Hi, I’m Charlie of Charlie’s Games. I’ve been writing and releasing shooty games since 2005, including Irukandji, Bullet Candy,and — most recently — Scoregasm. I’m here to talk about my latest super amazing game Son of Scoregasm, which is coming to PS Vita very soon.
In Son of Scoregasm I’ve tried to create something slick, varied, challenging, and fun that plays really well on Vita. The game is a sequel to Scoregasm, which was released in 2011, and in essence is a refinement of that game, taking the best bits and improving the rest.
Son of Scoregasm is a twin stick shooter, though not in the typical survival style. Instead, the game is comprised of a series of interlinked levels that you progress through in a non-linear style. What this means is that there are multiple paths through the game, ranging from fairly easy routes to some that are pretty hardcore. The levels themselves are designed to be different, and there’s a real variety of enemies, traps, and bosses for you overcome as you explore the game and find all the exits.
In Son of Scoregasm, the pulse attack is a really helpful, close-range pulse that wipes out enemies in a short radius around you ship. Unlike many other twin-sticks, the pulse attack isn’t a panic button. Instead, it’s a core attack that you’ll use to both survive the levels and to score points. For example you could use it to push a huge crusher back towards an enemy, cut through a field of bullets, or change the direction of a huge, rotating arm made of cannons!
For scoring, you’ll need to shoot enemies. Didn’t see that one coming, eh? However, using your pulse attack to kill enemies will turn them into multiplier tokens that increase your multiplier and allow you to score more points per kill. If you’re going for big scores, you’ll need to work out the right balance between pulse attacking for multiplier tokens and shooting for points on any given level.
So that’s a basic overview of what the game is. While this post will give you some understanding of what Son of Scoregasm is and what it looks like, it doesn’t really communicate how it feels to play, so I’ll attempt that now. It feels really, really slick on Vita!
You all know how good things look on Vita’s screen, but it’s the controls that really feel amazing. The analog sticks are perfect for this game, giving you the full 360 degrees of control for quick reactions and increased accuracy. This, coupled with how fluidly everything moves on screen, makes playing the game feel solid and smooth. It’s genuinely great to play.
Son of Scoregasm is in its final stages of development now. At present I’m working on getting Trophies, Leaderboards, and all that cool stuff in place. It’s exciting to think that pretty soon folks will be able to play it!
If you’d like to know more about Son of Scoregasm, you can visit my blog or follow me on Twitter. There’s a cat photo warning for my Twitter page. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
As a final thing, I’d like to say a big thanks to Shahid for liking the original Scoregasm enough to get me set up and working on this without really asking any questions, and also to Ben, who has tirelessly answered all my silly questions. Cheers guys — Son of Scoregasm wouldn’t have happened without you!
Bye!
If it’s Robotron-y enough, I might just buy it
That looks pretty awesome, it’s odd that there aren’t many twin stick shooters on the Vita given the fact that one of the major improvements over the PSP was, well, twin sticks. Are there any gameplay videos out there to view?
If you click on the blog link towards the bottom of the post you’ll find a few there.
Cheers
Charlie