Announcing Too Many Bots

Hi everyone.  I’m super excited to announce Too Many Bots, a single-player game I’ve been working on in my spare time, and which is already perfectly playable in its current state.

The game is basically born from smashing together two ideas: Pac-Man and Vampire Survivor. You’re stuck in a maze full of bots hunting you down… but every now and then, you get your sweet revenge and “eat” a bunch of them. Simple, but effective.

In the current mode, bots keep spawning as time goes on. However, once a timer runs out, you’ll switch from prey to hunter and can do some much-needed cleaning. While you’re prey, you can also collect power-ups (there are only two for now, but more are on the way).

This is just the first of several game modes I have in mind, each with different rules and goals. One thing they’ll all share: you can only destroy bots of your same color (or rather, the color of the balls you have instead of hands—you’re a bot too, after all). Bots of other colors? I wouldn’t get too close. Naturally, you’ll unlock new modes by playing.

As for the maze, I chose not to generate it randomly for several reasons: a hand-crafted maze gives me more control and makes it easier to balance difficulty. It also allows for more creative placement of objects and lights, giving the atmosphere a stronger vibe. Plus, I’d like to add more mazes to unlock in the future.

For the graphics, I went with an early-2000s retro look (think PSX) because it fits the game’s style… and, let’s be honest, it’s also easier and faster to make, which doesn’t hurt.

Right now, TMB is totally playable, though some parts are incomplete or a bit rough (menus, for example). My main focus at the moment is to gather feedback on the idea, the mechanics, and the difficulty… and of course, fresh ideas and suggestions are always welcome.

The next step is adding the second game mode with at least one new power-up. I’m not writing a roadmap, since this is a side project and the timeline is, let’s say… flexible.

The game is also playable in WebGL, so you don’t need to install anything—just launch it from your browser (though there’s also a Windows executable if you prefer).

See you in the next update. Cheers!