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Cart #balloonescape-2 | 2025-01-19 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Balloon Escape!

--A short action game playing as a humble balloon --

How to play:

  • Arrow Keys - Move Balloon
  • Z/X - Advance Menu
  • Collect 5 air canisters to advance to the next level
  • New life given at each level
  • 3 difficulty modes
  • 1 level to unlock
  • Score is based on number of cans collected, speed, and deaths

How high will you fly???

This is my third and most ambitious pico-8 release. I have very little coding experience outside pico8 and this was a great challenge for me. Token limit is pretty much maxed out and contains 38,000+ characters. I welcome any feedback you have!

Update: Fixed a small error where birds would de-spawn too early, thanks @icegoat!

As homage to the classic retro games, it is intentionally difficult. However, the enemy patterns are learnable and somewhat predictable. If you are really struggling, here's a few tips and hints!

  • Hint 1
    The balloon wraps around all sides, use this to your advantage.
  • Hint 2
    Beating normal mode will grant you a very helpful secret.
  • Hint 3
    For all levels, there are never more than 5 enemies on screen at a time.
  • Level 1 Tip
    The birds wrap around the sides but keep their trajectory and angle.
  • Level 2 Tip
    The planes don't spawn at the very top or bottom of the screen, so you can safely hide out until the moment is right.
  • Level 3 Tip
    In general, satellites toward the top move left and the ones toward the bottom move right.
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1

Cool game. It might need a very easy mode, because It's a bit tricky to advance without a good bit of luck.

Made it to space!
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I just played for a few minutes and it's fun, and I like the feeling of the balloon 'inertia', and the enemy movement. Thanks for sharing!

So far I haven't been able to make it past the 2nd level even on easy mode-- the planes are so close together! But I'll come back and play more later.

One very minor suggestion-- in the first level, the birds seem to "appear/disappear" just as they touch the left edge rather than flying through the left edge. I've run into this in my games, I think if you used X positions of -8 instead of 0 for the edge this could look slightly more smooth (I haven't actually looked at the code, this is just the kind of thing I had to do ).
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Very simple but effective gameplay, reasonably well-tuned. I was never entirely clear on the rules for how things spawn on the screen edges, so air canisters spawning over there felt possibly unfair.

I liked getting to each successive screen and having to dodge a different set of things. It was a fun surprise each time and I would've been happy to see a lot more screens like this. You could get cartoony/abstract with it and it'd fit thematically. UFOs, asteroids, planets, black holes, constellations, galaxies.

That said, I was very surprised to discover that there was an ending, and it was a fun ending, a nice bookend for the intro.
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Got yellow and red but the green balloon still eludes me.

@icegoat - Thanks for the feedback. Funny how I can play test for hours and still miss something like that. Birds are patched now.



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@mogwaipoet - I appreciate the feedback! I did intentionally want to make it a difficult game. While there is some randomization, I hope it doesn't feel too unfair. I've added some tips and hints in the description which are helpful.

A more experienced coder would definitely be able to fit more levels in. As it stands now, the menu and intro/end scenes take up a lot of tokens. I'd welcome anyone who'd want to remix and add more levels :)
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@Verb @Steven()#6 - Thanks, I've added tips and hints that may be helpful!



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