Cool. The minimalism made the game so enjoyable. Thanks for the description; I understood how to play right away.

90-style, great time, great game!

Hard to play, hard to understand. Buy awesome style and theme match.

This was my first time playing a game made in PICO-8.
Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot that developing games on this platform is a great way to improve your design skills, because its minimalism makes you stop thinking about unnecessary bells and whistles and focus on the core experience.

I liked the minimalism in both the visuals and the audio. I also liked how, during movement, it feels like the environment is moving instead of the player - it gives off a certain retro vibe.
As for the progression system, I’m not sure I fully understood how it works. It felt like the game wasn’t really challenging even without upgrades.

Great game with NES vibes.

The game runs even on mobile phone and works pretty good, which is a big plus, that wasn't even mention.
The atmosphere and stilisation is on point.

Very cool! I enjoyed the graphics and sound, simple controls.

At first I didnt understand that I was flying with up arrow, but when I got it, I have completed the game. The pico-8 aesthetic fit's well with the game. Great submission! :)

Perfectly executed for what it is. If I had this on an Atari 2600 cartridge 40 years ago it would have seen a lot of use! *Whoops gave away my age!* Very satisfying scooting away from enemy torpedoes in the nick of time. Great Entry that is exactly tied to the Jam's Theme!

Cool game. I like the style and design decision to mark where enemies was spawned.

Very nice vibe. Gives me the feel of xenonauts, when you try to intercept the ufo. Cool idea.

I love Pico8 games and you did an excellent job. I'm a programming novice and I was wondering how you made the sonar code work.

I liked the game but I found one thing unfair: sometimes the available aiming reticle doesn't allow us to hit the target (especially the boss) and he's stuck in a blind spot shooting. :( I don't know if Pico8's limitations allow this to be fixed.

Otherwise, a good game.

Congratulations!

Interesting concept and presentation. If polished, it could become a quite interesting game.

runs super smooth on mobile too which is a massive plus great job on that

This felt like the old classics like Silent Service on crack. The battles may have been too quick for my taste but overall the game was great with plenty of feel. Good job!

@euler-moises

Thanks so much, and sorry for the late reply! I’m really glad you enjoyed it.

I’m still a beginner at programming myself, and I made a lot of this with help from Codex.

The sonar is split into two systems in code.

Passive sonar uses 8 directional sectors around the player. The game only tracks one active enemy at a time, so each frame it checks the direction and distance to that enemy, computes a base signal from distance, and then distributes that signal across the 8 sectors depending on how well each sector lines up with the target direction. The sector that points more directly at the enemy gets a stronger value, and a small random noise term is added so the signal feels less perfectly stable. That is what creates the red directional hint instead of a precise target lock.

The active ping is handled separately. When you press it, the game starts an expanding wave from the player. The wave radius increases every frame, and when it reaches the enemy distance within a small threshold, the game triggers an echo return, sets a temporary reveal timer, and marks the enemy so you can line up a torpedo shot. So the ping is not an instant reveal everywhere — it’s really a timed expanding ring check.

The important part is that pinging has a cost. It raises the danger meter immediately, and outside the tutorial it also adds to the enemy counterattack charge. If the current enemy is the boss, pinging adds even more pressure. So the whole system is built around a tradeoff: passive sonar gives rough direction, active ping gives exact information, but makes the situation more dangerous.

About your comment on the blind spots: I think you’re probably right that there is a real issue there. The game uses fixed firing directions, so targets can end up between the available shot angles. That can affect normal enemies too, but it becomes much more noticeable with the boss because the boss has a much narrower hit window. So I think the problem is real in general, just more visible in boss fights. I’m still not fully sure what the best fix would be, since I’m still a beginner myself, but I do think that part would be worth doing better.

Thanks again for playing and for the thoughtful feedback!

@ilya-kr @bobanko @forsakenaginor @hardytryer @myokka @catanus @fkjaha @matso @tweekus @venomousmouse @ao-85 @alexandr-gerya

Thanks a lot for playing and for taking the time to leave feedback! I really appreciate it!