A downloadable game

Hand-drawn bullet-hell! 

ZOE Begone! is a frenetic hand-drawn bullet hell arcade shooter, blending run-and-gun mecahnics with clasic shmup action in looping arenas. Inspired by drawn-on-film animation of the 1930's - shoot, dash and pound your way through the Animator's creations.

All Zoe wants is some peace and quiet, but she's gonna have to deal with the pesky animator before she'll be able to get some rest.

Destroy the animator's tools, blast their creations to bits, collect Apples to spend on Power Ups, rack up your multiplier, and reclaim your serene surroundings to help Zoe get back to normality as fast as you can (and bag yourself a high score in the process)!


  • Single Player shmup action!
  • 3 game modes.
  • 3 difficulty settings.
  • Online Leaderboards!
  • Power ups and upgrades!
  • Enemy chain scoring system.
  • Unique art styles and enemy designs for each level.
  • Loads of hand animated enemies!
  • Awesome Boogie soundtrack!
  • Gamepad / Keyboard support.
  • Twin stick style controls.



Arcade Mode

Shoot, dash and pound your way to the end of each level and take out the Animator's tools!

  • Kill the Animator's enemies as quickly as you can to advance each level.
  • Collect Apples from fallen foes to spend on upgrades and weapons in between reels.
  • Pop the dots to refill your energy so you can keep on dashing.




Race against the clock to beat the Animator within the time limit!

  • Dash and pound through chains of enemies to spawn extra time tokens.
  • Complete the mini boss challenges to gain extra seconds.
  • There's no time for the Shop - pop the item bubbles instead to power up!




Fight off everything the animator has to throw at you in an extended boss rush!

  • Take on the ultimate challenge and defeat the Animator once and for all.
  • All the boss attacks mixed up into one epic fight.



Compete for the high scores on the online leaderboards!

  • Online and local leaderboards for each mode and difficulty.
  • Be aggressive with your dash and pound attacks to gain higher scores.
  • Build up your chain multiplier by taking out enemies in quick succession.
  • Fly, dash and pound your way to the next enemy to maintain the multiplier chain.
  • Reclaim territory and take out the boss as quickly as possible for end of level bonus points.



Collect Apples and spend them in the power up shops that pop up between reels!

  • Upgrade your base gun to permanently power up your shots for the run.
  • Special weapons improve your chances, but make sure to keep your ammo topped up.
  • Level up your speed to get to enemies quicker.
  • Buy a shield for some extra hit points.
  • Upgrade your apple suck range so you can buy morre stuff!


55 achievements to unlock!

  • Challenge yourself to accomplish some of the game's toughest feats.




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Development log

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Comments

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Sparacchino5 years ago

Awesome! I love it! 

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Retchy5 years ago

Thanks very much, really glad you like it! :D

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From the end games6 years ago

Love this game! It looks amazing and is a joy to play. 

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Retchy6 years ago

Wow, thanks very much!

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ReadySetIndieGames6 years ago

I orginally saw the game on my Twitter feed and was drawn in by the style and design. My BF said it looked like water color, I thought it was more of a claymation look to it. The concept was really interesting as well. I hope to see a full release of this. I played the game for my Indie Game Showcase and am adding the gameplay highlight for it here.

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Retchy6 years ago

Thanks very much!  This gameplay footage is so helpful!  Keep an eye out for an update in the next couple of weeks :)

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jordanthompson6 years ago

Went hands on with ZOE and really enjoyed what is available in the demo. It took a few runs to really get a grasp on the mechanics, but I thought the aesthetic and core loop of the game are really well done. Grats dev, look forward to future releases/updates.

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Retchy6 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

Hey, thanks very much for the kind words and playthrough, it's really helpful! 

It's interesting to see you sticking mostly to the ground as you play, as it was my intention to encourage players to mostly fly around, dashing from enemy to enemy to keep the chain going and refilling the energy as it runs out (it only runs out when you're flying).

I'm making some changes in the next update to hopefully address this - movement speed will be much slower on the ground, so it's really more of a punishment for missing the energy/health dots, and there's going to be a time bonus multiplier that gets added to your score at the end of the level, so the faster you take out the brush, the better your score will be.  I might actually start the player in the flying state as well, so it's more obvious...

I'm also adding a power up system, so the flow of the level will change quite a bit as a result.

Update coming soon!

Cheers!
Graeme

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jordanthompson6 years ago

All sound like solid fixes. I couldn't figure out what kept the chain going, this now makes a lot more sense. I'll be keeping an eye out for that update!

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