It seems like I haven't posted about this project here yet, but it's something I've been working off-and-on for about a year.

Puzzle platformers have always been my favorite games to make, but for some reason I still have yet to finish one in Axe. Hopefully this changes things. Maximum Security is an escape-the-level sort of puzzle platformer in 6x6 tiles, with lots of levels and external level packs also planned. It grew out of an experiment to see just how many random features I could stuff into an Axe game and still have it run smoothly at 6 MHz, so here's a short list of the stuff implemented already:

• Turret guns
• Dynamite crates (triggered by turret bullets and chain reactions)
• Steel crates
• Shock lines (instant death whoo)
• Coins (collect them all to open the door)
• Boulders (movable, ricochets bullets in any direction)
• Water (swimming, breath count, all that fun stuff)

Here's a screenshot of a fake level incorporating some of these things:



And as I mentioned, level packs are planned, which means there is an integrated level editor:



Title screen:



And finally, the most recent test level I've constructed, which also shows off the door animation and breath count meter on the right:



There's a lot going on in that image, so here's a quick run-through of what the character encounters:

1. Turret (aimed at the player) launches a bullet, which strikes a boulder and bounces off. That bullet then hits the first dynamite crate, triggering a chain reaction that clears all the dynamite and steel crates from the level.
2. Player pushes boulder onto the turret so it's safe to walk by.
3. Meanwhile, water is pouring into the level. As the crates get cleared by the explosion, it flows down the corridors.
4. Player collects coins.
5. As player is underwater, his breath count (white "health" bar on the right) drops bit by bit.
6. As the water covers the entire map, it leaves some air pockets which player uses to replenish his breath count.

I realize the water behaves a bit oddly in this level, mostly because there's capillary action happening in 8-pixel-wide capillaries To summarize:

This looks a lot like every other physics game that's been made with Axe in the past year or two, scrambled together with coins/rings from Sanic the Hedgehog. Besides water/explosions/shiny objects, what's special about this game that makes it different from all the others? Serious question. I feel like I've seen this game 20 times already.

The water/explosions/shiny objects. That's actually about it.

Easy on the cynicism, there.

I personally think it looks great, certainly with an engine that seems technically superior to those of the games to which Ashbad suggests comparisons. I suspect that with further development, this could become one of the most prized Axe (and generally any language) games yet.

Some updates: you can download the current game and a level pack I've been building here.

Finally got around to wrapping up this project, so the level editor and main menu are now integrated into the program. Two levels are completed, and I'll be working on more soon:





Again, this game is driven by level packs, so if anyone's interested, you can start making level packs now

Each level pack can have up to 99 levels and are password-protected for editing. To use the level editor (too lazy to retype the instructions, here's a quote):And just for fun, another demo of the physics engine: