Wavepicker

Wavepicker is a short stealth game with hacking. Grab the Wavepicker gun and hack your enemies.

How to play:
Move using the arrow keys or WASD.

After you obtain the Wavepicker 2000, you can shoot wave-picking bullets that modify the enemy’s wavefunction by adding your function to theirs. If the enemy’s wave is flat — the enemy stops working. If it’s a gate’s wavefunction — the gate opens.

After making this game, I realized that the tutorial may not explain everything clearly — especially for people without a math background. So here is a simple math lesson to help you understand how the main mechanic works:

What happens when we add two sinusoids to each other? That’s simple! If you add two peaks, you get a peak as big as both of them together. Same with valleys. But if you add a peak to a valley, they subtract each other.

Your wave signal is defined by the function: f(x) = a·sin(b·x + c) + d. It might look complicated, but each parameter has a clear purpose. The only thing the player cannot control is x — that’s just the time-changing argument, the same for all waves in the game.

The first adjustable parameter is A. You can set it from 0 to 2. It stretches or squeezes the wave vertically (bigger A = taller wave, smaller A = shorter wave).

Next is B (0 to 2). The bigger B is, the higher the frequency — simply: more waves on screen.

Next parameter: C (0 to 6.28 — two times π). Changing C moves the wave left or right: bigger C=move to the left, smaller C= move to the right.

The last one is D (–1 to 1). It moves the entire wave up or down: bigger D = higher, smaller D = lower.

How to hack a gate?

The gate opens when its wave signal becomes flat enough. Here’s my recommended  method:

• First, connect to the gate’s signal by holding the right mouse button over the screen.
• Make sure you haven’t already added your wave to the gate. If you have, reset it by setting A and D to 0 and shooting the gate.
• Set: A = 1, B = 1, C = 0, D = 0.
• Use A to match the gate’s peak height.
• Use B to match its frequency.
• Use C and D to position your wave correctly — but remember: the goal is to make it opposite to the gate’s wave (as shown at the beginning ).

When done right — the two waves cancel out… and the gate opens!