Small Boat Invaders

🇬🇧 ✈️ 💣 THE CHANNEL MUST HOLD 💣 ✈️ 🇬🇧

The red boats are coming.

Wave after wave of invasion craft are crossing the English

Channel, headed straight for the White Cliffs of Dover. As

the pilot of a lone RAF bomber, you are the last line of

defence between Britain and the invaders.

Left-click to drop bombs. Keep them out.

Simple? Just wait until Level 7.

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🎮  GAMEPLAY

Move your bomber left and right with the mouse. Click to drop

a bomb directly below your plane. Lead fast boats, time your

drops, and watch the shore breach counter — if too many

invaders land on British soil, it's game over.

Every boat that reaches the beach is marked as a figure on

the sand. Watch them accumulate and feel the pressure rise.

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🌊  10 ESCALATING LEVELS

  Level 1  — The First Wave          (8 boats,  11 may land)

  Level 2  — Cross-Channel Chaos     (11 boats, 10 may land)

  Level 3  — Rough Seas Rising       (16 boats,  9 may land)

  Level 4  — Fleet Assembles         (23 boats,  8 may land)

  Level 5  — The Great Flotilla      (31 boats,  7 may land)

  Level 6  — Britannia Under Siege   (39 boats,  6 may land)

  Level 7  — The Blitz Afloat        (50 boats,  5 may land)

  Level 8  — Last Coastal Defence    (63 boats,  4 may land)

  Level 9  — Operation Armada        (75 boats,  3 may land)

  Level 10 — THE FINAL INVASION      (88 boats,  2 may land)

Each level gets faster, more crowded, and less forgiving.

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🛥  10 BOAT TYPES

From tiny rubber dinghies to full aircraft carriers, the

invasion fleet grows in size, speed, and resilience as the

levels progress.

  🟥 Dinghy      — Cheap and plentiful. One hit.

  🟥 Zodiac      — Tiny, very fast. Hard to hit.

  🟥 Raft        — Slow but carries many.

  🟥 Speedboat   — Fastest on the water.

  🟥 Trawler     — Mid-range. Three hits.

  🟥 Gunboat     — Armoured. First bomb bounces off.

  🟥 Ferry       — Carries 50 invaders. Armoured.

  🟥 Warship     — Naval destroyer. Eight hits.

  🟥 Submarine   — Semi-submerged. Hard to see.

  🟥 Carrier     — Enormous. Twelve hits. Armoured.

Armoured vessels deflect your first bomb with a satisfying

CLANG — then the hull is open. Boats catch fire at half HP.

Sinking ships go down slowly, their crews... not so quietly.

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🎵  MUSIC & SOUND

Every level has its own unique procedurally synthesised music

track — from a calm pastoral opening at 80 BPM to an all-out

frantic finale at 155 BPM. The tension genuinely builds.

Sound effects include:

  • Falling-pitch bomb whistle

  • Three layered explosion sizes

  • Water splashes and near-miss sounds

  • Synthesised crew screams on impact

  • Armoured hull clang

  • Air raid siren on level start

  • Boat horn and engine hum

  • Shore alarm when breaches are critical

  • Crowd cheer on level clear

Every single sound and music note is generated in real-time

from mathematics. There are no audio files in this game.

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💥  VISUAL EFFECTS

  • Full particle system: fire, smoke, sparks, debris

  • Blood and body particle effects on direct hits

  • White water splash on misses

  • Engine smoke trails on damaged boats

  • Animated wave layers across the Channel

  • Working lighthouse with sweeping beam

  • Screen shake on big explosions

  • Shore breach figures accumulating on the beach

  • Fire animations on burning vessels

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🛠  TECHNICAL

Built entirely in Python using pygame-ce. Every graphic is

drawn procedurally — no image files, no sprite sheets, no

audio files. The entire game is a single Python script

packaged into a standalone Windows EXE.

  • Resolution: 1280 × 720

  • Target: 60 FPS

  • No installation required (EXE version)

  • No external dependencies at runtime

  • Runs on Windows 10 and Windows 11

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💬  A NOTE FROM THE DEVELOPER

"I built this game entirely from scratch using pure Python —

every wave, every cliff face, every explosion, every musical

note is generated by mathematics at runtime. No assets. Just

code. I hope it brings you a few minutes of frantic, patriotic

fun."

— Julian Henley

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CONTROLS (shown on title screen)

  MOUSE        Move bomber left / right

  LEFT CLICK   Drop bomb

  ESC          Quit

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TAGS (for itch.io)

action, arcade, bombing, british, casual, channel, defence,

england, invasion, mouse-only, procedural, python, retro,

singleplayer, top-down, wave-based, windows

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INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS  (include in itch.io description

or as a separate file)

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INSTALLATION & SETUP

====================

▶  OPTION 1 — STANDALONE EXE (Recommended)

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No Python required. No installation required.

Just download, unzip, and play.

  1. Download  SmallBoatInvaders.zip  from this page.

  2. Right-click the ZIP file and choose

     "Extract All..." (or use 7-Zip / WinRAR).

  3. Open the extracted folder.

  4. Double-click  SmallBoatInvaders.exe  to launch.

  ✅ That's it. The game runs immediately.

  Note: Windows may show a "Windows protected your PC"

  SmartScreen warning the first time you run an unsigned EXE.

  This is normal for indie games. Click "More info" and then

  "Run anyway" to proceed. The game contains no malware.

▶  OPTION 2 — PLAY FROM SOURCE (Python users)

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If you prefer to run the Python source directly:

  1. Install Python 3.9 or newer from:

        https://www.python.org/downloads/

     ⚠  During install, tick "Add Python to PATH"

  2. Double-click  PLAY_NOW.bat

     (This auto-installs the one required library

      and launches the game immediately.)

  — OR — open a terminal and type:

        pip install pygame-ce

        python main.py

▶  OPTION 3 — BUILD YOUR OWN EXE

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Want to build the EXE yourself from the source?

  1. Install Python 3.9+ (tick "Add Python to PATH")

  2. Double-click  BUILD_WINDOWS_EXE.bat

  3. Wait 60–120 seconds while it compiles

  4. Find your EXE at:  dist\SmallBoatInvaders.exe

  This uses PyInstaller to bundle everything into a

  single self-contained executable.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

-------------------

  Operating System:  Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit)

  Processor:         Any modern CPU (2010 or newer)

  Memory:            256 MB RAM

  Graphics:          Any — uses CPU rendering only

  Storage:           25 MB

  Python:            3.9–3.14 (only needed for source play)

  The game has been tested on Python 3.11, 3.12, and 3.14.

  It uses pygame-ce which supports all current Python versions,

  including Python 3.14 (which standard pygame does not).

TROUBLESHOOTING

---------------

  "Windows protected your PC" warning:

      Click "More info" → "Run anyway"

      This appears because the EXE is unsigned (common for

      indie games distributed outside the Microsoft Store).

  Game won't start / black screen:

      Try running PLAY_NOW.bat instead of the EXE.

      This uses Python directly and bypasses any EXE issues.

  "Failed to build wheel" error during install:

      This game uses pygame-ce specifically to avoid this.

      If you see it, run:

          python -m pip install pygame-ce --prefer-binary

      instead of standard pygame.

  No sound:

      Check your Windows volume and that your audio device

      is set as default. The game uses pygame's software

      mixer — no DirectSound or special audio drivers needed.

  Very low FPS:

      The particle effects are CPU-intensive during large

      explosions. This is normal and brief. The game targets

      60 FPS on any reasonably modern PC.

  Python not found (when using .bat files):

      Reinstall Python from python.org and ensure you tick

      "Add Python to PATH" during the installation wizard.

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END OF DESCRIPTION & INSTALLATION NOTES

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