- Steam Deck Verified! - 26 September 2025
It's official, ZOE Begone! is Steam Deck verified!
- Patch Notes - 23 September 2025
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!Graeme
- ZOE Begone! is a fab hand-drawn fusion of bullet hell with a run and gun - 17 September 2025
Inspired by drawn-on-film animation of the 1930s, ZOE Begone! masterfully blends together a bullet hell with a run and gun shooter and you need to check it out. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/09/zoe-begone-is-a-fab-hand-drawn-fusion-of-bullet-hell-with-a-run-and-gun/
- ZOE Begone! Out Now! - 17 September 2025
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 as you can. Compete for the global high scores across 5 stages, 3 modes and 3 difficulties of hand-drawn bullet hell chaos. Check out the new launch trailer below while you're downloading :D Join the ZOE Begone! Discord https://discord.gg/4P8cr9BFA6
- ZOE Begone! Developer Gameplay Stream - 27 August 2025
Watch the developer try and get past the first level on hard mode!
- ZOE Begone! Release Date Announcement! - 12 August 2025
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!
- ZOE Begone! Developer Gameplay Stream - 25 February 2025
Watch the developer try and get past the first level on hard mode!
- ZOE Begone! Next Fest Developer Gameplay Stream - 15 June 2024
Watch the developer try and get past the first level on hard mode while talking a bit!
- ZOE Begone! Next Fest Gameplay Stream + Q/A - 14 June 2024
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
- New Demo Released! - 2 June 2024
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 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!
- Brand New Key Art! - 31 May 2024
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
- New Demo For Steam Shmup Fest! - 25 September 2023
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.
- ZOE Demo High Score Attempt 2 For Next Fest! - 18 June 2021
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!
- ZOE Demo High Score Attempt For Next Fest! - 18 June 2021
Join me - yes me, the dev - as I attempt to regain the high score on my own game. I will probably fail.
- Evolution Of The Worm - 16 June 2021
Regular worm. Metal Worm! Blingworm, the final form.
- ZOE Dev Log 5 - 16 June 2021
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 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…
- ZOE Dev Log 4 - 31 March 2021
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 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 att…
- Scattering Fish - 26 March 2021
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?
- ZOE Dev Log 3 - 26 March 2021
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 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. This test reminded me of something that had always kind of been at the back of my mind, which was to have…
- Thwomp Enemy - 21 November 2020
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.
