...

Game Info
Name:	Deconstructor Fleet
Year:	2012
Made in:	Game Maker
Download EXE

In a typical space shooter, you see something fly on the screen and you know to shoot and kill it. It is the enemy and the enemy must die. But like... how do you know that they're the enemy? And even if you do intend to shoot down an enemy in space... is it really as easy as your standard shmup says it is? Can one person really take down an entire fleet of enemy ships anyway?

Deconstructor Fleet was meant to be a deconstruction of 2D space shooters. In other words, it's asking the questions above. The game is designed with very floaty controls to simulate flying in the vacuum of space, and each enemy shoots out deadly shrapnel after they explode that you have to make sure to avoid. And when the mothership comes... well let's just say that the mothership is several times more powerful than your dinky little ship.

The game was made in Game Maker and is one of the very first games I made as part of a high school Game Design & Development class I took. You can see the game has a few elements that show up in some of the later games I made from this same class. Specifically: the intentional usage of Engrish for aesthetic purposes, chairs, retro-inspired graphics, and strategic usage of Chopin.

An important gimmick of the game comes from the fact that if you don't end up shooting at any of the alien ships, they will just fly right by you without attacking, and you'll get the pacifist ending where humanity and the aliens make peace with each other. This is actually the only way I've beaten the game, since the other ending is almost impossible to get, as it requires killing all aliens and facing up against the very difficult mothership boss.

Hm... this sounds familiar somehow... a 1-bit monochrome pixel art game with both pacifist and genocide endings, where the genocide ending requires you face up against an impossibly difficult bullet hell boss battle? Where have I heard this before...?

All joking aside, I'm quite proud of this game! It's kind of a weird one, since it actually sticks out from my other output from around this time (read: It wasn't My Little Pony themed). But for the first game I made in my Game Design class... it's already quite conceptual! The high difficulty also is actually pretty fun to deal with, even though I've never actually beaten the genocide run of this game before.

Game Description:

Welcome to the year 2001, the World of Tomorrow! Unfortunately, an alien race is headed towards Earth, and there is only one weapon that is powerful enough to destroy them. And you have it. You must save the Earth in this action-packed video shooter simulation!

Images:

Links:

Download the EXE file here, I promise it works in Wine on my machine!