Beatshot: An 8-bit shmup

Hello there, recently I demoed at TooManyGames 2013 with Shippensburg University an 8-bit vertical shooter called Beatshot.

The game’s main draw is that it’s designed around the Beatmania controller to move your ship and fire 5 different lasers. I developed it over the course of 2 weeks and like plenty of my other projects, have open sourced it for people to learn from. If anything, it’s just more of a vertical shooter framework than it is a full fledged game, but I might continue working on it to add some more features.

http://puu.sh/3hNDH/dbdcb3e3a7.png

Libraries used:

  • LibGdx
  • Artemis Entity System

Features:

  • Svg Derived formats for defining spawn group locations, movement patterns, and (soon to be implemented) bullet patterns along paths
  • Xml files for defining enemy atlases
  • Parallax scrolling layered backgrounds in levels
  • A selection of Creative Commons songs found on the Free Music Archive to jam out to
  • Designed to be efficient and low memory friendly.

TODO:

  • Story mode with dialog support
  • Title Screen with support for choosing different modes
  • Endurance Mode selection screen for choosing which level to play through on Endurance mode. Levels unlock as you complete them in story mode
  • Allow complex bullet and movement patterns through scripting with Lua
  • Built-in gamepad support so you don’t have to use Joy2Key to use a Beatmania controller

Feel free to use the issue tracker to report bugs or request new features to keep me motivated on the project and going.

There is not yet a compiled version of the game.
You can grab the source from Github: https://github.com/nhydock/Beatshot

Right now there’s only an endurance mode which will take the spawn formations from the first level and just keep repeating them in a random order. Enemies also do not have complex bullet patterns yet, as they only shoot right at you.

Something to watch out for:
Textures are not Powers of 2 or sprite packed yet. It’s possible the game will not work with older graphics cards, like the Intel GMA 950.