Now You've Made Me Crabby (お前が蟹の俺をお甲羅せた)

(お前が蟹の俺をお甲羅せた)

***Now You've Made Me Crabby: the Story of a Crab Man Who Is on the Run From a Heat Beam of Death and Several Other Things*** (or, '***Crab Game'*** for short) is an endless runner video game developed by digital artist ***StudioDaeera*** (***Studio***). The game's chiptune soundtrack was composed by ***Firespike33***. The English to Japanese translation was done by ***Douglas Watts***. The game was designed in the state machine based game engine, ***Pixel Game Maker MV*** (***PGMMV***). Originally developed for the two week ***PGMMV Summer Game Jam***, Studio and Firespike considered it very incomplete by by the time the jam ended, but it still won third place.

Later on, Studio decided to further and complete the development of Crab Game to make it a strong entry for the ***2020 PGMMV Game Dev Challenge***, due to the organizers adding in a new rule which allowed for the submission of PGMMV games made for other contests. Like the ***2019 PGMMV Game Dev Challenge***, famous veterans of the game design industry have joined as guest judges. Daisuke 'Pixel' Amaya (***Studio Pixel***), Takumi Naramura (***NIGORO***), and Richard Lems (***Blastmode***).

Crab Game has a very absurdist tone and sense of humor. It's *"seriously, brutally violent"* as is claimed by Studio on the itch.io homepage. It features a simple and restricted control scheme that it adheres to. All menus and gameplay functions are controlled with just the arrow keys, or the left control stick, or directional pad on a controller.

## **Gameplay**

The action takes place from a side view. By default, Crab Man has these abilities: he'll automatically run, he can attack (press right) by punching while standing or while airborne, his punch can also volley and serve enemy projectiles back with good timing, and he can grab most enemies and crates while on the ground (press left). While holding something, Crab Man can use it as a shield or toss it forward (by pressing right), or he can toss an enemy backwards (by pressing left) which will also move Crab Man backwards some distance. If Crab Man collects a helpful item, he can make use of it when in a pinch (by pressing down). The player's goal is to stay alive for as long as they can, building a high streak count while doing so for increased points, and collecting Crab Juice cans in order to purchase upgrades from the Crab Juice Shop, making Crab Man more capable of defending himself longer. There are 12 upgrades for the player to purchase with Crab Juice cans. Some will cause new items to appear (such as gun with a certain number of rounds inside), while others are new abilities for expanding the utility of Crab Man's move-set (such as unlocking the ability to automatically parry enemy projectiles while holding onto a kitchen knife item).

The game begins at the easiest difficulty. As the player scores more points, the 'To Boss' gauge fills up. Once full, a mini-boss will eventually show up to battle the player. Defeating the mini-boss will raise the difficulty by one level and reward the player with a group of Crab Juice cans. As an arcade styled game, the ultimate goal is achieving the highest score the player can. The high score screen has 5 total entries, each space will also record the time they've stayed alive, as well as their highest streak count during that run. To build up the streak count, the player must perform certain actions without taking damage (which resets the counter). Actions that increase it include: volleying and serving projectiles, grabbing, throwing and/or killing enemies. As the streak counter increases, the score values the player is given for performing actions will also increase. Starting from a minimum of 100pts, 150pts, 200pts, etc. until 1000pts, which increases in increments of 500pts until the maximum of 9999pts is reached. A higher streak count also increases the chance of a Crab Juice can spawning from enemies when killed by the player using a reflect or throw (or less commonly, by a regular attack).

Additionally, the player will also be rewarded with a constant 'Step Bonus' for any time they spend on the ground in their running state. The further to the right of the screen the player is, the higher their step bonus will be. It can reach a maximum of 16pts and a minimum of 1pt. If it reaches 1pt, the player will die as they are disintegrated by the global warming beam.

Certain enemies and hazards will kill Crab Man instantly, but anything else only causes him to stagger and lose some distance. In other words, Crab Man doesn't have a health bar. The player need only watch for interactions which can kill them, while managing their position in the play area. Being furthest to the right of the play area that the player can go gives them more step bonus, but they'll need quicker reaction time to deal with enemies and hazards coming in than if they'd been closer to the beam which can kill Crab Man instantly.

## **Story**

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the military were running secret experiments to come up with the next innovative flavor of 'black market' ice cream. Crab Man, their latest test subject, has managed to escape captivity. From their military space station, General inquires his subordinate Fenton to give him a sitrep. After learning that Crab Man has escaped and is now running along a beach, General decides to neutralize him with the Global Warming Beam. In spite of Fenton's criticism that firing the beam on the beach would kill their own men, innocent people and "irresponsible mothers", General concludes that sometimes "you have to break a few eggs or somethin." Going on to insult the modern education system because "they won't even teach you that shit in med-school", using expletives towards the Government. This somehow convinces Fenton that General has made a good argument., leading him to agree with his resolve.

The two then notice a video transmission coming onto their live feed. Much to General's chagrin, a Russian (who appears to be a communist) berates them, asking if they really thought that the Russians wouldn't notice their "ice cream escapades". He threatens to take Crab Man back to Russia and finish what the Americans don't have the 'miyachi' to finish. General concludes that while they may be able to try and take Crab Man, the Russians will never be able to take away American independence for making innovative "black market" dairy products. General ends the call by telling the Russian that both he and Crab Man are already dead, prompting Fenton to fire the global warming beam at Crab Man's location.

Somewhere on a beach on Earth, Crab Man, with his guard down, is nearly disintegrated by the global warming beam just barely missing him. Without a moment for Crab Man to think, the beam begins to close in towards him as he runs for his freedom and his life.

## *Soundtrack*

The chiptune OST was composed by FIrespike. Both Studio and Firespike wanted musical variety to the main game, as it would improve the replayability and make the overall experience with the game less repetitive for players.

## **Now You've Made Me Crabby [Chiptune OST]**

* Crabby 1. [Title Screen] - Aquatic Noise Channel In G Major
* Crabby 2. [Crab Juice Shop] - ...Hello, Traveller!
* Crabby 3. [Cutscene] - Counter Stupidity
* Crabby 4a. [StageBGM-A] - Now You've Made Me Crabby
* Crabby 4b. [StageBGM-B] - The Crabs Have Come Home to Roost
* Crabby 4c. [StageBGM-C] - A Day At The B\*\*ch
* Crabby 4d. [StageBGM-D] - Kamayadouken
* Crabby 5a. [Miniboss] - Seashore Smackdown
* Crabby 5b. [Miniboss] - Fighting With All Our Chowder
* Crabby 6. [Starfish] - Koji Kondo Gets Even
* Crabby 7. [Epinephrine] - (\*laughs in Italian\*) Just What I Needed
* Crabby 8a. [HighScore-Minor] - Bottom Feeder Blues :/
* Crabby 8b. [HighScore-Major] - Top Lobster =D
* Crabby 9. [StageBGM-E] - Crab Beach (Really Rocks)