Take Turf

Welcome to by submission to GDKO 2025 (Round 3).

The task was to recreate the classic game "Gain Ground". The first thing that caught my attention was the use of projectiles and volleys so I spent most of my time looking at how to create interesting projectiles and projectile trajectories with different parabola heights, distances and speeds.

Story:

After the singularity a superintelligence emerged and took over the world. Now it amuses itelf by having humans play its games. Can you beat it on its own turf?

Gameplay:

• Objective of the game: Like in the original, you must either reach the end area of each level (indicated with the Exit sign) with all your characters OR defeat all the enemies in the level.
• Increase your score by defeating enemies and rescuing characters as fast as possible.
• Unlike the original, the time counter only provides a bonus and will not terminate your run.
• Unlike the original, you cannot rescue characters once they are defeated but you will have a chance to rescue them at a later mission.

Controls:

	Input (classic)	Alternative input
Movement	Arrow keys	WASD
Select/Primary weapon	C/Space	J/Enter
Secondary weapon	X	K/Control
Aim mode	Z	L/Shift
Pause/Character select	Del	Esc/backspace

Credits and assets used:

• Map tiles from https://merchant-shade.itch.io/16x16-puny-world (CC0) with some modifications of my own.
• Additional map tiles (CC0) from https://danieldiggle.itch.io/sunnyside (CC0) also modified.
• Character sprites from: https://merchant-shade.itch.io/16x16-puny-characters and https://merchant-shade.itch.io/ph-myth-creatures and https://axulart.itch.io/small-8-direction-characters (CC-BY) with some modifications.
• Boss 2 and base for the skulls in the game from: https://free-game-assets.itch.io/free-cursed-land-top-down-pixel-art-tileset
• Music (CC0) from https://tallbeard.itch.io/music-loop-bundle
  
• UI background from https://gamedevmarket.net/asset/pixel-texture-pack with some modifications.
• Some UI elements derived from https://bdragon1727.itch.io/basic-pixel-health-bar-and-scroll-bar
• Character portraits from https://gamedevmarket.net/ (licensed via a bundle)
• Slime portrait from https://pngtree.com/freepng/slime-monster-shrem-cartoon_6858694.html
• Cage from https://www.flaticon.com/free-icon/cage_175100
• Fonts from https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Press+Start+2P and https://managore.itch.io/m3x6
• Title screen VFX: https://screamingbrainstudios.itch.io/seamless-space-backgrounds
• SFX from https://beepyeah.itch.io/8-bit-sfx-pack and https://sfxr.me/

Most of the assets I have been fine-tuned by myself and I will try to find time to clean them up and release them as "extensions" to the original assets listed above. After I get some sleep :)

Known issues:

• The last boss is not finished. It was supposed to be the climax where you actually fight the SUPERINTELLIGENCE, similar to how it happens in the original game.
• Health bars do not always update until you hit some buffed characters (i.e. bosses).
  
• Parabolas at a vertical angle (facing up or down) are not evident. The shadow offset is only vertical.
• Some parabolas are not evident and projectiles impact on unexpected places (look at the shadows). Also, vertical displacement is a little off from the actual sprites.
• Math is hard.