Mr. Shootem Breaks Out! (@shootem.biz)

@shootem.biz Sep 19, 2026, 2:23 PM

And now, a word from Shootem's lead developer.

What's up, party people.

SAGE 2026 ended as of last night, and my one and only patch for the event is now out in the wild, so I just wanted to take a minute to do a little post-mortem, I guess you could call it.

This demo, needless to say, was vastly different from what SAGE had in the past. I mentioned it a little going into the new year, but what you played was quite literally the work of moving what I had in GameMaker to Godot, then taking a chainsaw to it and completely uprooting the gameplay, UX, etc., and I did it all in roughly six months. As someone who has almost no real game development or design chops, I personally think everything I did in that frankly short timeframe was pretty goddamn impressive, and I'm VERY happy with what you got to play. Obviously, it's still a little rough around the edges, but this demo truly is as representative of what the final game should be as it ever has been. In what's been a good yet tumultuous year for me so far, especially filled with a super healthy dose of gamedev impostor syndrome, I'm glad this mostly went super well.

I obviously can't take all the credit, though. I need to give huge props to my friends in PA for helping make my move go as smoothly as possible, as well as all of the friends I've made through SAGE that I've been able to truly rely on for making Shootem as good as it can get, and in turn entrusting me to do the same for their games. I also want to, like always, extend an especially great thanks to my amazing team for working as hard as they have to bring the game to life. We unfortunately didn't have time for quite a few things in this demo, even some things that I was super excited to have ready for SAGE that I think people would've lost their minds over, but at the end of the day, it's nothing to stress over too much.

CONTINUED ON NEXT IMAGE

Though, I want to really give one person in particular their flowers, something I think doesn't happen nearly enough. If it wasn't for Mr. Freaks, even with all of his works-in-progress, stepping up to the plate, doing a shitton of art, guiding me through development by helping with time management/workload stuff, and so many different things that I can't name off here just to respect your time, I am absolutely CERTAIN that this demo would not have made it out on time. For that, he's without a doubt the MVP of this game's development, from now until well after the full game comes out. And now, not only has he gotten me in on boilerplate work for Strato Freaks DX, an amazing project that I've fawned over even since murmurs of its existence started cropping up, we're about to take that game to fucking MAGFest, an opportunity I never thought I'd be able to partake in this early in my journey as an actual gamedev. Needless to say, I've enjoyed every second of working with you, hanging out, just about everything. I honestly feel like we're fantastic business partners in the making.

With that said, I'm sure you could've gathered from the booth, but yes, this is the last time you're gonna see Mr. Shootem Breaks Out! at SAGE. I think I'm in a position now where the whole rest of the game just gets built on top of what's already here, so it's time to get serious with this project, put a bigger and even better demo up on Steam, and get this true Ship of Theseus of mine finally out to the people after almost 10 years. Will I return to SAGE? Probably, but it's gonna be a little while, I think.

Whether you've been following that silly Mr. Shootem since my old prototypes from back in high school, or are just now hopping on after SAGE 2026, I thank you so much for stopping by, and I hope you're just as excited for this as I am.

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I hope this SAGE was a good one for you, whether as a player or a developer, because there were a lot of heavy hitters this year, and it's not just about my game. If you haven't checked out the list yet, I highly recommend taking a few hours to comb through and see what you might like. I'll give a list of recommendations in the next image.

UNTIL NEXT TIME!

- Ryan / defnotreal_

Crudely drawn image of Mr. Shootem giving a thumbs up, next to "Thanks for playing!!"

Check out these games at SAGE this year!

Artius: Pure Imagination
Blocks for Babies
Fox Stamps
The Galactic PAC-MAN Brothers
HEX POP
Pomeraider
Prototype N
Slashbang
Strato Freaks DX
Total Destruction 2Dee
Witchfall: Secrets of Emotica
Y O U

@shootem.biz Sep 19, 2026, 2:41 AM

The SAGE demo has been updated, we're calling it the Birthday Patch (even though it's a day late)!

Play as Dude Duddson and Mippy and duke it out in Turf War, among plenty of fixes and QOL updates. It's available now at the booth!

sonicfangameshq.com/forums/showc...

@shootem.biz Sep 13, 2026, 7:35 PM

Gotten to try the demo at SAGE yet? Let me know what you think!
forms.gle/SEsK2L4mMwMS...

@shootem.biz Sep 11, 2026, 4:01 PM

Mr. Shootem Breaks Out! - THE Demo has softlaunched at SAGE 2026! Break out in Milky Way City and the new Supernova Stadium, and check in every now and then, as the demo will receive updates over time!

Enjoy!!

sonicfangameshq.com/forums/showc...

@shootem.biz Sep 10, 2026, 12:59 AM

Some music tracks from THE Demo are now available on YouTube, with more to come in the future!
youtu.be/yPks_499-gY
youtu.be/cDDUJfRjPGc
youtu.be/YxFbCx0lwUs
youtu.be/FqH1x1THopc