LunchTimeWaster: Let’s All Shoot Each Other

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12:00PM December 22, 2009 | David Wildgoose

hell is other people picAn arena shooter where your opponents aren’t AI-controlled nor other players competing against you, but rather the ghosts of other players who are moving around the same area and shooting at the ghosts of other players. Yes.

Confused? Good.

Hell Is Other People takes the idea of an asynchronous multiplayer game. That is, you’re playing against other people, but not at the same time. When you start, it randomly spawns a ghost opponent, in reality a recording of a previous player. As you progress, it spawns in more and more ghosts, all of whom are merely re-enacting the motions of past players’ efforts to shoot down the ghosts they faced.

Every player is denoted by a three letter name, so you may even spot yourself appearing as a ghost in your own game. Keep an eye out for “DJW” while you’re in there.

One question before I go though: who did the first player fight against?

Hell Is Other People [George Buckenham]

Comments

  • Ben Latimore

    December 22, 2009 at 12:16 PM

    Good question, Davey. Who did the first person fight?

    Otherwise, this is a pretty awesome idea. Looking foward to giving this a whirl.

  • Anthony Massingham

    December 22, 2009 at 12:23 PM

    Quite Fun. I love these asynchronous/replay history games.
    I was ‘AA’.

  • Jo

    December 22, 2009 at 12:44 PM

    I find I am fighting myself half the time.

  • Ben Latimore

    December 22, 2009 at 2:21 PM

    I got up to about 8 ghosts without losing any health. I’m proud of myself. :D

    If you see BKL on there, be sure to not kill me.

  • George Buckenham

    December 22, 2009 at 3:20 PM

    Oh wow, this is a lovely surprise! Thank you for the lovely write up, and thanks everyone who has played.

    Who did the first ship fight? The first ship squiggled away in the game editor, firing at phantoms, and was put down by an act of God. The second tested the mechanisms for getting hit. The third… Well, suffice it to say that after a while, other people got to start playing.

    Oh, and I’m v21. I’m sure shooting me would feel extra sweet. Go for it!

  • ASDASD

    December 22, 2009 at 6:43 PM

    Con sarnit, I don’t like that Unity Player.

  • Aaron K

    December 23, 2009 at 3:32 AM

    I keep getting JRK and ASS. lol
    This is such a creative and fun game. I’m AK.

    And yes, your question David, blew my mind.
    Maybe the first guy was just shooting and moving in random?

  • Joshy206

    December 23, 2009 at 12:11 PM

    I assume the first few were programmed AI recordings, then deleted after the first few humans played.

  • Tom

    December 24, 2009 at 1:20 PM

    Strangely addicting. It also seems like something where patterns in play will evolve over time as players avoid previous players movements they were doing to avoid… yeah. :D

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