How to Play
Cattle Crisis is an arcade shoot 'em up game (Shmup). Pilot your fighter jet to defeat evil aliens and save our precious cows! Cattle Crisis is a short game and currently features one level.
- Arrow keys - Move the jet
- (X) Button - Shoot
- (O) Button - Hyper / Bomb
System
As you shoot enemies or collect 🐄, your meter will fill. Once it passes the halfway point, you can activate Hyper Mode by pressing the Hyper button. While in Hyper Mode, the meter gradually depletes. Taking a hit will end Hyper Mode, but you won’t lose a life. Pressing the Hyper button again during Hyper Mode unleashes a devastating bomb, which consumes half of the remaining meter—if any is left.
Scoring
- Shooting enemies at close range increases your score (up to 4×) and causes more 🐄 to drop, allowing you to charge the meter faster.
- While in Hyper Mode, enemies drop ⭐ instead of 🐄, which grant extra points. The value of each ⭐ is shown in the top-right corner during Hyper Mode.
- Each enemy defeated in Hyper Mode increases the ⭐ value.
- Activating a bomb turns all nearby bullets into additional ⭐.
Video Series
Cattle Crisis was created as part of a tutorial series on how to make an Advanced Shmup from scratch.
Credits
This game was written and designed by me, Krystian Majewski.
The music was composed by Sebastian Haßler, a music composer for film, TV and videogames.
The cover illustration was created by Mag Draws.
This project would have not been possible without the generous donations from my supporters on Ko-fi. Thank you!
Special thanks also to all of the playtesters including: Aktane, Boghog, Indra_S, MasterCoding101, LokiStriker, Barend, TheGacko, SquidLight, Buster Ermy, mg1399, BrainOnOxygen, SkullDragger, Blixten, middleclassjoe, Chaz, otto: A Mush Man and others.
The tutorial series has helped countless people, and has resulted the shmup that I've had the most fun playing. I normally don't spend more than a minute or two with this genre, but this game is so action filled a feels so good to play that I've spent more time with it than any other of its kind on pico8 (and soon more than any other on any platform). Great mechanics, polish, and execution!
I love that it's all about cows in the end.
(oh and I love how when there's hitstop when you're about to die you can quickly activate your hyper and save yourself, making that meter a savior when you're low on health, not 100% sure if that's intentional but it's brilliant [oh wait this works at any health! the way that it works makes me think it's intentional, but it might be a little overpowered considering how many times I've saved myself with it lol])
{And I've cleared the game now! Very fun, probably the best shmup I've played!}
Oh nice, its finished!
Looks amazing and the gameplay difficulty is pitch perfect. I die a lot, but get a little further each time.
Just an awesome SHMUP. Amazed this has so many advanced features and still on Pico-8.
Yooooooo I am so excited to see this launch!! I am about halfway through the video series while on parental leave with my newborn. Our timelines haven’t synced yet so future Krystian has somehow completed programming the game he’s still actively developing ;)
Mad props. I think you’ve inspired an entire generation of game developers with this one.
Which is to say: bravo!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Amazing what you've been able to pull off here. The game doesn't just look and feel amazing; it's super fun. Even with just one level, I keep wanting to come back to improve my score.
Something for all us newbie game developers to be inspired by.
::golf clap::
This game is amazing! I've been waiting a long time.
My high is 645100.
A pity high, but someone has to start it!
Nice, I like it. I made 17k points in the first attempt. hehe
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