Astarian is an arcade twin-stick shooter.

Astarian is an arcade twin-stick shooter with precise gameplay somewhere between FPS and shmups, where the player tackles multi-layered challenges in a variety of game modes.

Teaser

The Game

Astarian is an arcade twin-stick shooter designed to be an intense experience without any filler. Its high skill requirement and its precise gameplay place it somewhere between Gauntlet, DoDonPachi and Doom. To keep the player motivated and interested, four game modes bring variety and fun!

Key features:

Condensed arcade gameplay – no fillers!
Four varied game mode – same core gameplay, different rules!
10 Arcade levels, 29 Challenges and 5 Survival series with more in the works!
Beautiful pixel art.
Spacey Mega Drive/Genesis music.

Combat

The minimalist combat of Astarian forces the player to prioritize moving or shooting based on the situation in a split second, much like in a shmup. When the player decides to shoot, the gameplay confronts them with several types of enemies of varying degrees of menace based on the battle condition.

The Devout Skeletons only shoot from up close, but once they are in range they are lethal.
The Rogue Skeletons stay at a distance and harass the player with sprays of bullets.
The Orbs place patterns of slow bullets that, on their own, are quite easy to dodge, but with the sprayed bullets from the Rogue and a horde of Devout chasing, quick decision is required.

To face their enemies, the player has access to a fast pistol and a wide-spread shotgun to repel nearby threats and with only three HP at their disposal they must choose wisely. Any mistake can prove fatal.

Game Modes

Astarian features 4 game modes that affect how the player must play to win.

Arcade Mode is the meat of the game and puts the player’s skill to the test.
Training Mode offers a controlled environment for Arcade levels practice.
Staying alive in Survival Mode requires dodging, hiding and precise shooting. Health is kept from one level to the next, making any mistake snowball quickly.
Challenge Mode offers individual challenges that are quite easy while also offering a grading system that ups the ante. Aiming at a high Grade in a time-based level of Challenge Mode requires rushing forward and either killing enemies fast or dodging them altogether while attaining a high score in certain levels of Challenge Mode requires mastering the chain system and getting close to the enemies to increase the score.

Whenever the player is stuck in Arcade Mode, they can either improve their skill and knowledge of the levels in Training Mode or they can take a break by tackling Challenge or Survival Mode. Every mode, with its unique rules, encourages adaptation in the player’s strategy and a constant re-evaluation of the risks and rewards.

Together, the four game modes aim at elevating the player’s skill, tracing a path towards beating Arcade Mode, the most challenging and rewarding mode proposed in Astarian.

Screenshots

Technical information

Arcade Twin-stick Shooter
Built in Game Maker
Target platforms: PC & consoles
The game is almost complete
My first game is Guild of Darksteel Link

I’m looking for a partner to release Astarian to the widest possible audience of skill-based action games fans. I would need:

Publishing on Steam and possibly consoles
Marketing support
Production assistance (playtesting, localization, porting)
Love and affection

Please take some time to download the production demo. For any inquiry, please contact me at info@igorsandman.net

I’m looking forward to talking with you!

Bruno “Igor Sandman” (developer)

73Mb zip file on Google Drive.

The production demo contains the full game in its current state of development (the only content missing is the ending cutscene of Arcade Mode and some Survival Mode series).

The game is played with WASD and mouse or with a gamepad (still needs some playtesting). Some debug features are available: pressing R in-game will refill your health and pressing T in the main menu will unlock all the content.

At the moment, the work is focused on playtesting, debugging, adjusting difficulty and the player’s journey. Astarian still requires a couple of months of work.

About me

I’m a multi-task artist born in Belgium and currently living in Italy. I was a filmmaker before switching to video games. Since the change of career path, I have worked as an animator on Faeria, then developed a personal game called Guild of Darksteel. After developing an RPG (Cerulean Odyssey) that didn’t make the cut, I worked as a gameplay engineer on Star Atlas for a year to refill the bank account.

I am currently occupied fulltime as a solo developer on Astarian.