Arcade Anarchy

Arcade Anarchy is a series of 5 single-player mini games set inside a futuristic arcade. The games feature skill based, challenging objectives that will test your abilities, while still being enjoyable and replayable. Earn tickets by playing games, and earn more tickets the better you score. Players can spend their tickets in an in-game store for fun collectibles.

The five games break down visually as follows:

#1. Reverse Space Invaders

The background is a black-blue screen with white pixels that visually represent the night sky and the stars and constellations. A swarm of lime green alien sprites which represents the player and their invading alien swarm. The swarm also doubles up as the player’s health bar. Additionally there are the light blue force field shield sprites that represent the player’s buffer that prevents damage to the swarm but in turn get damaged and get destroyed after three hits. The colour of the shields change from blue to orange to red depending on the health of the shield. Finally there is the tank sprite which represents the enemy the player will face, the tank sprite in turn spawns bullets that fire toward the player, these damage the player and kill one of the player’s alien ships. Additional levels of the game changes the attack of the tank and thus the shape and colour of the bullets that fire from it, from scatter shot that kills three in a row to rail guns that destroy an entire column.

#2. Centipede Breakout

The player can control a small character restrained to the bottom of the screen (able to move up and down a little) with a score and high score shown in the top corners. After initially moving the player, swinging the sword, and shooting projectiles a centipede crawls down from off screen. The music starts playing. This centipede has sharp crawling legs and fangs brightly standing out on the black monitor. The centipede zig zags and the player shoots at it turning white body segments red indicating damage dealt. The player swings a sword at the head causing the screen to shake, a thwack sound to play and the centipede to be thrown back to the top of the screen popping the head awarding points with a satisfying small ding and animation pop-up where the head ‘sploded. The centipede returns to its zig zag. The player shoots a damaged spot and the centipede splits, with a larger point pop-up and higher ding sound effect. The player shoots wildly at the centipedes trying to clear them out of the way yet gets overwhelmed and eventually one passes them and they lose, Their highscore pops-up showing them how close they were to reach the next bracket to be awarded tickets with an option to try again, when trying again the centipede spawns almost immediately. This time the player defeats the centipede yet questions how the points needed for ticket brackets are so high. The player tries again, this time splitting the centipede intentionally to score more points. When they defeat the centipede this time the screen changes colour (because they scored x amount of points) and another centipede comes down, this time the game running twice as fast with accompanying music. Completing the bonus level they can score the max tickets.

#3. Ballpocalypse

You’re trapped in a room, with nothing else but a ball and your gun, the player must shoot the ball while it bounces around the place, BUT must also dodge the ball, because if the ball hits you 3 times, it’s game over for you. But shooting the ball isn’t the final step, once successfully shooting the ball, you will quickly see the ball split into even more balls, and the more you shoot it, the smaller it gets, until you dissolve all the pieces by shooting the smaller pieces until there is nothing left. You have a total of 2 chances before you are obliterated by the ball, so make your shots, and your lives count. The catch is, the higher the level you go, the faster the balls get. Can you beat the levels in the fastest time? Good luck! P.S. Faster Time = Better score, Better score = more tickets!

#4. Desperado Dash

You start the game and are immediately faced with a horse who is running along a dirt road with three lanes. Passing by is the barren desert of the wild wild west with shrubbery, cacti and not much else. As you run, you are prompted to move back and forth, change lanes by moving up and down, and jump. This is the point where the game truly begins. Up ahead along the track is a rock blocking your path, you can choose to move to another lane to avoid it, or heroically jump over it. You chose to jump, but up ahead is a cactus that you don’t believe you’re able to jump over, so you move aside. As you’re running and avoiding obstacles, you see a tumbleweed coming from your left (the top of the screen) which you also must avoid. From behind you, you hear a whistle, and an alert on the screen pops up on the left hand side in one of the lanes, that a lasso is coming, it flashes for a few seconds then the lasso shoots out from behind. Unlucky for you, you were in that lane, unable to change, and the lasso wraps around you, rendering you unable to move, and slowing your movement. You are prompted to press a button over and over again, as obstacles keep coming towards you. If you are unsuccessful, you hit an obstacle while being immobilised and you lose one of your lives; reach zero lives and it’s game over. Your score is determined by how long you are able to run for, and is determined in metres (24 metres per second, the speed of an average horse)

#5. Hide ‘n’ Seek

I (the player) start the game and find my character hiding behind a low wall, in some sort of courtyard within a military base. I see fencing, watchtowers, barracks buildings. I see a message in the centre of the screen saying “Collect the intel, but don’t get seen!”, and then a 30 second timer at the centre-top, which has started to count down. I start to see guards, who have appeared in my field of view, patrolling the area. I see a sprite of binoculars pop up with a button prompt - this is the “Intel” I need to score. I hit the button to peek out of cover and then the button to collect the Intel. I see my score in the top right corner go from 0 to 1. I see an exclamation mark symbol appear above a guard, and a “hide!” message above my character’s head. I quickly hit the button I used to peek again and my character ducks behind cover, before the guard turns to face my direction. I’m safe, and the guard eventually turns away. More Intel appears and I repeat this process, until the timer reaches 0. The game is over, and the game gives me a message displaying my total Intel, equalling the same amount of tickets. The tickets are added to the total I’ve earned from playing the arcade games, and I get a prompt to “Start over?”