Technolites, the frantic shoot ‘em up from Canadian studio zugalu, is now on Kickstarter seeking $24,674 USD ($31,000 CAD) in completion funds:

Featuring an original story with fully-voiced characters and a ton of ship customization options, Technolites thoroughly updates the genre while maintaining the action-packed arcade gameplay, made legendary by ‘80s classics such as Xevious, 1942, and Terra Cresta.

Less than one week in, Zugalu has already raised nearly $8,000 from backers. (The campaign is set to end on Sunday, March 18.) If funded, Technolites is expected to launch in Q4 2018. Get a preview of the game’s fully-customizable spaceships and arcade combat by downloading the official demo from Game Jolt and itch.io:

Fight for Survival
Technolites re-imagines the top-down shooter with an engaging narrative featuring multiple endings. Set in the near future, humankind has begun to explore outer space in search of new worlds. A wayward mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa uncovers an ancient alien spacecraft – and four United Earth Space Alliance (UESA) astronauts are tasked with perhaps the greatest challenge in the universe: Defeat a seemingly endless horde armed to the teeth with unknown weaponry. If the astronauts fail, the Earth they once knew will be forever lost …

Join the UESA team on their most important mission yet as they crisscross the solar system and galaxies to wipe out this new, horrifying threat. Unlike other shoot ‘em ups, you’ll be able to build your own ship from scratch and outfit it with dozens of unique parts and weapons. Customizing your ship allows you to decide how you want to play: Build a small-yet-deadly ship allowing you to quickly dash and blast enemies – or craft an all-powerful, fully-loaded juggernaut able to give (and take) a mighty beating.

Fly your new spacecraft through 7 unique worlds featuring 20 detailed levels and blast enemies any way you see fit. For even more firepower, you can fight alongside a friend via online co-op, combine more than 500 weapon choices, and level up your crew of characters.

Available as a playable demo through the Kickstarter campaign, Technolites has been featured in a number of outlets – including Worthplaying, Linux Game Consortium, The Gaming Ground, and popgeeks.net.

Read more about Technolites and Zugalu here.