-- When arrows go BOOM --

Ticking Tips is a fast-paced, chaotic 2-4 player local multiplayer arena game where every shot turns into a ticking time bomb, inspired by Towerfall ascension. Mess with your friends, dodge active arrow traps, manage your ammo, and use your cleanses wisely!

Features

• 2-4 Player Local Arena Chaos: Battle head-to-head on a single screen with full support for up to 4 players.
• Procedural Arena Generation: Every round generates a new map with (hopefully) different  platforms and cover
• Ticking Arrow & Cleanse Mechanics: Stick arrows into walls or players to create ticking hazards, then time your limited cleanses to shake off attached explosives before they detonate
• Randomized Fuse: At the start of every round, the universal arrow timer is randomly set between 5 and 15 seconds
  
• Explosive Countdown: Once shot, all arrows tick down on this secret timer before detonating simultaneously
• The Cleanse Gauge: Activating your cleanse isn't just for survival—it briefly flashes your player to reveal how much time remains on the fuse:
  • Green Flash: Safe Zone (10–15 seconds remaining)
  • Yellow Flash: Caution Zone (5–10 seconds remaining)
  • Red Flash: Danger Zone (0–5 seconds remaining)
• The wall shot: It won't tell you how much time remains; rather has a 50-50% chance to blow up and fizzle! You can pick up either! The ticking only stops if you cleanse
• Mind Games: Use your cleanses strategically to gauge the detonation time, bait your opponents into bad positions, or bluff about how close the arrow is to going BOOM!

Controls

• P1: WAD (Move) | Space ( Shoot) | R (Cleanse)
• P2: Arrow Keys (Move) | R-Ctrl ( Shoot) | Enter (Cleanse)
• P3: Numpad 1,3,5 (Move) | Numpad 0 (Shoot) | Numpad 7 (Cleanse)
• P4: IJL (Move) | N ( Shoot) | U (Cleanse)
• System: ESC or P to Pause / Menu

Disclaimer

This game was made as my first attempt at making one, as a part of 2026 Game Jam. Made with Game Maker. It is not supposed to be *perfect* or a *finished* game, rather an attempt to learn and have fun.

The community has been amazing, and I'd say, my goal has been reached :)

Assets

Every asset and SFX is a free asset offered by the Game Jam 2026 Discord server or itch.io free assets.

References:

Sprites: https://kenney.nl/assets
SFX: https://kenney.nl/assets and https://tallbeard.itch.io/music-loop-bundle

Two other things have been adjusted based on the sprites gotten from
https://kenney.nl/assets/new-platformer-pack : the "ducking" sprite has been adjusted to look like "dead/giving up" manually in the sprite editor.
The arrow sprite from https://kenney.nl/assets/micro-roguelike has been manually adjusted to be facing the needed directions, so basically newly made but heavily inspired by it (copied the colors, and retraced it manually).

Dev note

I loved being a part of something like this, never have I expected to actually be able to. Thank you Game Jam Discord community for being so nice and supportive <3

This was my first "toe-dip" into game development and it's been a blast. Having only about 2 days to make this work, I am happy with the results :)

The most important thing was to learn and have fun, and both have been had ^^

Hope y'all enjoy this mini game! I am certain I'll put my colleagues at work against each other with it :D

Love,
Mali