Indie game-maker Petri Purho works in short, fast bursts. His blog Kloonigames hosts many examples of his rapid prototypes—experimental games whipped up over the course of a week and distributed free. The idea is to get something done rather than spending months or even years planning a project that never goes anywhere. When an idea clicks, like Crayon Physics, Purho invests more time in expanding upon his success.
His latest off-the-cuff creation is Post I.T. Shooter—a rudimentary action game that pits players against Space Invaders-style aliens. The small idea here is the way the game uses stop-motion animation of colored Post-it notes to render attacking aliens. Purho uses off-kilter paper placement to create a herky-jerky jiggle similar to the wild animated pencil scratchings of Bill Plympton.
Each alien is generated randomly. To kill them, players must drill through Post-it pixels and nail the exposed weak point—the negative space that depicts the alien’s eye. A direct hit results in a multicolored explosion of paper. Post I.T. Shooter feels more like an experimental animated short than a game, but the play is there. And the game is no pushover. Aliens can take some time to defeat, while a single blow to the player means instant death.
Post I.T. Shooter may not hold up to extended riffing the way Crayon Physics did. It’s really a proof of concept for a visual approach, and an exercise in execution. Purho’s slick coding makes it easy to jump right back into the fight after a game ends. And the music—a swinging Martinibomb track called “The Love God”—never misses a beat, further streamlining the experience.
According to Purho, the game’s plot is about a man fighting an army of aliens in hopes that the gods will bring his dead girlfriend back to life. But Purho’s soundtrack selection suggests otherwise. The song in the background contains audio samples from the 1969 Don Knotts comedy The Love God? With Knotts’ voice ringing in your ears, it’s hard not to imagine the game’s chunky protagonist as Knotts, outfitted in the space suit he donned in The Reluctant Astronaut. Let’s see what Purho can do with seven days and The Ghost And Mr. Chicken.