Xane

Game created during Boss Rush game jam "Exchange", 2024.

     

How to play this thing

The main goal is to kill the boss. A big dark flying creature with red glowing core. Your best weapon is the lightning beam, which you activate by holding the right mouse button. It deals huge damage per second. It is difficult to hit small nimble beasts with it when they are far away, but up close it is indispensable, and it is also the best weapon against the boss. Using this beam requires plasma. You'll know it's over when the beam starts to sparkle. You have some plasma at the beginning, but then you need to collect yellow plasma balls that drop from burned monsters. In this version of the game there is no plasma indicator; understanding the available amount is only possible intuitively, with experience. Perhaps in future versions I will do something with this.

Regular projectiles that you launch with the left mouse button do only basic damage, it increases a little when you have plasma, but do not try to focus on them, they are not effective in a serious mess.

At the same time, you need to maintain your “health”. There is no scale or healthbar here. You won't be confused when your character starts going crazy, the game will make it clear to you. The only way to delay the madness a little is to exchange the accumulated plasma. To do this, you need to go under the tetrahedron and hit it with a lightning beam. When the tetrahedron lights up yellow, it means the exchange is successful. The madness will subside, but for how long? The answer to this is only your skill. This is the main idea of "Exchange", which is the theme of the jam: you either have the beam or cure, you can't have it all at the same time.

Initially, this is designed to be a hardcore game. If you feel that it is too easy to play, let me know, you can record a video if you wish, I would be interested to know how other people play it. Anyway, thanks to all who played and rate it, your feedback is very important. I will surely continue developing of this project, your opinion will be very valuable for any further edits. Good luck inXane!

Hints

Always move. Use jumps/hover and dash a lot. See controls ingame menu or check out a screenshot.