DroneSwarm was my entry in the 2k7 shmup-dev competition. My latest game, DroneSwarm Command is a sequel of sorts. It’s an iPad strategy game with some shmup elements.
Find out more at droneswarm.com.
DroneSwarm Command on iTunes.
Shmup news
Wingbreaker, an iOS shmup is now available for free on the App Store.
It’s a vertically scrolling shmup with tilt controls, dual weapons and lots of customization options.
There’s already a thread for Wingbreaker on the forum.
Heaven Variant is a looking for support get get onto Steam. Vote for their steam greenlight approval here.
Find out more about Heaven Variant on their website here.
Rhythm Destruction is a new game from Curious Panda which plays like a traditional shmup, where you control your ship as you traverse through a stage, dodging enemy movement paths, bullets, and environmental hazards. The twist however, is that enemies and objects are destroyed with timed key presses to the beat of the music.
Retro/Grade is a new downloadable game for Playstation 3 which looks like a shoot-em-up, but actually isn’t. It’s a rhythm/action game in the style of Guitar Hero which uses the visual motif of a shmup playing in reverse to create the notes. Bullets originate in exploded enemies, and then fly back in time towards your ship – you have to position your ship at the right location and press ‘fire’ just as they touch.
It contains some interesting ideas which I think could work very well in a normal shmup – such as boss bullet-patterns that originate off screen and then converge on the boss. This means that the gaps in the bullet curtains shrink as they approach the player, rather than widening as they do in a normal shmup. It also features a “Prince of Persia, Sands of Time”-style rewind feature allowing you to undo your mistakes.
The game is a little short, you can easily complete it in under an hour, but the music is superb (imagine a mixture of Eurythmics and Daft Punk). Worth a look if you want inspiration for your next shmup. It can be played with either the regular PS3 Dulashock controller or a Guitar controller.
Toybox looks like an interesting twist on the standard shmup. It’s a shooter on the left of the screen, and a block-matching puzzle on the right of the screen, both of which you play simultaneously.
Toybox – coming soon on iOS.
Read on for the Youtube video and website.
