Spile II is a side-scroller shooter game where you shoot and reload using the crank. Equipped of your minigun, try to survive to the horde of emus who will do their best to catch you. Upgrade your gears, get better, get a higher score!
It's named Spike II - The Great Emu War, and it's kind of a spin-off of a small character from my other games.
You have an upgrade screen which makes the game easier with time.
The key is to use bullets wisely, and reload as soon as you aren't in danger (this isn't a good example but you get the idea )
I'm planning to add power-ups, combos, leaderboards and bosses later, but the game is already in a good shape.
I have no idea how I'm going to release it (Catalog, Itch...), how much it will be, but I plan to finish the whole game before the end of the year.
I shared an alpha build to testers a couple of weeks ago, and one feedback I got the most was: the game deserves a tutorial. Not because it's hard to play (turn ccw to shoot, turn cw to reload), but because it has to be explained somehow. So here it is, the game has a small tutorial now
As you can imagine, difficulty is hard to define in this kind of game. Before starting the game, you can now select the difficulty. Some of them are unlocked at first My goal is to make a game for casual and hardcore gamers, a game that everyone can enjoyed during short sessions.
And that's all for now. For the next devlog, I plan to add some cool features in-game, and maybe a small boss!
Hi, thanks !
Sorry, the game isn't ready at the moment, it deserves some small modifications in the gameplay to be fully playable.
I'll share a version as soon as I think it's ready, and to be honest, it's almost done. Expect something before the end of the year
It looks pretty cool on a real Playdate, I have to say
Audio!
Philip, who used to make the music of my games, did a couple of tracks for Spike II. I can't share an audio in here, feel free to check my twitter to hear how great it sounds!
Menus new version
The previous menus were a bit empty, I added a better visibility for the difficulty selection.
What's next?
Right now, I'm focusing on testing the game, making it fun and not too easy/hard to play.
I'll probably release an early access version of Spike II in November, keeping a couple of cool features for a nearby future. Stay tuned!
This is probably the last devlog before releasing, so here it is
New enemy!
Pelicans join the fight! They hold bombs and need to be take down before coming to Spike. Not so easy to do!
Difficulty
Right now, I'm mostly trying to adjust the difficulty of the game, to make it fun for casual players, and more and more difficult for hardcore gamers. It will be separated in 3: easy, medium, hard.
It's hard to share a GIF about it, it's simply a matter of tweaking variables. Hope it will be ready soon!
Release date / Early access
I don't have an exact date for release, but it will be in November. There are few things left to do, like adding SFX to the game (Philip the sound designer already made them).
It will be an early access, there will have just 2 difficulties for a start (easy and medium), next levels will come later.
At the moment, a couple of things like hard mode aren't available yet. New enemies will also be added later. Right now, the game is fully playable in easy and medium mode. Tutorial is also included.
And for the ones who were into my previous game, Inspector Waffles, Spike and Waffles are living in the same universe, so we can call this new game a spin-off of Inspector Waffles: maybe they'll meet somewhere in a future game, who knows
Hope you'll enjoy it, that was fun to make a small game on this little new console.
Spike II first big update is finally ready! And it's packed with a lot of things as you can see
Hard mode
First, you can now unlock and play the game in hard mode: enemies are tougher, it's a bullet hell but you can get way better score. I did 5835, can you beat me?
Kangaroos
Kangaroos join the fight! They jump, they can protect themselves and they throw punches! Not so easy to hit, be careful!
New tier of updates
That's right, you can buy a new tier of updates, for all categories: you'll shoot even faster, even better... Now you are on a roll!
All known bugs fixed
Typos, main background which stays sometimes in game, bomb who still appear in very rare occasions... all of that fixed! Thanks to Hello Playdate Podcast and Not_A_Vampire for their feedback. Fingers crossed that they are all gone!
Easter Egg
Last but not least, I hid something somewhere that would be cool for players who don't want to grind. Good luck in finding it!
What's next?
Well, nothing changed since the previous post: the final boss will be done in the beginning of the year, that will be the last big update of the game. Hope to share another thing super cool at the same time. Stay tuned!
Spike II is coming in a special physical edition with a manual and merch! It costs $20 + shipping.
There are 50 boxes, the 20 first buyers will get a free sticker of Inspector Waffles.
To get a box, you just need to fill this google form: https://forms.gle/JRd5t7D9rK6ie7PH8
I put a lot of heart in it (check this manual pages!), trying to make a not too expensive box: with so few copies, it wasn't easy😅. Thanks to Demigiant for his wonderful keyart and BrokeStudio for the manufacturing, who both helped me tremendously to make this box possible.
I also ported the game to PC, meaning not only playdate owners can play it from now. It's fully compatible with gamepads. Both games are included in the same itch page, so for $5, you get both versions. I believe it's kind of a good deal
3. Final version
Last difficulty level is unlocked, and it's a huge egg looking for revenge.
Spike II isn't an infinite scroller anymore, and you can now beat the game. Are you bold enough to do it?
Finally, Spike II is officially done: Making a game for the playdate was a lot of fun, I learnt a lot and met a great indiedev community. The physical box is a nice way to end this great Spike II journey.
See you soon for my next projects!
So... I remade my game in Unity. I'm familiar with Unity and all the logics and sprites were already done, it was easier than trying to understand Noble inside logic then porting it. I spent around 3 weeks to do it. I'd have spent way more time with the previous solution.
Hope it will help! (Also I love your game, keep the great work!)
The boxes are all booked! Thanks for your support everyone, I would have never thought it would have been so fast.
The form will still be up, if by any chance I'll get 50 new reservations, I'll make more. I absolutely don't believe it but who knows? https://forms.gle/JRd5t7D9rK6ie7PH8