First time participating in a game jam

QUANTUM STG // PHASELINE

A four-World bullet-hell prototype by DenDesk for Global Quantum Game Jam 2026.

Read the warning. Braid into another World. Your route becomes part of the next attack.

PHASELINE combines vertical shooter combat with quantum-inspired rules. Four Worlds stay visible throughout the run, including empty Worlds. Braiding moves your pilot between them, while recorded positions and routes shape later enemy attacks. Change your electron cloud to trade particle resistance for wave resistance, then find an opening to strike.

Start with TUTORIAL, then START SOLO with the recommended Shot job and Original boss. A solo boss run lasts up to five minutes. Wave, Blade and Guard offer different ways to attack or defend; all jobs and bosses are prototype balance and are marked UNBALANCED.

Quantum connection

The theme is quantum BRAIDing. This game borrows the idea that a sequence of exchanges can matter, and makes movement history visible and consequential. It is a classical, deterministic game analogy, not a simulation of quantum amplitudes, anyon fusion or a quantum computer.

Controls

• Mouse: move; left button or Space: fire; release fire to charge Shot.
• Double-tap a different World key (1-4) within 350 ms to braid there.
• Wheel: change cloud size. Right mouse: precision assistance.
• Guard: wheel / M switches shield and blade; Shift+wheel changes cloud.
• Escape: return to menu. Tutorial: R repeats practice.
• Keyboard / controller profiles and remapping are available in settings. Controller: stick moves, A fires, B toggles cloud, double-tap a D-pad direction to braid.

Prototype scope

The public entry focuses on solo combat and guided practice. Developer Mode exposes unfinished field exploration, local co-op experiments and network tools. Those modes are experimental; internet/EOS multiplayer is not accepted or presented as complete.

This build has not received a full human difficulty, hearing, accessibility or long-session performance evaluation. Some earlier headless runs reported resource cleanup warnings. See the included README and notices for the tested scope.

Credits

Game: DenDesk. Development used OpenAI Codex assistance. Engine: Godot Engine (MIT). Rollback component: Godot Rollback Netcode by David Snopek (MIT). Music: J.S. Bach / Kimiko Ishizaka, Open Goldberg Variations (CC0); Beethoven Symphony No. 5 / Skidmore College orchestra, via Musopen (public-domain recordings). Full notices are included with the build and accessible through CREDITS.