Game File: 

temporal-banana.zip

Made for #OneGameAMonth - February 2013.

This game was inspired by a feature found in Alien Soldier where playing on the "Supereasy" difficulty allows you to adjust the game speed while paused. It got me thinking about game speed and its correlation with player skill. In that vein, Temporal Banana is a (very) basic SHMUP with a twist - the game's speed changes based on how well you play. Defeat lots of needle bombs to increase the speed. Conversely, taking damage makes the game slower. However, one thing remains constant - the timer ticks away at the same speed regardless of how fast everything else moves. As you play, your banana continues to ripen until it is overripe (that is, you run out of time). If you take damage while overripe, you lose the game! If, however, you defeat the giant Space Durian, you will be victorious.

If you want more challenge, press T at the title screen to play "Time Flux Mode", which is inspired by Leon Arnott's "Aorta of Time".

There's not a whole lot to this game. In a way, I kind of wish I gave the Space Durian more than one attack. It definitely lacks variety. At the same time I worry that adding lots of different attacks would make the game speed deviate too much since the speed would be dictated not quite so much by the player's skill, or perhaps some attacks would be easier or harder than others, causing the speed to deviate quite a bit depending on which attacks the player were most affected by... More than anything this game is just an experiment concerning game speed and I don't think it needs to be anything more...

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