Seaweed (Rainbow Jam 20)

Deep beneath the ocean waves, a Nereid remains trapped within an underwater facility.  A chance to escape comes at the hands of one of the scientists, but it'll take their combined efforts and a whole lot of other captive sea creatures to  be finally free!

"Seaweed" is a short underwater adventure created with PICO-8 for the Rainbow Game Jam 20 over a period of 2 weeks with the theme "Strength In Numbers".   In it you must guide the Nereid Kleio through the facility and collect fish to help you hit switches and attack enemies.  You must also help out your human ally as she tries to free you from the facility but runs into her own obstacles.  Using the fish, you can also unlock caged creatures with special abilities to help tackle specific obstacles and traverse deeper through the facility.

In this one, I wanted to try a sort of basic scripting engine for some simple cutscenes and sequences in PICO-8.  The result wasn't massively efficient token-wise, but results in some neat little sequences.  There's multiple endings and even a sort of boss fight!

Also slooowly getting the hang of PICO-8's music tracker.

Good luck!

Controls

• Z / Button 1 - Confirm / Throw fish
• X / Button 2 - (hold) Stop moving
• Arrow Keys/Directions - Move / Aim

Hints

• Collect every fish you see! Red ones restore health, and you never know when you might need them!
• Unlock cages by throwing fish at them!
• Jellyfish are statically charged and can disrupt power boxes.
• Other, larger sea creatures might help you destroy certain obstacles.
• Fans force you in the direction they're blowing.
• You can use X/Button 2 to hold position to help you aim & shoot without moving.
• The best ending requires freeing all the creatures, and using the most dangerous one to save a life.