Icarus - Homage to my favourite 16-bit - 32-bit shmups!

A place for people with an interest in developing new shmups.
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japster
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2021 1:08 am

Icarus - Homage to my favourite 16-bit - 32-bit shmups!

Post by japster »

Hi guys!

Just posting about my playable demo of ICARUS...

...Love letter to my favourite shoot-em-ups of the 16-bit / 32-bit era!

It's a side (and possibly 45 degree and vertically) scrolling, classic shoot-em-up, more in the vein of Gradius, R-Type, and Scramble, than say, a bullet hell type (although some of the bosses do throw a fair few projectiles around!... :)

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Spoiler
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Currently early in development, with some hopefully obvious temp placeholder gfx, but I already have a big chunk of the first level playable, including an early boss, difficulty scaling with your selected gameplay difficulty (try him on Insane, ha ha!) ;)

Also features a SUPERB chip-inspired music track - "My Pixels Are Weapons", very kindly given permission for me for use in the game by Soundcloud's "!Cube":- https://soundcloud.com/cube-5 Awesome guy! - check out his stuff! :D

Controls are Joypad or Cursor keys - Keys are (and are re-definable!):-

"Z" = Fire Shot/Missile (5 max at once)
"X" = Launch Bomb (2 max at once)
"A" = Charge Beam (or FIRE if set to auto-charge!)

"C" or Left Shoulder Button = Speed DOWN (minimum 1)
"V" or Right Shoulder Button = Speed UP (maximum 5)

"ESC" =Restart level / exit menu.

Gameplay recording 'almost' works flawlessly, but need to tweak more random stuff to well, be pseudo-random, so it doesn't mess 'playback' up... :D )

Ultimately intending to release on Windows, Linux, MacOS, Nintendo Switch, Playstation, Xbox, and possibly other platforms, if enough interest!
Gameplay demo's:-

Normal:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=Iw ... e=youtu.be

Insane!:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHoWdjO ... D9p7O9O3Go

...and robo-snakes.... :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0UZpz2 ... MPue4I2-XA

The (update-friendly) demo ZIP file is currently downloadable via itch.io:-

Playable WIP Demo!

Simply download, extract and play! - Progress is saved to your user data area, so it doesn't matter where you run it from, or install updated versions to... Have fun, and please, PLEASE feedback to me on how you find it to play! :D

PS - I know it's rough at the moment, and the test level is just thrown together, but hopefully it gives you a feel for the gameplay etc!

What you can't tell from the screenshots or even youtube video, is that it moves VERY smoothly, the ship control feels nice and tight IMO, with multiple speeds.

The collision detection for both background is also pixel-perfect, literally - the ship's hit box is small, and ONLY counts a hit if it hits ACTUAL pixels of level tiles - no unfair shields depletion in this game! - you can literally graze any outcrop without damage, once you're familiar with the ship's hit box. I may even add modes where grazing the walls builds up weapons or score, with a multiplier for duration... :)
Last edited by japster on Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:12 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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Krushal
Posts: 73
Joined: Sat May 04, 2019 4:14 pm
Location: Hyperspace

Re: Icarus - Homage to my favourite 16-bit - 32-bit shmups!

Post by Krushal »

japster wrote:The (update-friendly) demo ZIP file is currently downloadable via itch.io:-

https://japsterscavern.itch.io/icarus-p ... test-demo
Just a quick heads-up, the link to the demo is incorrectly formatted. Might want to fix that. :wink:
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japster
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2021 1:08 am

Re: Icarus - Homage to my favourite 16-bit - 32-bit shmups!

Post by japster »

Krushal wrote:
japster wrote:The (update-friendly) demo ZIP file is currently downloadable via itch.io:-

https://japsterscavern.itch.io/icarus-p ... test-demo
Just a quick heads-up, the link to the demo is incorrectly formatted. Might want to fix that. :wink:

Ahh... Cheers mate... :)

....and FIXED...
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Verticen
Posts: 87
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 4:57 pm

Re: Icarus - Homage to my favourite 16-bit - 32-bit shmups!

Post by Verticen »

I like where this is going! You’ve got great art direction and quality game design here. Plays very smooth indeed! Controls are quite tight and I had no trouble executing precision movements. That reverse scroll mechanic is funky, it’s fun to use! Fuel is a fun concept, I ultimately turned it off after a bit of playtime, but it would make for an excellent routing challenge for skilled returning players to play with.

I would make the players shots a tad bit larger. See image as an example.
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I feel like they should be closer to the size of the other game elements, like the fuel tanks and missiles. Additionally consider making shots less numberous, but more damaging. With maybe make a max of ~3 on the screen, but have them pack a greater punch.
Some of the sound fx, specifically the enemy shot, are a bit grading. Really takes away from the great bgm. I’d swap those sometime before final release; remember people who play you game for score will be hearing ever sound effect a lot.

Also, That midboss is pretty spongy - takes way to long to kill. I’d reduce its health by at least ~30% (or maybe I’m just bad at killing it fast)

Looks very good! You should have no trouble getting this on steam or nsw store. Best of luck to this project! :mrgreen:
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