If you publish Flash games in some capacity and would like to fund further development based on this prototype, don't hesistate to contact me at nathan_AT_icecreambreakfast.com.
INSTRUCTIONS
Arrow keys: move
Space: Attack (after grabbing power up - this will use it up)
'f': fullscreen, 'escape': leave fullscreen.
Note: Because this uses Actionscript 2, fullscreen input might not work.
'm': mute/unmute sound (not in fullscreen)
GOAL: Grab powerups and then attack enemies. Get as many points as possible, and survive until the timer counts down.
Please wait for this to load - there's no progress bar. Click the flash app a few times to give it input focus.
There's no way to restart, so press F5 to refresh the page to play again.
How to Play Well
Learn what the attacks do. Dodge well when you can't attack. The order that you collect, and use, discrete attacks matters. Otherwise, there's not too much depth to this prototype.
Design Notes
This is yet another arena / arcade game prototype.
In this prototype, the frequency of attacking is low, and the act of attacking is highly varied and powerful, based on what the environment has provided the player. All attacks are used up immediately. The lion's share of the time, the player must defend and dodge.
Running Away
Once upon a time, "running away" was something players spent a lot of time doing in games. Look at early arcade games, and you'll find scores of games with players flatly powerless before their foes or other hazards in their containing systems. They spend all their time running away. Some games let players attack back, but those attacks rare and limited. Think of Pitfall / Pitfall 2, Pac-Man, Lode Runner, Q*Bert, Montezuma's Revenge, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Burgertime, Boulderdash, Paperboy, Mario Brothers, and Impossible Mission from Epyx. In each, the player is avoiding enemies most of the time - running away, dodging, trying not to get hurt. Eventually, in some, at low frequency, the tables turn and the player retaliates, often in a quixotic, stylized way. Not all old games featured this approach, but it was common. And then it just sort of went away.
That's a shame. Not all or most games should make players extremely vulnerable and threatened, but as a concept, it ought to have a spot in the game design toolkit. I think so particularly because the terror of running makes the reversal of fortunes, when it is time to retaliate, so much more the sweeter. Eating four ghosts with a single power pellet in Pac-man is intense and satisfying precisely because the player is so powerless the rest of the time. It's procedural revenge.