Cattle Crisis
How to Play
Cattle Crisis is an arcade shoot 'em up game (Shmup). Pilot your fighter jet to defeat evil aliens and save our precious cows! Cattle Crisis is a short game and currently features one level.
- Arrow keys - Move the jet
- X or M or V - Shoot
- Z or N or C - Hyper / Bomb
- You can also use a controller
System
As you shoot enemies or collect 🐄, your meter will fill. Once it passes the halfway point, you can activate Hyper Mode by pressing the Hyper button. While in Hyper Mode, the meter gradually depletes. Taking a hit will end Hyper Mode, but you won’t lose a life. Pressing the Hyper button again during Hyper Mode unleashes a devastating bomb, which consumes half of the remaining meter—if any is left.
Scoring
- Shooting enemies at close range increases your score (up to 4×) and causes more 🐄 to drop, allowing you to charge the meter faster.
- While in Hyper Mode, enemies drop ⭐ instead of 🐄, which grant extra points. The value of each ⭐ is shown in the top-right corner during Hyper Mode.
- Each enemy defeated in Hyper Mode increases the ⭐ value.
- Activating a bomb turns all nearby bullets into additional ⭐.
Video Series
Cattle Crisis was created as part of a tutorial series on how to make an Advanced Shmup from scratch. If you also want to make a game like this check out the Lazy Devs Academy YouTube Channel!
Credits
This game was written and designed by Krystian Majewski, an Independent Developer and the host of the Lazy Devs Academy video channel.
The music was composed by Sebastian Haßler, a music composer for film, TV and videogames.
The cover illustration was created by Mag Draws.
This project would have not been possible without the generous donations from my supporters on Ko-fi. Thank you!
Special thanks also to all of the playtesters including: Aktane, Boghog, Indra_S, MasterCoding101, LokiStriker, Barend, TheGacko, SquidLight, Buster Ermy, mg1399, BrainOnOxygen, SkullDragger, Blixten, middleclassjoe, Chaz, otto: A Mush Man and others.
Cattle Crisis was written entirely in Pico-8.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Version 237 days ago
- High Score List40 days ago
- Version 170 days ago
Comments
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good game
this obviously has a similar feel to a game i remember playing couch-coop with in early 2000 that i just now remembered existed but of course still cant pin the name of yet ,could you maybe list names of games that inspired this one to maybe jog my head a bit?
Cool arcade game! I especially liked the design of the page. I used to play arcade games a lot as a kid. The controls are a bit unaccustomed, WASD + Enter would be more convenient for 1 player.
enjoyed it, great game
I like it!
the pixel art is so good
the only disadvantage is the keyboard info
it should give you what to press at least in game menu
Enjoyed this as someone who struggles with contrast in games pretty often. Fun little shmup, love the cows lol :)
Can I download the soundtrack anywhere? I even tried going to the composer's website, but this game isn't mentioned there at all.
There's an extensive tutorial series documenting exactly how he made the game, maybe we can get the soundtrack from the files?
Though I also wish it was available for download or streaming
Wow, this game is fantastic. Controls are tight; graphics as colorful and clean; music/sfx are fun.
Panie Krystianie bardzo fajna gra bardzo dobre wykorzystanie pico8
i love it! everything feels so nice :)
This game is really addictive, and I am very impressed.
why there is no android version ?
it's a pico 8 game bru
Basic fusions of great emotions for a good night adventure in V.R!!!
Love the theme!
The pixel art in Cattle Crisis is absolutely stunning—it really brings that classic arcade vibe to life!
Great job on the retro aesthetic!
i love how the background is like a frame for the game window, it genuinely looks like an arcade game
Wow! this game is turning up to be amazing!!! i followed the tutorials but lost my way somewhere near episode 60, it was a great learning experience but it turn too much for my understanding, but i enjoyed the way so very much and this is just a great result! worthy of the great 80s shmups!
Mobile?
Played this game today, very fun for sure. I never really properly played a bullet hell game, but I had a lot of fun with this one. I think the Pico-8 engine was used really well here, and everything felt very complete, and also quite fair. It also had plenty of challenge which was definitely fun to get past, and the final boss was very good.
Really a fun gam absolutely love it.
Fantastic game! Really been enjoying my time with it. Especially with the Ketsui inspired scoring system -- without it, the game would be far too easy to have just immediately gone through.
In general, its very surprising to see a game of this quality come out of a series of videos meant to educate people on lua/game programming! Most of the time, tutorial series kinda take a 'good enough' approach given that the content in question is meant to inform, rather than truly create.
You truly are a craftsman Krystian! I question whether or not I could ever measure up to the granular detail you put yourself through to deliver such a great product!
Definitely gonna purchase this, but I'm curious: I see there are various OS specific versions provided in the download options. Is the windows one a proper executable with the ability to remap controls. I prefer WASD to Arrow Keys, and I've been remapping the keyboard layout for my entire computer to play this so far. Would be nice if there was some way to remap keys without essentially changing the functionality of my keyboard on my entire computer.
Thank you for the kind words, Blues. There is a way to configure the keyboard in Pico-8. It is saved in the confix.txt file. This also works for the downloadable versions.
https://pico-8.fandom.com/wiki/Configuration
But the tool to change the key config is not properly exposed to users. You need to edit the config.txt file by hand. If you have troubles feel free to ask in the lexaloffle.com forums or on our Discord
UNDERALE PREPARED ME FOR THIS!
Good Game
Is there anywhere I could listen to the soundtrack?
here
737650, someone beat that!
745140 now, I might be addicted
885430, this game's skill ceiling is in space!
I will now start editing this comment to add my scores instead of just making this thread longer.
->931440
->1198120 (over a million!)
You are getting good at this. Have you seen this post:
https://krystman.itch.io/cattle-crisis/devlog/957494/high-score-list
cool game! my best: 110600
retro style!
good game
I really like how the enemies kinda appear on the beat of the music
499, 550 game is fresh
okey, it's real nice
SO CLEAN!
Ah that was satisfying
Wow I followed the development on youtube. I didnt expect it's playable on mobile web. I thought you would just release it on p8 only. Awesome🤘🤘🤘
what conspiracy theorists think the fbi does in their free time:
but seriously, this is a great game, well done
475,260
All clear! 356,250 pts, I'm sure you can push it much higher by wringing more juice out of the hypers. Fantastic work!
I've been stuck on the first level for an hour I am going to drill a hole through my skull to try and see whats wrong
other people are saying its hard I feel so vindicated
LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I'm going to play this game, it looks amazing
Absolutely fantastic! I love your games and your vids flip'n rock! Thank you for this awesome shmup, and all the others too🙂