The Art of Slaughtering Mooks
Alpha release ver 028
By Chad Serrant

The code and executable is copyright Chad Serrant, using the GPL license. You can find a copy of the license at www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html .

INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS
Unpackage the download and make sure tasmAlpha, tasmConfig.txt and picData.dat are in the same directory. Run the executable file and enjoy.

In Windows, make sure the allegro library (usually alleg2.dll) is in the same directory.

GAMEPLAY INSTRUCTIONS

Default controls-
Move
   W, A, S, D
Aim (Important!!!)
   Move the mouse in the direction you want to aim.
   Move the mouse SLOWLY to rotate your aim.
Attack
   Left mouse click - Fire. Hold the button down for rapid-fire. Costs nothing to use.
   Right mouse click - Create barrier with up to 3 orbs. Each barrier costs life. Cannot use when life meter is red.
   Spacebar (or Middle Mouse Button) - Bomb. Can use when life bar is green or gold.
   F10 - Reset Round
   Tab - Pause
   Escape - Quit

Gameplay-
It's all about juice (the health meter.) Run out and you lose.
-When you get hit, you lose juice.
-When you use the barrier or bomb, you lose juice.
-When you hit or defeat an enemy, your gain juice.
-When you knock a stunned enemy into another enemy, you gain a LOT of juice.
-When you drink (move into) the juice, you gain more juice.

CONFIGURATION SETTINGS
When you begin the game, click on "graphic settings" to change the graphics settings. Also click on "controls" to change the game controls to your liking.

The default graphics has been set to 640x480 windowed at 16-bit color. If you can't get to the config file because the graphics doesn't work, edit the first three lines of tasmConfig.txt by hand. The most likely culprit is the color depth (change it to 24 or 32, for example.)

-Chad Serrant

Next Up: Like the "Mythic Man-Month" states, it's time to throw away the prototype and start all over again. I'm gonna reimplement the engine from the ground up (or something like that.) It'll take a while, but it will make the game much easier to extend.