Project Shmup

This project is still in development, and this post will likely change over time. The source code is not yet available, as we’re planning a Steam release. However, this won’t stop me from sharing snippets to provide insight into what I’ve been working on. I’ve also created external documentation as an introduction to the various systems in the game, which can be viewed here.

April 2024 — The Beginning

Robby and I started working on "Project Shmup" in April 2024. Using Unity, we aimed to create a game inspired by some of our favorite titles: Diablo, Vampire Survivors, Risk of Rain, and other roguelikes/roguelites. The vision was clear-ish, we wanted to build a game that would have players in going through boss fights, offer unique classes and abilities, and let players craft their own ultimate power fantasy of total destruction!!!!. For the first few weeks, things were going smoothly. Working with Robby on this was a lot of fun, and we made significant progress by leveraging our individual strengths. After about a month, it was clear that programmer art, while functional, wasn’t helping bring the project to life visually. To make things more engaging during development, I integrated some free assets into the game. With those in place, the game started feeling like a prototype with actual potential. Here's how things looked at that stage: Progress! At this point, Robby and I had our sights set on an MVP. We decided the next priorities were to:

Add a boss fight system.
Implement an upgrade system for players to enhance their characters (though we weren’t fully sure how this would look yet).

We also started discussing the idea of bringing more people into the project. To achieve our full vision, we realized we’d eventually need a larger team, including:

A 3D artist,
A Sound Designer/Composer, and
A Game Designer to help refine mechanics and balance.

July 2024 — A Mutual Pause

By mid-2024, we had made good progress, but the scope of the project was growing faster than we could handle. Robby and I both recognized that we were spreading ourselves too thin, and the game was becoming much bigger than what we’d originally envisioned. After several discussions, we made the decision to pause development and work on separate projects for a while. Taking this step back was a mutual decision, and it allowed us both to pursue other creative ideas without the weight of Shmup’s increasing complexity looming over us. Stepping away gave us some breathing room and a chance to refocus on other areas of game development.

March 2025 — Picking It Back Up

Fast forward to March 2025, when I found myself reflecting on everything we’d built with "Project Shmup." The more I thought about it, the more excited I was about hopping back in and continuing to push the project forward. While Robby had moved on to other endeavors, I decided that Shmup deserved a second chance, and this time, I was heading at this project with the intent of having something larger to work on, sure my scope might be too big still, but it gives me things to work towards. I reviewed all the systems we had built so far and started refining them from things I've learned over the past year. The biggest thing that's changed since my return to the project, is that the game is now 3rd person, with an over-the-shoulder camera. It had previusly been a top down game, aiming to be more like Vampire Survivors, but I think I want to create something closer to Risk of Rain 2, but set in a fantasy world, rather than a sci-fi one. At the same time, I wanted to make the project more approachable for potential collaborators, should the opportunity arise to expand the team. To achieve this, I updated and expanded the external documentation, which you can view here. It outlines the key systems in the game and serves as a helpful resource for anyone looking to contribute.

I've also started to document my changes on YouTube, and I make weekly (or so) blogs about it too. You can check out my YouTube channel here.