My name is Joel and I'm making a shmup about Karens that have been transformed into evil cyborgs by an otherworldly pathogen and are now taking over your city. The game focuses on boss fights and has voice acting to go along with the four Karen bosses. You pilot the Manager X-15, a high tech vessel of the KDF (Karen Defense Force), and your mission takes you from the KDF base in the outskirts of the city (mountains) through farms, small town main streets, urban downtowns, beach mansions, and finally culminating in an encounter at the cliffside spa retreat (where the evil all began!).
I'm hard at work trying to put together a public demo for my steam page, and I wanted to get some feedback here on these forums to see if I'm headed in a good direction. Above all, I want the game to be a fun, solid shmup. Being a solo dev, I can't expect the world but I can give it my best shot.
Screenshots:
It strays from a classic shmup formula. I know this might irk some people, but I didn't want to make just another shmup, I want to try something new. Rather than just telling me something needs to be ditched, if you would please provide some explanation as to why it would be very beneficial, and also explain why a feature listed below might work well.
Current state of the game:
This is planned to be a rogue-style shmup, so death is an expected and frequent part of the game.
Features:
- You play a total of four stages each with an end "Karen" boss that has several phases to the fight.
- Levels/boss combos are randomized.
- The levels are based on an RNG system that randomizes spawn events for enemies, with a weighted curve so easier encounters spawn first, then harder encounters spawn later in the level.
- Bullet patterns are a mix of aimed and patterned, with some laser attacks.
- There are about 8 enemy designs in the demo stage. I plan to re-use some of those enemy designs (about 4) across the whole game, with the other 4 being unique to the level.
- There will be miniboss fights in the middle of each stage.
- There are planned environmental challenges. For example, in the demo stage, you break open the windshield of a large enemy ship (see screenshot) and then fly through it to a tighter area to reach the control room and destroy the ship. Environmental challenges reward the player via the player destroying destructible objects in the environment, etc.
- You have a health bar. About 4 hits and you're dead.
- Dead enemies drop energy which refill your health bar.
- Energy collected in excess of a full health bar adds to a bank.
- Big enemies and bosses have a chance to drop new weapons or utilities.
- Between deaths you can buy upgrades to your ship (+ bullet damage, + ship speed, + armor, etc.)
- When you die you lose all of your enemy-dropped equipment above and start back at level 1.
- There are five guns total. You can change guns between deaths and hold 1 gun at a time.
- There are four utilities, you can hold 1 at a time.
Thanks so much for taking the time to check out my game in development and provide feedback.