-= PYRO : World Espionage =-
OVERVIEW
An in-progress game based on the old DOS game Pyro II (itself based on an older game named Firebug).
Infiltrate various sites to recover or destroy top secret files, then burn the evidence as you make your escape. How far can you go?
INSTRUCTIONS
Shortly after entering a floor, your Fuse will ignite - use it to burn as much as you can before making your way down the exit stairs.
- Use Gas Canisters to spread gasoline, or leave them behind to cause explosions
- Only some walls burn, others cannot be burnt, though they can be exploded
- The staircase can only be entered from the right side, regardless whether the walls around it are burned down.
- Your Fuse will burn slower the more fire currently in the level - use this to your advantage to give yourself extra room to maneuver.
- The starting delay for your Fuse igniting is determined by your Fuse length at the end of the previous level.
- Touch any fire and you'll instantly Mission Fail.
CONTROLS
-
X - Hold to pick up a Gas Canister when walking over it.
NOTE: After you have exited the floor or died, you can hold X to speed up time. - O - Drop Gas Canister. If moving, you will spill out the gasoline, causing it to spread wildly. If standing still, you will randomly place the Canister on your tile. If fire touches a Canister, it will explode.
SCORING
- Explode a Gas Canister - 100
- Spill a Gas Canister - 50
- Recover Intel - 500
- Burn Intel - 100
- Burn a wall - 10/tile
- Burn all walls - 5000
- Explode a safe wall - 10/tile
INTEL
Intel is picked up by walking over the asset. They can also be burned.
There are three types of Intel:
- Confidential (Grey) - Can be left behind with no negative effect.
- Secret (Orange) - Mission Fail if you don't recover or burn before leaving the floor.
- Top Secret (Yellow) - Mission Fail if you don't recover before leaving the floor.
SAFES
Some Intel may be locked in a safe. A Gas Canister explosion is the only way to open a safe.
LOCKED DOORS
Some floors may have the exit staircase blocked by a locked door. Find the door's control button and touch it to open the door.
VERSION HISTORY
V0.71
- Changed building colors to have a consistent color progression, to make it easier to understand how deep into the mission you are.
- Updated main menu layout for clarity.
- Reformatted the Field Agent Manual layout and added credits and game info.
- Gave the Agent a little face because it's funnier to watch him zoom around.
V0.70
- Added a tutorial demo that auto-plays through a level showing basic game concepts.
- Updated the Field Agent Manual with details on wall types and how buildings get more difficult as the mission progresses.
V0.66
- Exploding a safe now gives bonus score for each safe wall, to encourage opening a safe even if you can't reach the document inside.
- High Scores are now marked with (complete) if you finished all buildings and completed the mission.
- Updated Mission Debrief ending text to be more specific about type of failure.
- Added support for spawning pre-made levels in buildings (not yet used).
V0.65
- Fixed a crash bug that occurred after clearing final level.
- Fast Forward prompt is now hidden while holding fast forward.
V0.64
- Added difficulty levels (in progress on exact settings), and per-difficulty high scores.
V0.63
- Changed how some wall layouts are constructed to provide better overall pathing for basic layouts.
- Updated the main menu to use selection interface.
- Updated instructions to allow page up/down, and improved formatting.
- Added temp high score screen (high scores will be split by difficulty later).
V0.62
- Added ability to see floor layout before starting.
- Updated stair graphics to make them more obvious as an exit, and darkened player as they go downstairs.
- Add fast forward indicator after dying or exit.
- Added some other floor color variants for testing.
- Adjusted how the amount of fuse carried over between floors is calculated.
- Fixed a bug where you could walk out of the map in the lower corners.
- Fixed a bug where fuses covered by gasoline would not be cleaned up when calculating fuse length for end of level carryover.
- Fixed a bug where the Burned % was not being displayed at end of level.
Thanks! I loved Bun Bun Samurai (was playing it 2 days ago with my kids!) so I'll certainly be looking into this :) Looks great from what I saw on Reddit.
@pjft Aw that's great, thanks so much! This one's a very different game for sure but I'm enjoying playing it while making it, which is always a good sign! :D
This is a great little cart, but I found it really hard though. I have only just managed to get to the second building and most of my attempts end with failure on the first or second level.
I wonder if a few gameplay tweaks would help, such as a little bit more time before the fuse starts in a level (or maybe a 3-2-1 before the level starts so you can plan a route). How about making the outside of the stairwells fireproof in the early levels? Or should the canisters swell slightly before exploding?
Usually my failures are due to not picking up early canisters that case my exit to be blocked, but I am enjoying playing your cart.
Update: my best so far:
I’m working on some changes at the moment that should make it easier, and also plan on adding difficulty levels (and custom difficulty settings) to have a broader range of play styles.
A few examples:
- easier: being able to see level before starting, so you can plan your route, so it’s more like a puzzle than quick response
- easier: some fireproof protection (so you may luck out around a corner and not get burned if just barely touched by fire)
- easier: fireproof potions - temporary fire protection
- easier: improving my level build system so there’s an understanding of what makes a difficult level and avoiding those layouts in early stages / on easier difficulties
- harder: 2x speed mode
- both: slightly less random gas canister placement, so it spreads them out better so it’s easier to have a path to burn full level
- other things I’m sure I’ve forgotten! :D
I like the fireproof stairs idea too, I’ll be sure to add that!
I have actually been returning to this cart all day, and now I think the difficulty is about right :) However when I started I was frustrated by canisters being near the start and being lit early, thus burning the walls around the stairs and preventing my escape. I now play very differently - grab the canisters close to the start and try and get to as many corners to get the edges of the room. My initial issues were due to not understanding the game mechanics and treating it as simply finding a path through a maze.
I didn't realise you were also the author of Bun Bun Samurai (missed the comment at the top). I still play that regularly on Hell Rush Mode. I may only survive for a few rounds, but its all about those high scores. I see this cart as having a lot in common: You may not survive long, but you have to maximize your score while you can. Its so satisfying getting the "burn all walls" bonus.
I dig this quite a bit but also took me a while to get the mechanics...and to read! I'm wondering if some things just need some cosmetic improvements. Like bigger gas cans and maybe instead of stairs, use a door at the end of a hall to symbolize "go here" - it took me way too long to realize those lines were stairs. And then if it's a door it could open up a "get the key" challenge too or something. Base is great and I think it has lots of room to build on.
@phil Glad to see another Bun Bun fan, that was a fun project! Yes Pyro is very similar in that both games have an end but they’re very much “score improvement” games rather than a linear thing you go through over time. Some people never see the end, but can still get satisfaction of seeing more new elements appear and get deeper in each run and improve your overall skills
@morningtoast yes definitely still need to work on a graphics and informational pass. I started doing a 1 to 1 recreation of the original game so some things are still leftovers of that original visual style.
At one point I was going to make the tutorial actually show the game being played but it will take a bit of time and I’m more focused on features still so I put in a quick text tutorial first. :D
I’ll definitely work on making the exit more understandable. As for a door exit, as you progress you’ll actually find later levels have a locked door that blocks the exit that you need to open with a button found somewhere in the level, so I keep the entrance open at the start.
@morningtoast @phil
Latest updates to the cart adds some clarity improvements to the stairs, and being able to see the floor layout before you start, among other things (Version history in the post above). Enjoy!
The new stairs and fade effect are very nice. Not sure about the messages particularly the "speed up" one - I used to like watching the fuse fizz down. But this is minor. Still enjoying playing it and looking forward to seeing it improve.
I showed this cart to a friend and they really didn't get it until I explained the mechanics. Some layouts can lead to very sudden deaths if you don't know what you are doing. I wonder if a tutorial / ridiculously easy mode would help to introduce concepts such as moving cans and dropping them strategically
Updates are great! The press-to-start is appreciated for sure. I've been playing this a lot lately, determined to get to the third building. Just last night I got to a floor that had a document inside a vault? I burned before I got to it but figure I have to explode those walls rather than just burn them.
I was wondering if you tried having the cans just drop when you want rather than having to butt up against a wall and stop first? Use the same pickup button to drop a can wherever and the other button to spill it. It might ruin some of the challenge though...but maybe worth a try to see how it feels to you??
It did cross my mind to suggest power-ups or something but then I thought that might make it too complicated. Dunno. I kept wanting to dash to get by some fire in tight spots, lol - like dashing makes you move a bit faster thus avoiding catching yourself on fire.
I think a simple tutorial would help people to jump in better. Even a text screen that is along the lines, "try to burn as many walls as possible and not die," might be helpful. I guess one nice thing is you can play for score or play to just try to get out so if you just see a maze then fine, but this is so much more than a maze game.
Hi @tmirobot - I'm glad to see this cart is still being updated. I have started playing on Ultra mode and once you get used to the fast speed its difficult to go back to "normal" difficulty as it feels a bit slow. I haven't finished the game - I always aim for 100% burn and often miss one or two walls.
Regarding the fuse: As I understand it, the distance from the lit part of the fuse to the player at the point of exit, is the amount of fuse advantage that you start the next level with. On a straight line you can extend the distance between the lit fuse and player but the fuse burns quicker on turning a corner. Since when starting a level there are likely to be walls in the way it means that if you just get out of a level without being caught by the fuse then the next level you are going to be caught almost immediately. Is there a way to allow the player to mitigate for this - For instance, a greater percentage on level completion could give more fuse advantage?
Hi @phil! Yes still updating here and there. Most likely I will add a tutorial level that auto-plays and then maybe wrap it up, not sure yet!
As for the fuse length - yes, once you exit a level the fuse length keeps growing against the burn rate so you can earn a little fuse, up to a max length, after exit if you have a good amount of fire going at once. I also grant a little bonus fuse if you’re really low. I kept this similar to the original Pyro (as far as I could tell) instead of resetting to the default length each time, to encourage players to play smartly through each level of a building and not just use cheap rush tactics. This is also the reason I let the fuse burn diagonally (I think original Pyro didn’t do this), to encourage planning the fewest turns so you couldn’t rotate through level covering mistakes too much without also setting fires to counter fuse burn, adding risk to yourself. I think this combination keeps the game chaotic and balanced with forcing you to play riskier. However, sometimes even with a REALLY short fuse at level start you can make it if you can get to a gas canister fast enough.
That said, the fuse DOES reset at the start of a new building, to give a feeling of accomplishment/relief.
The reason I don’t base fuse length off of % level burn is to make attempting to burn the whole level risky. That is, if you could recover fuse, you might go around only burning each part of the level down very slowly and calculated. The pressure of fuse length forces you to start fires (to slow the fuse burn rate) that you might otherwise not have risked starting.
It’s a whole ecosystem of risk that I realized the original game set up quite well with a few simple rules!
Also I totally agree with you about Ultra’s speed becoming “standard” feeling haha. Going to Easy is a nightmare but I thought it was a worthwhile addition!
@morningtoast Yes on later levels you can encounter “safes” which will hide a document inside walls that can only be broken open by an explosion.
I added a Help section a while back to explain basic concepts and some more depth of detail, but I’m not sure how understandable it is without the context of the game actually playing, so I’m still considering adding a “tutorial level” that auto-plays through a level showing you the concepts as it moves through the level.
As for letting you drop a can in place while moving, I didn’t add this because of the limited control options (you always need to be able to choose to pick up a can or drop one even while on top of another can I think, so both buttons are needed). Also I THINK forcing you to stop for a moment to drop and explosive is an important mechanic from the original game. It adds timing risk to dropping canisters, though this is balanced by a) fire from explosions burning longer, helping slow your fuse burn rate, and b) the score bonus I added to exploding a canister.
Hope you’re still enjoying the game!
@morningtoast @phil I've added a tutorial demo to the Help menu now, which plays out a level showing you pop up information as it goes. Curious to see what you think in terms of if it explains the game well enough! The longer Field Agent Manual is still included to give more detail on all aspects of the game.
@tmirobot Love the tutorial - clear and certainly shows the way the game works.
When I first saw the agent being human, I really didn't like it. I much preferred the original player representation, but sticking with it, it feels natural now.
I had never cared or noticed that I was changing buildings or floors - every level is just another level, and occasionally a new play mechanic is introduced. However since you stated that moving buildings changes the fuse length, the color coded buildings are a good improvement. Maybe you could go further on the between-level screen with an indicator rather than just a name for the building.
A minor observation I want to make is that I was playing (on ultra :) ) and I was progressing through the levels when the game just stopped. I thought I had either beaten the game or a glitch in the game caused it to end. What I think had happened, was that I had missed a gold document and so failed the mission. By assuming I had completed the level, I had pressed to dismiss the screen and move on, but was surprised to be returned to the title screen. If you die on a level its pretty obvious! But missing an important document was something I just wasn't paying attention to. Anyway, just an observation.
@phil hmm, that’s a good point about document failure. It makes an obnoxious noise and the level end pop-up has “mission” failed in red text, but like you said, I think people get used to just skipping through.
I tried to makes the end of level summary compact so you could see some amount of the level in case you left things behind, but tbh the pop-up is so big it may be more worth making the failure text extra big or something. I’ll think on it. Same thing for the building # indicator
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