Bullet Patterns

A major aspect of the strategy in StarLicker is constructing patterns of bullets that make it tougher for your opponent to collect all of them. Cannons alone shoot just a simple steady stream of bullets that are quite easy to collect.

However, each other unit at your disposal provides a unique enhancement to the stream of bullets that pass through it. For example, the Fork splits an incoming bullet stream into two alternating streams.

The location you choose for each unit you build is an important decision in your strategy. As a match progresses, more and more units are placed on the map.

Eventually, the bullet patterns become quite complex and very challenging to defend against. The more clever and unexpected your bullet pattern is, the better chance you have of overwhelming your opponent and securing victory.

Offense and Defense

We mentioned previously that the gameplay of StarLicker involved a switching dynamic between offensive and defensive play, with a unique take on asynchronous multiplayer. Here are some gameplay details to clarify what we meant by this…

Each player’s turn literally consists of an offense phase and a defense phase.

Offense is the typical, take-as-long-as-you-want strategic planning gameplay that is common to many turn-based strategy and tower defense games. Once the offense is set up, the units attack automatically.

Defense is a real-time action mode in which you must control your StarLicker ship to collect all the bullets your opponent’s offensive setup is sending at you.

The game of StarLicker has one resource to rule them all - energy. To build or upgrade units during the offense phase, you need to spend energy. When defending, every bullet you absorb will not only save your units and buildings from being damaged, but will also increase your supply of energy.

The Harvest Cannon is the main source of energy. On offense, your cannons will pull energy from the bottomless energy wells scattered across the map and shoot it at your opponent in the form of bullets.

On defense, your cannons transform into “harvest mode”, and will automatically gather energy to add directly to your supply.

Be careful! You need to send a lot of bullets at your enemy if you hope to damage them, but the more bullets they collect, the greater offense they can send right back at you.

First Contact

StarLicker is a competitive two-player strategy game combined with an arcade “shoot ‘em up”. It features a dynamic play experience that switches between real-time, frantic defensive play and methodical, calculated offensive play. This dynamic creates a deep and varied turn-based strategy game with a unique take on asynchronous multiplayer.

We’ll be posting to this blog frequently with new information, screenshots, and videos, leading up to launch and beyond. Today we’re introducing the main player character.

Meet Lenny, an ace “StarLicker” pilot.

Through him you’ll defend against the aggression of your opponents…

…and protect your home base from destruction.

StarLicker draws influences from a wide variety of well known games including Ikaruga, StarCraft, Plants vs. Zombies, and Sonic the Hedgehog, but it delivers an original play experience of its own. It takes aesthetic cues from shoot ‘em ups, with retro audiovisuals and waves of intricate bullet patterns filling the screen. It is currently planned to launch on iOS in mid 2013. You can sign up now to be part of the beta when it goes live.

StarLicker is being developed by Heartonomy, a new independent game company in New York City from developers Hayden Cacace and Rudd Zwolinski. Our aim is to create engaging, enjoyable experiences that offer players an opportunity for long term enrichment through play. We believe that the games with the greatest impact allow players to express themselves with their choices and skills. For StarLicker, we are collaborating with graphic artist William Mendoza and sound designer/composer Kurt Feldman (Ice Choir, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Depreciation Guild).