Hello all! It’s been awhile since I’ve posted around here, partly because I’ve been very busy making my own shmup. I thought I’d finally post an “official” topic here to spread it around!
Aeon Zenith is a manic shooter with a goal of emphasizing fast, sweeping movement for dodging (instead of teensy tiny micro dodges) in order to generate a more exciting and oldschool feel while keeping the complexity and craziness of modern danmaku shooters. It also features a melee mechanic and a hyper system, as well as a scoring system based around speed killing enemies to unlock extra enemy waves, encouraging speed, risk/reward, and all out aggression!
Stage 1 Video Preview
Stage 2 Video Preview
Gameplay influences include Cho Ren Sha 68k, Dangun Feveron, Dragon Blaze, Strikers 1999, Eschatos, Mecha Ritz, Touhou 3, and the Gundemonium series.
We’re also striving to create a unique dark-fantasy aesthetic filled with surreal environments and elegant yet disturbing monster designs, all driven onward by a Hyakutaro and Siter Skain influenced synthy prog-rock soundtrack.
Aesthetic influences include Dragon Spirit, Dragon Saber, Metal Black, Darius, and R-Type series.
If you’re interested, you can play the current demo here
The demo is a bit rough with a lot of placeholders and numerous level design tweaks inbound, so very subject to change. Stage 1 in particular is very unfinished from the miniboss onward (have more background stuff and more polished enemy waves planned).
You can also find my development log on Twitter here
