Sway
You Cannot Defend · 2022 · Bullet Hell, 2D, Faith, Abstract, Female Protagonist
PC
Positive82% · 33
This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →
Screenshots
About Sway
Sway is a short bullet hell game modeled after the Touhou series that can be completed in about 15 to 30 minutes. This game was developed by a 2-person team in 4 months as part of a college independent study. Additional shout-out and credit to the folks at Analgesic Productions for allowing us to use sound effects from their game Anodyne! Also, feel free to join our official discord server (link is on the right).
In Sway you play as a nameless girl who has suddenly found herself in a surreal and hostile world. With no other option, you must press forward through an onslaught of bullets in hopes of finding a way back home. This game features over 45 beautifully-drawn backgrounds paired with 4 original piano compositions. You'll fight 23 unique enemy types and face-off against 5 challenging bosses.
Gameplay is simple!
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1956630/extras/Controls_-_Steam.png
Use the ARROW KEYS to move.
Hold Z to continuously fire bullets at your foes.
Hold SHIFT to reduce your speed and narrow your cone of fire.
Press X to use a bomb and clear the screen of enemy bullets.
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1956630/extras/Power_Icon.PNG Gather power tokens from fallen enemies to gain additional firepower.
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1956630/extras/Faith_Icon.PNG Defeated enemies also drop faith tokens which increase your score.
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1956630/extras/Life_Icon.PNG Hearts grant you an additional life, allowing you to take more hits before dying.
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1956630/extras/Bomb_-_Icon.PNG Stars increase your bomb count by 1.
That's really all there is to it.
We hope you enjoy our first published game and we also hope to bring you even higher quality work in the future!
In Sway you play as a nameless girl who has suddenly found herself in a surreal and hostile world. With no other option, you must press forward through an onslaught of bullets in hopes of finding a way back home. This game features over 45 beautifully-drawn backgrounds paired with 4 original piano compositions. You'll fight 23 unique enemy types and face-off against 5 challenging bosses.
Gameplay is simple!
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1956630/extras/Controls_-_Steam.png
Use the ARROW KEYS to move.
Hold Z to continuously fire bullets at your foes.
Hold SHIFT to reduce your speed and narrow your cone of fire.
Press X to use a bomb and clear the screen of enemy bullets.
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1956630/extras/Power_Icon.PNG Gather power tokens from fallen enemies to gain additional firepower.
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1956630/extras/Faith_Icon.PNG Defeated enemies also drop faith tokens which increase your score.
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1956630/extras/Life_Icon.PNG Hearts grant you an additional life, allowing you to take more hits before dying.
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1956630/extras/Bomb_-_Icon.PNG Stars increase your bomb count by 1.
That's really all there is to it.
We hope you enjoy our first published game and we also hope to bring you even higher quality work in the future!
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
It's cute enough and it's free but you can't see your character on the screen. Artistic choice or otherwise that alone makes it a miss for me.1 found this helpful
"Sway" is a very badly made 2D retro bullet hell/shmup... like, it's not even properly sized for widescreen monitors. This came out in 2022, can you believe it. What's the game about? Well, to paraphrase the developer, Sway is a short, experimental bullet hell game lacking significant substance. Players are thrown into a vaguely defined, hostile reality as a nameless character tasked with navigating abstract environments. Gameplay revolves around the repetitive task of dodging numerous on-screen projectiles and occasionally firing back at indistinct enemies or bosses, offering a brief and derivative experience based on familiar genre tropes. The graphics here are particularly awful, so bad that it actually stands out as one of the worst looking games on Steam. Quite an accomplishment. It's a big contributor to the failure of the game to attract gamers despite having no up-front cost. Gaming is a primarily visual medium, and if developers want to succeed, they must understand that it's not an area for compromise. This is "free" enough, at least you won't be expected to spend any more money after you download this, but just because something is free doesn't mean it's good. De…1 found this helpful
Pretty wonderful for a simple, free indie shooter. It's not as hard as it initially seems since your hitbox is tiny (You can easily see it by holding "shift"). Holding shift also slows and lets you focus the targeting to deal more damage. Most of the complaints about this game are probably due to people not knowing how that works. The music is absolutely beautiful and the graphics range between adorable and terrible, but that jankiness is typical of free Steam games and gives it even more character since you know one persona probably scribbled it all out in a few days.
The bullets match the background way too much which makes it a headache to dodge ngl. also the dialogue is showing up late.
Eat your heart out, Touhou
The music is peaceful yet eerie, and the art seems so peaceful yet so dangerous. The gameplay is fairly difficult, at least to me. It's fun and challenging.
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