Dr. Spacezoo (a twin-stick shoot-em-up with roguelite elements)

[smashriot]

Hey there!

Dr. Spacezoo is a twin-stick shoot-em-up with rogue-lite elements for 1-4 players (local co-op). I like to refer to Dr. Spacezoo as a precision shoot-em-up, where you either rescue exotic space animals from a corrupt AI or reduce them to gibs. It's really your call, monster. 



Dr. Spacezoo is currently on Steam Early Access and is slowly inching towards completion targeting early 2017 for full release: http://store.steampowered.com/app/371380

I try to push an update every 1-2 weeks, and the current version is v0.8.5 updated on 2016/10/06. Full Steam EA update log is here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/371380/discussions/0/364040961447595214/

So action twin-stick shoot-em-up with rogue-lite elements?

Dr. Spacezoo makes full use of procedural generation for the missions and planets, and also for the individual levels (5 missions with 6 levels each). It's an action twin-stick shmup with upgradable core stats coupled with a weapon upgrade system that utilizes weapon upgrades to change the form and function of the laser and bullet weapons. There are 5 different play modes, one of which includes a super brutal Permadeath mode that spans 5 missions with 4 levels each (and many bosses!).


Procedurally Generated Planets and Systems

All of the stars and planets in Dr. Spacezoo are procedurally generated based on the player's name.  Here are a few examples:

Action Mode Mission 2 Seed Shalival - Iphara System:



Story Mode Mission 2 Seed Eristial:



Action Mode Mission 4 Seed Lendei with a rare second star:



Many more procedurally generated planet examples may be found here: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ProcgenPlanetADay


Procedural Level Generation

All of the levels in Dr. Spacezoo are procedurally generated based on the player's name and have been carefully designed via a whole lot of flow tuning to keep the player challenged as they progress towards saving the target animal and then back out the space zoo.  Here are a few level examples from the missions:

Mission 1:



Mission 2:



Mission 3:



Mission 4:



Mission 5:




Bullets and Lasers!

The player ship is equipped with a laser weapon and a bullet weapon, each of which has 3 slots for weapon upgrades. The weapon upgrades drop from enemies and bosses (and the occasional fountain) and each includes a few properties (or maybe an ultra effect) that improve or change how the base weapon works. Combining multiple weapon upgrades into a single weapon may create a very powerful and unique weapon so choose wisely.

4 Player Co-op Lasers (with a little Force Deflector):



Reflecting Lasers:



Drunken Homing Bullets:



Bouncing Homing Bullets:



Force Deflector Ultra:



Uh, hey there now.. that's not saving the animals!



Weapon Upgrades have a chance to drop from destroyed enemies and may be slotted into each weapon's upgrade slots:




Game Modes

There are 5 different game modes in Dr. Spacezoo:

Story Mode - easy difficulty
Action Mode - normal difficulty
Boss Rush - hard difficulty where you fight all the bosses and random tag team boss pairings
Permadeath - brutal difficulty (so very brutal!)
Daily - one shot to finish the same daily as everyone




Dr. Spacezoo is content complete for all of the modes and just need a bit more polish and tuning ahead of the full release ealry 2017.

Thanks for checking out Dr. Spacezoo and for definitely not shooting the animals!

- The good Dr. Spacezoo
http://DrSpacezoo.com/
http://twitter.com/SmashRiot

[getter77]

Looking great already and will surely be even more majestic still as dev rolls onward in ample colorful flourish.   

[IBOL]

Hi, SmashRiot, welcome to the Temple...

I have to commend you for the phrase "with rogue-lite elements". No unfounded claims being made here. Just a detailed post about a beautiful game.

(I know this developer, we do shows together in the DC area... great guy and very dedicated. Dr. Spacezoo is a very popular game at live events.)

 

[smashriot]

thanks getter77, still working hard towards completing this beast!

and Bob, miss you man, hope to see you around soon!

[smashriot]

Dr. Spacezoo v0.8.6 was released on 2016/10/14 and brings additional ultra weapon upgrades for the laser and bullet weapons, and many new bullet types and firing sounds were added.



I love how the Trash Monster's debris trail whips the Feedbot Mk.4 out of the way!

Bullets:

Many new bullet types and firing sounds were added.  The bullet used is based on the highest stat property from the selected weapon upgrades.

Here's a cycling of all the new and different bullets:



Damage Bullets vs Feedbot Mk.4:



Duration Bullets:



New Ultra Weapon Upgrades:

Many new Ultra Weapon Upgrades were added in the last two updates.

Melee Deflector (Ultra) is back!  The Melee Deflector is a rotating shield that increases in speed each rank and gently bumps away anything it touches. It stops a lot of bullets.



Melee Damager (Ultra) is a rotating weapon that increases in speed each rank and does damage to anything it touches. It does NOT stop any bullets.

Vortex (Ultra) is a proc effect that harmlessly pulls in enemies, animals, power-ups and bullets. Get over here!
 

 
The Force Vortex (Ultra) is a proc effect that forcefully pulls in and damages enemies, animals, power-ups, bullets, and destructibles.

Health Booster (Ultra) is a passive effect that boosts base health per rank.

Health Regeneration (Ultra) is a proc effect that restores a small amount of health per rank.

Co-op Animations:

Co-op player ships are now animated to match the single player ship and the co-op bullets and ultras are color matched too. Blue's Drunken Bullets are mostly going in the correct direction here!



Weapon Upgrade Help:

Added Weapon Upgrade Help to describe each of the different weapon upgrade properties:



Screen Transitions:

New screen transitions are now used when changing between pages:

[smashriot]

v0.9.0 Update is Live!

Dr. Spacezoo v0.9.0 was released on 2017/03/18 and brings stat and weapon upgrade slot improvements to the unlockable Cheetah and Bear ships, and also brings a new Total leaderboard for each game mode.



Updated Dialogs:

All of the dialogs in game received an update and are now in their final form.

Here's the good Dr. Spacezoo reminding you to not shoot the other animals after saving the target animal:




Cheetah and Bear Unlocks

Joining the Interceptor is a fast moving Cheetah and a strong defensive Bear.

The Cheetah is unlocked by completing Story Mode and has increased firing rate and acceleration at the cost of lessened damage reduction.

The Bear is unlocked by completing Action Node and has increased damage reduction and weapon damage at the cost of reduced acceleration.

Both the Cheetah and Bear have 4 laser upgrade slots and 4 bullet upgrade slots, where the standard Interceptor only has 3 each.

Cheetah Stats:



Player Ship Selection:



4 Player Co-op Ship Selection:



Cheetah tearing apart some enemies:




Boss Ultras

Bosses can now use Ultras weapons for all of their attacks:

• Ultras: Bounces / Reflections, Deflector, Force Deflector, Melee Deflector, Melee Damager, Vortex, Force Vortex, Health Booster, Health Regeneration
• Story Mode (Easy difficulty): farm bosses for upgrades without the bosses getting tougher
• Action Mode: Each time a boss is defeated it will gain health, attack faster, and gain an Ultra (Max 4) making Weapon Upgrade farming more challenging
• Boss rush: Each boss starts with two Ultras and will increase in difficulty when farmed
• Boss meters now show their enabled Ultras

Feedbot Mk.4 Boss with several Ultras:



Action Mode Feedbot Mk.4 Boss with Bounce Ultra (Rank 4):




Improved art for AI Boss and Mini-boss

The AI Boss and Mini-boss received some new art so now they are as pretty as they are deadly:




Total Leaderboard

Story, Action, Boss Rush, Permadeath modes now each have Total Leaderboard that shows the total score earned for that Mode and Seed.


Performance Improvements

Performance improvements == more bullets. Enough said.

Here's a fast firing bullet weapon with a lot of extra bullets and bouncing ultras: