DarkStar - Shmup In Development (Demo Available)

[Arity]

Hey everyone! I just found out about this forum from a friend of mine the other day, and figured now would be as good a time as any to introduce myself and let ya'll know about the game I am working on!

"DarkStar" is a shmup revolving around escort missions. The goal in each level is to get your client through safely and quickly, which might be easier said than done! I've been working on it with a friend here and there for about 5 months now, and we are showing it off for MAGWest this weekend, so I just built a teaser trailer for it and updated the demo!

Would love for you to check out the trailer here and get the demo for Windows here. (Gamepad is recommended)

The demo is not in its final form - we do have a list of things we'd like to do with it before we consider it "the 1.0", but it'd be super rad to get any feedback from people here! I'm excited to finally get in touch with some more dedicated shmup players, because so far, its only been tested with friends and family, not necessarily fans of shooters. Can't wait to meet and talk to you all!

P.S. I do have a discord if you want to give me feedback there, but of course right here is fine too!

[jamespaterson]

Hi! I liked your demo. Fun to play. Presumably the game can run in two-player co-op as well?
I did think perhaps in single player the client ship might move around a little bit itself to evade the enemies as well.
Other than that, looking really good!

[Arity]

Thanks for the feedback James, good to note about the client moving around. Its something I wasn't sure about including too much in the first couple levels (save for the boss fights), just to keep it as straightforward as possible for new players, but perhaps there is a compromise...

And yep, there is 2 player co-op. Please do give it a go, as it hasn't had much in the way of balance testing done (i.e. how easy/difficult it is compared to single player).