Atomic Rock Paper Scissors is a weird strategical action-puzzle game, originally created by me and my sister for the Ludum Dare 49 Game Jams. Ludum Dare is an online event where game designers must create a game entirely from scratch within 48 hours (solo competition) or 72 hours (team jam). Each event has a theme, decided by community vote and revealed when the event starts. LD49's theme was "unstable".
PLAY ATOMIC ROCK PAPER SCISSORS @ ITCH.IO
Below is a video showcasing the gameplay and some features of the game. (It's not a "smart" playthrough, as I just wanted to show off the special effects!)
In Atomic Rock Paper Scissors, players must use the usual rock-paper-scissors rules to clear pieces off the level and create "combos" to earn points. Every move increases the "metal bar", which when filled drops metal blocks into the level that can only be destroyed by "nukes". Nukes can be obtained by clearing pieces and increasing the "nuke bar", and better combos increase it faster. Nukes are detonated if they are part of a combo chain, and the bigger the combo the bigger the explosion! Nukes also detonate each other, which leads to really satisfying gameplay.
After the event was over, we expanded and polished the game further over the next week. This is the final result.
My sister was the lead art designer, while I coded the entire game from scratch using JavaScript, based on a custom game engine. I also composed the soundtrack, and this was also my first attempt at making original music. The soundtrack is available on SoundCloud.
In creating Atomic Rock Paper Scissors, we wanted to avoid all the typical matching puzzle cliches. We based the game mechanic on the cyclic nature of the rock paper scissors game, which leads to a surprisingly rich gameplay strategy. There are also no "automatic chain reactions", so that players must consciously make every move count, deciding where to clear space for incoming metal blocks and nukes.
Since difficulty ramps up by number of moves, a high score requires an intelligent use of the rules. Despite the simplicity, the rules of the game lead to a really interesting and fun gameplay.
We hope to develop it into a mobile app version in the future, as the concept is pretty fun.