Splitfire is inspired by classic twin-stick shooters like Geometry Wars, while pushing the genre to new territories. Until now, a twin-stick shooter has been defined as a game where the left joystick controls movement, and the right joystick controls one weapon. In Splitfire, both joysticks have their own weapon that can each shoot in it’s own direction, giving the player total control over the aiming of each. This is why Splitfire is twin-stick shooter, redefined.
The player will explore a low-poly universe, with both preset and randomly generated solar-systems. As you move from one solar-system to the next, the universe background will also animate from one to the next, as seen in the level-select screen. This game will have a campaign mode, as well as at least one mode inspired by rogue-likes, in that each time you get a ‘Game Over’, the variables that generate the randomized levels will change. Levels will be composed of randomized hexagon-shaped tiles, that form a sort of 3d labyrinth. The final version will have split-paths as well, for more intricate levels.
Weapons also have three modes of fire, blue, red, and yellow. Blue projectiles pierce through targets. Red projectiles ricochet off walls or enemies, and yellow projectiles knock enemies back. Each mode is best used against enemies of the same color, not because of bonus damage, but because of how enemy health is balanced against weapon damage per second, and shots per second. Blue weapons do the most damage, and are best against blue enemies, who have the most health, whereas yellow enemies have the least health, but are still destroyed by yellow weapons in a single shot, which have the highest firing rate. So it’s much easier to take out a swarm of yellows with fast-firing yellow weapons, blues with blues, and reds with reds.
Weapons will range from typical video game weapons, to less common weapons like the axe-boomerang, or the time-bomb, a bomb that makes time slow for anything within it’s explosion radius. If possible, I’d also like to include other time-based powers, such as rewind. There will also be at least three ships, each with their own unique properties. The player will also have a hybrid jetpack/thruster that can give them a vertical boost like a jetpack, a horizontal boost of speed, or anything between.
The game will include a variety of bosses, each with their own arena, inspired by classic games like Asteroids, Snake, Centipede, Megaman, etc. The game may include a mode where you just keep moving forward through a randomized level, with the camera lowered and you try to dodge obstacles for as long as you can, inspired by the ‘endless runner’ genre. If possible, I may also try to make a golf mini-game, as well as playable-bosses.