Deus Ex Machina

Created for the Game Off 2022 jam: https://itch.io/jam/game-off-2022
Jam Theme:  Cliché

ABOUT THE GAME

Use your special abilities to outwit your opponents
in this Tactical Puzzle game set in a futuristic cyberpunk setting!

Inspired by the anime combat dialogue cliché were  opponents
thoroughly describe their next attack, the enemies in Deus Ex Machina
will always telegraph their next attack by describing it and showing the exact
tile on the grid they are targeting.

Avoid attacks and environmental hazards,
play in a smart way taking positioning into consideration
and try to clear all the levels as fast and efficient as possible!

Speed and efficiency matters, but be careful as the enemies are strong
and one hit will send you to your doom! The faster you clear the levels,
the better your score will be!

Be sure to share your high score in the comments below! 

INSTRUCTIONS

- WASD: Move Camera.
- Right Click: Drag to rotate Camera.
- Left Click: Select buttons and ability targets. 
- ESC: Cancel selected ability.
- Abilities and Movement cost Action Points (AP) to perform.
- The player has an AP Storage Pool, that can hold up to 3 unspent AP
   for them to be used in the next turn.
- Enemies describe their actions and highlight the targeted tiles.
- Hover over an enemy to see the action description and the targeted tiles.
- Press TAB to see all the enemies actions targeted tiles.
- The Sniper enemy (Ranged) locks on you when you are in his line of sight
   and an eye icon shows on top of the player when in the line of sight. Try
   to get behind cover or he will shoot at you during his next turn.
- The Destroyer enemy (Melee) has three different attacks and chooses
   which to perform according certain conditions.
- Enemies and barrels can be pushed using the player's Mind Blast ability.
- Player only has one HP. Any hit will kill him.

WALKTHROUGH

Since a lot of people found it a bit hard to finish the game and clear all the levels
we have uploaded a walkthrough video showing how each level can be cleared.
The video shows all the levels in the game and their solutions. Skip it if you don't
want to be spoiled! You have been warned! You can find it on the link below:
Deus Ex Machina - Walkthrough Video

CREDITS

Theodore Calafatidis - Game Design / Level Design / Game Development / VFX / UI Design / Post Processing
Francesco Fabrizio - Soundtrack Composer / Sound Design / SFX
Martin Hanton - 3D Modeling / Animations 

Special thanks to Alex Groth helping out with programming the main mechanics.

ASSETS USED

Cartoon FX Remastered - Some of the VFX we used like the cartoon letters.
Clean Vector Icons - Used a couple of icons for displaying statuses and AP costs.
Dark Theme UI - Used a panel background for the UI

03/12/2022 - Uploaded builds for all platforms
We have uploaded executable builds for Windows, MacOS and Linux of the exact
version previously submitted only as WebGL. People mentioned they had issues
playing the game on WebGL especially from Mac and Linux OS, so we decided to
upload the executables in order for  them to be able to  enjoy the game too and also
play it in the full resolution the game was intended to be played. 

05/12/2022 - Uploaded a video walkthrough for the game
Since some people found it hard to clear all the levels in the game, we have uploaded a walkthrough showing all the levels and one of their solutions, so you can see it and clear them yourself if needed.