After two years on the Penny Arcade series, Cthulhu Saves the World creator Zeboyd Games is back to doing its own thing. The retro RPG enthusiast yesterday announced its next game, Cosmic Star Heroine, a sci-fi RPG starring a space-spy catapulted to fame and perilous danger after her cover is blown.

Cosmic Star Heroine is a turn-based affair "takes the best elements from our past games while adding a few new ideas," the announcement explains. Enemies will now patrol around levels and give chase, and combat takes place on exploration map rather than its own little screen.

Zeboyd is switching away from XNA, used to make its previous games, to Unity with Cosmic Star Heroine. This'll let it easily release of more platforms, but don't worry: it's sticking with classic 2D sprites, now bigger and more animated.

The developer recently said it plans to shake up difficulty levels, using modes like "Easy-going", "Challenging", and "Maddening". It explained, "I hope that by removing the label of 'Normal' from the difficulty selection menu, we can force the player to really think about what kind of experience they want out of our games. And when they realize what they want, they’re more likely to get that."

The plot of CSH, in short, is that top super-secret agent Alyssa L'Salle is outed by the galactic government after uncovering a conspiracy, which means the galaxy she's saved many times over adores her but all the naughty people she's taken down know who she is too. While Zeboyd is ditching parody this time, it's still shooting for funny.

Zeboyd plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign for Cosmic Star Heroine later this year.