Backspace: Return to Figadore Unblocked

Backspace: Return to Figadore flips the usual space shooter on its head. You fly low over a world of green hills and trees in a starship drawn from crisp vector lines, but the alien ships in the sky are not enemies. They are sick. An infection is jumping from ship to ship, and your missiles carry the cure. Jasper Renow-Clarke made it for js13k 2019, a contest with a 13-kilobyte limit and the theme “Back”, and he wrote his own 3D renderer that draws every frame as SVG. It plays unblocked here on any desktop browser.

The Mission Over Figadore

Each level fills the sky around Jade’s ship with alien craft. Half of them begin infected and glow red; the rest are gray and healthy. For the first few seconds nothing spreads. After that, any red ship that gets close to a gray one passes the sickness along. Healthy ships try to fly away from sick ones, but they are not always quick enough.

Your ship moves forward on its own. You control its speed and heading, and the mouse adds a sideways slide that does not change your direction. Fire and a spinning missile heads straight out. Up to five can be in flight, and each one fades after about three seconds. Pass one close enough to a red ship and that ship turns gray, adding one to your score.

Cure every red ship and the level ends. If the sickness reaches the entire fleet instead, the mission fails.

How the Five Levels Change

Level	Alien ships
1	5
2	10
3	15
4	20
5	25

On top of the bigger crowds, the cure radius gets smaller each time, so a near miss that worked on level 1 will not work on level 4.

Backspace: Return to Figadore controls

To do this	Keyboard	Mouse
Launch from the title, or go back to it after a run	Press any key, such as Space or Enter	—
Bank left or right	Left/Right arrows, A/D or Z/X	—
Go faster	Up arrow, W or ;	—
Ease off and drift backward	Down arrow, S or .	—
Launch a cure missile	Space or Enter	—
Strafe sideways	—	Slide the mouse left or right

Flying Like a Medic

Move fast at the start. The grace period at the beginning of each level is the only time the infection is frozen. Cure as many nearby red ships as you can before it ends.

Prioritize sick ships in crowds. A red ship surrounded by gray ones is about to cause several new infections. A lone red ship far from the rest can wait.

Strafe to aim. The mouse slide lines up a target without turning your nose, which is handy when a ship sits just off center.

Do not hold the trigger. With only five missiles in flight and a short delay between shots, steady single shots at real targets beat spraying.

Keep an eye on the bar. When the red part of the infection meter starts climbing quickly, forget distant ships and treat the closest ones.

A Technical Gem From a Tiny Contest

Watching a full 3D landscape, a moon and a fleet of ships render inside such a small entry is part of the fun. The 14-segment display font and generated sound effects add to the retro sci-fi mood. You will need a keyboard, since there are no touch controls. For more action from the same author, try the bee-saving platformer Bee Kind, or browse our wider action games collection.