Phase Shift is a bullet hell rhythm game created for Bevy Jam #5 with the theme: cycles.

We didn't finish in time for the jam, but the result is pretty cool!

How to play

Use the keyboard to change the waveform's pitch. The display shows the shape of the audio tone that is being played.

Press `Space` to toggle the display between timeseries mode and XY mode.

• Timeseries Mode: the horizontal axis shows time, the vertical axis shows amplitude. This is the typical way an audio waveform is visualized.
• XY Mode: The horizontal axis shows the left audio channel and the vertical axis shows the right audio channel. This is how artists are able to display images by modulating the synthesizer waveform. 

Press letter keys to change the pitch of the synthesizer tone. The keys are laid out like a piano.

• ASDFGHJ are the white keys, QWERTYU are the black keys.
• A is the pitch C2.

Credits

• Philip Linden - Concept & code
• Shane Celis - Audio, Shaders & Code
• John Breen - Art
• David Breen - Concept

Concept

Core Gameplay

• Change parameters of two waveforms, displayed as a Lissajous pattern.[ ] Control the X phase with A and D, control the Y phase with W and S.
• Bullets are locked on rails to the Lissajous pattern and traverse the pattern for the duration of one period.
• Left click to fire bullets whose lifetime is tied to the X waveform period, and Right click to fire bullets whose lifetime is tied to the Y waveform  period.
• Shooting consumes a (rechargeable) resource called _charge_.
• "Anomalies" are the target for bullets. Anomalies add a resource called _heat_ which is the player's damage bar. If this bar fills, the game ends.

Progression

•  Spend charge to fire bullets or buy upgrades.
• Upgrades increase frequency, amplitude, or charge capacity, or to reduce heat.
• Allow infinite upgrades, to ridiculous results.

Stretch Goals

• The X and Y waveforms map directly to Left and Right audio channels, including game sound effects, UI blips and beeps, and music.
• The screen becomes more glitchy as you take more damage.
• The longer your Lissajous pattern the longer the projectiles stay on the screen, but the more complex and erratic their pattern so you have less aim, but technically more firepower on screen at once.
• You can get items that make your Lissajous path go crazy and it makes the bullets go crazy all over the screen.
  • These are like the audio impulse weapons that make a mushroom shape. or a world or spring, etc.
  • They allow your projectiles to hit enemies at multiple Hz effectively being screen clear/ bomb items.
• Bosses can inflict audio disturbances to your line that can shake projectiles off it. Like maybe the bass builds through the boss fight in a cycle, each beat perturbing your line a bit more till the projectiles just shake off and fly in random directions both harming boss and you.

Look & Feel

The interface looks like a classic analog oscilloscope. Changing parameters with upgrades or user inputs directly reflects the turning of dials.

Heavy inspiration from radar displays, analog oscilloscopes, and early 80's "sci-fi" computer terminals. Vaporwave background music, retro blips and beeps for UI interactions. Muted color palette of slate gray and pure green, with pure red warnings. No solid faces, only wireframes of primitive shapes. CRT-effects, intense bloom, and video glitches during anomalies.