[all monsters]

Helix is the new Michael Brough thing for ios. It's a single screen action game about encircling enemies, Toups did the the sounds for it, and it's excellent. I haven't spent enough time with it to say anything particularly insightful just yet, so here are my high scores:

Brog mode: 87

Terror mode: 38

Vortex mode: 12 :(

[Toups]

don't ignore the eggs
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[108]

yeah this game rules; i have had this game on all my iOS devices for almost two years, so long has its development period been

michael brough sent me the game because he liked ziggurat enough to want to make a ziggurat-like of his own (one-screen, "endless with an ending")! so that was his starting idea for helix. i guess helix is a lot better than ziggurat. (which would make me sad if i hadn't already prototyped sixty or so other better-than-ziggurat games :~~~3)

i told brough to ask toups to do the music, so i am pretty much a godmilf of this game

yep i feel real cool right now

time to click "submit" and feel sad again about being poor
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[Mr. Mechanical]

Brog mode: 26

Haven't tried the other two modes yet. I like this. Wasn't too sure about the controls at first but then I learned to take things slow and started to find the groove.

Much like Ziggurat I will probably never see the ending but I'll sure enjoy trying.
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[unhappy days]

I'm really digging the controls, actually. I like how the eye's acceleration is contingent on how quickly you move your finger. It feels kinda slippery at first, but it allows for a lot of flexibility in terms of how delicate/swift you want your movements to be, and where on the screen you want to be at any given time. I've been in a few situations where a bunch of enemies are closing in, but then I manage to carefully maneuver my way out and whip the eye to safety.

My only issue is that, playing on a 4S screen, my thumb often obscures a lot of what's going on. I have to avoid getting into the bottom right corner of the screen for this reason, but if I somehow end up there, I'm pretty much doomed. Maybe the solution is to use an index finger instead of a thumb, but for me that would mean relinquishing some fine control. I guess it's the sort of game that's meant to be played on a larger screen, like an ipad or 6/6+.

The payoff of targeting the egg is interesting. Erm, spoilers? -- if you break open the egg, a few moments later a blue cheese-looking thing starts drifting across the screen that you need to circle five times to defeat. This leads to a sort of bonus round where if you manage to circle all the enemies you're rewarded with a shield that makes you impervious to one attack. So far it seems more effort than it's worth; I usually die recklessly trying to run circles around the blue thing or dealing with the moth babies that hatch from the egg. But it's still fun trying, and I think part of the appeal of the game is just progressing far enough to see all the weird enemies and strange stuff.

Brog mode: 127

[Mr. Mechanical]

Brog mode: 36

Getting the hang of it!
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[EnDevero]

[Toups]

the shield is a bonus. the main point of the hyperspace mode is a significant and easy score boost
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[Mr. Mechanical]

Terror mode: 11
Vortex mode: 7

Snappy and hypnotic is probably how I would describe this at the moment. In fact it is how I'm describing it! I love the explosion every time you die.
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[Toups]

here is the soundtrack:




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[Mr. Mechanical]

It's a great soundtrack, Toups!
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[Cossix]

Really really solid all around. Am still super terrible at this.

[wourme]

Looks like a game I'd find frustrating, but that's a nice soundtrack. (I might try the game anyway.)

[Toups]

it is hard but not unreasonable to any experienced gamer. I think there's a lot of things you'd appreciate about it in particular...
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[all monsters]

[CONSUME_PRODUCTS]

yo toups this is some good music

[Mr. Mechanical]

Got 24 in Vortex Mode just now on the iPad mini! It's much easier on a bigger screen compared to my iPhone 5.
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[Toups]

I thought I got good at this game but apparently smestorp tweaked the difficult a LOT since I finished the music and it's way harder again.

It IS very rewarding to improve at this game. It surprising to me how deep it is for incredibly simply it is at well. I feel like there's some elements and mechanics I still haven't discovered.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

Managed to consistently reach 21 in Terror Mode just now. Basically the strategy at this point seems to boil down to correctly identifying three basic enemy behaviors: the ones that seek you out, the ones that are just passing through and the ones that drift in and just hang out.

You want to ignore the ones that are just passing through and focus on the ones that are just hanging out while avoiding the ones that seek you out. Try and avoid the edge of the screen if possible and just stick to the middle area.

When it gets crowded don't panic, just slow way down and very gently work your way to the edge of whatever cluster you happen to be in so you can encircle the whole lot at once.

Also I noticed sometimes in Terror Mode I have a little shield thingy that seems to be encircling me at the start, like the ones on the enemies when I encircle them, but it goes away when I hit the flashing square thing that floats in occasionally. Though sometimes the square has boxed edges and that means it can kill me. I don't know what happens if I let it encircle me completely, I'm assuming I die.

I like how this is all deviously simple to grasp but devilishly difficult to master. I'm really liking it.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

[all monsters]

[Mr. Mechanical]

Brog Mode: 53

Even made it to the bonus level once. This is addictive!
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[EnDevero]

Brog: 119

Terror: 68

Vortex: 30

I, uh-- I can't stop playing this game.

It just feels good.

The second boss is a real hassle though. Anybody managed to get through that?

[Mr. Mechanical]

Brog mode: 74

Died right after defeating the first boss.
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[wourme]

This game succeeds where a lot of touch-screen action games fail, in having mechanics that make sense for the format. But regardless, I am just as terrible at it as I'd thought I would be. In my best game, I think I almost saw a boss.

You can get the soundtrack here (my favorite aspect of the game):

https://toups.bandcamp.com/album/helix-soundtrack

[jodeaux]

Loving the brog soundtrack. Definitely stuck in my head when I go to sleep tonight. Nice work toups