A scientist creates a machine to safely take out the victims. The only problem with this machine is, it can only run for a certain amount of time (the time depending on the evilness of the blocks) before destroying everything in it. You volunteer to be the one who takes the humans out. Can you do it?! Maybe!!
There Are People In The Blocks is a self-described "fast-paced puzzle game" created by Tony Domenico aka THROMPD, the creator of Petscop and Nifty, though it is unrelated to those two story-wise. The plot is that humanity has discovered another planet with life, but the lifeforms are evil blocks with sinister smiles who trap the humans into blocks. A scientist creates a machine that can free the humans, and sends you and some guys to rescue them. But the machine can only run for a limited time, so you need to be quick...
Gameplay consists of 60 levels, each a single screen where you must click all the blocks with stick figures on them (representing the humans) while avoiding the blocks with evil grins before time runs out. Freeing three humans at once gets you a time bonus of 1 second, while clicking an evil block takes away 2 seconds. There are also blank blocks, which do nothing, and other variations of blocks that appear later.
Can be downloaded on the creator's website here
.
This game contains examples of:
- Aliens Are Bastards: The evil blocks, as the Excuse Plot says, are beings from another planet, and they turn humans into blocks.
- All There in the Manual: The Excuse Plot and instructions on how to play are contained in an HTML file packaged with the download.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The evil blocks- the manual outright says "most of them are quite evil", and all of them capture humans and put them inside blocks while guarding them.
- Big Bad: The evil blocks trap humanity inside blocks, requiring you to rescue them, and try to guard them and get in your way.
- Excuse Plot: Spacefaring humans are imprisoned inside blocks by a race of evil alien blocks, so you must rescue them using a device made to extract them from the blocks, but it only works for a limited time. Lampshaded by the manual:In order to understand the game, this is the story to it (not much of a story, but enough to understand why you are doing what you are doing while playing the game)
- Forced Transformation: The humans were absorbed inside blocks and turned into blocks themselves, and you have to free them.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: The evil blocks never speak, and it's never explained why they trap humans inside blocks- they just do because they're evil.
- Psychotic Smirk: The evil blocks all have an evil smile permanently fixed on them.
- Timed Mission: Every level has a time limit under which you must click the stick-figure blocks to save the humans inside. The time limit gets smaller as you progress through levels.
