Break the Sun [Demo]

Controls: standard Pico-8 controls (arrow keys to move, Z to shoot, X + arrow to dash and avoid any damage)

This is a prototype shmup I made back when I started picking up coding, to get comfortable with Lua. The original goal was experimenting with sidescrolling, shooting and movement feel — screen shakes, dashes and all that fun stuff (and a few special tricks for good measures, but no spoilers). It's the first of three sequences I have planned for the full version.

Not sure when that's gonna happen: since the game is from when I was a complete novice at coding, it's got so much spaghetti it could successfully apply for Italian citizenship. I realized it would take a while to turn it into something decent first and then add content later, so I'm gonna let it sit until I feel up to the task. Thanks, past me.

Right now I'm gonna focus on Salagander (short term) and Demi Dash (long term), then I might go back to this one. Any feedback is welcome! If you play it and have thoughts about it leave a comment!