note: by the time you see this message the images probably will be dated)
Very cool design! I think the shape language you have already looks pretty solid, honestly. My advice is to generally just look at and reference real vehicles when modeling. I pull parts and shapes from many different sources when creating my own designs, but I wouldn't say I have a specific method or overall rules for the aesthetic.
okay, thank you so much for your reply. i should work on creating a larger library of references. have a good day
i have directx 12 but i still encounter the error screen
Did you try running the patch?
yes
ok so i reinstall directx and now it work
maybe try extracting the file and running it as an administrator
ilove this game its beautiful graphics plentiful action runs so smooth on my old computer. i hope u add more and release a update with a use for the credits
Thank you! The plan is to add a shop system and different places to spend the currency you get, but it'll be awhile I'm afraid.
itll be worth it
It's a really good game; I hope you finish it and get it ready for release-I've already added it to my Steam wishlist. I'm also looking forward to seeing translations into many different languages.
P.S. If I had the money, I would definitely support you!
That's very kind, thank you! Localization is planned before release.
Well, I actually wrote to you about this in a private message on Twitter (X)-my username is the same (sorry for all the messages).
this question is a bit silly, but will there be any fluffy bois? maybe as the pilot? ;3
son
Hehehe >:3
No plans for any at the moment I'm afraid, but should there not be any in the final release you could always mod them in via Steam workshop.
Okie :3
"An Italian-made E.11 Alfierie engaging the grub menace" this means that Italy is an independent spacefaring nation military compeating for the global stage? DIO CHE FIGATA
Indeed! Although space warfare would be very scarce. In general, I'm trying to show off designs from many different countries since everyone has their own vehicle aesthetic, combat doctrine, and overall approach to tech that's unique. The indigenously produced military vehicles of Italy in real life are usually quite striking, and the E.11 uses elements from the B2 Centauro and Ariete main battle tank.
maybe you can draw inspo from the recent italian-turkish pact in arms? they have some interesting designs (definetly not trying to interject my culture to this project /j). jokes aside, best of luck with the project
Hello again! Have you heard about soviet object 299 perspective MBT? I think its really cool, and somewhat (visually and conceptually) fitting for a project landsword universe. I will just leave it here, in case if it inspires you for something.
that looks cool
I have heard of this tank before, it's indeed very cool. The Soviets will have their own series of tanks with railguns that are somewhat similar in shape.
USSR survived in project Landsword universe? I like this game more and more!
i'll use this tank's turret as a base for my mech's "rifle" or something like that
this is a really fun game, its really fun to play and the missions are coool with the fact that you need to use different weapons to beat the missions, it is possible with all weapons but really hard
Cheers! The next update will have a buff to some weapons and new things to equip.
ooh that will be cool
i cant wait to try the new weapons
你好，作者，你的游戏非常有趣。我是一名重型火力爱好者。但目前游戏中只能装备两种different主武器。我想问。是否有机制能让both hands在后续发展中装备相同的武器？
你好。感谢你玩我的游戏。在下次更新中，你将能够额外装备第三把武器。不过，我暂时没有计划加入双持功能或设置两个独立的主武器槽，抱歉。
I managed to play on a borrowed laptop and loved it. Looking forward to more missions and deadlier opponents.
Thanks for playing!
Hi Dev!
I just remembered about your game and wanted to say thank you again,
Wishing you a lovely summer day!
That's very kind, thank you. Hope you have a lovely summer too!
I have an idea for weapon progression! :3
You get to buy stronger and stronger weapons during yiu progression, so i suggest also selling weapong upgrade packs for the odler weapons, in order to bump them up to the current power level, so you get to use any weapon, and not get penalised for it, due to it being old
A shop system is planned with potentially different ammo types and modules for the older weapons. We'll see what happens.
Lovely :3
At this rate we will get gta 6 before a new version release! Just kidding, these progress reports look very interesting 👍
It'll cost far less than GTA6 at least.
now I got another masterpiece in waiting. I need to make a list of games I wait, there's too many already.
Cheers <3
Concept: Adding civilians or moving vehicles to some maps to make it seem like some people havent evacuated. Not on all maps but just some maps and at the end of the round it will say how many civilian casualties theres been.
I think I'd have to introduce some kind of penalty for civilian death if they're in a level. It would be a neat visual to see cars driving away at the start though.
There doesnt need to be a penalty, i mean you can destroy entire city blocks without punishment so it shouldnt be that big of a deal for civillian deaths
WARCRIMES!!!
DESTROYING THE ENTIRE CITY!!!
Brigador gives you no penalty.
How the story treats civilian deaths is a matter of worldbuilding and intended tone: "We are being sued by 7 IGOs." / "We investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing." / "The vice director of operations has been detained by the United Kingdom." / "We are billing the province for negligent evacuation as outlined in our ToS." / altered news headlines between missions / a slight variation in the ending / your supervisor being annoyed with you
How the game treats them is essentially a wholly independent design issue: score deduction / score increase / monetary penalty / nothing
Hello. You can contact me on Twitter, @sysmainframe.
I wrote to you on Twitter
Hi,I am a Chinese player and i really like your game! Trailers of your game also attracted some players. I'm wondering does Project landsword suit for localization?
Hello! Thanks for the kind words. The game will be translated once its script and campaign is fully finished.
COCEPT: imagine adding a small ship carried by a coconut crab-sized robot that can turn mechs into "zombies"(that "crab" will run towards mecha's central engine,place the ship and corrupt the mechs,so the pilot cant operate it,and the mechhs,they will go rogue and kill, or rarely do unexpected/random moves until they explode.Mbappe,This is a concept art of infected Mechs
That's an interesting concept, maybe it could potentially be an organic enemy. I don't know about having it as a regular unit though, it might be a little too overpowered in normal combat.
I just want to say how incredibly excited I am about your project. I especially love the aesthetics, the art, and the incredibly high-quality approach. The multi-page tutorial for M97 was amazing. It's my most anticipated game in the last couple of years.
Thank you! I hope the final product won't disappoint. There's a lot more that I want to do in terms of art, but it'll be some time.
Hi, I just want to ask if the game is free on Steam when you release it, if not then I hope the price is affordable. (Stay healthy btw, you're doing great.)
I'll probably put the demo up on Steam once there's some proper story elements implemented. As for a full release with around 5-6 hours worth of content and supporting material, what would you consider a fair price?
Thanks for the feedback, It's a fair price for me :D (my wallet is empty..., wait, I don't have a wallet)
If I may...I have purchased 100+ Indie games of various genre over the years, most of them not on sale, so i have a pretty good feeling for it.
If the current level of quality is maintained, the content in the previews is implemented and the genre standard ~15 missions are included in the release, I would expect it to release with a 25 to 30€ price tag (Microprose in particular has established this sort of pricing lately), but would personally feel 20€ to be the fairest price.
Under 20 I feel you may not make enough, given the likely niche audience. Over 30, people will be very hesitant to purchase it on release so the on-release sales, that make up the majority of many games' sales, may be dampened.
For particular regional pricings outside the EU/UK/US it gets kind of complicated, Steam sales assists Indie devs with that often.