Gravity Express

Released on 2023-01-20
Made by Nino van Hooff
Download: Catalog, Itch.io
16.7MB

From the Catalog page:

In Gravity Express, you battle gravity while transporting cargo through abandoned mines.

Clients will demand speedy delivery, fuel economy, and won't be paying for your funeral. You better find your way fast while avoiding the rocky walls, magnets and cannons that spell your doom.

Features

• A Playdate First: Full Motion Video cutscenes and level-previews
• Explore 25 levels, with 3 challenges to complete for each level
• 7 hazards; such as cannons, magnets and one-way gates
• 5 pickups like keys, turbo and fuel
• No loading screens, anywhere. @Guv_bubbs: "This... this feels snappy!"
• Unique levels with their own characteristics: maze, speedway, zen, easy and hard
• Fully customizable button mapping, physics and graphics styles. Want to turn gravity upside down? Go crazy!
• Tilt your playdate to rotate the ship
• Choose between crank, tilt and button inputs

Controls

There are three different ways to control the spaceship. Crank Controls, Tilt Controls, and Face Button Controls.

Crank Controls

To use Crank Controls, Undock the crank from the Playdate.

• Crank - used to Steer the space ship in the desired direction
• Up/B - used to give throttle to the space ship

Tilt Controls

To use Tilt Controls, ensure that the crank is docked and tilt steering is enabled in the settings.

• Tilt left/right - used to orient the spaceship
• Up/B - used to give throttle to the space ship

Face Button Controls

To use Face Button Controls, ensure that the crank is docked and tilt steering is disabled in the settings.

• Left D-Pad - Turn the space ship left
• Right D-Pad - Turn the space ship right
• Up/B - used to automatically orient the spaceship in the up position
• A - Used to give throttle to the space ship

Accessibility

In the Main Menu and from the menu button settings can be accessed. There are multiple settings that can be changed to help make the game more accessible. This game also features subtitles

GAMEPLAY

In this section the player can adjust...

• lives- How many lives are given per level from 6, 9 (default), 12, 18, and 90.
• game speed - how fast the game is moving. from 15, 20, 25, and 30 (default).

AUDIO

• style - changes the audio style from playdate to classic
• sound volume - changes the volume of the sound
• music volume - changes the volume of the music

GRAPHICS

Here the player can choose how the game is displayed

• style - A choice between Playdate, and Classic
• background - A choice to change the background color of levels.
  • black - a black background
  • white - a white background
  • trippy - each frame of the level geometry is printed to the background (NOT recommended)
• brick pattern - change the shading pattern on the bricks in levels with 6 options. white, default, lighter, light, dark, darker.
• invert colors - a toggle switch that lets you invert the games graphics.

BUTTON INPUT

This section allows you to re-map the inputs for the game. To do this you must first turn off tilt steering.

• tilt steering - toggles tilt steering on or off (tilt controls are only active while crank is docked)
• turn speed - adjusts the turning speed when pressing right or left on the D-pad. Can choose between Slow (default), Medium, and Fast
• left - change the default left turning button
• right - change the default right turning button
• point up - change the default rightening button
• throttle - change the the default throttle button

TILT INPUT

Adjust the settings for the tilt input controls

• tilt steering - toggles tilt steering on or off (tilt controls are only active while crank is docked)
• sensitivity - changes the sensitivity of the tilt controls on a scale of 1 to 9 with 5 being the default.
• throttle - change the default throttle button

CRANK INPUT

Adjust the settings for the crank input controls

• throttle - change the default throttle button

PHYSICS

Change the settings for the physics of the game and the strength of hazards

• physics - change the gravity that is acting on the ship.
  • Earth - standard gravity setting with the strongest gravity (default)
  • Upside Down - inverts the gravity (makes it near impossible to play)
  • Space - Turns off all friction and gravity that would normally pull the ship to the floor.
  • Moon - decreases the gravity effect on the spaceship
• landing - changes the "ok" up facing range for landing the spacecraft from Easy (default), Medium, and Hard
• blowers - changes the effect of blowers on the spaceship from Weak, Medium (default) and Strong.
• magnets - changes the effect of blowers on the spaceship from Weak, Medium (default) and Strong.