In the event you’re searching for an arcade-style shooter with a sweet-sweet twist then Ben Walter‘s Lengthy Dwell The Hive may bee the one for you.
Ignore my preposterous punning. Lengthy Dwell The Hive is a strong little shooter that stands by itself with none wordplay. If something, it makes use of phrases in a way more intelligent, direct, and minimalist manner: It shouts them. It doesn’t shout them as in ‘please flip down your laptop audio’. No, it ‘barks’ like a drill teacher, the voice in Superhot, or a hive thoughts may. THE HIVE MUST SURIVIVE. It’s easy, cool, efficient and feels completely becoming to the premise.
Contemplating that it was created as an entry to the not too long ago ended Ludum Dare 56 — theme, Tiny Creatures — and was completed properly forward of cut-off (in beneath 18 hours) there’s really quite a bit going for it.
To play, you are taking management of one of many drones inside a stage, flying round with the WASD keys and firing towards your mouse cursor with the left click on. You’ll hearth small pellets of nectar (or honey or unspecified yellow blocks) which might clip off elements of enemies or finally kill them should you hit them on their core (purple) physique elements. Most of them will hearth again, although, and your projectiles persist, cluttering up an already-busy hive.
Every of the degrees are generated as you drop in, with new enemy varieties (and larger densities of them) coming into play as you make your manner by way of increasingly more ranges of the hive. Map era and enemy distribution is usually good, though I had a few spawns the place enemies had been dumped in as massive stacks and even immediately subsequent to me. That stated, there’s a second of hesitation earlier than they shoot so you possibly can usually scutter away from them.
One thing else that I particularly loved about Lengthy Dwell the Hive was that should you do die, you’ll tackle the type of one of many different bees littered across the stage. Nevertheless, these will be collaterally killed by the hive-invaders, so generally you received’t have any lives left after a single loss relying on the pace at which you goal enemies.
Lengthy Dwell The Hive is out there free of charge on itch.io.