BACKYARD ARMY
Backyard Army is an army shooting game where you lead a squad of green plastic army men across a giant yard and house. This player idea asked for a shooting action war game. You and 3 squadmates push up each area against the enemy army men, who are dug in behind sandbags and toy cover. Riflemen, grenadiers and turret gunners hold every line, and each area ends with a toy boss. There are 7 areas, starting in the garden bed and ending in the living room with The General. Can you defeat The General and win the war?
How to play
Run forward, shoot and clear the contested sections, then face off against the mini boss to clear the area. Move with WASD or the arrows, hold Space to fire, G throws a grenade and R reloads. On mobile the left side is your stick and you hold the right side to fire, with a round button for grenades. Aiming is automatic, so you just have to get the enemy in sight. You and 3 squadmates start in the garden bed and push up against the enemy army men hiding behind toy cover. The turret gunners lie behind sandbags and spray bullets down the lane. Your gun holds 10 rounds, so pick your moment to step out. You have 6 hearts and 3 grenades, and a checkpoint flag does not refill them. If you go down you start back at the last flag with everything full. Each area you clear opens the next one on the map.
Behind the game
The idea from macx was titled Unision and asked for a shooting action war game with no other details. I built the idea of toy army soldiers conquering areas to capture them and moving on to the next. My first version, Plastic War, had a toy photo look with toy blocks for cover. It felt too basic, so I redrew it in pixel art and swapped the blocks for things you would find in a yard, like bricks, tin cans and a watering can. I like the kitchen floor level for its playfulness. Holding fire used to be an endless machine gun, so I added a 10-round magazine and a reload. The General stood still and was too easy, so I made him dash between spots in his fort. The hardest part was learning the timing of the bosses and tweaking the settings to make it hard but fair.
Idea by macx · built by GameMyself. Have an idea? Submit it here
Hints
I like to take out the gunners and throw a grenade at the turret. Your grenade goes to the nearest turret gunner first and kills him even behind his sandbags. The photo below shows one on its way. I like to clear a line of enemies before going on to the next group, so your squad keeps up and stays on target. On a boss a grenade only chips, so bosses are a gunfight. Every boss gets angrier at half health and attacks faster. Blinking circles and lanes show where a bomb, grenade or charge is about to land, so step out of them. The tank in the garden bed flashes its barrel tip before each shell and aims where you were at that flash, so step aside when you see it.
