Beat 'em Up

A side-scrolling beat 'em up from one manifest: walk a street from left to right and fight your way through waves of enemies. Write the stage (how long the street is, how deep its floor), the waves (where each one locks the screen and who walks in: thugs, punks, knife fighters, bruisers and a boss) and what lies around (barrels, crates and oil drums that break and drop food or cash), pick a theme (city at night, harbor, factory, dojo, temple, jungle...) and a look (pixel, painted or flat), and the plate does the rest. The street has depth: you walk up and down the floor as well as along it, the cast is sorted by its feet, and every fighter casts a shadow. Every character is painted in code and animated: walking, running, a jab-jab-hook-uppercut combo, a flying kick, a throw, a spin special that costs a little health, getting hit, knocked down and back up. The fighting is real frame data: startup, active and recovery, hit-stun, knockdowns with invulnerable get-ups, hit-stop on every blow, combo damage that scales down, and blows that only reach your own lane. Enemies close in and take turns, two at a time, while the rest circle; a boss charges. The screen locks on each wave until it is down, then GO. The HUD has your health and lives, the last enemy you hit and its health, and a clock if you want one, with title, pause, game-over and stage-clear cards. Arrows or WASD walk (tap twice to run), X attacks, Space jumps, C is the special; a pipe or a blade lying in the street is yours with the attack button; two can play (rules.players 2: player 2 on I J K L with 7 8 9, the lives shared); a gamepad and a phone's touch pad work too. Three layouts: arcade, kiosk and clean. Ships empty on purpose.

Supported file formats: PNG, JPG, JPEG, WEBP