Do I need to explain how Cyclops from the X-Men’s powers work? I’m going to anyway just in case. He shoots beams from his eyes! More or less, I think it’s technically energy from a punch dimension? I’m not an X-Men nerd though, so correct me in the comments. Main point is, he can never stop shooting those beams, which is why he has to always be wearing glasses at the very least. Which, as it turns out, makes for a fun video game concept, as it’s now been manifested in the form of Laser Guy, a twin-stick “anti-shooter” all about not killing your co-workers.

In Laser Guy, you play as – oh, oh no, it’s topically relevant – a very stressed video game developer who, when he gets anxious, starts shooting laser beams out of his singular eye uncontrollably (everyone’s a monster person in this world, so the one eye thing is normal (I’m not sure how normal the laser beam thing is)). The problem with this laser beam is that it’ll kill anyone it touches, so you need to be very particular about how you move throughout the game’s various levels. Kill any of your co-workers, and you have to start the room over.

There are ways to get around this. Furniture isn’t destroyed immediately, so you can use it to block your laser beams to ensure you don’t turn anyone into a rotisserie chicken. This then becomes a game of semi-strategy, one where you have to use the terrain to your advantage. In turn, there are challenging elements like smokescreens covering up roaming co-workers, and for some reason devices that can explode and kill anyone near them instantly.

You may also come across some puzzles that involve reflecting your laser beam just so, occasionally tasking you with charging up a battery to open a door. Presumably some difficulty will be added over the levels in which you need to time this reflecting just right so as to avoid any killing. The whole thing has an old-web charm to it, like a game you’d play on Nitrome back in the day. I like it! And there’s a playtest you can sign up to if you want to try it out for yourself on Steam (or you know, just wishlist it).