Controls

Keyboard:

Z to Shoot.  

X to move through menus.

Arrow keys to move.

Mobile:

Circle to shoot.

Cross to move through menus.

D-Pad to move.

Story

Tumbleweeds are an incredibly invasive species, and they're rolling in to bury your farm.  Do your best to shoot them all.

Play as a huge cast of characters from pop culture, celebrities, and western tropes.

Rules

• Tumbleweeds you miss will pile up to the left, filling the screen and cutting of your space to move.  The game ends when tumbleweeds fill all the way to the right.
• Hit shots without missing to fill your combo meter and get score multipliers.
• Shooting quickly will lower your accuracy.  Let the recoil go down to stay accurate.

Behind The Scenes

This game was created as part of Lazy Devs Academy's Basic Shmup Showcase.

I made this game to try and break some of the conventions I often see in the shmup genre.  The combo system rewards accuracy over holding down fire the entire time.  The low visual clutter aids comprehension, and the theme and setting offer a bit of variety to a genre full of ships shooting other ships.

Credits

This game was made entirely by me.  Tumbleweed was written in Lua, and runs on the Pico-8 fantasy console.  Art was done in Aseprite.

This was my very first game.  Huge thank you to everybody who playtested.