Xicarus's Xtreme Xventure

You are Captain Xavier Xicarus (xe/xir), a thrill-seeking pilot in a doomed solar system.

In 22 seconds, the Xun will explode, taking all life and all planets you know with it.

In the meantime, though, it's a great chance to do some sick donuts around a dying star.

XXX is an addictive and deterministic score-em-up where you maneuver an agile ship across treacherous environment.

Features

  • Addictive 30-second game loop
  • Refined, skillful gameplay
  • ZERO randomness; deterministic physics
  • Beautiful low-resolution graphics
  • Learn about doomed planets
  • Reach the highest score you can!

Controls

  • Arrow Keys to steer your ship
  • Press X to activate your boost, once every 30 seconds.
  • Press Z to open your Solar Atlas, which lets you view planet orbits, and learn about their composition
  • Press "Enter" for options

Credits

  • Brook.p8 - that's me!
  • Elyon - Lore ideas and support
  • ATL Gamedevs
  • Playtesters, including Kartik, Morgan, Nova, Tamsyn, softmagic
  • Shoutout to trans folks and autistic people everywhere, and especially autistic trans peeps!

Meet the System

  • Xun
    • Remaining lifespan: 22 seconds
    • A hot and burning ball of code and plasma, facing imminent collapse
    • Our beloved sun at the center of our system
  • Xerth
    • Orbital radius: 29,000 pixels
    • Its neon sea, which neatly divides the planet in half, creates the perfect habitat for life as we know it
    • We call it home <3
  • Devril
    • Average temperature: 450°F
    • Due to the high heat and an atmosphere rich in oxygen and carbon, this planet is constantly lit aflame
    • Possibly supports marshmallow-related life??
  • Keple
    • Planet radius: 1200 pixels
    • This body's orbit is extremely off-center, passing both closer to and further from the xun than any other planet
    • Due to the extreme fluctuations in temperature,  and its mossy poles, it does not support life. And if it did, it'd probably be lame anyway. Like moss or something.
  • Bolong
    • Orbital eccentricity: 0.42
    • Tidally locked with the sun
    • Due to its fast movement as it approaches the sun, Bolong's dark side is notable bigger and denser than its sunny side
  • The Cube
    • Sides: 6
    • ???? What???
    • We don't know how it got here
  • Debris Belt
    • Number of asteroids: 1.27 million
    • That's a lot of rocks
    • The ring appears to extend beyond our observable universe

Thanks for playing!


StatusReleased
PlatformsHTML5, Windows, macOS, Linux
Rating
Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars
(7 total ratings)
Authorbrook.p8
GenreAction, Racing
Made withPICO-8
TagsArcade, High Score, Lo-fi, LOWREZJAM, PICO-8, Pixel Art, Short, Space

Download

Download NowName your own price

Click download now to get access to the following files:

xxx_final.bin.zip 6.7 MB
lrj22.p8 57 kB

Comments

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In the battle between me and @TrueBlur, I found out there was a special message at 100+ :0


(+1)

Holy shit!!! I didn't think it was even possible, amazing job! You truly are a legend!

(1 edit) (+1)

Managed a 73! Really enjoyed this one a lot

(+1)

Great job, 73 is a pretty high score!

(+1)

I just constantly tried to push past the edges and avoid the supernova. I failed every time...

(+1)

33 is my record. Pretty amateur, but my crew explored that solar system, baby. They saw lots of great stuff before the super nova. :)

(+1)

Nice concept simple but fun. Great job!

(+1)

Loved the presentation and the world building!  Took me a few tries to get into it, but ended up having quite a bit of fun 😊

(1 edit) (+1)

Great concept !
The game has a strong base with nice animations and good SFX


Things i liked
- Spinning around the xun while avoiding obstacles is pretty neat
- The sound effects are really nice and fitting !
- The xun animations and explosion are AWESOME !


Things i did not like as much
- The xun constant sound is nice for the first 10 seconds of gameplay , then it starts to become really annoying (although there is an option to disable it , it's still pretty annoying)
- I was confused on what i should do to start when i launched the game because of the text having the exact same color scheme as the xun , making it easy to miss.


Little suggestions
- A background music / ambience would be nice to fulfill the void (void that is here because i disabled the xun noise)
- Having only one dash for the entirety of the 22 seconds without any chance of gaining another feels a little useless , gaining dash boosts by dodging an obstacle would be a good example to make dash at least useful.
- Seeing the score on screen while doing circle would be nice to tell if we're actually making progress

Overrall it's a nice (rather addicting) game , great work !
(
my best score is 75 :D)

(+1)

Thanks for the thorough feedback, and the kind words!

I upload a new version last night which adjusts the "press X" indicator, and which shows you your best score in the game over screen.

Music and sounds were one area I struggled with because I don't have very much experience with it, that's helpful to know.

75 is a really good score btw, it comes close to my record of 82! Great job!

(1 edit) (+1)

Whooooooooo I got up to 46!!! This is really addictive and I played it like 8 times in a row even though I just saw the email while I was working 🤣 Really fun, love the art and the silliness of speeding around a dying star and the controls are perfect :D

- ✨Beth

(+1)

Great job, and thanks a lot for your kind words!