Astrox is a thrilling pico-8 shoot-'em-up (shmup) game inspired by the classic Galaga. Players navigate their ship through waves of diverse spaceship enemies, engaging in intense firefights and dodging enemy fire. With retro aesthetics and fast-paced gameplay, Astrox offers an exhilarating arcade experience.
Astrox comprises 15 enemy waves you need to clear to win the game. Kill them before they respawn back at their location, as they will restore their health. Enemies will shoot and move towards you. Avoid colliding with enemies or comets and don't get hit without a shield or you'll lose 1 life. If you lose all your lives, you lose the game.
Killing moving enemies will grant additional points. Comets cannot be destroyed by normal player bullets unless you collected "Rapid Fire" from pickups. Also, destroyed comets gives you additional points.
Pickups will be occassionally dropped by destroyed enemies. Collect them up to support you fighting the enemies or to increase your score. These are the following pickups you can collect:
First of all, I would like to thank @Krystman for creating an excellent tutorial. It really motivates me a lot to make my own game. I hope you will continue making tutorials like this. I would also like to thank the wonderful Pico-8 community for keeping each other inspired by sharing their work and demonstrating their creativity.
If you found similarities from other games (especially with the design) before this was published, I would also like to credit them (I forgot most of them since I played a lot of pico-8 shmup games). The notable games I got design inspiration from are "They Started It" by @joeyspacerocks, "Kalikan" by @LouieChapm, and @Gruber for the music side of things.