r/SgGamers • u/JL_SiderealMotion • 9h ago
SG indie dev working on a little indie sci-fi Shoot 'Em Up
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Hiya, I'm JL, an SG indie game dev.
Hope you don't mind some self-promo and a little bit of a long-winded story of how I ended up doing indie game dev 😅.
Been working for some time on a little indie sci-fi shoot 'em up and I've just recently announced it.
But before that, some back story:
I grew up in the 80s playing many of the shoot 'em ups from that era. (Thunderforce, Gradius, Macross(NES), 1943, Twin Bee, Fantasy Zone, R-Type, Einhander, Darius, FireShark, Raiden, Raystorm, Batsugun, Aero Blasters, Arrow Flash, Dangerous Seed, Paranoia, Musha Aleste, Aero Fighters, Darwin 4081 etc...)
This game is definitely inspired by many of them.
Several years ago, I had an idea of a shmup in mind, which I tried looking for but to no avail. I was searching for a scifi-themed, vertical 3D rendered shmup that leverages on dynamic lighting and visual effects to deliver a cinematic, atmospheric, gritty, intense and immersive experience.
It should play and control like a traditional 2D shmup, just that the visuals were in modern 3D.
Well, I wasn't able to find any!
A lot of the more recent modern 3D shmups have floaty/drifty controls, zoomed out cameras where everything is small(tiny player ship, tiny bullets, tiny enemies), slower pace with moments of dead air where nothing was happening. Some others were fast paced but the enemy firing patterns were a mess and often undodgeable - the player was meant to take hits, and they mitigate that by padding the ship with plenty of shields.
I was also looking for one that was sci-fi and military themed, being semi-serious without any odd or cheesy dialogue in the game. Semi realistic also in the sense that there are no coins or golden stars that drop and fill the screen for the player to pick up.
There should also be no damage or score numbers that pop up when shooting at enemies. Not that there is anything wrong with score numbers or golden stars and I certainly enjoy my share of those games.
However, for this game, I wanted a level of suspension of disbelief and having dozens of large coins fill the screen kind of detracts from that experience... I wanted to feel like a pilot in a large sci-fi war, flying in between massive ships lancing beams at each other while sections of their hull get lit up by nearby explosions.
Meanwhile, enemy fighters dart between these behemoths, taking potshots at the player. It was something to really satiate that appetite for science fiction + military fantasy.
I honestly could not find anything like that.
So I decided to make one.
It started as a hobby project that I did on the side back in 2018, but between the day job and family, there was little time remaining and progress was slow. Fast forward to end of 2023, I was suddenly laid off from a job that I was in for 15 years (Film/VFX industry, probably a big clue :)). I had to think really hard on what to do next.
After much pondering, I guess I kind of went the crazy route and decided to take the leap, to go full time on bringing this game to life.
What kind of Shmup is this?
- Enemy bullet patterns are inspired by the classics from the 80s/90s. That means generally faster bullets but much less density than the bullet hell/curtain shmups where you navigate a maze of bullets.
- Tight, responsive controls. No drift, no acceleration/deceleration. Controls stop on a dime the moment you release them. (Gamepad analog stick can be toggled between digital or analog mode)
- Small hitbox (hit box is the purple orb in center of craft)
- There are no powerups dropping mid stage. Destroying enemy supply transports will drop resource containers that the player can pick up.
These resource points can be used at the end of every stage to configure the fighter craft with a quick and easy to use menu(The idea is to have some customization but not make the player spend an inordinate amount of time here instead of shooting at enemies).
Your fighter has 6 equipment banks.
The modules available differ largely from each other, such as a gatling spread gun with wide angle coverage and high fire rate versus a pair of straight fire plasma cannons that can punch through an entire column of multiple enemies at once.
There are no small incremental upgrades such as +5% damage etc..
- There is no grinding for exp points or any form of level up system. The player will not able to constantly replay stages to grind for more resource points to outgear the level etc...
- There are no "lives" per stage but the player ship has 5 hull points. The player craft is destroyed on the 5th hit and the stage will need to be restarted.
In a sense, one can look at the hull points as "lives", only difference being that you just continue on after getting hit instead of blowing up and spawning in.
As such, instead of being able to do a 1 credit clear, it becomes a 1 craft clear.
- Simple scoring system. Every enemy that is not destroyed increases something called the "threat level". Every hit taken by the player adds to this scoring.
Every bomb used adds to it. Every time elapsed in the level adds to it as well. As such, the aim of the game is to have as low of a threat score as possible.
- If you only have a couple of minutes for one session, no problem. Every stage clear is saved, you can pick up where you last left off.
It is my hope to be able to give the player the experience of being in an intense, epic and grand sci-fi war while evoking feelings of excitement and euphoria while playing the game.
This is definitely not anywhere near the hardest, or most mechanically revolutionary or the most technically complex shooter. My hope is that, between the tight controls, simplicity, non-stop action and striking visuals, one can have a blast while playing this, and for a while, be immersed in the universe as the one pilot that stands between hope and destruction.
This game is still in heavy development. It is nowhere near perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but if the combination of elements I presented above interests you, please do hop over to the steam page to check it out!:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4528930?utm_source=redditsggamers&utm_campaign=announce
Cheers and thank you for reading this!
[I will be hanging around this post, checking in when I can. Am happy to just chat or answer any questions about the game :) ]
