A very short and simple shoot 'em up PC game

[Iluvart]

I recently made a short and simple shoot 'em up video game, I had a lot of fun thinking about enemy behaviour and coding the logic behind it.

You can download it via this link (just put '0' for the price and it will let you download it): https://gumroad.com/l/Sbjbv

The playthrough video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUsdi2j2GO8

Hope you'll have fun!

[Drakken]

Looks cool!

[felgekarp]

Nice, that last boss is hammering me though

[Megalodon]

Gonna check this out...

[He-bro]

Nice, what did you use?

[Iluvart]

Looks cool!

Gonna check this out...

Thank you both!

Nice, that last boss is hammering me though

I thought about making that boss weaker or not shooting as fast, but I figured by this stage if you'd gotten all the powerups and saved up on the special weapons, you should be able to take it out (though it might be challenging).

Hopefully I made it difficult enough without making the player feel they were being punished unfairly.

Nice, what did you use?

Thanks, it was made using Game Maker Studio 1.4 (the latest is version 2 but cost is fairly prohibitive for me).

Most of it was coding, as it allowed for greater flexibility and customisation. If I was to do this again I'd use a game engine like Godot as it has more built-in features.

Game Maker Studio is fairly intuitive but it seems to require a lot of DIY to get even the basics set up.

[felgekarp]

I'm powered up enough but I always seem to be lacking in specials at the end, I might have to rethink some strats!

[Iluvart]

I'm powered up enough but I always seem to be lacking in specials at the end, I might have to rethink some strats!

1.The shields (blue) recharge one unit every ten seconds, while the armour (red) does not, and can only be refilled from armour powerups (spawned when a boss ship is destroyed).

So one strategy I use is to reserve my special weapon as much as possible and let my shields get depleted, even parts of the armour, because I know if I kill the a boss before I die I can get the armour all filled up, then I just have to be careful and eventually my shields will be fully recharged.

2.Each boss ship also has five states, usually when they are low on health they go crazy and have more powerful attacks and/or move faster (they also often track the player ship).

So if you go into a boss fight with shields not at 100%, don't shoot the boss ship as this will trigger their more powerful states, instead just dodge the shots they fire when they are in their basic states, and wait till your shields are all recharged.

Then if they go into a stronger state, and your shields are not fully charged, repeat the process.

Also sometimes between the boss ship lasers there are gaps where your ship can weave through to the other side.

3.Finally, some enemy ships in the last stage will take too many hits to destroy, while they shoot three lasers that does two damage each. So you could just avoid their shots and don't hit them.

[felgekarp]

Thanks for the tips, I have found myself avoiding quite a bit on the last level, not shooting the boss until my shields had regenerated wasn’t something I’d considered though.

[Iluvart]

Thanks for the tips, I have found myself avoiding quite a bit on the last level, not shooting the boss until my shields had regenerated wasn’t something I’d considered though.

You are welcome.

I am thinking I may go back in and add a few more special weapon spawns, to make things not as hard, and if I can stop procrastinating again, toss in an extra level...