itch.io

It is intentional. Enemy sets arent balanced with players being able to obtain those items. For a bigger version of the game, this is something worth look into tho, seems like a very requested feature.

Ive seen this reported around. I will be trying to fix it for the final version of the game.

Its always a good time to start deving again! Glad it inspired you 

Ive been keeping up with the commentary surrounding the game, seeing the general feedback and it does summarize  to very specific aspects of the design. While some are part of the limitations of the system, some are part of balancing a heavily RNG game. I have been writing down most of the points made cause Ive seriously consider doing a follow-up game and these points are very valuable. That being said, its been nice seeing all the screenshots of people beating the game with a variety of builds, so while they might not be as prevalent or easier to start, they are strong enough to beat the entire game. Encounter balance also needs a look-through, but once again, I have found a healthy mix of people trying and people having an easy time wining. There are things yet to be improved and I will look into them as I try to make this idea even bigger and better. Thank you for the continued commentary.

Only items in play are counted towards buffs. So in the case of Rusty items, only those not in the backpack are counted towards that bonus.

Yeah, the font is a common feedback point which is a fair critism. Due to the Pico8 engine, mixed with the complexity of a game like this one, i could have gone with keywords or with long explanations. I chose the latter since keywords are imbedded complexity. Don't think I can do much beyond making a bigger game somewhere down the line.

And yeah! The full version includes the bot items and 2 more starting characters that change your starting gear. Thank you for playing!

No, there is no rotation in this game. It was balanced around the shapes having this limitation being considered. One part is code complexity and the other is non-native rotation function in pico8.

Thank you! and no, adjacency just works on cardial directions.

Currently the way to play on Android is through the web version

Yes! That download is for the .p8.png files

Yeah, Ascension would be a great add to the game, but that would be part of a different, more larger version of the game. 

Due to limitations this was an option I had considered but couldn't implement. This is a feature I will be keeping in count if I were to make a bigger version of the game. Thank you for the feedback.

It is possible to play the web version on mobile! After launching the game, inside of the Pico8 interface, there is a small rectangular button which is the "PAUSE" button. After pressing it, the game opens a menu that allows you select an option called "Joystick: OFF". Pressing on that option turns it ON and makes the movement of the directional buttons be mapped to the movement of the cursor. The (X) button is your main interaction button and the (O) button opens and closes the inventory. Hope this helps!

Pico8 does have saving! its very limited, but you can "store 64 numbers (256 bytes) of data to persistent storage". By encoding the items of the inventory, I managed to "store those values" and read them back in the menu. You can look into DSET() and DGET() if you wanna read about it.

Hmmm I think I see the problem. Ill look into it, ty for playing!

One of the biggest strenghts of programing in PICO-8 is a button to record a gif of the last 8 seconds of gameplay. For the cover of the game, I overlayed the title over a gif I recorded on Aseprite. To record gifs outside of PICO is something I havent done yet, so Im afraid I cant be of much help there.

Amazing game! It landed the "just one more" perfectly. Great presentation and music as well. Good job!

Now theres a shmup! A danmaku through and through. Got my 1CC on the second run. My only pickings are with the UI, which was a little hard to parse, but eh, its a jam. Amazing work! 

Fourth run victory?! Awesome! I think the game was balanced towards the harder side of things, so that's impressive! Thank you for checking out the game and for the praise!

Yeah, by the time we upped the density of bullet we had grown accoustmed to the "feel of it" rather than the graphics, so point made, as others have as well. Glad you enjoyed!

Its very visually appealing, but a lot of tiny things take away from the fun of playing it. One that really made it difficult was the movement speed of the player: as the base movement it felt a little to fast to move between bullets and a little too slow to move across the screen. I think having a fast speed and a slow speed if you hold another button would be most ideal. Another one is that some enemies would shoot you way past the point where could attempt to kill them. In shmups this is called the cuttoff zone or ceasefire zone. 
I really like the ideas here, and the enemies have some very cool shoot patterns. The "choose your own adventure" aspect of it feels like a great idea for shmups, so kudos for that, but when it comes to the "shmup-feel", there is definitely room for improvement. Good job!

Not usually a fan of these ones, but dam I was hooked. Got to stage 17, where it was it truly felt like my personal limit. Amazing presentation, and the music was a perfect choice for the game. Great game!

Definitely one of the most unique games ive seen out there, visually speaking. Dunno if I can play it for too long, but its a spectacle worth watching and experiencing. Good job!

Ima put my only one complain at the start: Adding enemies that you should shoot feels like policing the 1/2 of the fun of a shmup - which is shooting, so "consequences-wise", game is a little lacking, but put that aside - permanently. 

The game is awesome! From visual to sfx to gameplay. Is a bit forgiving with the HP and its nice it has a continue system. Also achievements? Hell yeah. The artstyle is unique and fresh, as is the concept (at least to me). The execution was on point and honestly, made me want to play more of it. Great work on this one!

I think the presentation is great, but I think the small enemy variety could have benefited from a shorter level and maybe even a smaller screen, so dodging feels tighter. I tried my best to not use the dive as much, as it feel too strong for what the game was putting before me, but this is 100% subjective as different people have different experiences with difficulty. The music is catchy and the sprite work is really nice, I liked the experience overall.

Awesome style, as always. That the main shot is directly affecting how much you are having to dodge is brilliant, and that then you can return those bullets is perfect. I think the player sfx could do better, and some of the graphics as well (except the player, the player is awesome). Regardless, gameplay-wise is fun, and I think that hold the most weight for me. 

Great work! Music and graphics alone, the game is awesome, but then a player controlled rank system? Hell yeah. And three stages on top of that?? Mindblowing. I can definitely feel the shmups influences here, which dont take away at all from the experience. This is a 5/5 for me.

Yes! and the pngs are the cart images. 

I have not yet done it, but will be doing soon. Since release Ive been informed of a couple of things and I'll fix them before posting it there.

Edit: The game has now been uploaded to lexaloffle!