Block Bomb Survival features easy-to-learn gameplay and a deceivingly simple goal. Survive by dodging bombs from the sky and make your way down 100 layers of blocks to win. Collect powerups scattered throughout the arena to progress faster and escape deadly situations. This game also features over 20 gamemodes and a custom game with thousands of possible combinations.

In this game, players control a red ball character to navigate around a large destructible 2D arena made of blocks, using A and D or the LEFT and RIGHT ARROW keys to move left and right, and SPACE to jump. Throughout the game, bombs fall from the top of the screen and land randomly on the map and, after a few seconds, explode, destroying some of the blocks and the player if they are caught in the blast radius. The goal of the game is to dodge the bombs for long enough to reach the bottom of the arena.
In the most recent version of Block Bomb Survival, powerups were added to the arena in randomly chosen blocks. Once a powerup is released from its block, it can be used instantly upon contact, and lasts a certain amount of time depending on the powerup.

Block Bomb Survival was originally intended for personal use, created as a one-day side project during the production of Multiplayer Madness. It was based off of the LittleBig Planet level series 'Rainbow Block Survival'. On the day before Chinese New Year in February of 2015, the game was created as a quick mobile app. However, as the game became more fun and interesting, it was released to the website and quickly rose to popularity. New gamemodes were added to spice up gameplay as the game gained major support from players and minor hate from teachers.

• Towards the beginning of the game's lifespan, a hack was discovered as players realized that the bombs fell completely randomly, and thus had a very low likelihood of landing in the exact spot that the player was located in. Players would exploit this mechanic by "camping", where players would stay in the same spot for most of the game and jump down after enough time had passed for the bombs to make a large enough pit to reach the bottom. This mechanic was fixed quickly, however, and the "camping" strategy became much more difficult and required constant attention to the game.
• Block Bomb Survival was originally meant to be 2D, but this was changed for the more epic perspective. This 2D perspective could still be found using a cheat code in the original game, but it has been removed in recent version. The original 2D perspective can also still be seen at the beginning of website trailers.
• The name 'Block Bomb Survival' was actually a temporary name (which explains why it is so long and unoriginal), but due to lack of creativity and a short development period, the name stuck.
• The red ball was also meant to be temporary, and was planned to be replaced by a 2D sprite. However, this was changed when the game switched to 3D.
• The 'Activate' gamemode was actually inspired by a glitch when sending the game to other Unity users, as Unity's tags wouldn't always be copied properly across. This meant that bombs did not register collisions with the blocks as the blocks were identified by tags, which caused the effect that can be seen in the gamemode.
• The 'Chased' gamemode was another unintential creation when the project was ported to other versions of Unity. In it, the algorithm for dropping bombs was messed up so it only dropped them on the player's position, causing a more difficult challenge for players.
• The 'Lightning' gamemode actually has a very slight difference between the color of the blocks (when there is no lightning flashing) and the color of the sky, allowing players who are playing in the dark with full screen brightness to see where the blocks are without lightning. This can be more easily seen when using the clock powerup, as it adds a purple overlay that makes this difference more visible.
• On rare occasions, the death screen in Block Bomb Survival 2 will display a cheat code that can be used in the most recent versions of the game. These cheat codes can do everything from reversing the player's movement to unlocking hidden gamemodes.
• One such hidden gamemode is'Ghost' mode, which was hidden from players as it was too different from the core game.
• The only player (besides the creator) who came close to completing every gamemode in Block Bomb Survival 2 was Jack Southard, who played nonstop for week to achieve this feat. The only mode he failed to beat was Endurance mode (because he had no patience).
• The 'Jack' custom gamemode was in fact created by Jack Southard as a combination of his other creations: 'Death' mode and 'Activate'. For several weeks, it was ular gamemode of all.
• The unreleased 'Laser' gamemode was actually a failed but more popular test version of the unreleased 'Missile' gamemode, where the missiles had insanely high speed and their trails were the only part visible to the player. These high-speed missiles could even glitch through blocks, but they still pointed towards the player, giving the lasers in 'Laser' mode their unique "AI".
• The music in Block Bomb Survival uses the 'Old School! Free Game Music Pack' by 70:30. The track '03_Further_on' is used for the main menu, the track '04_Warning' is used for the boss fight, and the main game music is the track '02_Foresight' sped up by 112.5%.
• The name of the Unity scene that includes the actual game (i.e. not the main menu) is titled 'Survival'. However, due to bad coding, this scene cannot be loaded without loading it from the main menu first. This was also a problem in Swipe & Shoot, but this was fixed shortly after it was realized early in development.
• The original boss for Block Bomb Survival was Ultimate Survival's 'SpaceDude', but this was changed due to the character's lack of popularity. In addition, a 3D model could not be created in the limited time.
• In order to access the boss fight in the original Block Bomb Survival 2, the player had to beat every gamemode. This was obviously changed, but a good alternative solution was never reached.
• Most color sets are references to other games or inside jokes. The sets 'Target', 'Joseph', and 'Madness' are based off of Target Practice, Joseph 4 President, and Multiplayer Madness respectively. The set 'Sunny Sunshine/Sunshine' is based off of a quote from the tour guide from the CSB China trip. The set 'Rainbow' is based off of the original 'Rainbow Block Survival', and the set 'Website' is based off of the original website color scheme.
• Some names of color sets were also changed over the course of the game's lifespan so that they would fit in the buttons used in later versions of the game. 'Shades' was originally known as 'Shades of Gray', but this was obviously changed. The set was known as 'Grayscale' until Block Bomb Survival 2, when it was shortened to 'Shades' as a reference to its original name. In addition, the 'SHC' set was originally the 'St. Patrick's Day' set, and the 'Crossword' set was originally known as the 'Black and White' set.
• The 'Mammoth' gamemode was named after a nickname for fellow classmate Will Morris, who was often referred to as "The Woolly Mammoth".
• The 'Glitch' gamemode is actually the original concept for 'Disco' gamemode, but it didn't work out as expected and was released under a different name
• Block Bomb Survival was the first game to feature smooth camera movement, which was a feature that has been included in nearly every other game on the website, both 2D and 3D.
• The camera turning in Block Bomb Survival 2 was actually based on a glitch where the camera would attach to the boss character during the fight, causing it to rotate in a way similar as it appears now. This was added as a feature to make the game look "different and new", but many players disliked the change.
• The sound effects featured in the game are mostly from previous games, but the bomb explosion sound was specifically not taken from a previous game, so players would associate the sound with Block Bomb Survival.
• The explosions having a random pitch was actually inspired by the missiles from Joseph Lerner's Advanced Flight.
• The shield powerup is a reused asset from a modified version of the Unity tutorial project Space Shooter. The explosions used in the game are taken from Space Shooter as well.
• The bomb blocks are inspired by the similarly designed explosive crates from the Ratchet and Clank series

Date

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Date

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Creator: Nathan Jew

Format: Unity WebGL

Dimensions: 1136x640

Completion: Full Game