Micro Survivor

Controls:

• WASD to move
• Mouse to build walls
• Right Button to build, Left Button to erase

List of Upgrades with Descriptions:

• Spinner: A weapon that orbits around the player.
• Ram: A weapon that faces the direction of the player's movement.
• Mines: Automatically spawns mines behind the player (only works when moving).
• Cross: A weapon that cycles between horizontal and vertical attack patterns.
  
• Burst: Spawns numerous obstacle cells that hinder swarm navigation but can be pushed around by the player.
• Divide: Automatically spawns obstacle cells at fixed intervals.
• Heal: Restores player HP.
• Max HP: Increases maximum HP.
• Build: Allows players to construct walls that block the swarm's path. Unlike obstacles, players cannot move through walls, but they can erase and rebuild them at any time. Each upgrade level adds 20 cells to the maximum wall count.

About the Game:
This is an endless survival game inspired by Vampire Survivors. Evade the swarm, fight back, gain levels, collect upgrades, and unlock new tools.

In line with the jam’s theme, “Built To Scale,” I aimed to create the tiniest survival game possible. I chose the world of microorganisms as my inspiration, and fittingly, the main enemy in this game is a cellular automaton that relentlessly chases you around the level.

I’ve always felt that games featuring massive enemy swarms often have simplistic crowd navigation, which detracts from the fantasy of being chased by an intelligent opponent, and by extension, the power fantasy. I sought to bridge that gap by making the swarm act as a single amorphous unit capable of complex flow-field-based navigation.

Feel free to reach out if you’d like a more detailed explanation of how it works.

The game was solo-developed by Stepan Drunks over the course of 4 days.
Here is a link to my portfolio: