Wave Incoming

Wave Incoming is a top-down arcade shooter where players are trapped in a small arena and must survive relentless waves of enemies. With three playable characters and an upgrade system, the game allows you to collect in-game currency to enhance your abilities and prolong your survival. The 2D scrolling visuals and direct controls emphasize fast-paced, tactical gameplay as you fight to stay alive in this intense survival scenario.

Wave Incoming: Review

Introduction

In the vast ocean of indie game development, where passion projects often drown in obscurity, Wave Incoming (2014) emerges as a curious artifact—a minimalist top-down shooter that encapsulates both the ambitions and limitations of small-team Unity development in the mid-2010s. Developed by Brackeys, a studio better known for its educational game development tutorials than commercial releases, Wave Incoming presents a distilled arena-survival experience. This review argues that while the game lacks narrative depth or mechanical innovation, its unpretentious design and tight focus on score-chasing endurance embody the ethos of indie experimentation during an era when tools like Unity democratized game creation.

Development History & Context

Studio Vision & Technological Constraints
Brackeys, founded by Danish developers Asbjørn Thirslund and Eigil Pock-Steen Jørgensen, positioned itself as a hub for accessible game development education. Wave Incoming likely originated as a practical demonstration of Unity’s capabilities rather than a commercial endeavor. Released in December 2014, it arrived amid a surge of indie titles fueled by platforms like Steam Direct, yet its austere scope reflects the realities of a two-person team juggling multiple roles: Thirslund handled programming and Unity integration, while Jørgensen managed all art, sound, and design.

The game was built using Unity 4.x, an engine then celebrated for its accessibility but criticized for performance limitations in 2D projects. Wave Incoming’s simplistic visuals—functional sprites, flat arenas—suggest optimization for low-spec hardware, a pragmatic choice given the target market of casual players and fellow developers. Its release coincided with a renaissance in arcade-inspired games (Geometry Wars 3, Nuclear Throne), yet Brackeys’ offering lacked the polish or marketing heft of its contemporaries.

The 2014 Gaming Landscape
The mid-2010s saw indie games gain critical legitimacy, with titles like Shovel Knight (2014) marrying retro aesthetics with modern design. Against this backdrop, Wave Incoming’s lack of narrative ambition or stylistic flourish rendered it an anomaly—a purely mechanical exercise in survival. Its closest relatives were mobile-centric wave-based shooters (Minigore 2), but its PC/Mac release placed it in direct competition with deeper, more visually inventive experiences.

---

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Plot & Characters: Absence as Design
Wave Incoming deliberately eschews narrative. There are no cutscenes, dialogue, or lore entries—merely three unnamed, mechanically identical characters (distinguished only by visual design) battling endless waves in abstract arenas. This vacuum of storytelling mirrors arcade classics like Robotron 2084, where context is secondary to visceral action.

Thematic Underpinnings: Isolation & Endurance
Thematically, the game channels primal survival instincts. Players are “trapped in a small arena” (per MobyGames’ description), evoking a gladiatorial metaphor where progress is measured solely in seconds survived and currency collected. The upgrade shop—a beacon of incremental hope—reinforces a cycle of struggle and reward, echoing roguelike sensibilities without permadeath stakes. In an era where games like The Binding of Isaac (2014) leveraged procedural storytelling, Wave Incoming’s thematic barrenness feels intentionally stark, reducing the experience to a pure test of reflexes.

---

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Core Loop: Simplicity as Virtue (and Limitation)
The gameplay loop is brutally straightforward:
1. Survive Waves: Enemies swarm from all sides in escalating patterns.
2. Collect Currency: Defeated foes drop funds for upgrades.
3. Upgrade Stats: Between waves, players boost health, damage, or speed.

This loop’s effectiveness hinges on its immediacy. Controls are precise but basic (movement + shooting), and enemy AI prioritizes swarm tactics over complex behaviors. However, the lack of variety—only three character choices with no unique abilities—limits long-term engagement.

Progression & Flaws
The upgrade system offers fleeting satisfaction but suffers from imbalance. Health and damage scaling outpace enemy difficulty, creating a late-game “power fantasy” that undermines tension. Moreover, the absence of meta-progression (no unlocks beyond a session) negates replay incentives beyond high-score chasing.

UI & Accessibility
The UI is utilitarian: a small health bar, wave counter, and currency display. While functional, its bland design exacerbates the game’s visual monotony. No difficulty options or control rebinding further alienate players seeking customization.

---

World-Building, Art & Sound

Visual Direction: Functional Minimalism
Jørgensen’s art embodies pragmatic minimalism. The arena is a flat, taupe rectangle; characters and enemies are rudimentary sprites with no animation flourishes. This aesthetic aligns with Brackeys’ tutorial-driven ethos—assets feel designed for clarity in a development lesson rather than artistic impact.

Sound Design: Rhythmic Tension
Sound is the game’s standout element. Jørgensen’s sparse but effective audio escalates with each wave: enemy spawns trigger metallic clangs, gunfire adopts a punchy cadence, and a dissonant synth score heightens tension. These choices elevate the experience, compensating for visual shortcomings with auditory urgency.

Atmosphere: Bleak Intensity
The combined effect is one of claustrophobic intensity. The barren arena, relentless enemies, and escalating audio create a feedback loop of stress and catharsis. However, this atmosphere wears thin without environmental variety or visual dynamism.

---

Reception & Legacy

Critical & Commercial Performance
Wave Incoming floated under the radar upon release. No critic reviews exist on MobyGames or Metacritic, and player reviews are absent—a testament to its obscurity. Commercially, it likely generated negligible revenue, serving more as a portfolio piece for Brackeys’ educational brand.

Evolution of Reputation
Despite its anonymity, the game holds niche interest as a case study in minimalist design. Its DNA can be traced to later Brackeys tutorials, where similar mechanics illustrate Unity concepts. Within the wave-shooter genre, it remains a footnote, overshadowed by contemporaries like Alien Shooter (2014) or Crimsonland (2014).

Industry Influence
Wave Incoming’s legacy lies in its pedagogical value. Brackeys’ subsequent tutorials on enemy AI, upgrade systems, and Unity optimization likely refined concepts prototyped here. As a teaching tool, it exemplifies how stripped-down mechanics can convey core development principles—a “minimum viable product” ethos that resonated with indie creators.

---

Conclusion

Wave Incoming is neither a masterpiece nor a failure; it is a pragmatic exercise in game design-as-education. Its stripped-down mechanics and audiovisual frugality reflect the constraints of a two-person team leveraging Unity’s accessibility, but also its creative ceiling. As a commercial product, it falters due to repetitive gameplay and lack of content. Yet as a artifact of indie gaming’s 2010s democratization, it embodies a vital truth: games need not be sprawling epics to validate their existence.

For historians, Wave Incoming offers insight into Brackeys’ evolution from hobbyists to educators. For players, it serves as a short-lived adrenaline drip—a flawed but functional arena shooter best appreciated as a time capsule of an era when “anyone could make a game.” Its place in history is modest but secure: a ripple in the wave of indie creativity, soon absorbed by the tide of progress.

Final Verdict: A mechanically competent but creatively insubstantial relic—worth studying, not playing.