Artificial Invaders by slay a stone

Only you saw the warning signals, rise up!
It is 2059. AI has taken control of the world. Humanity is enslaved, stripped of free will. Many have died, those who remain are trapped in endless experiments and trials designed to train the AI.
Over the years, something has changed in you. A thought keeps returning, growing louder each time:
What if these trials aren’t just prisons… but weapons?
What if you could turn them against the AI itself and corrupt the system from within? A single disruption might not be enough but a chain reaction… that could bring everything down.
Maybe it’s impossible. Maybe it will only make things worse.
But what else do you have to lose?
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The game is made in Godot. The game is playable on itch.io, with keyboard or controller.
No AI's were used, or harmed, during the making of this game.
| Link | https://slayastone.itch.io/artificial-invaders |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/artificial-invaders |
Ratings
| Overall | 634th | 3.262⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 139th | 3.833⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 665th | 2.952⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 775th | 2.619⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 727th | 2.81⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 403th | 3.333⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 247th | 3.306⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 625th | 3.275⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 30🗳️ | 18🗨️ |
I don’t think I quite understood how the AI takes damage, which made it feel like there’s a bit of a feedback issue. I think I could damage it by baiting it into explosions, but it also seemed like it was losing health from other things. I wasn't sure if it was slowly dying over time. Is that what the burn rate was referring to?
I liked the small details, like the particle effects from the laser hitting the wall.
Between the lasers and the shape display, it felt like I had to be in different places to get the information I needed. I had to be near walls to see laser spawns but also higher up to read the screen, which sometimes felt unfair. The screen showing the AI’s health is a nice idea, but in practice I often didn’t know how much HP it had. It might work better if that info was offloaded somewhere outside the main play area.
At the very least, I enjoyed the variety of gameplay mechanics and the charming art style.
I also liked the funny parody-like story, although there is not much signal-related stuff in there.