2D Shooter

This was my first attempt at a 2D shooter game back in 2022 and I wanted to explore a genre that I had not explored or created yet. The game is of linear design where the player must navigate through 3 levels whilst trying to survive an onslaught of enemies. The player has a regular shoot button which has an ammo and an health bar which when reaching zero, the player is respawned at a checkpoint. The player can pickup health drops (green crystals) as well as ammo drops (blue crystals) and finally gold crystals which replenish both for the player. These are scattered around the levels and can also drop from enemies when killed.

The player also has 2 abilities, a shield and an power shot. The shield negates all damage from the player and the power shot shoots out a powerful projectile that deals high damage. The abilities also have cooldowns which are displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen.

This game was also my first attempt at a boss fight which in level 2 features a large space ship which shoots 6 bullets in a pattern straight at the player. This allows the player to be able to dodge them if they are paying attention. The boss also spawns small ships at regular intervals which should be a priority for the player otherwise the fight can become too overwhelming. This also ensures that if the player uses their abilities effectively, then the boss fight shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Reflecting on this project, I think that it was an awesome learning experience that taught me a lot about polish, player experience, boss fights and projectiles early in my studies. This was a stepping stone for me and taught me to love these types of games again. After creating this I can definitely say that I had a new found respect for 2D shooters and especially for the game that inspired this, Space Invaders, which at the time must have been much more difficult to create than in modern times.