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Space Huggers
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About the game
Space Huggers is a side-scrolling run-and-gun game. You are a rebel commando dropped onto a remote planet where the empire has built an outpost, and the mission is simple: eliminate every enemy on the level. The counter at the bottom of the screen says how many are left, and a radar along the bottom edge points to the nearest ones.
Every level is built at random, with its own terrain, colours, sky and weather, and almost everything in it can be destroyed. Bullets chip away the ground, grenades blow holes in walls, explosive crates and barrels go off and grass catches fire, and fire spreads to whatever is next to it, including you. The enemies come in five kinds, from plain soldiers to white specialists who roll and flip, with larger variants that take more punishment. You have a stock of clones instead of lives: lose one and the next one drops in at the last checkpoint. Clearing a level adds three more. There is no final level; the game simply keeps going.
Frank Force made Space Huggers for js13kGames 2021, whose theme was "Space", writing it on an early version of his LittleJS engine. Everything, including the level generator, the particle effects and the sound, fits in a zip of 13 kilobytes.
Playing it here
This is the version on the js13kGames site, as the author updated it during the competition's voting week. Click Play and the first level starts straight away; the sound starts after your first key press. The game uses richer graphics in Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge, Opera) and a lighter mode elsewhere. Nothing is saved between visits.
Plug in gamepads and up to four people can play at once: press a button on another gamepad to bring a new player in.
Controls
| Keyboard | Mouse | Gamepad | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| A D / ← → | stick | move | |
| W / ↑ | A button | jump; hold to climb walls | |
| S / ↓ | stick down | climb down ladders | |
| Z | left button | X button | shoot |
| X | middle button | Y button | roll |
| C | right button | B button | grenade |
| R | restart the game |
After all clones are gone, Z, Space or a gamepad button starts over.
A few things worth knowing
Roll out of trouble. A roll makes you briefly invulnerable, damages the enemies you roll through, gives you a burst of speed and puts out fire.
Fire spreads. Burning grass and crates set their neighbours alight, which is a great way to clear a group and an easy way to burn yourself.
Grenades are scarce. You get three per clone, so save them for tight spots and for walls you need to get through.
Keep your distance from white specialists. They roll and flip often and are much harder to hit up close.
Climb. Holding jump against a wall lets you climb it, which opens shortcuts over obstacles you would otherwise have to blast.
Credits and licence
Space Huggers was created by Frank Force, who wrote the game and its engine, drew the tiles and made the sound effects with ZzFX, his tiny sound generator (MIT licence). The game is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 3. The licence texts and the complete source code of this build are linked from this page.