KarBOOM: 8 person multiplayer indie car-combat

First, let me get this out of the way: Yes, I’m the one who made this game. So naturally I think it’s absolutely fantastic. And I’m stoked that the format of GameSkinny affords me the opportunity to announce it here myself. So I’m just going to announce it here, describe some of the features, and I’ll be around to answer questions in the comments. This is not a critical review of the game; as its creator, I’m not the person to do that.

KarBOOM is all about local multiplayer car combat. Cram your hands together on the same keyboard or plug in some gamepads (Xbox, PS3, Logitech… whatever will plug into your computer and has an analog stick) to play against your friends.

Play car soccer in KarBall – a ball game where teams compete to put the ball in their coloured goal area, having been the last team to touch the ball. It can be played 1-on-1, 4-on-4, 7-on-1 or anything in-between. Or, switch on the Flag Mutator to turn the game into car rugby. A flag replaces the ball and it must be carried into the goal area by your team.

For a more strategic game, play Gamble. Gamble starts with the bid – players taking turns to bet that, if everyone else was playing against them, they could last a given amount of seconds. Subsequent bids must be higher, or the player can pass and forfeit their opportunity to be the target that round. Once all but one player have passed, the highest bidder is the target, and everyone must try and knock them out. If they’re knocked out before they reach their bid time, they lose all that time as points. If they survive that long, they gain all that time as points. The first to reach the score target wins.

Players looking for a quick game can play Showdown – a single-life last-player-standing game mode where the stage changes to force the game to its conclusion. Play on the ever-shrinking Sandstorm, battle against other kars and your own inertia on the spinning Turntable, or knock out everyone else before the grass blows you up in Overgrowth.

Yeah, cars are allergic to grass.

Finally, Klassic is the most customisable game mode. It has the most stages to play on, the most mutators to change the rules, team mode or free-for-all, and the choice of life limit, time limit, or score limit mode.

I encourage you to check out the demo – you can play it in your browser if you have the Unity web-player plugin, or you can download it for your OS of choice here – and experiment with the different game modes and mutators provided there. Come Tuesday, I’d be stoked if you bought the full version, unlocking KarBall and 8 more stages, directly from me at KarBOOM.net, or on Desura, FireFlowerGames, or ShinyLoot.

Oh, and I’m not the only one who’d love to see it on Steam as well. Join us in trying to get Valve’s attention by voting for KarBOOM on Steam Greenlight!