Chessplosion's gauntlet mode is out now on Steam and itch.io!
Gauntlet mode is a new arcade-inspired game mode where you score points by quickly chaining hits on enemies without taking damage. It's a bit like a linear version of dungeon mode with no upgrades, no backtracking, and nothing but action.
Gauntlet mode also has local and online co-op multiplayer (with rollback netcode) for 2-4 players! Friendly fire is enabled, so please embrace the chaos.
More thoughts about gauntlet mode:
I love arcade games! Pretty much all of my favorite single player games are either arcade games themselves, or stick closely to the standard arcade game formula: 10-30 minute runs full of intense action with no filler or downtime, with a scoring system that encourages taking risks and playing aggressively, and enough randomness to keep things interesting without ruining any individual run's chance of getting a competitive score (e.g. "you have to quickly read this randomized bullet pattern and react accordingly" is great, but "sometimes the dungeon randomly doesn't give you any strong upgrades or a quick path to the boss" is not).
As much as I love all of Chessplosion's game modes, none of them scratched that arcade game itch for me. So I decided to make a new one.
I gave it a scoring system that rewards you for chaining together hits and taking no damage, Dodonpachi style, but dropping a chain just causes the chain counter to slowly drain instead of instantly resetting back to zero. Aside from chaining, scoring is mostly just a matter of clearing rooms as quickly as possible and trying to avoid taking damage. It's not the most complicated scoring system in the world, but it's a lot of fun.
Online co-op is something that I've wanted to try out for a long time, both in Chessplosion and in other games that I make in the future. Chessplosion's bombs and explosions were programmed in a way that makes it very hard to disable friendly fire without causing lots of bugs, and I was worried that Chessplosion co-op with friendly fire enabled would be unplayably chaotic. But I tried it anyway and it was far more fun than I expected! Just don't get annoyed at each other when you accidentally blow each other up, because it's practically unavoidable.
I love how gauntlet mode turned out, and I'm now perfectly happy with Chessplosion's single player content as a whole. I hope you all enjoy it too! Huge thanks to @chunderfins for helping me test online co-op, and to all the translators who translated gauntlet mode at such short notice!