TROPES

The pitch

TROPES takes the stock situations of video games (collect 100 coins, the ice level, the escort mission, the floor is lava) and plays each one straight for about thirty seconds before it breaks. The coins unionize. The lava falls in love with you. The final boss takes a phone call and gets fired.

Every trope has three or four possible twists. Some are picked at random each run and some only fire if you do something first, like standing still on the ice. A run is a short tutorial, six tropes and a final boss built from whatever the run picked up.

Screenshots

How to play

1. Start a run: a short tutorial, then six tropes and a final boss.
2. Clear each trope. It leaves a mutation that rides along into the next one.
3. Try things, like standing still on the ice, to set off hidden twists.
4. Check the TWISTS screen for what you have found and hints at the rest.
5. Play the daily cartridge for the shared board, or win once to open the full cartridge.

Controls

Details

• Over fifty twists, three or four per trope
• Full cartridge: all fifteen tropes and the boss, opened after one win
• Daily cartridge: the same run for everybody that day, with a board for the fastest clean win
• Switches for screen flash and shake; flashes are capped at two a second
• Assist mode with endless lives (keeps the run off the daily board)

Facts