Submission to the Brackeys Jam 2020.2 game jam. Theme: REWIND.

Attack of the RNG!

The galaxy is under attack! The Ratholon Nova army seeks to expand, conquering every star system that stands in their way. All attacks so far have proved useless. An individual Rathalon Nova soldier is relatively powerless, but when they join forces, they are unstoppable. 

A perfect hive mind, the Ratholon Nova show near mindless dedication to their leader, the mother brain known as the Ratholon Nova General, or RNG. Every decision by every single soldier goes through the RNG. The orders given by the RNG seem arbitrary, random even, but through sheer strength of numbers they have managed to defeat all who have dared to oppose them.

But there is hope! Scientists from all the planets of the Milky Way Coalition have worked hard to develop the perfect weapon against the RNG: the TIME REWINDER, a device capable of rewinding time for everyone, including the user, with the user alone retaining the knowledge of what happened before the rewind. The orders from the RNG, which seemed arbitrary and unpredictable, can now be predicted and even manipulated.

The combined efforts of the coalition fleet have allowed me to infiltrate the RNG's main ship. With no weapons, only the TIME REWINDER in my possession, the entire galaxy now counts on the success of my mission...

Controls

• Arrow keys - Move. You can move diagonally, too!
• Shift - Rewind.
• Space bar - Wait for one turn while enemies attack.
• Ctrl - Lock movement to diagonal directions.
• R - Restart level.
• Esc - Pause/Unpause

If you need a reminder, press Esc to pause the game. The full move list is present in the pause menu.

Every time an enemy has to make a decision, such as where to fire when you are next to them, they call the RNG. If you rewind, you undo the decision - but of course, if you perform the same action again, they will respond with the same decision. However, you can manipulate this! For example, if you must go through a corridor and an enemy is keeping you from doing that, maybe you can find another enemy and stand next to them so that the RNG is called. The next time you go through the corridor, since there was a different RNG call before then, the enemy will probably make a different decision!