Heading Our Way
Heading Our Way
Inspired by the classic 1982 era PC game Paratrooper, Heading Our Way takes that simple “defend the gun from descending troops” idea and builds it into a larger modern arcade game.
Defend a ground turret against waves of helicopters, paratroopers and other airborne threats. Shoot enemies before they can overwhelm your position, survive increasingly difficult waves, and protect the turret for as long as possible.
** THIS GAME IS STILL UNDER DEVELOPMENT **
What I'm especially interested in hearing about:
- Is the game immediately understandable?
- Does shooting feel satisfying?
- Is the difficulty too easy, too hard, or about right?
- Do the waves stay interesting?
- Is anything confusing or frustrating?
- Did you encounter any bugs?
Please feel free to leave feedback in the comments or message me directly.
Some small notes:
- 'P' key will pause the game
- For the best experience, play in fullscreen
- Chrome and Firefox (on Windows), make sure to tap the inner blue Full Screen button and not the outer one. Just play around with it.
- Chrome, Firefox (on Mac) -- its a Mac, it just works...
- The final full game is planned as a desktop release for Windows and macOS
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.plan:
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v0.0.9, v0.1.0
21.08.2026:
Version 0.0.9 was more of an alpha release, published mainly to see how the game behaved. Version 0.1.0 is much more mature. It contains the entire initial game loop. There’s a start and there’s an end. I added more game mechanics and menus, and I’m working on building a solid architecture so it will be easier to expand the game and add new elements later on.
[+] Game loop
[+] Main menu
[+] Options menu
[+] Pause menu
[+] Basic weapons
[+] Basic enemy - paratroopers, helicopters
[+] Basic power ups
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v0.2.0
04.09.2026:
[+] More enemies (bombers)
[+] More weapons (blast projectile)
[+] More power ups (shield, projectile damage, projectile fire rate)
[+] Better UI/Animations/Sprites
[+] Bug fixes
[+] Wave timer, Total game timer
Plenty was added. The initial release contained only the basic helicopter, paratroopers, and some unbalanced wave management. This version introduces a second enemy — the Bomber. And that bomber can drop bombs! A single bomb will destroy the turret, so it goes without saying that we need shields. That led to the addition of a Shield Power-Up. Increasing the difficulty of the waves also meant adding more Power-Ups to help the player handle the growing challenge.
For this itch.io release, I decided to include 10 manually crafted and balanced waves so players can give more focused feedback.
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v0.2.1
05.09.2026:
[+] Fixing itch.io's full screen issue on Windows machines. The UI gets clipped when the resolution does not match.
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v0.2.2
05.09.2026:
So, after receiving some excellent feedback about version 0.2.1, it became obvious that I had missed the mark on a few things that, as the developer, I simply took for granted.
The fact that most players did not intuitively understand a core mechanic how to interact with the drop ships and Power-Up containers, or how to defend against and interact with the Bombers that drop bombs on the turret, really shows how being so close to the code can cloud your judgment when it comes to the actual player experience :)
So, although there is a tutorial and there are in-game messages, they are clearly not readable or intuitive enough. So, to tackle those...
[+] Added FTUE (First Time User Experience) that pauses the game and explain how to interact with Dropped Containers
[+] Added FTUE that pauses the game and explain how to defend and stop falling Bombs
[+] Added some affordance icons (instead of the bottom text instructions) that better explain how to interact with different items
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v0.2.3 (Current)
06.09.2026
[+] Change the way volume buttons behave. Using left/right mouse buttons to control volume is not readable.
[+] Fix missed dropped containers piling up
[+] Test cursor readability on Windows machines
[+] Fixing some cursor issues in FTUE views
[+] Fixed a few UI bugs when game is over
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v0.3.0:
[-] Abilities in start of Wave or Session
[-] Earn special items per achievement
[-] Handle ground assault
[-] More enemies (Boss, 3rd air craft)
[-] Mega weapon to clear sky (As a power up / chargeable)
[-] Game Over statistics
Comments
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The regular helicopters I understand. The second one to appear I couldn't shoot, it dropped something I couldn't shoot, and then that just sat on the ground. And later another dropped one that stacked on top of it. The third one dropped a bomb that I couldn't shoot and killed me instantly.
Thank you so much for the feedback!
Yes, I’m currently working on a much better system that explains what needs to be done and how to interact with the different aircraft in the game, such as drop ships and bombers. It seems I kind of missed the target on that one, so the next version is going to have a much clearer way to explain it all.
Please stay tuned! :)
I addressed some of your feedback... Feel free to check if it helps now.
Thank you!
Instead of the forced tutorial, I think it would be better to make the gameplay more intuitive. Make it so you get the upgrades by shooting them and you stop the bombs by shooting them. Though it would make more sense to collect upgrades by *not* shooting them.
The second gun really doesn't feel like an upgrade. Sure you might occasionally hit two enemies at once, but if it takes twice as long to fire, it's just not worth it. One thing you could do is make it so they reload independently, so even if it's not as good it's worth using. Or maybe you have the main gun you fire by holding the mouse button, and then press buttons to fire the other guns, and they each have their own icon showing how long they take to recharge.
Actually, the guns reload (recharge) independently. You can do exactly as you suggested: hold the fire button (LMB) and switch between 1 and 2 on the keyboard. That way, you can fire multiple projectiles when both weapons are recharged. This is actually an important technique to use in order to progress through the harder waves.
Regarding the recharge time of the second weapon — wait for the Power-Ups that increase the fire rate. :)
I thought about adding some sort of recharge icon near the reticle itself, but I think it might be too distracting and could make the UI feel a bit too heavy or busy. You do have the recharge bar at the bottom left, though, which indicates the recharge progress as well as the fire rate (e.g. 1.0/s = 1 projectile per second).
I do have a small question: if you’re playing on a Windows machine in the browser, does the crosshair look alright? Or is it too thin or too small? Is it readable enough?
Also, does itch.io give you any issues when switching to fullscreen?
Thank you