Steam Deck Verified!
It's official, ZOE Begone! is Steam Deck verified!
It's official, ZOE Begone! is Steam Deck verified!
ZOE Begone!
Retchy Games · PM Studios, Inc.
- Released
- Sep 17, 2025
- Platforms
- Last updated
Updates & announcements
- Developer postOriginal post
- Developer post
Patch Notes
Hi, I just made a small patch to address a couple of issues. Selected language now saves properly so you don't need to keep selecting it every time you start the game. The "Wave of Mutilation" achievement is fixed, so it should pop when you kill a boss with the Wave gun. Thanks!
Original postHi, I just made a small patch to address a couple of issues.
Selected language now saves properly so you don't need to keep selecting it every time you start the game.
The "Wave of Mutilation" achievement is fixed, so it should pop when you kill a boss with the Wave gun.
Thanks!
Graeme
Developer postZOE Begone! Out Now!
ZOE Begone! is OUT NOW! It's been years in the making but it's finally here! Destroy the animator's tools, blast their creations to bits, collect Apples to spend on Power Ups, rack up your multiplier, and reclaim your serene surroundings to help Zoe get back to normality as fast
Original postZOE Begone! is OUT NOW!
It's been years in the making but it's finally here!
Destroy the animator's tools, blast their creations to bits, collect Apples to spend on Power Ups, rack up your multiplier, and reclaim your serene surroundings to help Zoe get back to normality as fast as you can.
Compete for the global high scores across 5 stages, 3 modes and 3 difficulties of hand-drawn bullet hell chaos.
View game page
Check out the new launch trailer below while you're downloading :DWatch on YouTube Join the ZOE Begone! Discord https://discord.gg/4P8cr9BFA6
- Developer post
ZOE Begone! Developer Gameplay Stream
Watch the developer try and get past the first level on hard mode!
Original postWatch the developer try and get past the first level on hard mode!
- Developer post
ZOE Begone! Release Date Announcement!
Hello everyone, Super excited to announce that ZOE Begone! will be releasing on September 17,2025! See you there! Check out the release date trailer!
Original postHello everyone,
Super excited to announce that ZOE Begone! will be releasing on September 17,2025!
See you there!
Check out the release date trailer!Watch on YouTube - Developer post
ZOE Begone! Developer Gameplay Stream
Watch the developer try and get past the first level on hard mode!
Original postWatch the developer try and get past the first level on hard mode!
- Developer post
ZOE Begone! Next Fest Developer Gameplay Stream
Watch the developer try and get past the first level on hard mode while talking a bit!
Original postWatch the developer try and get past the first level on hard mode while talking a bit!
- Developer post
ZOE Begone! Next Fest Gameplay Stream + Q/A
Watch the developer try and get past the first level on hard mode while talking a bit! Feel free to ask some questions in chat as well :D
Original postWatch the developer try and get past the first level on hard mode while talking a bit!
Feel free to ask some questions in chat as well :D
- Developer post
New Demo Released!
I'm happy to announce the release of the latest demo for ZOE Begone! As we near the end of development, this will likely be the last major update to the demo before the full release. It includes an updated first level of Arcade mode with some new Apple mechanics, and a first look
Original postI'm happy to announce the release of the latest demo for ZOE Begone! As we near the end of development, this will likely be the last major update to the demo before the full release.
It includes an updated first level of Arcade mode with some new Apple mechanics, and a first look at Time Attack mode, with all three difficulty setttings unlocked. They're all hooked up to the demo's online leaderboards too, so have a look at the new pro tips section for some scoring tips and have fun posting your high scores!
Developer postBrand New Key Art!
Hey, I just wanted to quickly shout out CafzkaSoft for their awesome work on the new key art for ZOE Begone! It makes it feel like a real game to me now, weirdly. Which is a good job, cos I'm pretty much done with development! Yay! Keep an eye out for news! ːsteamhappyː
Original postHey, I just wanted to quickly shout out CafzkaSoft for their awesome work on the new key art for ZOE Begone! It makes it feel like a real game to me now, weirdly. Which is a good job, cos I'm pretty much done with development! Yay!
Keep an eye out for news! ːsteamhappyː
- Developer post
New Demo For Steam Shmup Fest!
Hey folks! To celebrate Steam Shmup Fest, we're releasing a brand new demo for ZOE Begone!! Please give it a go, compete for the high score, and let us know what you think - feedback is really welcome as we're getting pretty close to finishing the game now.
Original postHey folks! To celebrate Steam Shmup Fest, we're releasing a brand new demo for ZOE Begone!! Please give it a go, compete for the high score, and let us know what you think - feedback is really welcome as we're getting pretty close to finishing the game now.
Developer postZOE Demo High Score Attempt 2 For Next Fest!
Is it even possible? Maybe - I improved my PB on yesterday's stream, so maybe I'll do it! Hop into chat and cheer me on, and ask me any questions about the game. I might give a sneak peek of the new level I'm working on too!
Original postIs it even possible? Maybe - I improved my PB on yesterday's stream, so maybe I'll do it! Hop into chat and cheer me on, and ask me any questions about the game. I might give a sneak peek of the new level I'm working on too!
- Developer post
ZOE Demo High Score Attempt For Next Fest!
Join me - yes me, the dev - as I attempt to regain the high score on my own game. I will probably fail.
Original postJoin me - yes me, the dev - as I attempt to regain the high score on my own game. I will probably fail.
Developer postEvolution Of The Worm
Regular worm. Metal Worm! Blingworm, the final form.
Original postRegular worm.
Metal Worm!
Blingworm, the final form.
Developer postZOE Dev Log 5
The power up system has gone through a few iterations throughout development, so I thought I'd take a look back at how it's evolved. It was initially a basic pick up that would appear after certain enemies were cleared, and would just level up the standard gun, then I thought abo
Original postThe power up system has gone through a few iterations throughout development, so I thought I'd take a look back at how it's evolved.
It was initially a basic pick up that would appear after certain enemies were cleared, and would just level up the standard gun, then I thought about mixing it up a bit with a shield item and some bonus points.
This was all a bit boring though and I wanted to try making some proper powered up special weapons, so I started with some classic weapon types from Contra 3 as inspiration (apart from the laser, I hate that laser) and took on the homing missile first.
I wanted the special weapons to feel more... special, and have a bit more visual impact, so I thought a kind of film burn effect might work so it looks like the film is getting scorched by the powered up shots. I'm not sure that's really communicated, but I kinda like how they look now anyway.
Here's the spread shot...
And a heavy shot, which spawns three explosions on impact that take out enemies. It's a bit OP at the moment and I'm not really liking it so I'll probably end up scrapping it for something else.
I wasn't really sure at this point how to implement the new power ups though. The previous system spawned a predefined power up (gun, points or shield) after a chain of enemies was destroyed, and I initially had the gun power up version of that just cycle through the different new guns so the player could wait and choose what they wanted. But I kind of wanted to expand it a bit more with other power ups so it really needed a different approach.
After a Fantasy Zone session or two, I decided to steal it's shop mechanic! Enemies would now drop apples as currency (which start shrinking and losing their value after a second or so, so you need to grab em quick for max value) and instead of spawning power ups, the enemy chains would spawn the shop, where you can buy various upgrades...
The level structure has since changed again and in the current version, the shop only appears in between more clearly defined waves of enemies, but more on that later...
Cheers!
Developer postZOE Dev Log 4
Having done a bunch of enemies and refined the theme of the game a bit, I decided to tackle the first boss fight! I decided pretty quickly that I'd need to somehow pause the side scrolling and create some sort of arena in order to contain the fight, mainly because it seemed like
Original postHaving done a bunch of enemies and refined the theme of the game a bit, I decided to tackle the first boss fight!
I decided pretty quickly that I'd need to somehow pause the side scrolling and create some sort of arena in order to contain the fight, mainly because it seemed like it'd be a massive headache to deal with all of the scrolling and warping issues that would come up otherwise, but I also think it was the right call as it mixes up the gameplay style a bit, allowing the player to move more freely around the screen. To contextualise it, I came up with the 'Frame Trap'!
The camera pulls out to reveal the black frame boundaries which also act as walls to keep the player trapped. I was really happy with this as it solved the game design problem and added to and reinforced the context of the game world.
From here it was relatively easy - I came up with a few ideas for the kind of attacks the brush could do and set about implementing them with a spawning system that randomises the order they appear in. There's also a countdown to when the frame trap happens, so the player is able to get into a position where there are some health or energy resources to use during the fight. It's a fairly easy boss to defeat, but there's room to adapt the difficulty in the future when I get around to balancing the difficulty.
Around this time I was also playing with the idea of a mini map at the bottom of the screen which would indicate where health dots are and whether any of the dots had been popped or not (I was planning to make this scroll with the player, so that the green indicator (the player) would stay in the central position and the others move around that), but I ended up scrapping the idea as it was just too much info to be able to read while playing...
Developer postScattering Fish
Take the fish out one by one and earn points, or dash through them to send them scattering and maybe get a better level clear time bonus?
Original postTake the fish out one by one and earn points, or dash through them to send them scattering and maybe get a better level clear time bonus?
- Developer post
ZOE Dev Log 3
Most of my time on the project had so far been focused on simply getting things to work and making things look decent, but the player really had no motivation or reason to shoot any of the enemies other than to just, you know, shoot all the enemies. I'm a big Shmup fan, and as su
Original postMost of my time on the project had so far been focused on simply getting things to work and making things look decent, but the player really had no motivation or reason to shoot any of the enemies other than to just, you know, shoot all the enemies. I'm a big Shmup fan, and as such rarely enjoy or pay attention to the story in a Shmup(!), especially one that interrupts the shooting, but this forced me to acknowledge that of course all Shmups have a story or framing narrative of some sort. So it was time to try and figure out mine.
The concept that we were playing with a drawn on film animation had been established, so when the music was put in, I thought it'd be fun to play about with a slow down effect and a camera pull out to reveal the edges of the film when the game was paused.
Watch on YouTube This test reminded me of something that had always kind of been at the back of my mind, which was to have the 'animator' as the main antagonist, a hand drawing in all the annoying enemies and becoming the boss at the end of each level. I wanted to introduce this idea as soon as possible through the title screen and the context of the menus leading up to the first level, so for a couple of months I focused on the menu design and implementation.
If I wanted this 'animator' to be the baddie, it made sense that we should see the player character relaxing at first before being interrupted or bothered by them.
Watch on YouTube Watch on YouTube I was happy that I was finally getting to grips with my camera system at least! The next task was to get the paint brush directly antagonising the character somehow - I'm definitely going to need to revisit this at some point, but I think it gets the idea across well enough for now.
Watch on YouTube Now that we had the brush vandalising our character's world, it gave the player some motivation to restore it back to it's original peace and tranquility, which helped me finally figure out one of the main mechanics in the game as well - the popping buttons.
When you ground pound the buttons, you see the background transform to it's original colour. The percentage of the background you manage to clean up is tied in to a score multiplier at the end of each level, so there's hopefully an interesting balance to strike between maximising your score and managing your finite energy and health resources (which also come from the buttons).
Watch on YouTube Thanks for reading! Next time I'll have a look at the first boss fight with the brush!
Developer postThwomp Enemy
I've been getting some more enemies in the bag for level 2 - here's a Thwomp type thing that can take out other enemies if you time it right. Or just hurt you.
Original postI've been getting some more enemies in the bag for level 2 - here's a Thwomp type thing that can take out other enemies if you time it right. Or just hurt you.
Developer postNew Enemy!
Been working on some new enemies recently, this is the level 2 popcorn with slightly over elaborate spawning animation! Still a work in progress.
Original postBeen working on some new enemies recently, this is the level 2 popcorn with slightly over elaborate spawning animation! Still a work in progress.