What kind of game is Sky Guard?
Sky Guard is a side scrolling shooter: you fly a jet back and forth over a long night sky and shoot down the alien ships that try to carry villagers away. Like the 1981 arcade shooter Defender, you can fly in both directions, and the world wraps around, so if you keep going one way you end up back where you started.
The world is six screens wide, so plenty happens out of view. That is why a radar strip at the top shows the whole world in miniature. The bright window in the middle is what you can see right now. Green dots are abductors, pink dots are chargers, red dots are mines, orange dots are spreader ships and the big purple dot is the mothership. The little blue bars are villagers. You start with three lives and finish the game by holding out through all 20 waves.
How do you rescue a kidnapped villager?
Shoot the abductor while it lifts a villager and the villager drops. Touch the falling villager with your plane to catch them, then fly down close to the ground to let them off. The catch is worth 500 points and the safe drop another 500.
An abductor hovers over a villager and pulls them up in a green tractor beam. An abduction alert appears on screen, and if it is happening off screen a red arrow with the distance shows at the edge. If the abductor reaches the top of the sky the villager is gone and the ship turns into a much faster, angrier charger. A villager dropped from low down lands safely on their own for 250 points, but one dropped from high up is lost unless you catch them. Lose every villager and all remaining abductors turn into chargers, so guarding the village is also guarding yourself. The village is refilled to 10 people at the start of waves 6, 11 and 16.
How many kinds of enemies are there?
Five. Their numbers grow and their shots get faster as the waves go up.
| Enemy | What it does | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Abductor | Green saucer. Picks a villager, swoops down, lifts them and now and then fires an aimed shot. | 150 |
| Homing mine | Spiky red ball that slowly follows you once you are close. From wave 2. | 100 |
| Spreader | Orange airship. Its gun ports glow, then it sprays a fan of shots. Takes two or three hits. From wave 3. | 250 |
| Charger | Pink arrowhead that zigzags straight at you. From wave 4, and every abductor that gets away with a villager becomes one. | 150 |
| Mothership | One per wave on waves 5, 10, 15 and 20. Fires triple shots and rings of bullets and drops mines. Has a health bar. | 2,000 |
How does scoring work?
Shoot enemies, rescue villagers and collect a survivor bonus at the end of each wave. The survivor bonus is the wave number × 100 for every villager still alive, capped at 500 each from wave 5 on.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Catch a falling villager | 500 |
| Set a caught villager down | 500 |
| Villager lands safely from a low drop | 250 |
| Wave survivor bonus | survivors × 100 to 500 |
| Every 10,000 points | an extra ship and an extra smart bomb (up to 6 ships and 5 bombs) |
The results screen shows your score, the wave you reached, how many villagers you rescued, how many enemies you downed and a rank based on the wave, from Cadet Pilot up to Guardian of the Sky.
When should you use the smart bomb and the hyperjump?
A smart bomb wipes out every enemy and bullet on screen at once, and the hyperjump teleports you to a random spot in the world. Both are emergency tools.
You start with three bombs and earn one more every 10,000 points. The mothership does not die to a single bomb, it only takes heavy damage. The hyperjump has no limit, but after a jump you have to wait 1.6 seconds before the next one, and where you land is up to luck. For one second after landing nothing can hurt you.
How do you survive longer?
- Watch the radar. A villager blinking red is being kidnapped right now. Heading for the nearest abduction first keeps losses down.
- Shoot at the same height. The laser is a straight beam of light, so once you line up vertically it reaches across the whole screen.
- Do not hug enemies. Your plane slides on momentum. If something is right in your face, turn away to open a gap, then turn back and fire.
- Save bombs, but use them. When spreaders and chargers pile in together, fire one without hesitating. A bomb is cheaper than a life.
- Once you catch someone, head down. Flying around with a villager in tow means missing the next abduction.
Controls
- Keyboard: arrow keys or WASD to fly. Pressing left or right turns you that way instantly, while speed builds and fades with momentum. Z, Space or J fires the laser (hold for rapid fire), X or K drops a smart bomb, C, L or Shift hyperjumps. Press Enter on the title and results screens to start.
- Mouse: hold the button on the screen and the plane flies toward the pointer while firing. Right click for a smart bomb, double click to hyperjump.
- Phones: fly with the stick at the bottom left and hold the yellow button to fire. The pink button is the bomb and the purple button is the jump. In portrait the score and radar sit in the top band and the buttons in the bottom band.
Your best score and best wave are saved only in this browser and never sent to a server. All graphics are drawn in code and every sound is synthesized, so nothing extra is downloaded.