Hi everyone! I’ve just released BlackholeWars, a free twin-stick arcade shooter inspired by GridWars. At its heart is black-hole shepherding: feed them enemies, control their growth, then harvest the score.
Use your movement to lure enemy swarms into a black hole. As it feeds, it grows and builds up a valuable harvest. Shoot it to shrink it without losing the accumulated harvest, then guide more enemies into it. You can keep tending the same hole through repeated cycles of feeding and shrinking while dodging the enemies around you.
The decision is when to cash in: destroy the hole yourself to collect the score, or risk feeding it a little longer for a bigger reward. Let it overload, and the harvest is lost. That balance of shepherding, survival and knowing when to stop is the experience I wanted to bring back.
Download BlackholeWars for Windows, Linux or macOS
A staged encounter captured in the game engine.
There’s a personal story behind this project. Around twenty years ago, I discovered GridWars while recovering from surgery and spending long stretches in bed. It gave me something enjoyable and absorbing to do, and helped take my mind off everything else for a while.
During lockdown, I wanted to show it to my kids. I couldn’t find the version I remembered, and the GridWars 2 version I tried felt different. The black holes seemed to burst too quickly at higher levels for the kind of shepherding I used to enjoy. I started recreating that experience in Godot, but never found enough time to finish it.
Recently, an X post reminded me of that unfinished project. With help from AI agents, I returned to it and got it finished in under a week, including a weekend spent polishing the mechanics. Getting those black holes to feel right was a big part of that work.
I wanted to play on the big screen in my living room, so I made a native Linux build for my Steam Machine and put it on itch.io. Windows and macOS builds followed. The game supports gamepad or keyboard-and-mouse controls, with three difficulty levels, six arena sizes and a local Hall of Fame.
It isn’t a perfect reproduction of the original, but it feels close to the experience I remember. I enjoy playing it, and my kids have a lot of fun with it too. That was the goal, and I’m happy to have finally reached it.
I’ve written more about the history and the original black-hole mechanic in the full devlog.
If you remember GridWars or Geometry Wars, I’d love to hear how the black holes feel to you and what could be improved. If you’re discovering this kind of game for the first time, I hope you enjoy it too!