LEVEL 5

Fast-paced multiplayer online dodging game with a thick-pixel, hand-drawn retro look.

Run

npm install
npm start

Then open http://localhost:3000 in up to 4 browser windows. Each visitor becomes a player in the lobby. Set a different port with PORT=3210 npm start if 3000 is taken.

How to play

Lobby (title screen)

• Left / Right arrows: change your sprite color (white, yellow, red, green)
• Enter: ready up / unready (a red X means not ready, a green check means ready)
• When everyone is ready a countdown starts; pressing Enter during it cancels

In game

• Arrow keys or WASD: move
• Space: jump
• Down (or S): drop through a yellow platform you're standing on
• F or left mouse click: pick up a powerup you're standing on; otherwise swing sword / raise shield
• E or right mouse click: drop the powerup you hold
• M: mute / unmute sound effects

Dodge the red hazards until the timer runs out to reach the next generated level. Triangles patrol vertically or horizontally, balls roll across the stage, and the floor sometimes turns completely red (yellow platforms appear so you can escape it).

You have 3 hit points (green dots shown briefly over your head when hit). Lose them all and your character disappears until the next level, when everyone who died is respawned. If every player disappears, the game ends and everyone returns to the lobby.

From level 2 onward, green floating health pickups appear; touch one while hurt to restore a hit point (there is no automatic healing between levels).

Boss fight (level 5)

Level 5 is a boss fight: a big red brute with a health bar who runs, jumps, and fires projectiles at you. Reflect his projectiles back with a sword swing or a raised shield — reflected shots turn green and home in on him. Deplete his health bar to win the fight.

Every boss is procedurally generated and never repeats back to back: a random name, look, body size, movement style (walker, hopper, flyer, or teleporter), attack patterns (aimed shots, spread bursts, radial rings, or rain from above), and stats.

Beating the boss loops the game back to level 1 on a harder cycle with a randomly rolled obstacle set drawn from: ground-scuttling spikes, light beams that fade in from 0 to 100% opacity (hitbox triggers only at full opacity), bounding balls, ricocheting zigzag triangles, homing chasers, and shard rain. Each cycle also rolls its own game speed, and new powerups join the loot pool:

• Boots: double jump (passive while held)
• Bow: F fires arrows that damage the boss and knock hazards around
• Bomb: F detonates a shockwave that shoves hazards away and reflects projectiles (short cooldown)

Powerups

• Sword: swinging it at a hazard flips its orientation (horizontal movers become vertical and vice versa; balls are knocked back)
• Shield: raise it to block hazards without taking damage
• You can only hold one powerup; picking up a second one drops the first