New Quality Quecto and shmups

Context and such

It's gotta happen someday, right? At some point in the future I'll finally succeed in making a fully-fletched shmup that's actually good. For those unaware, shmups refer to the shoot 'm up genre of video games. The ones where you control a small player, shooting and dodging enemies and other hazards appearing above you while the screen scrolls upwards. Kinda like Space Invaders, but with a vertically scrolling screen. Like Ikaruga. Like Touhou. You know. Those.

The very first game I ever finished was just an altered version of an old GameMaker tutorial, in which you learned how to make a shmup. I added some levels and lots of bosses (3 and 5 respectively) and haphazardly threw in some existing music from existing game soundtracks. The gimmick of the game: every single enemy is some sort of rock. Apart from that it was always meant to be a standard shmup. If you've followed me for a while, this might seem familar. Indeed, my first game was what would later become Stone Cataclysm, my oldest still available released game. That in turn would become the Stone Blast Prototype, which is still availabe for all patrons ( epic link ). I still wasn't happy with the game after that last attempt, but someday I want to try again for a fourth time. I also feel like shmups might be good material for a blog post, so I'll leave this tangent at that.

The Quecto and the usual download link

So far, all my attempts to create a good shmup have failed in some way. To get some more practice in, this latest Quecto is a shmup. It's sort of a remake of an old project: Project Phantom. The idea was, and still is, that you can expend energy to phase through walls, and expend large chunks of energy at once to shoot big blasts that phase through walls. It should theoretically make the gameplay more dynamic, as you constantly enter walls to avoid enemy fire and have to manage your energy.

It is still a Quecto though, so don't expect anything too big. I did spend way more time on it than I intend to on a regular ol' Quecto, so there's that. I was even making music for it, but FL Studio crashed and I use the free version which disables saving, so no music I guess. Next Quecto will either be a lot smaller (i.e. the intended size) or will add bells and whistles to the existing material. In the latter case, I'd also finally add badges to Line Fling and add a fourth level to Project Phantom.

Download the latest version of the Quecto collection here: [ very cool link for moderately cool people ]

More on Project Phantom

Project Phantom is yet another game that I'd like to see fully made, if I ever find a supply of infinite time. The original story, which I probably wouldn't change too much, is quite straightforward. Luckily, straightforward is fitting for the genre. The idea is that there is some ultimate being about to be hatched in some crystalized base at the center of the universe. It is accomplishing that by sucking the energy from three wildly different planets elsewhere. This energy is transported to the center through interdimensional portals. So BASICALLY, you have your main setting you return to: the Crystal Chrysalis (center). This is mixed up by visiting other settings: the three planets being sucked dry, each with their big, bad guardian.

Furthermore, the game keeps exploring different ways of using its main gimmick. I'm not sure if the gimmick is versatile enough to stay interesting the whole way through, but I'm afraid there's only one way to truly find out.

Anyway, back to my next web game. It's about 70% done.