Howard is stuck in the labyrinth and you must help him escape. Navigate him through 10 levels
and try to find the exit. He must run, jump and shoot lasers out of his eyeballs to survive.
It's
also been said that Howard can shrink to half his size, allowing him to reach otherwise inaccessible areas.
But be careful - there are many puzzles, traps, and enemies out for your blood.
And in Howard, you only have one life to live.
Download
Play it in your browser!
Or download it for Windows here!
There's also a PlayStation Vita Version! (requires custom firmware)
(gamepad supported only with Windows version)
Post Script
I started developing 'Howard' in late 2018. The game originally began as a remake of the classic PC game Thexder
from Game Arts/Sierra Online. For placeholder sprites, I employed one of the wall sprites from Game Maker 8 assets, and
borrowed a low-res graphic of a generic non-player-character from my previous game, Super SquidGhostMan for the
protagonist.
As plain as character design can be, he really embodies the name 'Howard'. I don't know... the name just
popped up in my head one day while testing the levels.
Anybody who's played Thexder (all 5 of you) will instantly be able to see the resemblance between that game and 'Howard'.
Especially the auto-aiming laser and shield functions, both of which were staples from Thexder.
And that's just as well, because 'Howard' really is an unabashed love-letter to that game. Other influences include games
like Cave Story, Metroid, and even puzzle games like Sokoban.
'Howard' was designed to be an optimized and lightweight application with very simple code. And while I mostly succeeded in that goal,
as scope creep set in the final product became as feature-bloated as any of my other projects. Still, corners were cut (or perhaps
we shall say certain stylistic choices were made).
For example, there are no in-game physics to speak of in 'Howard'. There's no gravity, friction, weight or forces of that kind.
As soon as Howard ends his jumps, he falls at a constant velocity. All movement is done with integers, allowing for crisp scrolling
of the screen at a(n almost) solid 60 frames per second. The game is also very low resolution (240 x 136 pixels), having been
scaled up four times.
For even the most seasoned video game players, 'Howard' will be extremely hard. It is not designed for completion on the first playthrough.
In fact, the game is rather short and could probably be cleared in less than half an hour if you knew what you were doing. It's very similar
to older arcade titles that were of short length due to hardware constraints. I encourage you to explore each labyrinth and make it a goal
not to necessarily win the game, but instead to get just a bit further every time.
From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for reading this and playing 'Howard'. I hope it doesn't bring you too much stress :^)
Jay Harris
April 2021
