← Back to GamesSIDE-SCROLLING SHOOTER / 2024

The Flying
Machine

A 2D, pixel style side scroller shooter that's about navigating the skies and overcoming airborne challenges.

THE GAMESHOOTER · PIXEL ART · UNITY

About the Game/Design Goals

A single player side scrolling shooter where players pilot a flying machine through the skies, avoiding and shooting down waves of enemies. The game separates the machine’s hitbox from the player’s own, adding an additional level of planning and strategy to survive.

Inspired by Cuphead, my goal was to create satisfying chaos. I focused on combining sound effects, power ups that speeds up your bullets, and and a smooth level difficulty progression. This project was also my first time using a parallax scrolling effect, which added depth and immersion to the background

The flying machine and its dangling pilot fire at birds against a blue sky, with separate wrench and heart counters
The flying machine dodges birds and fireballs near a coffee power-up among layers of pink sunset clouds

Challenges

The most challenging part during development was designing the final boss fight. I had to experiment with bullet pattern calculations and spawn frequency for a balanced boss battle. Additionally, I had technical challenges for creating two separate hitboxes and life counters for the player and the machine.

A large red flying boss sends curved streams of fireballs toward the machine in a dark blue night sky
The player character waits for a college admission decision in a bedroom dialogue scene
An in-game college admission letter addressed to the player on a pixel-art desktop
A professor introduces the flying machine and its blueprint in a workshop dialogue scene

Credits

Bird enemy, Character, Flying Machine, Background from CraftPix

Boss Sprite by Elthen

Bullets Sprite by BDragon

Wrench Icon by Cadmium_Red

Character Portraits by: Poltergeister & Jaz

Windows Background

Story Background by Spiral Atlas

Resume Button by Shrejkr

Coffee icon by Yanin