BoltStorm

Although it’s difficult to come up with completely original ideas and designs, you can still impress people by modifying already existing concepts in order to suit your vision. There’s really no need to reinvent the wheel every time, especially in fields where so much progress has been done already. In video games, genre mashing is the way to go, because you never know when something exquisite is going to pop.

BoltStorm is a jam game that combines Snake mechanics with survival concepts, which is pretty weird right from the start. However, it would seem like this could actually work, although it needs a lot more elements in order to be marketed as an actual game. In short, you have to survive an arena that’s being invaded by evil torturers, using your knights to shoot bolts at them.

Not only that, but each knight you save gets added to your party, and you can form a Snake-like line of warriors to take on the enemies. The movement is rather erratic and difficult at the moment, given the fact that you need to take really wide turns after a while, but this could certainly be improved in the future. Obviously, more knights also means more resistance, which makes it easier to survive the attacks.

Whenever you pick up more knights, the attack speed of your whole company increases, and you also get more bolts per shot. This makes it easier to deal with larger number of enemies, but it’s also pretty confusing. Enemies also explode sometimes, or so it would seem, which causes additional damage to your units, or even takes a few of them out instantly.

In the technical department, the game is pretty basic, especially when it comes to visual quality and the 3D models used for the units. It’s also a bit too dark sometimes, which hinders your ability to see enemies. The camera could be a little more flexible as well, since you are often attacked from angles you had no way of checking beforehand.

BoltStorm is a jam game after all, so it’s only natural that it has flaws and mistakes. However, this could certainly turn into something cool with enough effort and dedication, and it would also be nice to see more levels and some variety in the enemies.