Shmup-Dev Results Announced!

By: Albert Lai

On: November 4th, 2007

The results from the latest Shmup-Dev competition have been announced!
The theme this year was "Options" a-la those from Gradius I keep losing
to the scorpion things.

Varia has popped in at first place, a abstract shmup which uses options to
clone enemy abilities and send back bullets at the opposing boss. A highly polished
game which has completely obscured its Game Maker roots, in the same way the
son of a farmer goes off into the city to become a high rolling urbanite, only
to discover that, yes, you can run from your past. A high quality game
by Kairos!

Akuchizoku is in second place, by cactus, who chugs out game at a rate that
would be more alarming if we didn’t know he was half machine. This game is so
retro that you can almost feel the pixels, which are, to quote, "the size
of hams". Even so, the game is exceptionally well made in the style of
most old-school shooters (ie, masochistically hard). Plus, there’s a talking
dog.

Clocking in at third place, Linley of Excellent
Bifurcation fame ("The reason I have two eyeballs in my head is for
stereoscopic vision, thank you" – DrDerekDoctors) has created Garden of
Colored Lights, a game I found interestingly evocative, from the small blurbs
that punctuate each sub-stage to the way that bullets correspond to music. Here
you kit your ship out with three different options from a large beginning selection and set out to blow shit
up and level up, your options and your options, respectively.

A very strong showing overall, and congratulations to the winners!