PROTEST & SURVIVE

Every single person gets thoroughly munted by the skeletons the first time they play Dark Souls . Almost any game that involves swinging a sword and casting spells hits you with some skellybones within the first couple of minutes to basically let you swing your sword at them or cast your spells on them. As such, their sole purpose is to teach you the rudimentary basics of the games combat.

This is also true of dark souls despite the skeletons uncharacteristic toughness. The skeletons are there to tell you that It’s OK to die. . Try somewhere else for now and come back when you’re stronger. Level up. Don’t get complacent. Expect the unexpected. Constantly be on your guard and be well-versed in your moves. Never rush in and just button mash because , even with low level trash mobs , you’ll get janked. And so on .. 

We implemented something of a similar mentality to Stage One of Crust Shmup. Within the first few seconds of our introductory, brutalist Police State setting, you encounter two waves of three law enforcement badges, all firing black, round bullets at you. You’re actually very evenly matched with each badge unit and have a far higher rate of fire, but you are outnumbered six to one. If you steam in with guns blazing, you will almost certainly take them all out, but you are very likely to receive damage or possibly die in the process.  

At this very early point in the game, the player has one life and no continues - so dying once here results in the Game Over screen and being unceremoniously returned to the main menu. 

This is what I have come to affectionately refer to as a ‘2-Second-Scum-Run’.

It’s now that the player would either say ‘fuck this’ and walk away or perhaps they will be tempted to give it another go. If they take the exact same approach again, and attempt to engage with the enemy in the same, straightforward terms - this too would likely result in another 2-Second-Scum-Run.

However, should the more curious player wonder if it’s even necessary to kill these enemies at all and simply immediately fly to the area of the screen that looks safest. And then just sit there doing absolutely nothing - like, hands-off-the-controller, no shooting-no-moving kind of nothing - the badges just march on by and you’re in the clear. And you’ll be rewarded with an extra life and a power-up for your (lack of) trouble.

The entirety of the game’s systems and everything you need to know in order to beat it is shown to you in the first few seconds of play

Yes, the odds are stacked against you and the system is brutal. But it’s riddled with weak points, making it fragile, broken and easy to exploit. So always be looking for loopholes and resist the temptation to retaliate when it is unnecessary. And in every case , try to choose pacifism over violence.