Controls
- ◀▲▼▶: Move
- Hold (X): Fire main weapon (spreadshot)
- Hold (O)/Z/C: Charge secondary weapon (bomb) / focus mode.
- Enter: Pause/menu
About
Praxis Fighter X is a fast-paced single stage retro shoot-em-up. Dodge bullets and fight off the militarized police force defending a corporate toxic sludge pipeline.
Inspired by old-school shmups/STGs, the game focuses on reflex-based action and satisfying destruction while including some modern comforts like a smaller player hitbox and a focus mode.
It's on the difficult side but with dedication and the power of 3 Continues you will persevere.
Scoring
Build your scoring multiplier and keep your combo meter up by taking out enemies and ground targets. Dealing damage also helps sustain your combo meter — once it runs out, your multiplier will begin falling.
Tip 1: Your combo meter depletes more slowly while charging your bomb weapon.
Tip 2: If your bomb collides with an enemy mid-air, you get your shot back with a shorter delay
Tip 3: Collecting a powerup you already have or a 1UP when at 3 lives will give you points instead of the usual effect. Your current multiplier applies here too.
Tip 4: Your multiplier also applies during boss fights. Try to take out all the boss's destructible parts while continously dealing damage for maximum points.
Credits
Praxis Fighter X was created by Eric Billingsley.
Thanks to Krystian Majewski of Lazy Devs Academy for creating the Advanced Shmup Tutorial which inspired me to work on the game. Though I didn't use the solutions from the tutorial exactly, watching the videos was really helpful in understanding what makes shmups tick and what challenges I would need to plan for. Boghog's Shmup Workshop series was also really helpful.
Thanks to Otto, LokiStriker, Louie Chapman, Catto, Glimm, Trog, TheGacko, Jonah Davidson, and Jeep Barnett for playtesting and feedback.
Thanks to Aktane for feedback on my initially terrible bullet visibility and Heracleum for help with turret rendering tech.
And thanks Maria for your encouragement and for being there for me all along the way.
Future Plans
Praxis Fighter X features a single stage and is meant to be a complete experience as is — there are currently no plans to expand it. I do have some potential ideas for other stages, but there are many other projects I'd like to get back to for now.
Praxis Fighter X is also available on itch.io.
Update 2022/2/12
- Improved outline rendering for aimed bullets (should improve visibility)
- Added a pause menu option to disable shadows, as some players found them visually distracting/confusing
- Added a new background tile featuring green sludge leaking over a riverbank
Update 2022/2/2
- Fixed menu inputs being sometimes ignored on devices that can only run the game at 30fps
Very well done and executed. Looks great and feels wonderful.
The minimalist story is a nice bonus. It's great you had room to put those little bits in there, adds a lot. I usually run out of space and that stuff gets cut!
Looking forward to Chapter 2!
Excellent, thank you for sharing!
Placing the HUD in vertical stripes on the sides is perfect. It presents the game as a proper vertical shmup.
I appreciate the thoughtful details, like how tanks won't fire once they're below a certain point on the screen. That gives players who were focusing on bigger problems a second a chance to score without risking a life.
Enemy variety and their bullet patterns feel good and have high readability. After a couple encounters, I got a decent idea of which threats to prioritize. Bombing those menaces at the expense of spread damage certainly saved me some lives.
Movement while focusing for a bomb is quite slow, however not unreasonable. Both missing out on spread damage and losing mobility can be rough, but the payoff can be worth it once the tradeoff is acknowledged. It took me a few attempts to better understand when it's both useful and safe to bomb. I didn't use focus concentrated fire much due to the mobility loss, and it felt the damage from normal spread fire was almost as good. But for bombing at a distance focusing was very useful, more so since bombing near you pushes you around! I'm not ready to explore the maneuverability value of bomb propulsion :)
Ending spoilers
This is amazing. The pixel art is great. It's very fast and fluid. I love bullet hell and shoot em ups; this is a very addictive one. And like someone else pointed out, putting the HUD on the sides was an inspired choice.
When exactly do powerups show up? I must have killed that first helicopter 50 times, and it's spawned a powerup wheel 3 times. Then there's that drone carrying a 1-up capsule, and and the midboss always spawns a powerup wheel, I think.
Is there anything else? And what makes the first chopper spawn them? Getting Tri-Bomb early on is such a boost.
@PhasmaFelis that first powerup only drops if you
This is fantastic. The style reminds me of Raptor: Call of the Shadows, which is one of my favorite games from childhood, even though I was never that good at shmups. The controls are really smooth - not slow yet not jerky. There are lots of enemies and bullets, but it doesn't feel like a full bullet hell and enemies are fair. And the bombs are very satisfying.
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