Rocket Bytes
A downloadable game
2022 Playdate Community Awards Winner!: Best Launch Experience
Rocket Bytes is a 1-bit precision rocket flying reverse platformer for Playdate where you control a group of rockets who need to collect energy and bring it back to their ship (a bigger rocket) so they can fly it safely back to their mothership (an even bigger rocket).
Rocket Bytes is free, but if you donate $4 CAD ($3 USD) or more you get a special version with 10 extra levels, and $1 CAD or more to get a copy of the OST and a wallpaper pack
The video game equivalent of tearing your own toenails off... but in like... a good way...
Rushmore0Miles on Backloggd
Rockets look in the direction the crank is facing but are only propelled in that direction when you press UP. See how you can take advantage of these simple controls to precisely navigate through challenging levels and reach the end!
FEATURES:
15 levels + 13 bonus levels (+ 10 plus levels if you pay $4 CAD or more!)
2 entertaining story cutscenes
Built in level editor
360° crank ACTION™️®©
Bangin’ OST
iPod mode (lets you play music) you can speed up the music in it and I find that entertaining :)
No snakes
This game is completely free so if you believe it is fun, feel free to donate what you believe is fair
Find & share custom levels, report bugs, suggest changes, and talk to other players in the Discord server
33.1 MB.
First published 07/31/2022, last updated 03/09/2024. 
This game is appropriate for everyone.
This game requires extensive use of the crank, for precise movement.
Get the OST here https://possiblyaxolotl.itch.io/rb-ost
Social media
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PossiblyAxolotlYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/PossiblyAxolotl
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Custom levels forum30 days ago
- Rocket Bytes v1.5.0 || Rocket Bytes+Mar 10, 2024
- 1.4.3: new fancy iconJun 13, 2023
- Game works again :>Apr 19, 2023
- Game is broken rn, sorry :/Apr 17, 2023
- How Successful is Rocket BytesMar 16, 2023
- 1.4.2 (no clue where 1.4.1 went ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)Mar 11, 2023
- Halloween Update (1.4.0)!!!Oct 31, 2022
Comments
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big fan of this! but some levels are just plain painful haha
Love this game – if there is a way you could offer even more levels as a DLC, or a sequel I'd love that. Or maybe a quirky 'mission-mode' or something.
If I could offer one small constructive critique it would be that the game-art, while perfect in general, has one flaw that jars with the perfection of the rest of the art. It's the large ship (that you enter at the end of levels, and is in cutscenes). The way it's drawn is off somehow – shape is a bit off – needs detail or something. I get its a basic style – but that one object is too basic. It just looks bad compared to everything else and could do with some tweaking or something so it's not just an outline at that size. I'd even be happy to have a go myself if it helped. Anyway, outside of that your game is perfection.
I hope it's ok to mention – if I thought the game was just ok I wouldn't care to say anything, but it's just so close to perfect. Thx.
This game is brutal! But I couldn't stop playing it until I completed it - and then I went on to the Halloween level and completed that too! Super challenging, but not to the point of making you give up on it. Great job!
Very enjoyable game (nice use of the crank!) easy to play, hard to master. Very nicely balanced.
Thanks mate!
did you get inspiration from RocketMania?
I immediately thouhgt of it when seeing this
I’ve never actually heard of that game, interesting
its a mobile game by blindsided games with the same concept
I love this game - oh man does it get hard later on!
Thank you!
This was the first game I actually played on the playdate and it's such a cute game. 10/10.
I’m glad you like it!
I love a lander-inspired game. Top stuff, brilliant.
Thank you!
this game is great! probably my favorite game on this thing that ive played so far. awesome stuff!
thank you!
One of the best games, no doubts
Excellent job, I'm loving the game. The one I've been playing the most
This is the game I’m playing most on my playdate right now. My kids love it too! Nice work!
literally the best game on the playdate, it is a very difficult game where every mistake is on you, my first attempt I beat the game with 300+ deaths and now I am at two, soon I will reach 0 and begin speedrunning, better than every season one game on the playdate.
I played using the SDK, which gave me a popup warning that it runs faster than a normal Playdate, and I think that explains others' issue with the gravity being too strong. Even with that in consideration, I felt the difficulty curve wasn't completely smooth, with hard levels being followed by easy levels (an issue that Rocket Bits also has). Notably, the ability to keep energy cells after death means you don't have to worry about backtracking in the final level since you can just die to get back faster. Maybe a good compromise would be to have them work like standard checkpoints and respawn you where they were, then have all levels utilize them to some extent? There were a few non-energy-cell levels I felt went on a bit too long, particularly the ones that had the Y-formation saws that required very precise moving around despite the player's hitbox not being all that clear-cut (it was better in the first game).
dang you’re digging deep. Yeah I fully agree about the difficulty curve, I didn’t actually finish the last few levels until the day of the release so I didn’t have much time to test and reorganize them, plus, I am not good at judging the difficulty of something I’ve made. If I made it, it’s easy to me. The not worrying about backtracking was an intentional thing as you still do it at the cost of a life (if I ever get access to the PD leaderboard system there’s gonna be a board for least deaths) but I should probably add something to the main menu too so there’s a reason not to die. The saw ones are the same deal about not having time, and the hitbox is always at the middle of the player and smaller than it is in Rocket Bits so I thought it would probably be fine but I understand that it wasn’t made super clear
>I understand that [the hitbox] wasn’t made super clear
It's more than just that, though (if I didn't make myself clear last time). Graphics need to represent the hitbox if you're going to make a game requiring precision; that way, the player can literally *see* what to do, like in Rocket Bits. Once the required opening is smaller than your sprite, however, you as a player can never be sure HOW close you can get without trial-and-error (and then it's something you have to remember instead of something intuitive). It's the same problem a lot of bullet-hell games have.
EDIT: also, in regards to the Halloween levels, you shouldn't overlay the required white fuel cells over the white decorative background tiles because that makes them easy to miss.
>not having time
What do you mean? The game is self-published, right? What's stopping you from delaying the release for a bit to make sure everything works as intended?
Seems cool, I wish it could be played without the crank tho
literally why
This game is so difficult it’s hard to get into! It would be nice if the gravity wasn’t quite so strong to make it easier to hover. Dying within a few seconds over and over again is just demoralising!
Sorry to hear that. Levels can actually have custom gravity values now so if you really wanted you could change the gravity in the level files haha. Sorry the game was hard to get into but while I am content with the main game’s levels I hope some more appealing user levels come out in the future for you!
I feel similarly, that the gravity makes this game QUITE challenging. Ha-ha!
@possiblyAxolotl , how does one go about adjusting the gravity, as you were mentioning in the reply above?
it’s not super straightforward but each level is stored in a JSON file so if you were to go into the game’s “data” folder where the levels are stored you could add the line
and it would change the gravity. Default gravity is 0.2 so 0.1 would be half gravity, the rest is pretty self-explanatory
Love the game! Could you allow the B button to activate boost as well? It is much more comfortable for me to hit B when cranking, rather than A or UP.
just uploaded a new build, now any button works!
Paid $0.00 at first because wanted to try before buy.. after playing i came back and paid $3.00, definitely worth it and a fun challenge using the crank. Great work!
Thank you :D
This Celeste-like is a better game than most of the season one games!! I love this game so much. It controls like a dream (thank god because its pretty difficult), its just forgiving enough with how quickly you respawn and how it allows you to keep energy cells on deaths. Great soundtrack too. I give this game 5 stars, 5 rocket ships.
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it! I’m glad it felt difficult but still fairly forgiving as that’s what i had hoped for (I was worried it would just be too hard haha)
I LOVE ROCKETBYTE
:D
Wow this looks awesome! I'm excited to try it :)
Thank you! I can’t wait for everyone to try it either