Alien Blimp (Demo) Update 1!!!
A downloadable game for Windows
I procrastinated a lot playing DOOM, but I finally made the first update for the game, which includes:
- Clean transition between levels 1 and 2
- Infinite lives option
- The player now has a health bar (highly requested)
- Two control options
- Reworked mini-boss
- Xap now has big boobs in Blimp mode (why didn't I add this before?)
- And maybe something else; this is more of a quality-of-life update. Sadly, there's no level 4 yet.
Alien Blimp is a new platformer I'm working on alone. The gameplay is simple: run, jump, shoot, and inflate. Yes, inflate; this is also an inflation game.
Warning! The game may contain: Inflation (We're not talking about the economic one)
Game still in development, expect bugs or unfinished things, for now there are only 3 short but challenging levels (and one mini boss)
Controls:
Option 1: A and D to move, Space to jump, Q to inflate or deflate (inflated, the character will float slowly upwards), F to shoot.
Option 2: Left and Right to move, Z to jump, C to inflate or deflate (inflated, the character will float slowly upwards), X to shoot.
Credits to all these amazing people:
-Music 1 (Main Menu): HydroGene
-Music 2 (Level music 1): emanresU
-Music 3 (Boss music 1): Spring Spring
-basically all the sounds in the game: SubspaceAudio (Juhani Junkala)
A little information about the game:
not so short Lore: In a distant galaxy (because Earth isn't involved in this), a war that has lasted over five years reaches its peak. Two races, the Xer and the Phuroins, fight with everything at their disposal in an intense war for resources and territory. These two species have been in conflict since first contact. Xap, a skilled Xer spy, is tasked with infiltrating an enemy communications base located on Gragua-9, a planet not so far away, and gathering important strategic information. During the mission, Xap will also receive external help.
Xap is equipped with an experimental quantum weaponry consisting of two pieces:
-Overgrowth Blaster: a handheld pistol that fires quantum energy which, upon impact with a organic organism, will cause a sudden molecular expansion (or in other words: Fwoomp). It only works on organic or mostly organic creatures; on machinery, it will only fry its circuits, which is also good, since it can be used to hack or disable systems.
-Overgrowth Device: a special backpack connected to Xap's suit, it's like the Blaster but pumps quantum particles into Xap's body, allowing her to inflate.
Enemies:
-Wall Sentry: A round thing attached to the back wall and shoots large plasma balls. It's slow but acts as an efficient defense. Sometimes it has rail-mounted versions.
-Soldier: A male Phuroin soldier, equipped with a standard plasma weapon, is a major threat if left alive. They jump, shoot, and maintain distance, but a single shot will inflate them like balloons, and a second shot? It'll make them pop.
-Guardian: a large mechanical beast, armed with two smoothbore plasma cannons, capable of operating both independently, either obliterating anything in front of it or firing upwards for anti-aircraft cover or medium-range artillery fire, or both. These machines fulfill many roles, from defense and attack to troop support, and due to their manageable size and weight, they can be deployed from ships in large numbers, although they are somewhat slow. One in particular was built with more armor than normal and was stationed to guard the entrance to the base on Gragua-9.
That's all I have to say for now, thanks for reading. Since the mess that was OVERCHARGE (especially for me), I've tried hard to create a better game, and I hope I've succeeded, and that you enjoy it.
Feedback will be appreciated; you can tell me what you liked about the game or what I should improve.
| Status | In development |
| Platforms | Windows |
| Rating | Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars (20 total ratings) |
| Author | ZephyronTheProtogen |
| Genre | Platformer, Shooter |
| Tags | 2D, Aliens, belly-inflation, expansion, inflation, Pixel Art, Retro, Robots |
| Average session | A few seconds |
| Content | No generative AI was used |
Download
Development log
- update 2 progressMar 26, 2026
- NEW UPDATE!!!! (and my first time writing a devlog)Jan 22, 2026






Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
I love how this game looks! But big question will there be a mobile version in the near future?
Always WE mobile, gonna ask if it will have for mobile :3
Oooh, I'm getting "Riki's Inflation Game" vibes here.
Speaking of, in my opinion the inflation should come with "levels" (ie sizes. Level 0 is regular, Level1 gives you a higher jump boost, Level 2 makes you float up but makes you small enough to maneuver through the traps, Level 3 is the full inflation like in the demo. Maybe Level 4 would make you a HUGE target but you can flat through the air).
But that's just my suggestion and opinion.
Looking forward to seeing this game develop further. ^^
Hopefully this doesn't come off as an attack on your suggestion, but wouldn't this be redundant? Of course nobody would complain about a bigger Xap (or less instant growth), but the current switching between normal and blimp states fulfill the purposes of all the proposed stages.
While I do appreciate your suggestion (Stage based inflation can be debated and I do agree with that), the current size of Xap is already doing enough than an already bigger size.
Making Xap any bigger than that would make the stage incompatible with the extended size, leaving the final stage redundant (Ex: Much bigger target, corridors are too narrow to dodge the enemy’s attacks, getting stuck on walls, to name a few).
However, I can see this idea only applicable to a very select areas on specific segments like one of those Wario Land Transformations (Ex: A vertical scrolling segment where you inflate to the biggest size, but then you’ll float up and dodge obstacles and won’t deflate until you reach the ceiling). You unfortunately can’t have access to the last stage since you’ll need an item to inflate to the biggest size.
Could it be possible in the future to have an enemy that pumps air into Xarp? Potentially exceeding the air of her device?
Is there a planned scope for this game? As in, how much do you want to add to the game before it's considered complete?
I had in mind three chapters, each with five levels and two bosses per chapter (I've almost finished chapter one), and maybe a much more challenging bonus chapter.
I was also thinking about adding post-game content or something like that.
it wont even load for me
That's strange, I use a laptop from 2010 and it runs perfectly. What kind of device or operating system are you using?
Pretty good so far, the controls are a lil weird to get used too. Trying to shoot, and inflate at the same time doesn't exactly work.. Part of me also wishes there was a pacifist route? Where you don't cause your enemies to pop and instead leave them to their inflated thoughts hah
As much as I also would prefer this, the Phuroins are at war with Xap and the rest of her species, so you're not blowing them up without reason.
In the past, I tried to make it possible to fire and inflate simultaneously, but the problem was that inflating or deflating reset the firing cooldown, which was very overpowered. I still don't know how to fix that.
I propose that the cooldown shouldn’t be tied with the sprite’s frames (Ex: Waiting until the sprite is at its specific frame to shoot again).
It should be a separate cooldown variable that ticks down whenever it goes above 0 (Ex: Shooting will have the cooldown variable at let’s say 30). That way, you can’t shoot until the cooldown variable is at 0, even if you shoot at skinny and then quickly transition to a blimp, the cooldown variable doesn’t reset.
I also tried that, but the code wasn't working properly; I'll see if I can optimize it.
I tried mixing code and animations, it works perfectly; now there's no need to wait for the firing animation to finish.
Awesome, that’s good to hear! ❤
Uhh, please add a tutorial or instructions to the game because sometimes people don't bother to look at the page and just go and download it (especially if you're going to change the controls for the next version)
Great update! The second control scheme feels much better, the new boss looks much cooler and the lives system being a toggle gives people an optional challenge! I do think the controls should be listed on the main menu for clarity, since there isn't much going on there anyway aside from the ship that flies around.
I hope the power source mechanic from the original mech fight is revisited, though. If it were tweaked to make it more obvious damaging them did something or it just took longer to beat a boss if you didn't deal with them, it would be a welcome addition.
I agree on the improvement, even the second comment you mentioned about the previous boss not telegraphed correctly.
The second control scheme may take time to get used to. But if anyone wants the controls: [Arrow Keys = Move | Z = Jump | X = Shoot | C = Inflate]
Oh yeah, happy birthday!
I’ll have to remind myself not to stay next to the wall when inflating, else I’ll get stuck inside of it. At least in the boss, I’ll no longer trying to aimlessly shoot at the boss not knowing that there are weak spots to shoot at (It was the previous build).
The newly added health system was pretty needed! I went back to flawlessly beat the demo with no damage taken!
I've fixed the issue with getting stuck on walls; it will be included in the next update.
"welcome to hell"
I wasn't expecting that haha (This gave me a stroke)
👀
Dunno if it's a known bug or not, but if you go into blimp mode while you're too close to a wall or ceiling, you get stuck.
Yes, it's a bug, I still don't know how to fix it
Have you seen if the collision box is the same size?
Because it's likely that when the sprite is changed, the collision box will be a little bigger.
The bug has been fixed; I simply made the walls push the player if they detect that they are inside the walls.
Nice game! I will say that the control scheme is a bit odd and the lives system is a bit frustrating with how the player dies in one hit, but it doesn't detract too much from my experience personally. I like what you have here and hope you continue with it!
As a side note, I modded the game for myself to play as one of those Phuroin soldiers. Nothing against Xap, I just happen to like the bugs too.
I cant download it but i NEED a playthrough of this
will this continue i really liked it and the gameplay of it also really like the enemy getting inflated as well keep up the good work hope to see it full release