How to play

Joining a game

To start a game, you first need to start a server or join an already existing server. See the "Hosting a server" section for more information about starting a server.

If the game server is hosted on the local network, joining the game is done by clicking "Play" and then "Local" under. Then click "Search LAN" and if everything works well, the game server will pop up and you can then click "Play".

If the game server is hosted on the internet (or on the local network but the above instructions don't work for some reason), instead click "Enter Address" and enter the IP address or domain name in the "Host" section. The "Game ID" section can be left blank unless the server administrator tells you to set it to a particular value.

You can also play Spaceships in a singleplayer mode where you can immediately join a local game (where nobody else can join) to test things out. Playing Spaceships only makes sense with other people, it won't be fun at all doing it by yourself (this might change in the future if I create bot players).

Playing a game

The goal of the game is simple, you're a spaceship and you need to kill other spaceships by firing bullets at them to diminish their health and eventually destroy them. At the moment there isn't anything beyond that. The server keeps track of a list of scores, which are the number of kills each player has. If you leave the game, your score will be reset.

Controls

To move around, use WASD or the arrow keys. To change the direction you're looking in and where bullets will be fired from, move the mouse. Bullets are shot by pressing the left mouse button or spacebar. You can hold down these buttons to easily fire multiple bullets at a time. These controls can be changed by pressing the "Settings" button while in the title screen.

You can zoom the camera in and out by scrolling (or by pressing 'J' and 'K'), and you can reset to the default zoom by pressing the middle mouse button.

Health

Your health is displayed in the health bar at the bottom of your screen, with the number of bullets also displayed above that. The health bars of other players are displayed right above them. After getting shot, players slowly regenerate their health.

Ammo

You have a finite amount of bullets (unless the server is configured to provide you infinite), which are reset when you die. Periodically during the game, ammo crates are spawned which supply the player collecting them with a random amount of bullets.

Powerups

Additionally, powerups are periodically spawned which give the player collecting them a temporary effect. These effects either last for 30 seconds or happen immediately (teleportation) and are listed as follows:

  1. Speed. This is the green powerup which increases your movement speed.
  2. Reload. This is the yellow powerup which increases your reload speed, making you shoot faster.
  3. Health. This is the pink powerup which increases your health and makes you regenerate health faster. The increase of health that this powerup provides can increase your health above the usual limit and make your health bar blue.
  4. Damage. This is the red powerup which increases the damage of your bullets.
  5. Forcefield. This is the blue powerup which provides a forcefield that deflects bullets fired by other players.
  6. Teleportation. This is the purple powerup which teleports you to a random place on the map. Unlike the others, this can be disadvantageous depending where you teleport...

Here are these six powerups:

Powerups