I have further ideas to add to this game and plenty of space/resources left to do so, but it is 'feature complete' to release as a Cartridge instead of a WIP at this point. Remaining ideas:
- More options; missile swarm sizes, enemy types to enable/disable, etc
- Attraction/Arcade Demo mode during the "title card"
- Improve the 'how to play' panel further
- More varieties of enemies
This is a 60FPS cart, vaguely based on the '16 gifs' SCHMUP in overall structure but written in a very different style using sub-pixel accuracy (including movement and projectiles) and circle-based collision detection instead of rectangles. The 'drunk missiles' are still using the same basic 'linear movement + circular spiral' pathing, but there's a lot more variety going on with spiral size, etc.
Gameplay is fairly trivial, hold down Z to fire, shoot down missiles and avoid running into them. Like many SCHMUP's only the 'core' of your fighter can be hit. The color shifts from blue -> green -> yellow -> red -> dead, and your projectiles match your current health status color.
X button starts a new game if dead, to avoid having to bring up the Pause menu every time, and if anyone has any further suggestions I'm open to hear them!
V1.1 adds:
- Persistent high-score
- Basic 'manual' panel
- Initial 'options' screen allowing you to disable the starfield if you find it too distracting
- Much improved collision detection
V1.2 is mostly bug fixes
- Converted from 'integer sub-pixel' to using the 16:16 fixed-point math PICO-8 already supports
- Fixed the 'hold down for an easier game' exploit by blocking movement inputs instead of only capping position
V1.3 adds music and sound
- Better 'death' explosion
- A simple projectile firing sound tuned to not be annoying to have running near-constantly
- A per-hit 'splat' as your shield weakens
- A longer and randomly generated 'explosion' noise when you die
V1.4 is mostly polish and overhaul
- Difficulty is raised as a result of more even screen coverage by missile swarms
- Credits panel added to 'attract' mode
- Code has been organized better
V1.5 is final polish and the last release in the "1.x" line
- Minimized the music, it was overly verbose and could be reduced to half as many patterns used
- A few minor individual-pixel touchups on the title graphic
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