X-Caliber is a horizontal shmup inspired by games like radiant silvergun, where instead of a gun, your ship has a greatsword that you can use to charge into or slash at enemies.

Hit multiple enemies at once to keep your multiplier up to gain boosts and try to get your score as high as possible!

This game was made for the Bigmode 2026 game jam. My interpretation of the theme of 'Slick' was to make a gameplay system that felt cool. To do this, I looked into what I found cool in games and combined it with one of my favorite genres: bullethells. I've always loved the sensation of feeling like an aerial ace in a bullethell, constantly doing evasive maneuvers, so I initially came up with something to do with a mechanic involving you turning your engines off mid-flight. This led to the idea of the charge dash mechanic, where you briefly turn off your ship's engines to charge up a dash. Another thing that I added to make the game feel 'slick' was things like the multiplier, which allows you to charge attacks a lot faster with skilled play.

Thumbnail art was made by my sister

Jersey 10 font used for the game is owned by The Soft Type Project Authors (https://github.com/scfried/soft-type-jersey)