Sokoban Shooter (Demo)

Note: PICO-8's circle button corresponds to the Z key, and its X button corresponds to the X key. 

In the Japanese transport puzzle known as sokoban, the object is to push boxes to specific locations. These boxes can be pushed against but cannot pass through walls, the player, or each other.

This game combines this concept with an arcade shooter. On the bottom portion of the screen, players push patterned blocks onto matching tiles to control a ship on the upper portion of the screen. Two of these blocks move the ship, and the third allows it to fire bullets. The goal is to clear the top screen of blocks, which can only be destroyed by a specific bullet type (there is only one type in this version), without running out of bullets.

Disclaimer: While this game was made in roughly 72 hours during Ludum Dare 41 and takes inspiration from its theme, "combine 2 incompatible genres," it is not an official entry. It would have been had I finished in time for either deadline, but that was secondary to experimenting with the theme.