Title: protoSTG
Version: 1.3xx Final
Platform: PICO-8 (128×128) • Keyboard/Controller
Genre: Vertical shmup • 1-hit kills • Score attack
protoSTG aspires to be a clean, readable vertical shooter: tap a 5-way spread to “paint” lanes, hold a precise focus beam for damage and micro-dodging, feed a 3-tier homing-missile gauge, graze precisely for points, and tear a modular boss apart—parts first or greedily straight to the core. There’s also a special “Golden” celebration if you dismantle the boss and meet tight chain/score rules.
Controls (default)
B1 (Shot): tap = 5-way spread; hold = continuous focus beam + slow move (~45%).
B2 (Missile): fires homing missiles based on a 3-segment gauge; holding B2 automatically taps L1 when available.
B1 + B2 together (fresh press on both): Bomb/Freeze—Ship 1 = Bomb (bullet clear + heavy damage), Ship 2 = Freeze (~1.5 s stasis, then brief faster “catch-up”).
D-Pad / Arrows: move (focus keeps movement slow). Settings allow button swap + music/SFX toggles.
Bomb safety: bombs only trigger if both B1 and B2 are freshly pressed on the same frame. Holding one button and tapping the other won’t bomb (prevents accidents).
Game flow
Title → Stage (structured waves) → Boss → Results → Menu. (Boss appears after a fixed number of waves once the field is clear.)
Scoring (quick view)
Base enemy values + grazing (enemy/bullet) + chain multiplier (+20/30/50%) + boss part/core bonuses.
“Big-score” display (e.g., 2.5939 = 25,939)—cosmetic display; math is exact.
Quality of life
Readable bullets, low clutter, parallax starfield, overlapping gauges become transparent near the ship, Settings (swap buttons, music/SFX), Up to 10 records are recorded per game session.
Made by Thinkrs
Hand coded in PICO-8 + AI refined with CHATGPT 5 Plus
Special thanks to:
Lazy Devs Academy
The Hidden Fortress
SpidersSTG
This is the final version of protoSTG, my first shmup experiment. I hope you like it.
Find it also on https://thinkrs.itch.io/protostg-v13xxfinal
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