Free Gorf started as a basic shoot-em-up game. I wanted to do something that was more complicated than Space Invaders but still basically involved a 2D shoot-em-up kind of engine at the core of it. Initially I envisaged some sort of manic shooting game, something much along the lines of the sort of thing that Jeff Minter used to produce and initially this was how the game developed. Then one night a lightbulb flicked on in my head and I started to wonder if I could also incorporate puzzle elements into the game as well to create a sort of hybrid game. With this idea in mind, I started to experiment with the code to see what I could do ( when I write games, I very much like to deal with working prototypes rather than ideas on paper - although I do some of that as well ). I found that it wasn't too much work to change the game engine I had running to deal with the puzzle elements and it still has plenty of scope for expansion. What you see here today is in no way complete. It still has loads of things missing and I have a lot of levels to add to it. The graphics are still my rough working prototypes and are yet to get any 'professional' attention. But I shall finish it.....one day.....
The game is set on a grid of tiles. Behind the tiles you will see a trapped Gorfian robot. To release the robot, certain challenges must be carried out.
Your ship has 360 degree movement
and is rotated left and right by using the D-pad. Cross acts as an accelerator,
Triangle as a brake, Circle fires the lasers and Square drops mines.
Mines are key to certain levels
of the game, when a mine is dropped on a square you will see it count down from
10.
When the mine reaches 0 the square
is then owned by the player and an animation is used to indicate this , however
trying to stop you are a number of nasties and if they either complete the challenge
before you do or destroy you then you lose the game.
Until your mines have exploded
it is possible for the minesweeper to convert them into enemy mines.
Minelayers lay enemy mines in
an attempt to possess tiles.
Fighters will attack you and
try to defend enemy mines.
You can download the latest version of the game here.