Games Horror Shooter Paradox

For years, myself and the team have been working on CelesSteel, a classic old school beat 'em up in the style of Streets of Rage/Golden Axe/Double Dragon etc. However, after a considerable amount of hard work and development on said title, sadly we've had to sideline it, as it's become clear that at this point no amount of dedication and effort on our part is going to be sufficient to finish it without considerable crowd support - alas, the rookie mistake of undertaking such an ambitious effort without first establishing your fan base.

For this reason, for the last few months we've focused our attention on creating a playable demo of our much simpler side project Paradox, a retro old school shoot em up in the vein of R-Type and Gradius, with a unique set of protagonists and a powerful, visceral horror style to help it stand out from the typical fare in this genre. We've also set up our Kickstarter pre-launch page in preparation for its release in the next few weeks.



Rather than the standard space fighter, you'll be playing in the demo as the 'Thunderbird' a Bald Eagle with the power of lightning, and the full game will also include the Firehawk and Snow Sage

This particular video is a few weeks old, and much has been done since to better tighten everything up (such as fixing the bird flying backwards!), we'll continue to refine the gameplay experience as we build toward the playable demos release.



In contrast to the birds, the enemies you'll be facing are a warped, nightmarish, Cronenbergian force of rotting monstrosities and diseased mutants which have destroyed human civilisation, and are now twisting the very essence of nature itself. Across 7 levels of frenzied action, you'll be battling back the tide of horror with a wide variety of magical elemental powers, pitting your the power of nature against this necrotic menace.



This stylistic clash of the birds beauty and their spectacular magic VS the wretched hideousness of the monsters will be a big part of this titles appeal, and is aimed at horror fans in particular, we want the dark and disturbing visuals planned throughout the game to enhance the excitement of the gaming experience, driving players onward to see that next level or boss.

To further this, as our campaign reward tiers, we're offering backers the chance to actually BE in the game by working their photographs into our monster designs and backgrounds. As an example, this particular creature, the eerie 'Brain Flower' encountered in the Forest of Flesh stage, is based on my own face


So hopefully if I've caught your attention, come check out and bookmark our pre-launch, leave feedback, and check back often for regular project updates

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/retroguygaming/paradox-3

 

Love those r-type games, good to see a fresh perspective on that type. best of luck, keep kicking

 

Looks really cool! Good luck with your project

 

Thanks for the positive responses folks, we're really pushing the boat out on this games visual style to create a feel quite unlike anything else in the indie scene.

Come make a pledge once we're live, and your own face could become the basis for any one of our freakish fiends...

 

Demonstration of a few of the Thunderbirds weapons. All three birds will have three as standard - direct, spread and homing, each with a charge version. The video below shows the direct and spread varieties, with lock on Chain Lightning still to come.

 

All of the enemies in the game will have two death animations, one standard for when destroyed with your basic weapons, and a more spectacular elemental one which will vary for each bird, when you use your more powerful charge attacks, special weapons and smart bombs (the latter two categories won't be in the demo but are planned for the full game)

As you'll be playing as the Thunderbird this time, these special deaths are the electric variety, and we're very much looking forward to doing the fire and ice versions for the Firehawk and Snow Sage at a later date...

 

Video update

 

Our Kickstarter is now LIVE, playable demo coming soon!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/retroguygaming/paradox-3?ref=project_build