Contrivity
Spawn into the hostile quantum laboratory and destroy wave after wave of oscillations in this endless, top-down arena shooting game with a variety of randomly-selected weapons.
Play in the browser or download a copy now.
Game
Controls
Use arrow keys to attack and w a s d keys to move.
Zoom in with ctrl and +, then click or focus on the playing area to activate the game controls.
Play
Requirements
CPU clock speed with at least 512 MHZ*.
Keyboard or a key-mapped device with the aforementioned keys from the controls section.
Memory storage with at least 256 MB*.
Modern web browser with JavaScript enabled.
*These are minimum specifications with in-game performance varying across browsers and devices. Opened browser tabs and background system processes may have adverse effects on in-game performance.
Explanation
Contrivity was designed as a fun, minimalist twin-stick shooting game to play for a few minutes at a time to unleash carnage upon zombie-like enemies.
It's heavily-optimized with a proprietary game engine using vanilla JavaScript, HTML and CSS to ensure optimal functionality across the widest range of modern web browsers and computers as possible.
As with all creations, there was some inspiration from others.
The objective-free gameplay from flOw inspired the minimal gameplay style.
The frantic twin-stick arena shooting controls from Geometry Wars with bits and pieces flying everywhere inspired the core gameplay premise with limited 8-directional, arcade-style movement and minimal graphics using only circles and lines.
The pick-up-and-play gameplay style with quick pacing changes from the WarioWare series inspired the inclusion of randomized weapon switching between short-lived waves of enemies to reduce boredom from repetition.