Everyone is 10 seconds from death, and yet there are ways to cheat even death itself. Everyone dies in 10 second intervals, meaning it matters not when one's health reaches zero, just that it's not zero when 10 seconds is up. In the top right is the timer, which is the single most important section of the screen. If you have even just 1 point of health when it reaches zero, you get to live for at least another 10 seconds. The same applies to enemies as well, except that they can't heal like you can. Oh, there's also a score, and the lower the timer is when an enemy's health reaches zero, the higher the score you're awarded. Also the less health you have, the stronger you get! Do you play on the edge to maximize damage? Or keep your health as high as possible to maximize safety? It's up to you to decide!

Details

Feel free to skip all of this and dive right into the action using the embedded version at the top! If you want more details before playing, then read on!

This is a first person shooter that kind of plays like a fast-paced retro shooter, except that there are modern conveniences like dashing for temporary invincibility, and sprinting to move quickly. On the lower left is your health; make sure that this is above zero when the timer hits zero. At zero health, your damage is 5x greater though! On the lower right is your ammo. Your weapons use this first, and then use your health once you're out of ammo, meaning you'll always have bullets to fire. Once an enemy hits zero health, they drop an item that increases both your health and ammo. However, holding "Q" or "E" when picking it up will convert the entire item to health or ammo respectively, along with adding a small bonus. Dashes may be used to move around quickly, and also to safely pass through enemies and projectiles without taking damage. You can also double jump if you really want to get stylish.

Something to keep in mind regarding items: they're wiped when there's only one second left on the timer. Even better, enemies will stop dropping items altogether in the last second! That's also when you get the most points for zeroing enemies, so it's not all bad. Definitely be careful when making a risky dash to grab an item, as you don't want to get in a bad position only for it to disappear!

Every 10 seconds, not only are current enemies with zero health removed, but new enemies spawn. The number of enemies that spawn increases by one each time.

Weapons

You have three weapons, and they each have a special role. Your first weapon, accessed by pressing the "1" key, is the pistol. It fires extremely quickly and is very ammo-efficient (most damage dealt per ammo used), but is relatively weak until your health drops. Your second weapon ("2" key) is the shotgun. It spreads bullets far and wide and can zero many enemies very quickly, but it chews through ammo. Great to use when you're surrounded and need items now. The third weapon ("3" key) is your sniper. It packs a massive punch, but requires a high level of accuracy to make the most of it. It's also the first weapon that pierces through enemies as your damage increases due to lower health. Sniper rounds will pierce full-health enemies as soon as your health drops by a single point, while shotgun rounds will never pierce a full-health enemy. Pistol rounds start piercing once your health drops to half. Your bullets, when colliding with enemy projectiles, will destroy the enemy projectiles. This, however, lowers the damage of the bullet. Sniper rounds do not experience any damage loss when hitting enemy projectiles.

Enemies

Lastly, let's talk about the enemies. The first are skulls. They meander toward your general direction, and like to fire projectiles wherever they're looking. They're relatively harmless on their own, but are hard to hit due to their flying nature, and can quickly become overwhelming. The second enemy type are vampires. They want blood, and will make a beeline toward you. They can't climb ledges or fire projectiles though, so you're safe on higher ground. Just make sure you don't get hit, as they pack a serious punch. Last are turrets. You can harmlessly walk right through these guys, and they don't even move! Well, not in the traditional way at least. Once the timer is up, they'll teleport to an area right around you, and they just love to fire projectiles. If you're not careful, they can shoot at you in concert and take you to zero instantly. Thankfully, they're easy to zero since they don't move!

Records

Now that you know how the game works, get out there and give it your best shot! For the record, here are the creator's best attempts:

Daylon: Time 00:04:40, Score 2435

James: Time 00:02:20, Score 670

Notes

KNOWN BUG: On itch.io, Firefox has a bug where the cursor may drift to the right. It is recommended to use Chrome to experience the game on itch.io. The version embedded here does not seem to exhibit such issues on any browser.

Built using raylib

Version 1.1: We rebalanced the game, as the original 1.0 release was not tuned well and was extremely easy. The version embedded here and on itch.io are version 1.1, as we feel it best represents our vision. If you want the original version though, it is available for download as a Windows executable, along with the source code. You may also play the 1.1 version as a Windows executable, which we recommend for the smoothest experience. The game gets very hard as time progresses, and a higher and more consistent framerate may actually make a difference!