GDC is goin’ on and Progrium, Alec, and I attended part one of the Independent Games Summit today… but we’ll discuss that once we’ve had a chance to fully recover. For now, I want to introduce to you a new feature that I’ve been cooking up behind the scenes with Postman from Shoot the Core, William Swaney from the2bears, and our very own Tim W. (Independent Gaming):
Essentially it’s a beginner’s guide to getting into the rather daunting Japanese indie shoot ‘em up scene that we hope will get new players into the genre. Despite the relative simplicity of these types of games, I was surprised by the amount of variation in even a single subcategory of shoot ‘em ups. And it’s definitely a genre that keeps growing, as is evidenced by Clean Asia and, more recently, Guxt.
Echoes is an arena shooter by Binary Zoo which consists of ten levels, with a different enemy type introduced on every new stage. Each have their unique strengths, weaknesses and require various strategies to deal with effectively.
The player loses energy when collision with an adversary could not be avoided. Remaining energy is shown as a counter on the top right of the screen, also indicated by the colored ring surrounding your ship. There are only three different power-ups to collect. One increases firepower, the other restores health while the third is a sort of bomb.
Zoots awards are handed out whenever a certain task is completed, with current achievements available to peruse via the trial accomplishment screen. To get a perfect score, all ten objectives must be attempted at the highest difficulty.
After months of woe and questions of whether or not it will ever see the light of day, Pixel has released a work-in-progress demo version of his upcoming shooter. And it’s rad!
Some notes from Pixel, as translated by the one and only Shih Tzu and paraphrased by me:
- The game is not yet complete.
- There are five stages in the demo.
- Arrow keys to move and Ctrl to fire.
- There is gamepad support.
The game also automatically stores play records for Pixel’s analysis (if you email them to him). And you can change the controls if you’d like.
Download here. It’s kinda tough… but what great shooter isn’t?
Shoot the Core got a massive facelift a while back. Actually, scratch that – a facelift is superficial… it’s more like it got a facelift and also had its heart replaced with a racehorse’s. Because not only does it look good on the outside, it’s got a gigantic (nearly 1,000 games), searchable database of shoot-em-ups.
Both Roger and Fost (Kenta Cho bless ‘em) have put a huge amount of work into the site, and it’s paid off wonderfully. A great resource.
You might recall that Anthony Flack made Platypus. But he definitely didn’t make Platypus 2. I’m not sure who made Platypus 2. Probably Cambodian children in a sweatshop. And yes, in case you were wondering, it’s perfectly legal for Cambodian children to make video games in sweatshops. So quit whining.
Check out this great Indiegamer thread where the ever-awesome Nick Tipping rails on big business, portals, and “The Man” in general… he’s like the crazy drunken uncle at a family get-together who is the only one who has the balls to say that the meatloaf is rotten and smelly and is ruining the rest of the dinner. Everyone else just kind of sits there awkwardly, nibbling at the horrendous meatloaf and trying to calm him down (even though they know he’s right, by God).
“It’s not that bad, uncle Nick! Look!” (nibble nibble)
Update: Fost says “thanks for all the fish” to Indiegamer forums, confusing people because no fish was ever given out. Also, some guy named Andy says “bullshit” about a hundred times for no apparent reason. Tourette’s syndrome a possibility?
Hi there. I’m John Marwin. You may recall that I’m the cool cat who composed the Thailand tune (and everything else) in Clean Asia. Well, cactus updated his shooter just moments ago, so here’s a summary of the new stuff:
-You can go back and forth in the menu now
-You can go back and choose a different pilot between completing missions without them being reset
-Quitting can only be done on the title screen
-Pressing enter after losing a ship will make you respawn faster
-Pressing enter while the credits roll will make them fade out
-Player Two spawns with 200 debris to make dying slightly less frustrating.
Bugs fixed:
-No immobile enemy bullets that stay behind and cause trouble
You can find the full change list here. Of course, the best players never use the 2nd pilot – just so you know.
Originally made for the Autofire 2007 Competition, Force Majeure is a work-in-progress arcade shooter from Monokey. But now there’s a one stage demo you can try out! The game sports some pretty gorgeous graphics and really arcadey music. Looks like the visual style was inspired by In the Hunt and Irem arcade games in general.
Other than the great presentation of the game, they’ve added a nice multiplier system that adds more interest to the game. Earn medals and raise your multiplier by dissolving enemy bullets and finishing off enemy fighters at close range. It makes dying totally frustrating if you’re going for a highscore, though. Seriously, I gave my roommate two beatings tonight out of sheer frustration. And that’s pretty sad when your roommate is your grandma!
