LÖVE

"Spellrazor: a haunted arcade game inspired by Rogue, Defender and Berzerk"


Latest builds: 0.9.10 - 17th of February 2016
[New tutorial and front end, bug fix for lightning, more clarity!]


Latest builds: 0.9.5 - 18th of January 2016
[Shader and endgame updates]

Latest builds: 0.9.2 - 9th of December 2015
[Fullscreen bugs sorted out - finally]

Latest builds: 0.9.0 - 18th of November 2015
[Game finished, complete with 'ending', (apart from any bugs people find)]

Latest builds: 0.3.0 - 27th of October 2015
[ALL spells now in! New creatures, dark levels and vaults]

Latest builds: 0.2.9 - 23rd of October 2015
[24 of 27 spells implemented, Slowmo now implemented as 'Danger zone', console improved, crash bugs removed]

Love file: here

• Arrow keys to move
  Every letter on the keyboard fires a unique spell
  The '~' key allows access to the 'debug console' - more on this later.

Who are you?
I'm Dene Carter - I was one of the creators of Fable, one of the core team on Dungeon Keeper and the guy who made Incoboto for iOS.

What do you want? I'm busy!
I've been working on this weird little 'haunted arcade game' for about a month now. It's inspired by really beautiful old arcade machines of the 1980s - specifically Eugene Jarvis' Defender/Robotron as well as Berzerk.

Spellrazor is an arcade game with (believe it or not) 27 unique fire buttons and a single directional stick used to guide the 'Adventurer'. Peculiarly, there is no aiming. Aiming is automatic, meaning that positioning and choice of spells are critical.

What? 27 fire buttons? You're crazy. Or stupid. Or crazy stupid. That's a thing now, you know.
Well, there's a weird story that half explains why this came to be, and why I call this a 'haunted arcade game'.

The story goes that a guy named Duncan Bower created the original Spellrazor in 1980/1981 just before being booted out of Williams. He took the original code with him, and shortly afterward found himself working on, believe it or not, Polybius for the CIA/Sinneslochen, after which he disappeared. There are indications that even before he left he was edging toward insanity.

Spellrazor is what he was working on before Polybius. Before he went mad. Hence 27 fire buttons and no aiming.

You said something about a debug console? Is this thing broken?
As in the original game, there's a debug console which the player can use to access various things. It's kind of glitchy, and infused with Duncan's odd sense of humour. For example, there's a weird mode that slows down time when you don't move, which turns the game into a strategy game!

There are numerous weird glitches in the game that seem to hint at something creepy within the game, buried deep within the arcane console commands.

Am I going to enjoy it?
I won't lie - it's a difficult game. And you only get one life. Add to that the secrets that are growing, plus the increasing levels of intelligence the monsters are beginning to show and it's clear that Spellrazor is not going to be for everyone. Games of this era were brutally hard, and - from the Williams stable at least - kind of sinister (as befits a guy who went on to work on Polybius). If you liked Defender or Robotron, you'll probably find this to your taste.

What now?
This project is mostly done: there are a few more of the spells to put in, and a couple more enemies including bosses armed with the same spells as you, but it's already enormously (if masochistic) fun. The music's not final, but overall, I'm really pleased with how this little 'resurrection' has worked out.

Finally, I thank you enormously for your time. I also thank the Love2d fraternity for making Love2d one of the best game environments I've had the pleasure of working with in my long years.

Wow, you know how to make an entrance to a forum! Welcome!

The mac version is not available, but I was able to try it on my mac by downloading the windows version and renaming the .exe to .love - just a couple times, made it to level 2.

It feels very polished, definitively more polished than what I could accomplished in a month. Was this a month full-time or part-time?

I liked the no aiming aspect. I didn't enjoy the "27 keys" too much though. I get that it's one of the most prominent features of the previous one, but it feels like the interface is getting in the way a bit too much for me. The novelty might have outweighted the weirdness in the past, but for new games my expectations are different. Maybe it's something you can warm up to.

I liked the weird messages.

Fixed! Ack! I thought I'd checked all the links. Thanks so much for letting me know!

As for the 27 button thing... there's a mode you can buy in the console (for in-game gold, not real money - this is a free game) called 'slowmo' that does a Matrix-bullet time thing every time you don't move. I'm finding that players are increasingly liking it, so I might well make it standard.

As for the game - yup - a month of full-time, believe it or not. To be honest, it should have taken a lot less time but I took ages re-learning AI routines, trying to write my first Retro 80s track and... yup, making excuses. I like learning new stuff, so it's all good.

Again, thanks so much for the feedback. I know that nobody has much time for new games these days - especially weird ones - so it's appreciated.

[P.S. Also trying to figure out how to replace the default Love2d icon for Windows if anyone has any tips...]

The Mac link is still wrong, it's now linking to a demo of a game called Bemuse.

Madrayken wrote:[P.S. Also trying to figure out how to replace the default Love2d icon for Windows if anyone has any tips...]

You need to swap it using a nice little program called ResHacker.

Rickton wrote:The Mac link is still wrong, it's now linking to a demo of a game called Bemuse.

Gah! Fixed. Again. And checked. Again. Apparently anything I do in a rush is a total disaster. :-/
Speaking of which, BeMuse was my previous Love2d effort, and it's even weirder and less friendly.

Thanks again for your help.

Nixola wrote:

Madrayken wrote:[P.S. Also trying to figure out how to replace the default Love2d icon for Windows if anyone has any tips...]

You need to swap it using a nice little program called ResHacker.

Thanks - I'll look into it. I do wish Windows didn't have to make something so rudimentary so frickin' awkward. With the Mac app, I just have to place the .love and icon files in the correct place, alter the info.plist and it's done.

New build 0.2.6. Tried downloading from both links. Both worked from my end!

If you hate 'slowmo' mode, you can type 'slowmo' into the console (type ~ while playing to open it) to toggle it.

Can you distribute a .love as well? Considering many of us know how to get to them anyways. That way Linux users can use it too.

Here!

If anyone laughs at my code I'm going to cry. No, really. It'll embarrass you all and make you feel bad.

In addition, I know you *can* look up spoilers, but please don't!