Just Shapes & Beats

• Developer — Berzerk Studio • Publisher — Berzerk Studio • Platforms — Windows, Nintendo Switch, Linux, macOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S • Genre — Bullet hell, Music-based • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer • Engine — Unity • Director — Simon "Lachhh" Lachance • Composer — Danimal Cannon Shirobon • Artist — Émilie "Em" Bourget • Programmer — Étienne Bedard Simon Lachance Olivier Lamontagne Shayne "Kojak" Wheeler • Designer — Gildeguy Marc-Antoine Jean Gavin Jones Clement Lachance Hélène Lachance Simon Lachance Vincent Longpré Michael Molinari

• Illustration — Player fighting with one of the bosses of the game, evading their attacks Just Shapes & Beats consists of multiple levels based around individual music tracks—predominantly chiptune—by artists including Nitro Fun, Danimal Cannon, Noisestorm, and Pegboard Nerds. Up to four players control one small shape each, represented by either a cyan square as player 1, a yellow triangle as player 2, a green pentagon as player 3 or an orange circle as player 4. Players dodge attacks in the form of various shapes typically coloured in pink, such as beams, bouncing waves, pulsating shapes, and bouncing circles. These attacks appear and move in rhythm to the music, with difficulty increasing the further players progress. All levels are divided into normal runs where the goal of the player is to survive until the checkpoint appears, and harder difficulty boss battles, where the player survives till the end without any checkpoints Getting struck by an attack causes the player to lose hitpoints. Players can take up to three hits in regular tracks before breaking, and six during boss tracks. If the shape breaks entirely, the game rewinds to the previous checkpoint or back to the start in the case of the boss battles; if it breaks in multiplayer, other players can touch the "dead" floating spot (if it has not gone off the screen) to revive them with one remaining hit point. Three breaks within a single level results in a game over screen, with the text stating "It's Over" and the cyan square breaking into pieces. Tapping Enter multiple times causes the square to fix itself and changes the screen's text to read "It's NOT Over", allowing the player to continue from the beginning of the level. At the top of the screen, a bar with a white triangle at the end serves as the progress bar for each level. In story mode, mini-games involving additional character movements exist as filler between levels. Aside from the main story mode, the game offers playlist, challenge, and party (music only) modes; the former two can be played to collect "Beatpoints", an additive and accumulative scoring system based on the player's performance and amount of levels played. A "Hardcore" difficulty was added in 2019, which increases the difficulty of available levels by reducing reaction times and adding more attacks.

The first demo of the game was revealed at PAX 2016 and was meant to be released that summer. During the event, the release date was delayed from late 2016 to early 2017. The game was eventually delayed again, with a launch date of summer 2018. On March 20, 2018, it was announced that the game would also receive a release on the Nintendo Switch. On December 4, 2019, the Just Shovels & Knights update was released, containing 4 remixes of pieces from the Shovel Knight soundtrack. On June 25, 2021, the studio announced that "The Lost Chapter" would be added to the game in an update on July 23. The update consists of five new tracks, including a remix of "Spider Dance" from Undertale. As its title suggests, the update brings back a "lost" segment of the story mode which was planned but not implemented in the initial release. On April 21, 2022, it was announced that the game would receive a release on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S consoles on May 31.

Source: • PAX Prime, 2014 • Indie Megabooth Alumni • PAX East, 2015 • Indie Megabooth Alumni • SideQuesting Team Choice Award • Destructoid Best of PAX • Golden Joystick Awards, 2018 • Best Audio Design nominee • Best Indie Game nominee • Independent Games Festival Awards, 2018 • Excellence in Visual Art