Vortex Breakers

Devlog

• See Vortex Breakers Live at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo!
  October 15, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios#arcade, #shooter, #spaceshooter, #pigsquad, #retro, #portlandretrogamingexpo, #minimalist, #colorful, #controller, #twinstickshooter

  Vortex Breakers has been selected to be shown at this year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo! You can check out Vortex Breakers there and meet its creator (me!). We are planning on launching the game the s... Continue reading

  
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog 25
  October 12, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios#arcade, #shooter, #spaceshooter, #twinstickshooter, #retro, #minimalist, #colorful

  In this level, you must grab randomly spawning shards from the void while protecting your crystal from turret style enemies. Now that I have all the different mini-games that I will be including, I'll... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog 24
  October 11, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios#arcade, #shooter, #spaceshooter, #sidescroller, #twinstickshooter, #controller, #minimalist, #colorful, #retro

  The final "escort mission style" I refer to as the Mine Field. The original version of the just had the crystal being guided through speeding debris, but after play testing it, I found the level way t... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog 23
  October 10, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios#arcade, #retro, #shooter, #controller, #twinstickshooter, #minimalist, #colorful

  Another "guide your crystal" level. This one I'm referring to as the "obstacle course." This is another one that wasn't inspired by a specific retro game, but still has the feel of something you might... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog 22
  October 10, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios#arcade, #shooter, #twinstickshooter, #space, #scifi, #minimalist, #colorful, #controller

  In this game, each Zone is split up into 5 phases (levels). They always go in this sequence: 1) build your crystal 2) defend your crystal 3) transport your crystal 4) defend your crystal, again 5) bos... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog 21
  October 08, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios#arcade, #minimalism, #colorful, #shooter, #twinstickshooter, #controller

  This level is not really inspired by a specific retro game. I just though- "what if you were just surrounded and ambushed by a fuckton of enemies." I went through several variants of this where I twea... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog 20
  October 07, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios#arcade, #shooter, #spaceshooter, #twinstickshooter, #controller, #minimalism, #colorful, #unrealengine

  Next idea was an homage to one of the most iconic space shooters of all time, Asteroids. I tried to stay true to the original, but I added one additional layer of danger: when the smallest asteroids e... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog19
  October 06, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #arcade, #retro, #controller, #twinstickshooter, #scifi, #minimalism, #colorful, #shooter, #spaceshooter, #unrealengine

  Next level is up and running, inspired by the classic retro arcade game Centipede. Like the "Yar's Revenge" style level, you have to gather up shards to build your Vortex Breaker Crystal. But in this... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog 18
  October 04, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #arcade, #shooter, #spaceshooter, #twinstickshooter, #controller, #minimalism, #colorful, #unrealengine, #scifi, #retroarcade

  Next is the level inspired by an old favorite, Space Invaders. But like all the levels, instead of just surviving, you must protect your crystal from the enemy horde. Another twist is that once the en... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog 17
  October 04, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #arcade, #retro, #twinstickshooter, #shooter, #space, #spaceshooter, #minimalist, #colorful, #controller

  The next level was inspired by the classic space shooter Yar's Revenge. There's no actual "yar" in this version, but I loved the idea of having to blast your way through a space fortress to get to you... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog 16
  October 03, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #twinstickshooter, #shooter, #scifi, #unrealengine, #controller, #colorful, #minimalism, #arcade, #retro

  Now I've begun developing the different mini-games based off classic arcade games. This is the original inspiration, meant to imitate the style of the Galaga bonus levels. During the games inception,... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog 15
  October 02, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #arcade, #twinstickshooter, #unreal, #minimalist, #controller, #colorful, #retro, #spaceshooter, #scifi

  Spent the past few days working on the stat/ability upgrades. And once they were included, I immediately built the upgrade menu to test and tweak the variables. There are a total of 24 upgradable stat... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog 14
  September 26, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #arcade, #twinstickshooter, #spaceshooter, #controller, #shooter, #minimalist, #colorful

  Made a quick addition, barely worth a separate log: I added animated wipes to my menus when they switch... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog 13
  September 24, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #arcade, #menus, #scifi, #shooter, #spaceshooter, #minimalist, #colorful, #twinstickshooter

  Started working on my menus. All the png file graphics came from a paid asset pack, but all the actual layouts and coding were done by hand. I wanted to get the basic menu together, because I needed u... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog 12
  September 23, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #shooter, #twinstickshooter, #scifi, #minimalist, #colorful, #controller, #unrealengine, #arcade, #retro

  Started working on my menus. All the png file graphics came from a paid asset pack, but all the actual layouts and coding were done by hand. I wanted to get the basic menu together, because I needed u... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- Dev Log 11
  September 22, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #arcade, #twinstickshooter, #minimalist, #colorful, #controller, #spaceshooter, #scifi, #retro, #shooter

  Day 10- Now that I have a "template" to work off, I'm trying to make more complicated bosses. This one is a more advanced version that you might see later in the game. It has a more complex bodyguard... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- Dev Log 10
  September 20, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #shooter, #twinstick, #scifi, #arcade, #retro, #controller, #minimalist, #colorful, #spaceshooter

  Spent a full day just play testing and glitch fixing. There were several problems with the transition from regular gameplay to the boss spawning I needed to work out. In this video, you'll see a few w... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- Dev Log 9
  September 19, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #colorful, #minimalism, #shooter, #scifi, #arcade, #retro, #spaceshooter, #twinstick, #controller

  Set up the graphics to give the system the aesthetics I've been planning. The materials/textures are just simple glowing emissives, but in a void, they would just appear as a colored dot. The glowing... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- DevLog 8
  September 17, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #shooter, #arcade, #minimalism, #controller, #twinstick, #colorful, #spaceshooter, #retro, #scifi

  Day 6. Spent a lot of time working with the bosses. This is sort of a proof of concept. I've never made enemies with separate, target-able sections that could be destroyed independently before. Each o... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- Dev Log 7
  September 16, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #arcade, #shooter, #spaceshooter, #twinstick, #minimalist, #unrealengine

  Day 5. First Attempt at a boss character. Seriously, like first boss on any game I've made. This is a very basic prototype to see if I could make a object that follows a spline path, but itself contai... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- Dev Log 6
  September 15, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #arcade, #retro, #minimalist, #twinstick, #shooter, #spaceshooter, #colorful, #unrealengine

  For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, I posted a full trailer a few days ago. I'm currently working on individual posts for the DevLog for all the different clips in this trailer, but those take time. I... Continue reading

  
• Vortex Breakers- Dev Log 5
  September 15, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #spaceshooter, #shooter, #twinstick, #scifi, #minimalist, #devlog, #unrealengine

  End of Day 4. This video show the inclusion of enemy paths. Using the Spline Path function of Unreal, I created about a dozen different paths for the enemies to follow. Each one terminates with it cra... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- Dev Log 4
  September 15, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #indiegame, #spaceshooter, #twinstick, #scifi, #shooter, #minimalist

  Bonus Day 3 content! After adding special attacks, I decided to add damage and enemy destruction. I felt like it needed a separate video. Don't Forget to Check out our other completed games! (All our... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- Dev Log 3
  September 13, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #indiegame, #scifi, #minimalist, #videogames, #twinstick, #shooter, #devlog, #spaceshooter

  Day 3- Special Moves added. Each of the 3 Configurations have their own special attacks. Red- a radial blast. Blue- a super shot. Yellow- a land mine. These moves are power by the energy you gain from... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- Dev Log 2
  September 13, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #indiegame, #videogames, #scifii, #spaceshooter, #twinstick, #minimalist

  End of Day 2. In this video, you can see the introduction of different Configurations. In this game, you can cycle at will through different player settings, each with different speeds, basic attacks,... Continue reading
• Vortex Breakers- Dev Log 1
  September 13, 2025 by Gravity Pollution Studios

  1

  #indiegame, #devlog, #scifi, #shooter, #minimalist

  End of day 1 of Vortex Breaker's Development. In this video we see the basic movement, twin stick firing, and the absorption of enemy bullets. In this game you don't dodge bullets, but block them from... Continue reading