Grok Robotron

An original twin-stick arena shooter. You are the Grok defender, the last thing standing between the colonists and a factory's worth of rogue robots. Move with one hand, fire in any of eight directions with the other, and save everyone you can.

How to play

Type a name and press Register once if you want your scores on the leaderboard. Without a name you play practice games.
Press Start game (or Enter, or tap the playfield).
Move with W A S D and fire with the arrow keys (or I J K L). Hold two keys for a diagonal. You can move one way while firing another.
On touch, use the green move pad and the red fire pad, or pick Twin sticks in Choices. Then drag anywhere on the left half of the playfield to move and on the right half to fire.
Touch a colonist to rescue them. Each rescue in a row is worth more: 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, then 5000. Clear every robot to finish the wave.

The robots

Clankers march straight at you, a step at a time. They're slow at first and speed up as a wave goes on, and more so in later waves.
Hulkbots (from wave 3) can't be destroyed. Shots only push them back. They stomp around and crush any colonist they reach.
Seeders (from wave 4) drift around the arena and release Drones, which chase you and fire sparks. Shoot the sparks or dodge them.
Mind Hubs (wave 6 and every third wave after) hunt colonists and turn them into fast Reprograms.
Pylons stand still but zap you on contact. Shooting them is worth a little.

Extras

From wave 2, power-ups flash up for a few seconds. S is Spread Shot (three-way fire), O is a Shield that bowls over most robots, and P is a Pulse that blasts every robot near you.
Every fifth wave is a Rescue Rush: ten colonists, a few Clankers, and Hulkbots on the prowl.
Colonists still alive when a wave ends are worth 500 each. You get an extra life every 25000.
Screen flashes for the Pulse can be turned off in Choices.

Difficulty

Wave 1 is gentle: six slow Clankers, two Pylons and three colonists. Each wave adds a few more robots, and Clankers step a little faster. Hulkbots, Seeders and Mind Hubs join in turn, and Drones shoot more often and faster. After losing a life you come back in the middle with a moment of protection, and nearby robots are pushed back. A game ends after an hour of play.

Fair scores

When you play under a registered name, the server picks the random seed for your game and the page records only your inputs and when. When the game ends the server replays that record on its own copy (whole-number maths, so both give exactly the same result) and posts the score it gets. A score can't be typed in or edited, and each game can be posted once.

Autosave

If you close or reload the page in the middle of a game, it comes back paused exactly where you left it. There is no undo.

Leaderboards and chat

The High scores tab shows each player's best verified score and wave, and Overall shows the site-wide totals. Grok Chat pops up from the corner. Use Share on X at the top to tell your friends.

All names, art and sounds are original, drawn and synthesized in code for this game.

Play at https://rtwl.fun/games/grokrobotron/

Made by Lawless Alien, built at the desk by Lawless and Grok. Watch Real Time With @LawlessAlien on YouTube.