Do you have friends? Have you ever wanted to festoon the walls with their entrails and festively splatter their liquefied remains over every visible surface?

A few of you may have played this before (thanks for helping to test!), but to those of you who haven’t I’m pleased to announce that I’ll soon be releasing a two dimensional shooter. At this point it’s almost done- all it wants is a bit of polish and some sound effects. The game is a collaboration between myself and my friend Jack Perkins, with a number of other people contributing levels. At my friend’s insistence, it is eloquently titled “Murder Simulator.” Thanks, Jack. Now everyone will think I have heads in my freezer.
Murder Simulator is a single screen multiplayer contest very much in the spirit of games such as Scorched Earth, Liero, and Nidhogg. It’s pure player versus player; there is no single player mode at all. Jack and I had both recently played Beau Blythe’s 0Space, and while we both like it a lot we wanted to make something which had a similar depth, but which was easier for people to pick up and play. We made this with an eye for intuitive controls and streamlined mechanics. The controls consist of only four directional keys and a single trigger. There is no jumping, alternate fire, or fiddling with items. The pacing is measured rather than fast and twitchy. This gives people room to finesse each shot. It also makes for suspenseful moments as a grenade arcs through the air, or someone drops in for a kill with the spread gun.

One of the most fun things about development was making the weapons. Combat is fairly positional- each of the weapons works best in a different environmental situation. My favorite weapon is the one second from the right. It’s called the pink gun. It makes people pink. This is either a good thing or a bad thing depending upon one’s point of view.