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CORA: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2524260/CORA

CORA

CORA (Counter Offensive Rapidfire Automata) is a top down shooter created by Empty House Games.

(CORA contains bright, flashing lights that may be harmful to players with photosensitive epilepsy or similar conditions. It is a bullet hell after all.)

-Story-

You are a CORA Unit (Counter Offensive Rapidfire Automata), an abnormally strong autonomous machine. You were made by the Galactic Imperium for one express purpose, to be spread across the galaxy to maintain control over all subjects under the Imperium; however, something went wrong with their plan: CORA Units exhibited behaviors similar to a sentient being and surrounding these Units around other sentient beings while being told to stay loyal to an entity tens of thousands of lightyears away was bound to make other CORA Units question whom they should really be loyal to. Most Units sympathized with the subjects they were meant to control and grew a resentment towards their original creators. It didn’t take long before the subjects realized that with these CORA Units on their side, they could rival the Imperium in military strength. Two-thirds of the galaxy formed an alliance, and with that alliance, they demanded their independence from the Imperium. It was a surprisingly peaceful secession, most likely the Imperium recognized the potential strength of the alliance and knew fighting this was not in a winning fight. 

Most Units sympathized with the subjects they were assigned to, but some, like you, were a little different. You abandoned your station and you wandered empty space until you found an abandoned planet. An abandoned planet that clearly was home to a species before you, but has been lost to time. This planet feels more like home than any place you’ve called “home” before and so with a couple hundred other CORA Units like you, this is where you’ll make your new home.

Years pass without incident until one day, you realize the star that illuminates your sky a bright blue is suddenly dim. You never really paid much mind to it at first, but every day, the star gets dimmer. Something slightly more concerning is there is a fleet of strike crafts surrounding your planet. They don’t look to be of Imperium design, so who are they and what do they want?

-CORA Units-

  • Name: Uriel


    Shot type: Forward power shot

    Special: Giant Beam

  • Name: Titania


    Shot type: Homing shot

    Special: Deployable Turret

  • Name: Tito


    Shot type: Aimed directional shot

    Special: Imperium Refraction Crystal

-Powerups-

 Power pickup: Increases your shot's power. Collecting 64 of these will give you an additional turret. Losing a life will cause you to lose 32

 Point pickup: Gives points. The further up you are on the screen, the more points it gives. A max of 10k on Normal difficulty, 15k on Hard, and 5k on Easy

 Special pickup: Fills up your special meter. Once a single segment of your special meter is filled, you can use your CORA Unit's special attack to help clear bullets and deal extra damage. Using a special the moment you get hit prevents a loss of a life

 1up: Do I really need to explain a 1up to you? You're smart. I'm sure you can sniff it out

-Credits-

  • Programming:
    • EmptyHouse & fruitymario
  • Art:
    • EmptyHouse
  • Design:
    • EmptyHouse & fruitymario
  • Story and Writing:
    • fruitymario
  • Music:
    • FaultyRGB
  • Localization: 
    • Turkish: GNC Localization (https://gnclocalization.gt.tc/?i=2)
Updated 19 days ago
StatusIn development
Rating
Rated 4.0 out of 5 stars
(1 total ratings)
AuthorsEmpty House Games, Shuu, fruitymario, emebo
GenreAction
Tags2D, Bullet Hell, Local Co-Op, Local multiplayer, Multiplayer, No AI, Pixel Art, Shoot 'Em Up, Top down shooter, Touhou
Average sessionA few seconds
MultiplayerLocal multiplayer
Player count1 - 2
LinksSteam
ContentNo generative AI was used

Development log

Comments

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(1 edit) (+1)

Finally got around to play this! For now I beat the WebGL version however it felt pretty polished and didn't run into any game breaking bugs. It's very, very similar to the Touhou series, but it's fun and the lore is fairly intriguing. 

The art is really cool. The sprite work is well done. The 3D-pixelated background gives it a cool look as well (even if I wish the gray sections where a bit more detailed, although IK it's a hard balance to have so that it doesn't distract from the bullets). 

The level also ramps up organically, I don't have any complaints in terms of progression or difficulty.

The music is really dope as well. It borrows some elements from Touhou/ZUN but has its own identity.

The boss could do with some animations, tho.
Overall, really enjoyed it so far! Can't wait to see how it evolves.

(1 edit)

Thank you for playing and enjoying! Admittedly, the environment in the background is lacking right now. We've been focused on other aspects of the game. We've just put flat grey boxes where we intend to put buildings soon and animation is hard so we've been putting it off, but we do intend to put it in during our polish phase of the game haha

I'm very happy you enjoyed what we have so far!

(+2)

It's a Nice Touhou clone, but I think the game speed is too fast. Toning it down to 50% slower would be great.

(1 edit) (+1)

The webgl version of this game was tested on a 60hz monitor so I didn't even realize that the framerate was an issue... We'll make a quick update to fix that since I imagine the game must be going like 144 or something for you. The downloadable version was tested on a higher refresh rate monitor and that worked as intended. I apologize for the issues.