In it, the player controls a scout drone, sent to explore a strange alien planet that once had civilisation on it but now appears devoid of sentient life. The drone crashlands, yet survives, unlike every other drone, which are now present exclusively as the way of obtaining upgrades. From then on, it's up to you where and how you want to go.
forma.8 contains examples of the following tropes:
- 100% Completion: Requires finding all of the hidden areas. Good luck!
- All for Nothing: Since the ship that launched the drone had itself crashed, with no survivors. Perhaps another ship will eventually come by and recover the drone with all its information. Short of that, no-one will be using the discoveries it made.
- Beautiful Void: The planet you were sent to explore. While there are some remnants of technology like lasers or fans, you'll never find anything remotely sapient.
- Convection, Schmonvection: Getting close to the lava without touching it does not harm you.
- Cruelty Is the Only Option: Some puzzles and/or boss fights require you to lure the enemy creatures either towards the larger boss as food, or towards a trap that'll kill them but break in the process.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The Limited Palette version. The player, the enemies/bosses and the walls are all pure black. The background elements can be in any color they want to be.
- Downer Ending: It turns out that the entire ship that launched the drone had also crashed at the very start of the game, it does not seem like anybody survived.
- Energy Ball: The player character fires blue ones. The enemies shoot out pink or orange ones.
- Go for the Eye: The spider creature can only be defeated by a direct shot to its eye, from which it fires a triple spread.
- Giant Spider: An occasionally encountered creature. They tend to almost always hug a wall, while firing pink orbs at you from their lone eye.
- Golem: One of the areas has a golem creature present.
- Ribcage Ridge: Present in the background of the lava area with a lot of stalactites and golems.
- Playing with Fire: Some enemies and bosses spit out literal fireballs.
- Shock and Awe: There are medusa creatures underwater who electrify the area around themselves.
- Shockwave Stomp: Some creatures pulse to attack with green shockwaves. Your character can also create a small blue shockwave around themselves.
- Spread Shot: A triple one is fired by the spider creatures from their lone eye.
- Wham Shot: The ending reveals that the entire ship that sent you on a mission had crashed itself.
