Classroom Doodles Come Alive in a Top-Down Shooter

Like everyone else, no doubt you've doodled little things on lined papers during boring classes. Maybe you doodled hearts and ponies, but more likely spaceships or airplanes. Matt Lucas apparently doodled soldiers and guns, at least by the evidence of this game: the graphics are pencil sketches, the background lined notebook paper.

Gameplay is simple, old-school shooting action; move your soldier with the WASD keys, shoot with the left mouse button or throw a grenade with the right, grab power-ups by walking into them. As you move across the map, you encounter enemies; if it moves, shoot it. Later on, you get to control a tank, and a helicopter. Simple fun, and the nature of the graphics is always charming, and sometimes rather humorous.

Cannons in Space

Spacetanks is a cannon game, a style that's been around since the earliest computer games, and is best known in the Worms series of games. There's a twist to Spacetanks though; you control a tank on one planet, and are trying to destroy an opposing tank on another planet somewhere across the screen. Your planet, and his, and others scattered about the screen, have gravity--and the path of your shots are influenced by gravity.

As with other cannon games, you change the elevation of your turret and the power of the shot, fire, and see whether you hit your opponent. Because of the nature of gravity, you sometimes wind up shooting yourself--it's possible for the shot to orbit back to you, which is irksome, to be sure.

The Finest Sidescrolling Shooter of the 21st Century!

Possibly, anyway. Too bad there aren't more people in the 21st century who care about sidescrolling shooters....

One of the disadvantages in being a developer from a country where there isn't much of a development community and not a lot of connection to the modern market for games, is that you may well spend a lot of time, money, and effort developing a highly-polished game in the style of games you love--and then discover that publishers elsewhere aren't all that interested in your title because, well, it is so retro. Nobody makes them like that any more. And certainly not at this budget. And with these production values.

One of the advantages of developers from countries who make this mistake is that by bringing modern production values and passion for a particular style to the party, they can create a game that is so retro--and also positively kickass for what it is.

Swarm is a shmup--a 2D space combat game--but a bit more than that as well. Your main task is mining a resource called EZT--which the "swarm" aliens are also attempting to do. They do more than get in the way, of course--they shoot back.

It's a level-based game; after you collect enough EZT, a gate opens to the next level. Naturally, as the game progresses, the aliens become more numerous and aggressive.

In and among the space debris, you'll find many power-ups, including, after level 20, the "star clubber," an awesome thingie that swings around and whacks enemies nearby--sort of a space morningstar, if you will.