shmups.system11.org

The hands(?) of that boss remind me of a painting by Zdzisław Beksiński, pretty cool.

I've definitely used that one as a reference! Not sure if on this one, if not then definitely when we were planning the general enemy aesthetic.

Zdzisasdlfkjasdf Beklislkandsf definitely fit the gracefully spooky body horror aesthetic I wanted over the more overt psychosexual Giger-esque kind of thing. Mazeran's monster designs are probably the other biggest influence.

The general concept for the boss was a corrupted paladin with multiple arms (two of which would cover his face as a mask), and with the lower half of a centipede. Plan to animate it something like this.

The game look fantastic.
I tried it, my first opinion is the game are a little fast, I understand you need used the dragoon fire instead of evading, but I can't feel comfortable with the mechanic, my opinion.
But the rest, the game look awesome, congratulation.

Thanks for playing!

I definitely want to keep the fast pace, but I'm hoping with the way spawns work, I can balance it so that it's more reasonable while still being learned.

I've revised the weapon systems / mechanics a fair bit over the last year. Should be more intuitive! I'm planning on getting a new demo out december/january.

Just a heads up, but I'm planning on posting a new demo on January 10th. I hope everyone will give it a try.

Features:

-Two Stages
-Revised and simplified mechanics
-Music
-Less (but still a lot of) placeholder art
-Maybe an in-game tutorial, deadline permitting.

DEMO 3 IS NOW UP

Featuring two stages, a tutorial, and 3 music tracks, as well as a lot of new sprites!

https://squire-grooktook.itch.io/aeon-zenith

Unfortunately, due to time and sanity constraints of meeting a demoday deadline, I had to remove the bosses. I also didn't have enough time to polish stage 1, so it's a lot jankier than stage 2 (I didn't even have time to implement the new stage 1 background assets or the new renderer).

Seriously stage 1 kinda sucks right now.

Still though, I'm pretty proud of stage 2, and the tutorial should make the game a bit more intuitive.

EDIT

Also for funsies, here's some of the new zako sprites!

Not done yet! Still adding some extra animations and polish.

I really love the organic movement you have on the last zako. Great job