KickBack
KICKBACK
A high-octane retro boomer-shooter where your Old Tech weapons kick back harder than the mechanical swarm.
Made in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 60 | Theme: OLD TECH
Estimated Playtime: 5–8 minutes of pure adrenaline.
Headliner
Royal Glass Greenhouse is overrun by ravenous brass vermin. You are the gardener. You have no lasers, no sci-fi shields, and no auto-aim.
Instead, you wield heavy, clanking, 19th-century experimental prototypes. Your shotgun blast throws you 2 meters backward, your nailgun needs manual pumping, and every wave your faulty arsenal malfunctions in hilarious, chaotic ways.
3 Reasons to Play
Recoil is Your Jetpack: Don't just shoot — weaponize the kickback! Blast the floor to rocket-jump over swarms or fire mid-air to dodge charging boilers.
The Problem-Solving Boot [F]: When a gun jams or a beetle gets too close, kick it. Stun elites, punt bouncing mortar shells back into crowds, and boot-kick your rifle to clear misfires.
Old Tech Malfunctions Every Wave: Each round adds a new mechanical breakdown that flips your strategy upside down:
Inverted Recoil: The bolt is backwards — firing pulls you forward like a grappling hook.
Black Powder Sneeze: Soot makes you sneeze every 10s, jolting your aim to the ceiling with a wild misfire.
Music-Box Trigger: Shoot in rhythm to make pests dance in confusion.
Controls (Read Before Blasting!)
W A S D— Move & Strafe (Never stop moving!)
Mouse — Aim & Look (Target glowing weak spots)
LMB— Fire (Recoil knocks you backward!)
RMB / R — Cock Hammer / Pump Pressure Handle
F — Gardener's Boot Kick (Stun pests, unjam weapons, punt bombs)
1 - 4 / Mouse Wheel — Swap Weapons (Shotgun, Revolver, Riveter, Mortar)
Esc — Pause Menu
Ludum Dare 60 Theme: "OLD TECH"
We didn't just slap brass gears on a normal shooter — "Old Tech" is the core game loop:
1. Physical Friction: Weapons have weight, violent recoil, and manual pressure pumping.
2. Mechanical Unreliability: Weapons overheat, jam, and glitch between waves.
3. Analogue Maintenance: Fix complex Victorian machinery with a swift kick of your boot `[F]`.
The 72-Hour Crew
ElyaWithDaShifts— TeamLead, Game Design & Level Design
Noodonge —Programmer
v!mix— Systems Programmer
pitir_grifn — 2D Lead Artist
breadwithjam939— 2D Artist
A high-octane retro boomer-shooter where your Old Tech weapons kick back harder than the mechanical swarm.
Made in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 60 | Theme: OLD TECH
Estimated Playtime: 5–8 minutes of pure adrenaline.
Headliner
Royal Glass Greenhouse is overrun by ravenous brass vermin. You are the gardener. You have no lasers, no sci-fi shields, and no auto-aim.
Instead, you wield heavy, clanking, 19th-century experimental prototypes. Your shotgun blast throws you 2 meters backward, your nailgun needs manual pumping, and every wave your faulty arsenal malfunctions in hilarious, chaotic ways.
3 Reasons to Play
Recoil is Your Jetpack: Don't just shoot — weaponize the kickback! Blast the floor to rocket-jump over swarms or fire mid-air to dodge charging boilers.
The Problem-Solving Boot [F]: When a gun jams or a beetle gets too close, kick it. Stun elites, punt bouncing mortar shells back into crowds, and boot-kick your rifle to clear misfires.
Old Tech Malfunctions Every Wave: Each round adds a new mechanical breakdown that flips your strategy upside down:
Inverted Recoil: The bolt is backwards — firing pulls you forward like a grappling hook.
Black Powder Sneeze: Soot makes you sneeze every 10s, jolting your aim to the ceiling with a wild misfire.
Music-Box Trigger: Shoot in rhythm to make pests dance in confusion.
Controls (Read Before Blasting!)
W A S D— Move & Strafe (Never stop moving!)
Mouse — Aim & Look (Target glowing weak spots)
LMB— Fire (Recoil knocks you backward!)
RMB / R — Cock Hammer / Pump Pressure Handle
F — Gardener's Boot Kick (Stun pests, unjam weapons, punt bombs)
1 - 4 / Mouse Wheel — Swap Weapons (Shotgun, Revolver, Riveter, Mortar)
Esc — Pause Menu
Ludum Dare 60 Theme: "OLD TECH"
We didn't just slap brass gears on a normal shooter — "Old Tech" is the core game loop:
1. Physical Friction: Weapons have weight, violent recoil, and manual pressure pumping.
2. Mechanical Unreliability: Weapons overheat, jam, and glitch between waves.
3. Analogue Maintenance: Fix complex Victorian machinery with a swift kick of your boot `[F]`.
The 72-Hour Crew
ElyaWithDaShifts— TeamLead, Game Design & Level Design
Noodonge —Programmer
v!mix— Systems Programmer
pitir_grifn — 2D Lead Artist
breadwithjam939— 2D Artist
Comments50
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However, I noticed something that might be either a bug or an intentional feature. If you stand at the edge of any platform, all the monsters gather directly underneath you, allowing you to kill them without any difficulty. Because of this, I think the NPC AI needs to be improved.
I would also suggest adding ammo and medical supply crates to the other levels, but in limited quantities.
I'm not a professional critic, but I would rate this game 9 out of 10.
The affixes were not really balanced all that well. Some of them were absolute freebies like the slippery floor but some were just obnoxious. The random jamming for example was just infuriating on some levels/guns. The achoo was very manageable with timing a down look just right and the "on beat" thing was not even a hinderance at all but a buff really.
The silent movie was funny but made it were slow to play too. It had just too many downsides really in comparison. The big weapon was the only gun realistically usable on that. And then slowly sniping off the stragglers. That was generally my main strategy always really. Just bunny hop around form big groups and blast them with a jump kick to finish off it something survives. Then just snipe off sniper birds and jumpers with revolver or the nail gun thingy.
The guns too were a bit uneven. Nothing beats the big boom, obviously. The shotty was near useless to me really. And the needler thing really was kinda a replacement for the revolver though it didn't make it absolutely useless.
The jump kick was super fun to use and crazy powerful but also had a huge downside where even if you didn't kill one puny grawer, they'd get some free hits in. I guess that tones it down to not be all that OP.
Quite a few of the mechanics weren't really explained. Like it took me until the final weapon to realize that there actually are other weapons. And that was just because it's the one (and the only one) that is auto equipped when acquired. So my first rounds were just revolver only and you obviously fun out of bullets fast.
The first level constant health/ammo spawning made it a bit boring and kinda impossible to lose. And then in strict comparison, the second level didn't have any (at least that I found).
Neat kinda unique look but the colors were a bit muddy to my liking. Also made it so that the enemies didn't really pop and were sometimes hard to spot out of the environment. Especially with silent movie affix which also very much masked the sniper aim lines that were otherwise dead giveaway. Music was great, sounds a bit hit or miss. Kinda funny but sometimes irritating.
The upstairs was kinda janky. In multiple ways. There was like one stair that you couldn't just walk up and had to jump over which was a bit annoying. The enemies also did absolutely not know what to do when you were upstairs. Sometimes the jumpers managed to get there but the wee ones were just making a huge horrible sounding ruckus below. Sonar warfare!
Picking up stuff from boxes was a bit odd too. All too often I kicked the box open and ran through it without managing to pick up the item itself. Not sure if picking it up had enough feedback since sometimes it took me a bit to realize that I didn't get it. And the constant farmability of health on the first level meant you could have just as well fully restocked health (like ammo already did) between rounds as you could do it manually and felt just like a waste of time.
Anyways, great job, a very complete and fun game! 👍
But big boomer still reigns supreme, it even seems to be immune to sticky trigger affix. 😎
But yeah, fun game with nice amount of replayability too. I just find that the main hook of the malfunctions just makes it less fun and it would be a lot of fun to keep score chasing without them. Most of them don't even really add difficulty, just annoyance.
Other than that, the gunplay feels really satisfying, and the variety of perks makes it a lot of fun. I especially laughed at the perk that turns the game into a silent movie 😂