Flailworks

About the game

Flailworks is a flat 2D destruction sandbox built around one manufactured test unit: an articulated humanoid robot of eleven rigid parts and ten limited hinges, standing on its own two feet in a dark test bay. The whole bay always fits your screen, in landscape or portrait.

It is up and about: it wanders the bay, keeps its balance, and backs away when you bring a weapon near it. Knock it over, shove it, or grab any part and throw it across the room, and it lies there a moment, then picks itself up and carries on, unless it is knocked out, frozen, dead or missing a leg. Chain it up and it hangs and squirms instead. Then open the Toolbox, sorted into Hands, Melee, Guns, Boom, Chem, Energy and Fix, with the six tools you used last kept in a tray beside it. No tool needs you to pick a part first: the hammer swings from your finger with real weight and hits whatever its head meets; the knife cuts along your finger's path through everything it crosses, severing joints with one slash or cutting limbs, head and torso into pieces wherever you slice; the gun aims while you hold and fires when you let go, hitting the first thing in the bullet's path and punching through into what is behind; there is also a flamethrower, acid you pour like a liquid that gushes down, runs over everything it lands on and, poured on heavily, melts a part to the skeleton in seconds, sticky bombs, a shock baton whose charge lingers in sparks and twitches, and a grinder. Every part has three layers: an ivory synthetic skin, amber foam padding (or, with the optional Gore switch, synthetic muscle that runs the way a person's does), and a steel skeleton, from skull and ribcage to finger bones, and damage stays exactly where it lands: bullet holes, scorch marks, acid pits and ground-down patches travel and rotate with the limb.

The unit is alive until it isn't. It runs on a core in its chest, a CPU in its head and its oil. It flinches, kicks and thrashes when hurt, convulses under the shock baton and struggles on its chains. Wounds spurt oil with every pulse of its core and stumps gush; it pools on the floor, and it burns. Blows leave bruises that darken, purple and yellow as they fade, a beaten face gets black, swollen, bloodshot eyes, and oil runs down the skin from every wound. Hold the flame on a wound to cauterise it and sear it shut, or pump oil back in with the syringe. Left alone, its CPU and core slowly recover. Heavy damage and fire tear joints apart too, and cut-off pieces fall where they drop. Its face is built to be punched: a smug, half-lidded smirk at rest, a sneer when you pick up a weapon, indignant when grabbed, screaming when hurt, panicking when on fire, dizzy after a knock, and it keeps pulling faces in bright lines on the bare metal when the skin is stripped away. Its arms join in too: it flails when lifted, throws them out for balance when dazed, puts its fists up when you bring a blade near, and shakes a fist at you when it taunts. It can take a lot of pain, but not forever: keep it in agony and it fades, then passes out. Hammer its head and it is knocked out cold until it comes round, or shock it awake. Destroy the core or let it drain of oil and it stops: shock the chest within a few seconds to restart it, or it goes offline. Fry the CPU or take its head off and it goes offline, but that is not the end: Frankenstein it back together. Repair the CPU and core, pump oil back in with the syringe, chain its head (or any limb) back on, and shock the chest to bring it back.

Blows dent it (a sledgehammer caves in a crater), slams knock its paint and skin off, dragging it across the floor scrapes it raw, and a hard enough hit across an arm or leg snaps the bone: the limb flops, and on a broken leg it cannot stand until you splint it. There is much more: a fist to punch it with, a crowbar that cracks bones, a drill, a nail gun that pins it to the wall, a bat, a sledgehammer and a chainsaw that cuts through anything in one pass; a shotgun, a minigun you sweep, a sniper rifle whose round goes through everything in line and a laser that burns where it lands; grenades and cluster grenades that bounce about before they blow, mines, an anvil dropped from the ceiling and a nuke; petrol that soaks in and goes up, water you can pour from above that runs down the body and douses every fire and makes the next shock hurt more, and lava; lightning that can even restart a stopped core, a black hole that drags everything in, and a switch that turns gravity off. There is also a freeze spray that locks joints stiff and turns parts brittle enough to shatter with a hammer or a bullet; a harpoon that spears a part and winches it back to the wall; rockets that stick on, push and blow; and a feather to tickle it with. Pull hard enough with Grab and a limb comes off in your hand.

It talks back, and its mouth moves to every syllable. It threatens you when you pick up a weapon, taunts you when you leave it alone (in chains it swears revenge when it gets down; on its feet it dares you to come closer), complains when you knock it over or throw it, screams when it loses a limb, shivers, laughs when tickled and has last words, chattering in pitched little blips (no words, no speech voice) with quiet captions, over a generative score that tenses up as things get worse and the hum of the bay.

Chains hang any part from the ceiling or the walls; tap two parts instead and a graft joins them, a tendon sewn in at both ends (or, on the clean robot, a hydraulic cable bolted on), then tighten or loosen each one. Reel them against each other to pull it apart: it feels the strain, its joints creak and tear, and a chain that cannot pull anything further snaps. The fix-up kit puts it back together: Heal grows the skin back and pushes the dents out, Repair mends its CPU and core, refits torn-off limbs and rejoins anything you cut in two, stapling (or stitching) the seam, a Plaster stops the bleeding, a Splint sets a broken bone and the Extinguisher

How to play

1. Tap START. The test unit is standing in the bay and wanders about; Grab is selected. The tray at the bottom holds the six tools you used last; tap the Toolbox button for all of them, sorted into categories.
2. GRAB: drag any part and the unit follows with weight; fling it and let go to throw it. Knocked over, it lies still a moment, then gets back up. Pull hard and hold, and the limb tears off in your hand.
3. HAMMER: drag anywhere and the hammer swings from your finger; whatever its head hits takes the blow (chop down on the head to knock it out). KNIFE: drag to slice through anything: one slash across a joint severs it, a slash right through a limb cuts it in two (torso, pelvis and head take a few passes). Tap to stab. GUN: hold to aim, let go to fire; the bullet hits the first thing in its path.
4. FLAME: hold to burn; fire spreads, lights leaking oil and the floor, and makes it thrash. Hold it on a wound to cauterise it. ACID: hold to pour from anywhere; it falls, splashes on what it hits, eats through and runs down. BOMB: tap to stick one on; it blows after a short fuse.
5. SHOCK: hold near the body; it arcs to the nearest part and the charge lingers. GRINDER: grinds whatever is under it to the metal frame. SYRINGE: hold the needle in the body to pump oil back in.
6. FREEZE: hold to spray; frozen parts lock stiff and turn brittle, so a hammer blow or a bullet shatters them. HARPOON: hold to aim, let go to fire from the wall; it spears what it hits and winches it in. ROCKET: tap a part to stick one on; it lights, pushes, then blows. FEATHER: brush it over the body to tickle it.
7. MORE IN THE TOOLBOX: Bat, Sledge and Chainsaw swing or cut like the hammer and knife. Shotgun and Sniper aim and fire like the gun; hold the Minigun or Laser and move to sweep. Tap to throw a Grenade or Cluster, lay a Mine, plant a Nuke or drop an Anvil. Hold to pour Petrol, Water or Lava. Tap for Lightning, a Black hole or Anti-grav. The Fist punches, the Crowbar cracks bones, the Drill bores in, and the Nail gun pins whatever you tap to the wall.
8. The bars at the top left show the core (chest), CPU (head) and oil. Knocks to the head knock it out; it comes round, or Shock wakes it. If the core is wrecked or the oil runs out it stops: Shock the chest before the countdown ends to restart it. Fry the CPU or cut the head off and it is offline; tap New unit or Reset.
9. Joints tear apart under heavy damage. With the knife, slice a joint open until its ring turns teal, then hold on it to cut the limb off.
10. FIX-UP: HEAL brushes the skin and padding back and pushes dents out. REPAIR mends the CPU and core and tightens worn joints; tap a part for Restore part or Reattach. PLASTER: tap a wound to stop the bleeding. SPLINT: tap a broken bone to set it. EXTINGUISHER: hold to put out fire and kill acid.
11. CHAIN: tap one point, then another. A part and the ceiling (or anywhere in the bay) hangs it; two parts are tied together, even a cut-off head to the body. Tap a chain to pick it, then drag it or use the arrows to tighten or loosen; Remove or Remove all take chains down. Tighten chains against each other to pull it apart: it screams as the joints strain and tear, and a chain with nothing left to give snaps. A chained unit hangs and squirms instead of standing.
12. The top buttons pause, switch between 1x and quarter speed, clean up the mess, reset the unit and open settings.
13. BRING IT BACK: an offline unit can be rebuilt. Repair a broken CPU or core, refill its oil with the syringe, reconnect its head with Reattach or a chain, then shock the chest. If something is missing, the strip says what.