Artist Statement

I just submitted sixty second shooter to Indiecade, and they asked for an 'artist's statement' ... I don't really consider sixty second shooter 'art' but here's what I came up with:

sixty second shooter was intended to be the sort of game that rapidly induces a "Csikszentmihalyi flow state" - that state of mind where the player is focused on just the game and the rest of the world fades into the background - and also to cause frequent heart-racing adrenaline rushes, by mashing up the retro ‘twin stick’ (although sixty second shooter uses keyboard and mouse) arena shooter genre with the sixty-second time limit games popular on Facebook.
Like the hardcore shooters of yesteryear, repeated plays build player skill, reflexes and hand-eye coordination; but the strategy is not as simple as shooting anything that moves: understanding of the game mechanics are required to maximize your score. In fact, if you excel at the game’s strategy, you can keep the game in a slow-motion mode that ‘levels the playing field’ - so someone with mediocre hand-eye coordination and reflexes (like myself) can still earn a top spot on the leaderboard.
sixty second shooter was also intended to be a perfect low-friction 'coffee break' game; a player with only a few minutes of spare time can open their browser and, after a nearly instantaneous load time, are playing a short game that they know will be done before their next appointment. They can get in, improve their standing on the leaderboards, and get out.

Comments

[guerick]

Hey, I just installed it a few days ago, and after the first tries I just thought "meh"... But then I found myself playing it again, and again and again!

I love the chain reaction mode, and it really succeeds in introducing you to that "Csikszentmihalyi flow state".

Today I tried to fire it up, but just received a bunch of python gibberish. Right now, the main screen loads but the game itself doesn't the loading bar just stays blank (or rather, black) with "loading...)
Is the game down or something?

Thanks a lot!

[Jamie Fristrom]

Oh! Thanks for the heads up. That was the result of me trying to reduce the server costs. I ... guess I shouldn't have done that. Unfortunately Google isn't letting me change it back right now ... crap!

[Joseph]

Wow, "Csikszentmihalyi" that sounds brilliant, however I didn't know what it meant so I had to google it. Love the game!