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Cave Chaos Graveyard Shift B.C. Bow Contest

Graveyard Shift is a side-scrolling, rail shooter game released on October 16, 2009. The player controls a character that shoots zombies and other undead creatures.


Controls[]

PC Mouse Left Click Mouse - Click to attack[1]

Space bar - Shield

Levels[]

In each level of Graveyard Shift, the player has to defend themselves from the hordes of attacking enemies. The player should try to kill all enemies they encounter, if possible. The screen moves horizontally right, halting when the player must destroy an enemy or object.

Enemies will fire hazardous balls at the player that will harm them if they get hit. The player can block these balls by bringing up their shield but outer parts of the shield will come off if hit many times. The player cannot shoot and use the shield at the same time.

Other weapons can be obtained and some are more effective on some types of enemies. Sometimes Maidens will come on to the level, and have to be protected from all harm. If they are harmed at least once, the player loses health. Health can be gained back if the player attacks a potion.

Graveyard Shift has fifteen levels.

Level 1[]

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Level 2[]

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Level 3[]

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Level 4[]

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Level 5[]

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Level 6[]

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Level 7[]

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Level 8[]

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Level 9[]

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Level 10[]

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Level 11[]

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Level 12[]

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Level 13[]

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Level 14[]

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Level 15[]

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Ending[]

Penguin 1

This navigational box contains a spoiler. Click [show] to open the box.

A scroll like end screen is seen, which reads: Congratulations! You survived another night on the job! Better get some sleep, because its back to work at 8 pm tomorrow - those Maidens won't save themselves!"

Enemies[]

  • Zombies - These come up out of the ground and may shoot slime balls at the player. To completely destroy them in a single shot, the player must aim at their chest.
  • Beetle flies - These fly horizontally in a single direction or around in a circle and may fire slime balls.
  • Triffids - These enemies take multiple shots to kill and fire poison slime balls that will instantly poison the player. They sometimes come out of holes in the ground, and are impervious to damage whilst inside the holes.
  • Gargoyles - These enemies can fly horizontally, vertically, or in random motions. They can only be damaged when they open their mouths.
  • Spiders - These enemies are small and take a single shot to be killed. They can jump off the wall to attack the player and they are often encountered in large numbers.
  • Spider hives - These spawn spiders, and have to be destroyed for the screen to continue moving. They sometimes appear among centipedes; the hive takes three grenades to destroy.
  • Puppet knights - These are impervious to gunfire and can only be killed by cutting their strings with a sword.
  • Suits of armour - These fire spike balls and high speed and can only be temporarily stopped.
  • Titan zombies - These will fire a number of orange spheres and can be damaged by shooting their orange hot spot.
  • Centipedes - These prevent the screen from moving until defeated. They slither around the screen and fire several slime balls every 10 seconds.
  • King zombie - These enemies are stationary and fire massive amounts of slime balls. A great amount of shots are needed to kill this boss zombie.

NPCs[]

  • Maidens - These wander on to the stages, fall onto them, or are locked in cages. Weapon fire can be found in cages after they have passed off the screen, and zombies will kill maidens.
  • Glow worms - These simply move around and will grant points if destroyed.

Interactive objects[]

  • Tombstones - These can be found in castle and outdoor levels. These can be destroyed .
  • Chairs - These look like tombstones, and can similarly be destroyed.
  • Boxes - These are rectangular, and also can be destroyed.
  • Coffins - These have designs of resting knights. Weapon boxes are always inside.
  • Bridges - These can be loosened and caused to fall on to the ground, killing every enemy beneath it.
  • Bricks - These block signs, and can also be destroyed.

Pick ups[]

  • Boxes - These either contain one weapon each or repair the player's shield.
  • Health potions - These replenish all of the player's health when hit.
  • Poison potions - These poison the player when shot.

Weapons[]

Player weapons[]

  • Gun - This is the player's primary weapon. It doesn't have ammo, but it can overheat, shown by a dark red bar getting closer to the weapon icon box. The gun shoots bullets capable of leaving holes in walls and damaging enemies.
  • Grenade - This arms the player with explosive spheres that create a large blast when shot, and are very destructive. They kill most enemies that are caught in the explosion radius.
  • Sword - This will break after twenty-one uses. It can be used by clicking and dragging and is useful for taking out lines of enemies.

Enemy attacks[]

  • Slime balls - This is fired by most enemies and will take away one heart when contact is made.
  • Poison balls - A poisonous sphere that instantly poisons the player. It is shot by Triffids only and is the most dangerous attack, in terms of effects.
  • Fireballs - A fast moving ball, orange in colour. If it hits the player, a heart of health will be lost.
  • Spike balls - A spiky, slow moving ball, used only by puppet armour and suit of armour.

Note: All enemy attacks can be blocked and will break off a piece of the shield if they hit a corner

Glitches[]

Lag glitch[]

Some levels, particularly the ones with the Centipedes, may cause the game to lag considerably. This may be caused by the high usage of CPU due to the large amount of enemies, especially in the last few levels.

Bridge glitch[]

There is a glitch with the bridge that when shot, the bridge will fall on the zombies. Instead of crushing them it will appear like nothing has happened. While that has happened Zombies that were originally on the bridge will walk in mid air and some will rise out of the ground from under the bridge.

Maiden glitch[]

In level 11, the first maiden is trapped in the cage where the player fights with the giant zombie. After killing the giant zombie the player should shoot the cage and save the maiden. However, if the player frees her too early and she is killed by the giant zombie, then the camera will stop at the position of the door and never continue.

Beta elements[]

Found on Simon Hunter's website are two cut enemies from Graveyard Shift: A werewolf and a Frankenstein-squid monster. Both were probably intended to appear in the castle levels of the game, as both enemies are depicted in that setting. All enemies in Graveyard Shift are fictional creatures associated with horror, although the squid like creature doesn't seem to be based of anything, other then having a design similar to Frankenstein's monster.

Development[]

Graveyard Shift content was included in the Party skin, which was released between March 23rd and May 17th, 2009, and indicates the game had been worked on or completed around the time of the skin's release. On May 17th, 2009, Nitrome mentioned that the game had been completed and they had previously planned to release it but decided to hold it back and release it around Halloween based on a suggestion by Miniclip[2].

Awards[]

Site/Event Year Contest Prize Outcome
Jay is Games 2010 Best of Casual Gameplay 2009 Best Shooter game (Browser games) Nominated - fourth place (8.1% of all votes)

Trivia[]

  • This game was first hinted on the Party skin.


References[]

  1. The player cannot attack when the shield is on.
  2. https://www.nitrome.com/blog/articles/209/


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