At its heart, Void is a Geometry Wars clone- it is a 2D top-down arcade-style shooter in which you can aim in any direction using the mouse. The player must survive endless waves of enemies and rack up a huge score. There are, however, some major differences in the gameplay. First of all, the player has two attacks- the Charge Shot and the Lasso. Your primary attack, the Charge Shot, must be charged by holding the left mouse button down. It can then can be fired by releasing the button. The longer you charge, the more shots you fire at once (up to 10). Your second attack, the lasso, is used by holding down the right mouse button. Your player will then begin to emit a golden trail when it moves. Fly around and make a closed shape with this trail, and any enemy inside the shape will be killed- similar to the looping mechanic in NiGHTS. The lasso needs ammo, which is replenished automatically as you kill enemies.
Another significant difference is the scoring system, which is heavily combo/chain based. Your chain at any time is equal to the points you earn for destroying an enemy. To increase your chain, you must kill a number of enemies equal to the chain you are trying to achieve. So, you kill 1 enemy to earn a chain of 1, then 2 more to earn a chain of 2, then 3 more to earn a chain of 3, and so on. If you don't kill any enemies for a few seconds, your chain will begin to decrease rapidly, so you've got to be fast. You also get a combo bonus for killing many enemies with a single attack. Basically, after you attack with either a Charge Shot or a Lasso, the scores you earned for each separate enemy are added up and multiplied by the combo you got for that attack. Then, the result is added to your total score. So basically, you're rewarded for killing lots of enemies fast.
The core gameplay is, for the most part, done. Now I've got to work on polish- particle effects, sound effects, that sort of thing. There are only 2 types of enemies at the moment, so I may add a third type. Also, I need to implement a menu, high scores... actually, I need to do a lot of stuff still. It should be done fairly soon though. When I finish the game and get a website set up, it will be free to download.
Enough talk- here's some screenshots (that don't have a lot of polish).
I think that's all I wanted to say for now (but I probably still forgot something). So, feel free to post any comments/criticisms/questions/whatever.
