Pondemonium

In Pondemonium, you control Charlie, a quirky catfish, who is rampaging through a maze-like pond, blasting frogs, dodging bullets of pure frog spit (nasty!!!), and turning the wetlands into a warzone. Inspired by Battle City, but slimier, sillier, and significantly more aquatic.

No tanks.
No rules.
Just pond violence.

🏆 Can anyone beat 25,650?
Drop your score in the comments and claim your spot!

🥉 15,000+ = Survived
🥈 20,000+ = Hunter
🥇 25,000+ = Apex
💀 30,000+ = Unnatural

• Art 'n' graphics: me
• Animations: me
• Code: me
• Concept: me
• Music & SFX: not me

This is a submission to the 'Core Mechanics Challenge 2025 Winter' game jam.  I'm hoping to win (new shoes that cost about 25 €). 😊😋😁

Requirements:
Top-down tank combat | Battle City - like game

✔     Player controls a tank in a top-down arena
Tank looks like catfish, which is a lot more fashionable and we got a pond style top-down scene.

✔      Tank can move in four directions and shoot projectiles 
And when destroyed, it even flips upside down. Commitment to realism.

✔      Enemy tank spawn and move toward objectives 
Frogs spawn in waves of 2, 3, or 5. They shoot at you and can destroy walls. Rude.

✔      Projectiles destroy enemies and break certain terrain 

Bubble walls can be popped by frog spit and your own “bubblets.” Yes. Bubbles + bullets = bubblets.

✔      Player loses when their tank is destroyed or base is destroyed
Yup. You said it, mister!

✔      Level ends when all enemy tanks are defeated
Frogs, but yes!

Optional features:

✔      (medium) Difficulty modes - Add at least two difficulty modes that meaningfully alter mechanics, not just numbers
Normal and hardmode. Hard Mode limits bubblets, lives, and reduces power-ups. It meaningfully changes how you play.  “Go hard or go home.” I'd say! Interpret that however you like.

✔     (medium) Boss Level - add at least one Boss level with distinct enemy and behavior and its own goal
Meet Bruce. Bruce has… a drooling issue. We’re all adults here, so we will simply defeat him without judgment. Because maturity. And if you really think about it, don't we all have a bit of a drooling issue deep inside of us?

✔      (medium) Pausing With State Freeze - add ability to pause the game. When paused - nothing should move or change. 
Press ESC and see what happens! Did you just close fullscreen mode? Oh. Well, press it again!

✔      (medium) Have 3+ mechanically different power ups!
⚡ Electric shields made out of pure eel energy. Run straight through enemies to instantly defeat them while taking zero damage. Lucky drop? Congratulations, you are speedrunning now!
🫧 Glue bubbles! Freeze enemies in place and strip them of all dignity (last one is not visually represented, but it's implied).
🔄 The uno reverse, which can shorten your road to epic victory.
💚 Little tiny adorable extra lives, just like irl, if you're a cat. Meow.
+ Bonus points on every pick-up!

Tips & tricks:

*** Hard Mode adds a puzzle element. With limited bubblets, you’ll need to carefully choose which bubble wall tiles to pop. Try luring enemies into popping some for you to make the most of your limited ammo. If you use them all before defeating every enemy, you’ll run out of oxygen and die.

**** Fighting Bruce can be a real challenge. Boosts remain available and, during the boss fight only, will drop from destroyed bubble wall tiles.

***** After shooting at you, your enemies are stunned for a couple of seconds, creating new spit. Use this time wisely to whoop their froggy little butts!