Galactic Assault is a fast-paced arcade-style space shooter built with Python and Pygame.
Pilot your ship, destroy enemy waves, collect coins, upgrade your abilities, fight bosses, and survive as long as you can. The game includes Story Mode, Arcade Mode, an upgrade shop, coin rewards, power-ups, boss fights, particle effects, screen shake, and generated retro sound effects.
Current Version: v2.2
Release focus:
- Release preparation
- Coin pass improvements
- Upgrade shop balancing
- Save-file handling improvements
- Boss reward updates
- Arcade and Story Mode polish
Galactic Assault is inspired by classic arcade shooters.
The core gameplay loop is simple:
- Move your ship.
- Shoot enemies.
- Dodge enemy fire.
- Collect coins.
- Buy upgrades.
- Survive stronger waves.
- Fight bosses.
- Try to beat your high score.
The game is designed to be easy to start, but increasingly challenging as waves progress.
| Action | Control |
|---|---|
| Move | Arrow Keys / D-Pad |
| Fire | Space |
| Pause | P |
| Quit / Back | Escape |
| Menu Selection | Mouse |
| Start Story Mode | Enter |
| Start Arcade Mode | A |
| Skip Level Splash | Space / Enter |
Story Mode is a structured progression mode.
It includes several enemy sectors followed by a boss encounter.
Current Story sectors include:
- Sector 1 — Basic Drones
- Sector 2 — Armed Fighters
- Sector 3 — Elite Swarm
- Sector 4 — Boss Encounter
Between cleared levels, the player can visit the upgrade shop and spend collected coins.
Arcade Mode is an endless survival mode.
Waves become harder as your score increases.
Arcade Mode includes:
- Increasing enemy count
- Increasing enemy health
- Faster enemies
- More enemy shooting
- Boss waves after score milestones
- Separate arcade high score tracking
Boss waves appear after score thresholds and become stronger over time.
The player controls a neon-style space ship with movement, shooting, upgrades, shields, and temporary power-ups.
The player can upgrade:
- Cannon damage
- Fire rate
- Movement speed
- Spread shot
- Shield
- Maximum lives
Enemies move across the screen, shift downward, and may shoot depending on their type and wave difficulty.
Enemy types vary by:
- Health
- Speed
- Color
- Score reward
- Shooting rate
- Coin drop value
Bosses are larger enemies with high health and special attack patterns.
Boss features include:
- Health bar
- Phase changes
- More aggressive attack patterns
- Screen shake
- Flash effects
- Large particle explosions
- Guaranteed rainbow coin drop
Boss fights are designed to feel more intense than regular waves.
Enemies can drop coins when defeated.
Coin values include:
- Gold coin: 1 coin
- Orange coin: 5 coins
- Green coin: 10 coins
- Rainbow coin: 100 coins
Bosses can drop a guaranteed rainbow coin.
Coins are used in the upgrade shop.
The upgrade shop allows players to spend coins on permanent upgrades.
Current upgrade categories:
| Upgrade | Description |
|---|---|
| Cannon Power | Increases bullet damage |
| Fire Rate | Allows faster shooting |
| Engine Speed | Increases movement speed |
| Spread Shot | Adds additional angled bullets |
| Hull Shield | Absorbs one free hit |
| Max Lives +1 | Raises life capacity |
Upgrade costs increase as levels rise.
Progress is saved locally.
Power-ups can drop during gameplay.
Current power-ups include:
| Power-Up | Effect |
|---|---|
| SPR | Enables spread shot |
| SHD | Gives shield protection |
| 1UP | Adds one life if below cap |
| RPN | Temporarily increases fire rate |
Power-ups fall from enemies and must be collected by the player ship.
Galactic Assault stores progress locally on the player’s device.
Saved data includes:
- Total banked coins
- Story high score
- Arcade best score
- Upgrade levels
The save file is stored in a user-writable application data folder instead of next to the source file or executable.
This improves compatibility when packaging the game with tools such as PyInstaller.
The game stores saves in a platform-specific app data directory.
%APPDATA%\GalacticAssault\galactic_save.json~/Library/Application Support/GalacticAssault/galactic_save.json~/.local/share/GalacticAssault/galactic_save.jsonIf XDG_DATA_HOME is set on Linux, the game uses:
$XDG_DATA_HOME/GalacticAssault/galactic_save.jsonThe game generates simple retro sound effects using Pygame’s mixer and procedural tones.
Sound effects include:
- Player shot
- Enemy shot
- Enemy destroyed
- Boss warning
- Boss phase change
- Coin pickup
- Power-up pickup
- UI click
- Player hit
- Victory
- Game over
If audio initialization fails, the game continues without sound.
Galactic Assault includes several visual effects:
- Moving starfield background
- Particle explosions
- Screen shake
- Flash overlay
- Muzzle flashes
- Enemy hit flashes
- Boss phase effects
- Neon-style UI colors
These effects are designed to give the game a classic arcade feel.
Galactic Assault requires:
- Python 3.10 or newer recommended
- Pygame
The project is written as a single Python file.
- Upgrade fire rate early if you want faster damage output.
- Upgrade cannon power to defeat tougher enemies faster.
- Spread shot helps clear groups of enemies.
- Shield can save you from one mistake.
- Max lives are useful for longer Story or Arcade runs.
- Collect coins quickly before they fall off-screen.
- Bosses drop valuable rewards, so try to survive boss waves.
- In Arcade Mode, difficulty increases as your score rises.
- The game uses generated sound effects instead of external audio files.
- The game is designed around an 800x600 virtual resolution.
- Fullscreen/scaled mode is attempted first, with a window fallback if needed.
- Save data is local and can be reset by deleting the save file.
- Some controllers may work through keyboard/D-pad mapping, depending on the system.
This version focuses on release preparation and gameplay economy improvements.
Updates include:
- Improved save location handling
- Better coin reward system
- Rainbow boss coin reward
- Upgrade shop balancing
- Boss phase polish
- Screen shake and flash effects
- Procedural sound effects
- Arcade Mode score scaling
- Story Mode inter-level shop flow
The game will continue if audio initialization fails.
Check:
- System volume
- Audio output device
- Pygame mixer support
- Whether another app is blocking audio
The save file is created after progress is written.
Try playing, collecting coins, visiting the shop, or exiting normally.
Progress may reset if the save file is deleted or if the app data folder changes.
Check the platform-specific save path listed above.
For questions, permission requests, bug reports, or feedback, contact:
aaa.maq.contact.us@gmail.comThis project is proprietary software.
See LICENSE for the full license terms.
You may download and play Galactic Assault for personal, non-commercial use only. You may not copy, redistribute, modify, repackage, resell, or publish this software or its source code without written permission from BiG MAQ Studio.
Galactic Assault is free to download and play for personal, non-commercial use.
The source code is visible in this repository for transparency and learning, but the project is not open-source. Redistribution, modification, repackaging, resale, or reuse of the code requires written permission from BiG MAQ Studio.
Copyright © 2026 BiG MAQ Studio. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction, redistribution, copying, modification, repackaging, resale, or public distribution of this software is prohibited without permission from the copyright owner.
This includes the game code, design, gameplay systems, generated audio, documentation, branding, and any related project files.
For permission requests or licensing questions, contact:
aaa.maq.contact.us@gmail.comGalactic Assault was built as a compact arcade shooter with a retro feel, simple controls, persistent upgrades, coin rewards, power-ups, boss fights, and replayable game modes.
Have fun, survive the waves, collect coins, upgrade your ship, and prepare for the next boss.