zX - Hybrid Shmup by retroFuture

[retroFuture001]

Hello Shmups Forum, My name is Michael de Jager and I design and develop under the name retroFuture. I would like to introduce you all to my first game zX

zX is a free-roaming bullet-hell shmup that draws inspiration and gameplay elements from Bangai-O, Gunstar Heroes, Radiant Silvergun and Hero Core. The player roams through 66 cavernous levels (11 available in the demo) laying waste to all the horrors they encounter. The player can switch at will between 3 primary weapon systems, Thumper (knockback and high fire rate), Spread (3-way and ricochet) and Homing (homing and speed). Each level contains 3 power keys which are required to activate the exit portal. The power keys act as a weapon upgrade, randomly assigning a secondary flavor to each of the primary weapon types (eg. Spread/Homing, Thumper/Spread etc.)

Most importantly, and the key gameplay feature is the deflector blade which deflects enemy bullets back at them and acts as a powerful melee attack. Deflected bullets damage enemies on impact and generate hyper gems which are automatically vacuumed up by the player. This fills up a hyper meter which, if filled, actives the hyper shot, the most powerful weapon in the game, which also nullifies enemy bullets. Every time the hyper shot is activated, 1 of 2 upgrades are activated, firstly shots are upgraded to +50% damage, then the deflector blade is upgraded to +50% damage. Player death results in the loss of the upgrades and secondary weapons.

The game encourages a more reckless, close-up, melee style of play, which is significantly more profitable (and satisfying) than a more cautious and conventional approach. Daredevil players who are not afraid to take damage will level up faster (they will be in a position to deflect entire enemy salvos before they spread out and thus charge the hyper shot quicker) and will recover from damage easier (non-cybernetic enemy types drop health gems when destroyed.)

The game is divided into 6 zones, each comprising of 10 levels, 1 boss level and 1 secret level.

Here is a link to the current demo: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/23376639/zX-Demo.rar
zX website: http://retrofuturehub.com/zx.html
Gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf7FheofnRo

[railslave]

Wow , thats beautiful ...an assault on the senses (retro senses)

Its almost a shame its not more traditional.... i find these "nu-games" a bit confusing , even with all the in game tutorials,. but... your going to make an impact with that ...
Realy love the sense of depth int he parallax ..
Went well with the title screen music <<<inspired!

Very tight, has to realy be seen in motion ...screenshots dont do it justice at all


One thing i would say, with all that chaos its kind of hard to dodge stuff with such a large hitbox..and also the profanity ..um..seems out of place for such a slick stylish game.its worth more than that .

[Udderdude]

Yeah, you definitely want to get rid of the inertia and huge hitbox, otherwise Insane difficulty is more like Impossible. D:

[railslave]

Reminds me a bit of this (the killing game show), even though your flying

[nasty_wolverine]

this looks like turrican, only you fly here...

[n0rtygames]

My eyes! The colours! The pretty! My eyes cannot withstand the colours!

Beyond what's already been said about your mechanics, I can't actually offer anything useful apart from giving you props for your lovely bright colours

edit: Also, your background art reminds me a lot of "Another World" - the predecessor to Flashback for the PC.

[mystran]

Tried. While I generally don't like horizontals, and free-roaming even less, the thing that made me give up around the time I met the third enemy was the CRAZY INERTIA, which felt like you couldn't even reasonably cancel it with opposite movement (without then swinging into the other direction). Not fun.

[Lord Satori]

I just came bricks.