Tea Monster Games - Die for the Economy!

Die for the Economy! is a love letter to 1980s maze-based arcade games like Berzerk and Frenzy. Armed with your trusty blaster, the P-45, make your way through the maze, blast the evil robots and avoid the electrified walls.

Features:

Beautiful, chunky pixel art graphics with a psychedelic slant harking back to the old 8-bit systems.
3 game modes to suit your style of play
Leaderboards for chasing your own high scores
The gameplay captures the essence of classic arcade games, but modernized to enjoy new features without taking away the original vibe.
Pause the game at any time, ideal if you need to put the kettle on and make a cup of tea!

What's this all about?

I've always loved the original arcade game Berzerk since I played it in an arcade along the promenade of New Brighton, UK in the 1980s. I see Berzerk a bit like a survival horror game. In the original arcade game, you're moving slowly through a maze, and it's more about getting your shots in the right place and moving in and out of cover to survive. I would say it's thoughtful and strategic in how you approach each room, whereas remakes or homages to the game often replace this vibe with a twin stick fast-paced shooter approach. In my take, I've tried to retain the original feel of the 1980s arcade game but at the same time sprinkling a little modern magic on it to make it feel fresh.

The theme of Die for the Economy! is a dystopian office setting in the year 2026. Humans are treated badly by their robotic overlords. You're the last surviving human, and you've just quit your job at the office. The bosses are mad about it, so every robot you'd normally hang out with at the water cooler (to talk to about the weekend's sports ball) is now out to zap you! You need to get back home. Or just stay forever, and blast every last one of those microchip micromanagers all the way to silicon heaven!

Escape the Maze Mode:

In the main game mode of Die for the Economy! you have to destroy security servers which will re-enable the teleporter on the start screen and allow you to escape the office maze to complete the game. It's not that easy, of course, as there's 347 rooms full of evil robot managers and 20 security servers dotted around the map to destroy. Thankfully, the security servers are always in the same place and the maze layout is the same, so it's possible to map it out.

There are two other game modes in Die for the Economy! those are: Arcade Mode and Classic Game.

Arcade Mode:

Playing in arcade mode generates a new random maze every time you play, and it's more about high score chasing than trying to complete it. The maze is also much bigger than the one in the main 'escape from the maze' game mode. Also in this mode are powerups, capable of boosting your movement speed and increasing firepower of the P-45 blaster. It's all about seeing how far you can get and trying to survive as long as possible - there's no way out!

Classic Game Mode:

In classic game, we're talking barebones maze blasting action! No powerups, no servers to destroy, no pickups - just you in a giant maze surrounded by evil robots. Destroy as many as you can, survive as long as you can, and try to get the highest score!

Gameplay:

There are three game modes to accomodate different styles of play. There's the regular 'Escape from the Maze' game, Arcade Mode: a random game with powerups, or the 'Classic Game' mode with no powerups, pickups, just maze and bots.

'Escape the Maze' game mode:

As you venture through the maze, finding and destroying security servers, you are accompanied by your friend The Union Rep over the video communicator. The Union Rep will provide useful instructions for getting out of the maze.

For bonus points, you can also collect patent documents which appear in most of the rooms. Each room has one and you can see on the results screen how many of them you ended up collecting- it's just a little extra challenge to take on as you battle your way through.

If you run away from the robots, they WILL taunt you for it. Because they're mean.

In a security server room, there are four shield terminals (one in each corner of the screen) that need to be destroyed to disable the shield surrounding the server in the center. Once you've taken the shield down, the server will be exposed and ready to receive some laser blasts! Hit it until it is destroyed.

When you disable all of the security servers, it's time to return to the start screen (in the center of the maze) where the teleporter will be activated (The Union Rep will tell you when it's time to return, so don't worry about keeping track of that!). Get back to the teleporter to complete the game.

Arcade mode:

See how far you can get in a huge, randomly generated, maze - it's different every time! In this mode, there are powerups to speed you up and extend your firepower. Take down as many bots as possible, survive the longest and beat your high scores.

Classic mode:

It's a huge random maze, no servers, no powerups just a huge maze full of robots. Move from room to room, blasting anything that moves. See how long you can survive!