Stereo City
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Stereo City is a 2D beat-em-up video game fusing classic fighting combat and isometric level structure with rhythm game mechanics and a sleek, neon, music dystopia. One moment, you might be slamming robots with huge melee combos, the next you might be blasting them with projectiles as you play along to the music in the stage!
With hand-drawn, frame-by-frame animation, and custom music and sound effects accompanying you, you will be able to destroy Kuroi Maiku's evil machines in this dystopian city! Your character, Jaime, has a long history with the company...but all you need to know is that she is down to bust up some robots with your help!
This project is currently in its prototyping stages. Every build you will see here is considered pre-pre-pre-alpha, and we want you to play it too! Soon, we will have builds to upload here, and, when you're doing playing around in Stereo City, we'd love to hear your feedback on Twitter at @CompSaysNo_Devs.
Thanks for taking a trip to Stereo City, and we hope you enjoy your stay! More info, as always, to come!
CONTROLS ARE IN THE OPTIONS MENU AND ONSCREEN FOR EACH MODE!
You can use pretty much any controller you can think of, but this was rigorously tested using a PS4 controller wired via a USB.
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Hey Matt! Keith Dunn-Fernandez here. I don't know what I can tell you that you don't know. But I'll throw out some rando comments. Feel free to ask me specific questions if you want. About me, I'm a gamer on PC and about every console you can think of from Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox. I'm around your dad's age and I worked with him in the theater about 25 years ago, so there's that.
I see you've used a PS4 controller so far during development. I'd caution you to reverse that and primarily use the XBOX controller unless you're specifically building for PlayStation. Basically as a player you CAN use a PS controller with some fiddling on PC but XBOX is the go-to. The XBOX controller just has more use cases.
Stereo Mode controls are baffling right now and only make sense for keyboard. If you can find a way to use your dystopian theme to display the button pushes IN the scene that would go a long way to up the fun and production value. Maybe they're on an old CRT in an apt window sometimes, or shown on a boom box, or in a car pile-up in the head-lights and tail-lights, or traffic lights at an intersection.
Beware of anything in the foreground that blocks gameplay. The poles gotta go but you could put passed-out drunks or angry cats, or other items that are low in the frame.
Unless you devise a mechanic that allows the player to fight backward and forward at the same time keep all enemies on one side or the other. Else cheap deaths ensue.
When the camera pulls out like on the bridge I'm sure you'll add some enemies flying in to attack or introduce your boss in that space as some HUGE dystopian monster or something.
It might also be fun to change-up your base mechanics from time to time with power-ups that change the game into a two-stick shooter or 2D FPS shooting gallery at the end of a level for bonus points. You might even use that as an opportunity to introduce branching narrative depending on the bonus level outcome!
You've chosen a tried and true side-scrolling genre that has a ton of opportunity for innovation now.
I don't know if you've played the PS2/Game Cube Capcom game Viewtiful Joe. It's one of my all-time favorite games. It's has a bit of 2.5D action and it can be tough as hell at some points but the mechanics and the music and art style might be inspirational for you. I'm not saying you need inspiration! Far from it. But it was a really unusual game in the genre. And the first time I paused the game...I laughed my ass off. *No Spoilers* If you haven't played it, PLAY IT!