BETA Now Available!

I’ve been building PULSE//ZERO in public — a solo-built neon twin-stick bullet-hell where the arena fights back and the enemies never stop coming. It’s now playable as a public beta on itch.io, and I need your help to make it great.

This is a beta. It’s rough in places, it’s still growing, and that’s exactly the point. I’m putting it in front of players now — while feedback can still change the game — instead of polishing in a vacuum for another year. If you play it, I want to hear what worked, what didn’t, and what killed you.

It’s free / pay-what-you-want. Runs native on Steam Deck, plus Windows and Linux. No launcher. No DRM. No telemetry. No filler.

What it is

You’re dropped into a bounded neon arena and hunted. Your gun auto-fires when you aim. You dash when you need to be somewhere else right now. You drop a bomb when you’re out of ideas. The longer you last, the denser and faster it gets.

Five enemy types, each with their own way of ruining your run:

• Hunter — tracks you relentlessly.
• Charger — winds up, then rushes.
• Swarm — overwhelms by numbers.
• Splitter — multiplies when you kill it.
• Orbiter — circles, tightens, closes in.

And the grid underneath you isn’t decoration. It reacts to every kill, every bomb, every hit.

What’s in the beta right now

This isn’t the first rough prototype anymore. Since the earliest public cut, PULSE//ZERO grew teeth:

• Endless arcade mode with an Adaptive Director that reads how you’re playing and paces every run — no two feel the same.
• Grid Anomalies — the arena itself now throws hazards and events at you mid-fight.
• The Elite Hunter — the first mini-boss. It hits harder, moves smarter, and it’s coming for you.
• Cosmetics, Directives, and progression — all cosmetic, all leaderboard-fair. Unlock the look, keep the challenge honest.
• Full Steam Deck / controller-first support — D-pad, analogue sticks, Steam Input, the lot.

More is coming. This is a foundation, not a finish line.

This is where you come in

A beta is only worth running if people actually tell you things. So — what I’m most hungry to hear:

• Difficulty & pacing — did the Adaptive Director keep it tense, or did it spike/sag? Where did runs die?
• Feel — do the controls, dash, and bomb feel right on your setup (keyboard/mouse vs controller vs Deck)?
• Bugs — anything broken, weird, or ugly. Screenshots and repro steps are gold.
• The stuff that’s missing — what would make you come back for another run?

No feedback is too small. “The dash felt sticky in phase 3” is more useful than a five-star rating.

Feedback goes straight to me: in-game via Main Menu → Credits → Send Feedback, or in the itch.io comments below. No telemetry — nothing leaves your machine unless you choose to share it.

Under the hood (for the curious)

• Built solo in Godot 4.7. Zero budget.
• PCM-synthesised audio — no sound files, every note generated in code.
• Reactive Living Grid shader background driven by combat events.
• Local JSON saves — no cloud, no account, nothing leaves your machine.
• Accessibility built in: aim assist and colorblind modes (deuteranopia, protanopia, tritanopia).