CATACLYZM - a work in progress horizontal shmup

[dogroach666]

Hello all,

This is my first post here about my solo dev project. I have been developing my first shmup (which also happens to be my first game), and have just published a short playable demo on Itch.

It's still very much a work in progress, but I'd love to get some feedback from this shmup community

I'm taking a lot of inspiration from Gynoug (Wings of Wor), R-Type, Raiden, Viper Phase 1 and surprisingly Metal Slug (trying to go for the offbeat enemy designs). In terms of overall art design, I'm going for a minimalist approach with a limited colour palette.

The end goal is to release on Steam in the near future, but currently just publishing on Itch while I continue development. I also plan to have a Linux version of the demo at some point in the near future.

This demo is only 1 stage and I will periodically update the demo to include 1 or 2 more stages. The full game is planned to have 5 stages (a bit on the shorter side).

I still have a long way to go, but this seemed like a good point to showcase my progress and hopefully get some feedback. Tell me what you like or don't like, don't hold back!

And please let me know if there are any crashes or tech issues (I expect there to be a few bugs that I might have missed). Thanks so much!

* Demo on Itch: https://dogroach666.itch.io/cataclyzm-demo

* Gameplay video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfh4XGPHCiY&t=9s

[dogroach666]

Just updated the itch page for this demo with a Linux build (x86_64).

I have done limited testing on Linux, so there may be some bugs that I have missed.

[dogroach666]

[MINOR UPDATE] - v0.1 2

It took a bit of effort, but I got it working and mostly stable. The demo is now playable on the browser. Supports both keyboard and gamepads.

This build also has some small bugfixes, and overall gameplay polish.

[dogroach666]

Version 0.2.1

Major update to Cataclyzm - the road to Steam begins!

After some very valuable feedback from the passionate shmup community, some big changes have been made on Cataclyzm. They are as follows:

- PARALLAX: As you may have noticed from the screenshots, we are in the empty void no longer! The backgrounds add much needed set dressing and life to the game.

- EXTRA STAGE: This update to the demo adds one more level. Only 3 more to go for full release

- BEER REWORK: In addition to beer now dropping more frequently, the beer fragments from killed enemies now linger on screen, awaiting a beer to which they will swarm.

- MORE BULLETS: Trying to straddle the fine line between classic shmup and bullet hell, enemies now shoot more bullets.

- HITBOX DISPLAY: Player hitbox is now displayed by default. This can be toggled in the Display Settings menu.

- CONTROL REMAPPING: No more hardcoded controls. Controls can be remapped for Keyboard and Gamepad in the Controls menu. Currently only supporting glyphs for XBOX and PlayStation gamepad types. Web build currently has issues with gamepad type detection, this will not be fixed since the final target platform is pc/steam.

- BUG FIXES: General bug fixes and performance optimizations both for web and desktop builds.

Now the road to Steam begins!

[dogroach666]

v0.2.2 - Beer and juice

https://dogroach666.itch.io/cataclyzm-d ... -and-juice

A much needed rework to the scoring mechanics, this update adds the following:

- A rework of the beer scoring mechanic: Enemy kills will still drop beer juice which slowly drift towards the left of the screen, awaiting a beer to which to swarm. Beer now float around on the screen indefinitely and periodically gravitate towards other beers. When beers collide, they merge into one and continue the upgrade progress, making it easier to reach the max level chalice.

- Chalice boom: Collecting a chalice will now trigger a massive explosion that clears bullets in its vicinity, gives the player i-frames and a massive score bump.

- Death clears all: Drink the beer or lose them upon death!

Gameplay overview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehYaNWc6q8w