XNA Gamer An indie Game Dev blog.

Game Autopsy : bloc

Welcome to the first Game Autopsy. In this feature my aim is to pick apart a game that is up on the Indie Game channel not in the sense of whether it's a good game or not but to try and look at what it's doing both from a developers point of view and that of a player. The first game that I'm going to look at is bloc written by Nick Gravelyn. Bloc is one of the first games to make it on the the channel and as such should be one you're familiar with.

Game Concept

Bloc is a new twist on the top-down shooter. Destroy blocks by firing like-colored orbs while dodging a swarm of enemies.

You play a circle that can fire four coloured shots in four directions denoted by the coloured segments of your circle. You can rotate the player object so that you can fire your colored shots in any four directions.

Your aim is to destroy the colored blocks that travel across the screen with out being touched by them, you lose a coloured segment if you get touched by a block and die when all four of your segments are lost.

There are three power-ups in single player mode, a shield, a regenerate lost segment and a super shot that will destroy any color bloc. Also in co-op mode there is an extra power-up to revive a lost teammate.