The sequel to DEAD PETALS is out for free on itch.io, which a few of you played and enjoyed! It's an infinitely replayable twin-stick shooty.

I've been working on it non-stop for the past few months with May Oswald, who created satryn and other amazing games. We still want to do a Steam release, which you can wishlist, but what what we have is fun and we don't wanna make people wait. So... you can download it for free on itch.io.

Thanks to everyone who played the original, and I hope people have fun.

🌸 DEAD PETALS BLISS 🌸

A few months ago (late 2022) I released a weird little game on Newgrounds called DEAD PETALS, which is a psychedelic twin-stick shooter where the enemies and bosses are unique every time you play. It was the first time that anything I had made got a modest amount of attention so it was pretty exciting; it makes me happy to think that people still stumble upon it and give it a go :)

Since then, I became friends with the developer of satryn. satryn is another hyper-saturated arcade-style twin-stick shooter. May and I have been working on a sequel to DEAD PETALS (and in many ways a sister-sequel to satryn) and as of today... it's got a Steam page where you can wishlist it! (Clicking that green Wishlist button is so helpful that it's hard to overstate, so if you take the time to do that, we really appreciate you.) The trailer music and game soundtrack is composed by Casey William, who you can find on Spotify and Youtube as ENNWAY. It also was the composer for

Here's a trailer for DEAD PETALS BLISS!

The only problem with BLISS is that it makes the original game look kinda jank by comparison :P But that's a good thing. May is wicked talented and has put a ridiculous amount of polish into it to make it feel like a solid, legit thing. It's amazing to be working together; it's almost surreal to see the game in this state. You can still check out the original game, but honestly DEAD PETALS to DEAD PETALS BLISS is like night and day.

I'll spare you the details and just say check out the Steam Page if you want a better sense of what game it actually is.

I wanted to end by saying... without Newgrounds, I don't think I would have had the motivation to continue with game dev. Far more people discovered it on this platform than itch.io, and people left so many helpful reviews. From the conversations I had with people, it's inevitably had a huge impact on the quality and design of this new game. Releasing a game on Newgrounds is not only fun but hugely helpful, and thanks again.

I'll likely be posting here more, especially since Tw*tter is burning down but if you do wanna keep up with us there, we're whadit and hello_maybell over on the hell site. Until next time!

Happy belated

It's here! DEAD PETALS 1.3!

There are many balance changes, fixes, QoL improvements and overall polish, but the big changes include a scoring system, Medals and Custom Games.

Custom Games

Custom Games allow you tweak a bunch of parameters, such as number of enemies, overall difficulty, even change parameters of the player shot. There's lots to do and it lets you create a customized challenge you can share with friends! Conversely, you can make a "chill mode" if you or your co-op partner feel the game is a little too hard. Once you select some custom game settings, you can save those settings into a link and share it with some friends like this:

Here's a custom game link which gives you a powerful but short range spread weapon: https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/867366?NewgroundsAPI_CustomParams=(%27pSpread!%278%27~pDelay!%275%27~pLifetime!%2750%27)_

If you come up with an interesting or challenging game code, share here or send it to me; I would love to try it!

Scoring System

This has gone through a number of iterations, but the gist is this:

• Quick kills net you extra points, as well as a bonus "big gem" which counts as 2 little gems. There is a sound queue for a successful quick kill. The quicker the kill, the higher the points.
• Finishing a wave nets you points as well, and you get bonus points for finishing the wave quickly. If you "no-miss" (meaning you don't take damage) on a wave, the wave bonus will get a 3x multiplier. 2x if you happen to take 1 hit, and no multiplier bonus for anything after that.
• Boss waves finish when you grab the boss item! So chase it down and make a decision quick if you want that quick wave bonus.
• Using a hyper starts a chain multiplier. Keep your hyper going between rounds to keep building your chain. You can do this by strategically leaving some gems on the screen, or extending it by grabbing a hyper boss item if it happens to drop. Losing your hyper or getting hit will reset your chain.

There are 2 scoreboards, one for single-player and another for co-op. Doing a custom game will not save your score to the leaderboard, but it will save it on the title screen until you reset your game.

Medals

DEAD PETALS now comes with bonus dopamine hits with cheevos — the little things that get you through the day. Who's gonna be the first in the two comma club? (Not me, I gotta go to bed.)

What's Next

I dunno.

I'm sure I'll continue to patch this game if/when things come up, and I also want to create a standalone desktop version. But I'm eager to shift focus towards the next thing — I don't know if it will be a sequel or a "spiritual successor" or something else entirely, or even if I'm doing it alone, but I'm filled with ideas! A lot of those ideas are great ideas from other people too. As of the time of writing, the NG version is the most up-to-date and featureful version of Dead Petals since it integrates with the Newgrounds API, but I'll bring the itch.io version and future downloadable version up to speed. Speaking of that, if you are really enjoying the game and you have one or two bucks to spare, the best way to support me right now is through the Support This Game button on the itch.io page. Don't be fooled, the game is still free!

Kevin

This is Kevin. I have absolutely no idea how he got so lost, since he lives on Satryn. It's a twin-stick shooter by Maybell which you can play for free here, and the Steam version has a leaderboard and a ridiculous amount of achievements.

🌸

Roses are blue

Violets are dead

Why won't these petals

Get out of my head

🌸

Thank you all so much for all the support for my game DEAD PETALS! It's a pretty weird and challenging game so I'm honestly surprised! I think it speaks to the fact Newgrounds is the right place the kinds of games I want to make.

Lots of people have given me their input on ways I can improve it and features they would like to see (and keep it coming!) so I'm planning on buckling down and releasing a definitive version with more features and some bonus content as well. It will integrate with the Newgrounds API; you'll be able to prove too people you've beaten the True Final Boss and gotten a high win streak. If you've spent time with the game, let me know what features you'd like to see.

I want to add some more mysteries and secrets, too.

👁️

It might be a few weeks. In the interim period I won't hesitate to patch the current version of something comes up.

It was a solo project but I have to say it wouldn't have been the same without the support, ideas and creative influence of my friends who worked on Afterlight Caves, a game I also released on here. Thanks to @BuhlBoy, a friend, college roommate and amazing person in general, who I've also worked with in the past, I probably would have never had the foresight to get back into Newgrounds.

Thanks again!