Blockships — a game which involves building your own ship while avoiding the bullets of other combatants — puts the challenge on thinking fast and moving efficiently!
Coined as the ‘illegitimate love child of Space Invaders and Tetris’, Blockships has appeared at a large number of events including EGX, Insomnia and Play@Develop, to name a few.
In this wonderful multiplayer title, you must build the best ship you possibly can by running into blocks that appear in space, all while blasting away at friends and stealing what they leave behind. You start off as a single, core block — so any block you run into will attach to one of your sides. There are several types of blocks to make your ship out of and each type has a different role.
Your core block, which you start with, is your life. If this gets blasted or bumped, you die and are out of the game. You can also grab green power cells, which give you the power to attach more blocks to yourself without moving sluggishly. Blue engines give you more speed and guns shoot bullets in whatever direction their red end is facing (which can sometimes be towards you, if you don’t watch out).
Of course, you have a bit of time at the start of each round to collect up some pieces and make the best ship you can to start, and you are able to let go of blocks you don’t want. If you become skilled enough, you might be able to twist around blocks, rotating them so they fit you better. Once everyone is ready, the battle begins and the walls separating each of you fade away. You then need to shoot your enemies down — or you can ram them, if you have extra blocks attached to your ship.
As the match plays out, more ship parts appear in space — and the walls around the area begin to move in on you. If anyone gets caught in the moving walls, they are destroyed and eliminated. The last person standing gains a point and then it’s time to do it all over again!
With so many different blocks and strategies, Blockships is a super-fun party game which can be played over and over again. It is extremely easy to learn to play but hard to master, especially when you play against talented friends.
At events, Dave Cooper, the developer behind this amazing game, runs his booth as a huge competition. He announces as the players take turns trying to win — or simply survive — with a booming microphone and amazing showmanship! He regularly runs competitions, which really amps engagement and always drives a crowd to his booth. It really is a sight to see.
You can pick up Blockships on Steam for £4.99, where it is currently in Early Access. If you’d like to follow development, you can check out their website or follow @blockships on Twitter!
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