COMBO CUTIE
a game by vghime aka vgperson
about puppies or humans and valentine's day

---

CONTROLS

Arrow Keys: Select option, move Combo
Z: Jump
X: Combo Cut
Esc: Quit

---

GAMEPLAY AND SCORING

I hope this doesn't startle you too much, but here goes: the goal of Combo Cutie is to rack up lots of combos! Wow.
Combo is no slouch when it comes to combos, and can thus juggle up to eight of them at once! At least, in theory.

Once you start a combo, three bits of info appear in one of the screen corners: the name of the combo, the multiplier, and a bar that generally displays the time remaining.
Those first two should require little explanation. The time remaining is how much time you have to continue the combo - most combos give you about three seconds.

If a combo times out, you get a single point for each 1x. A 1x combo gets you 1 point, 2x gets you 2, and so on. (Decimal multipliers are rounded down.)
"That's not very satisfying!", you say. "How is that any different from just getting points any regular old way?!"
Well, what do you expect? A combo just petering out isn't very satisfying, and thus so is your reward.

A combo IS satisfying when you terminate it on purpose. And more than that, it's satisfying when you form... A CHAIN OF COMBOS.
Can Combo accomplish such a feat? A silly question. For you see, Combo possesses...

THE COMBO CUT!!

If Combo has two or more combos going, and two of those have a multiplier over 1x, it becomes advantageous to use the Combo Cut.
Press X at such a time, and all ongoing combos will be terminated... and their multipliers will multiply with one another to determine the points you get!

For example! If you Combo Cut with a 2x, a 2x, and a 3x combo, you get 2 x 2 x 3 points for a total of 12!
Had you just let those combos time out, you would only get 2 + 2 + 3, a measly 7. As you probably know, addition and multiplication are different things!
(Since it'd be absurd to estimate on the fly how much a Combo Cut will get you, the points you'd get for a Cut at any moment will appear underneath your score, changing color according to how high it is. You're welcome!)

When multiplication gets involved, a single extra multiplier can have quite an impact. So the question is, when do you Combo Cut? THEREIN LIES THE RUB.
Naturally, you don't want any of your combos to time out before you cut! Juggling combos is hard - Combo's poor puppy/human mind can't multitask to that extent.

But that's why you're helping Combo out! Maybe you can figure out ways to chain together a bunch of combos for mega points. PERHAPS YOU CAN.
If you can get 100 points or more in all three stages, then...?!

Oh, there are also some things that come into play which aren't combos, I guess.
* Combo has a strict three-minute time limit per attempt. Even the illest of combos shall not sway the committee to give extensions. Combos are auto-cut when time runs out, just to be nice.
* A """Boost Gauge""" shows up when you get hit, and Combo dies when it empties... but respawns in the same place after a few seconds. Death would be a serious impediment to comboing, after all!

---

COMBO LIST

Screenfall Combo
All the combo areas exist in some kind of spacial distortion that makes them wrap around infinitely, forming an inescapable combo prison. I would suggest not really thinking about it!
That fact helps with this combo, as it then becomes much more possible to fall very long distances - and back past where you started! If you can fall the whole height of the area without landing, that's a 1x multiplier!
This combo is not timed - it's only broken when Combo lands. A blue bar appears where the red time bar usually is to show the distance to the next multiplier.

Runner Combo
Keep moving! Gotta stay low! Combo is a professional runner, like all puppies/humans. But with combos, it's not about speed, it's about consistency!
Just run in the same direction without stopping and you'll rack up a combo! Like Screenfall, a blue bar shows your progress, but unlike it, you don't need to run the whole length of the area.
After all, falling is way easier than running! You don't really have to DO anything to fall, but pumping those adorable puppy/human legs takes work!

Stillness Combo
The field of comboing can be... a little bit strange. Puppies/humans have to get very creative with this stuff, and sometimes there are just downright silly ideas.
The Stillness Combo is one such idea. Stand perfectly still, letting all your other combos go completely and utterly to waste... and you shall become the combo.
It's easily the most zen combo approved by Combo Cutie's judges, but hardly the most useful. But hey, if you're into doing nothing, this is the combo for you.

Collection Combo
Someone kindly left all these regenerating pellet things around everywhere! Well, they are professional comboer areas, after all.
Grab those dots! As they're relatively numerous, collecting one only adds 0.1x after the initial 1x. Pellets will respawn three seconds later, so no sitting on top of a single pellet to rack up the combo!
...Okay, yes, if there are some pellets near each other - and why wouldn't there be - you can rather easily farm them. But we'll see if being BORING gets you a good score! (Okay, it might.)

Multistomp Combo
When you stomp on something, it just feels good to stomp on another thing in succession, you know?
A classic method of racking up points. Of course, Combo can't land on the ground, or the combo will be broken. But you can do pretty much anything else!
And in case you were wondering, there are now strict rules forbidding turtles from all designated combo areas. No... never again.

Jump Combo
Combo possesses a mighty ability revered among comboers: that of spontaneously generating propulsion in midair. And a puppy/human never reveals their secrets, so don't even ask!
Normally, Combo can only jump a single time more after leaving the ground. But golden dots will allow another jump, so keep jumping three times or more without landing to combo!
You used to get your double jump back just for stomping on an enemy, but this was determined to be super OP, and so the universe was rewritten to prevent that.

Damage Combo
Combo once took a class on damage boosting, and it turned out to be one of the most helpful skills a puppy/human could ever have.
While Combo has what some would call a "health bar," in the combo community it is known by its superior name: the boost gauge.
Note that Sproingers are so weak that they die when boosted off of, and Hairdodos will "block" to prevent repeated boosting!

Death Combo
As an expert comboer, Combo is very, VERY well-insured, to the point where death is no real obstacle. But seriously, don't try this at home!
Dying will waste some time, but combos freeze while you respawn, and dying several times in succession can also be a combo.
This combo sticks around for quite a while, so it might be a good thing to keep going while you rack up other combos!