A downloadable game

A cat, a sub and a cleaner sea
A cat in a home-made submarine has decided to clean up the ocean, one haul at a time.

Crank to dive, tilt to steer, and hover over the trash: the intake pulls it in by itself. Bring the haul back to the jetty before your air runs out, sell it to the recycling co-op for parts, and build a better sub.
Dive. Sell. Upgrade. Go deeper.
  • Steer with the crank and the accelerometer (or the d-pad, if you prefer)
  • Chain catches into streaks for bonus value
  • Grow a four-ring workshop tree: air, engine, intake and cargo
  • Unlock Chain Zap, Bubble Bomb and a Buddy Turret
  • Open four seas, each worth ten times the last
  • Every level bought is a point of rank. Enough rank opens the next sea, and a new ring of the workshop with it.
    Air vents that run dry, sunken chests, currents and stinging jellyfish: every dive is a short route to plan.
    Down in the Wreck Trench, chain zaps leap from piece to piece and a robo-fish buddy harpoons trash for you.
    And at the bottom of it all, The Abyss: safes, satellites, a cat idol, and hauls worth millions.

    Controls

    CrankTurn forwards to rise, backwards to dive
    TiltSteer left and right (hold still at the start to calibrate)
    A or any d-pad directionBubble Bomb, once the workshop has built it
    Hold BCall for rescue (the co-op pays half)
    AshoreD-pad or crank to move, A to select or buy, B to go back
    System menuSwitch to the d-pad, recalibrate, reverse the crank

    Changelog

    v0.4.3 (latest): Much smoother dives. The core trash physics has been rewritten in C, cutting the time each physics step takes on a real Playdate by more than half. Gameplay is unchanged: the C version gives exactly the same results as before.

    v0.4.2: Big frame rate boost on hardware, from 8–17 fps up to 25–30 fps during dives. Physics now runs at 30 Hz, and the HUD and effects are much cheaper to draw.

    v0.4.1: Smaller performance fixes: no stutter from memory clean-up during dives, faster rock collision checks.

    v0.4: First public release.

    Updated 15 hours ago
    Published 3 days ago
    StatusReleased
    AuthorXiuqi Zhang
    GenreSimulation
    TagsIncremental, Pixel Art, Playdate, underwater
    AI DisclosureAI Assisted, Code, Graphics, Sounds

    Download

    Download
    Meowdiver_v0.4.3.zip 181 kB

    Install instructions

    How to install

    On Playdate: download the zip, then upload it at play.date/account/sideload and it will appear in your Playdate's Games list.

    No Playdate? Play on PC: install the Playdate SDK from play.date/dev, unzip the download, and drag Meowdiver.pdx onto the Playdate Simulator window. In the simulator it is easiest to play with the d-pad: pick it under controls in the system menu.

    Comments

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    The zip file is incorrectly formatted. You need to put all the files in the zip file, in a subfolder named Meowdiver.pdx

    Such as : Meowdiver.pdx.zip / Meowdiver.pdx / All the files

    In contrary to the current : Meowdiver.pdx.zip / All the files

    Thanks for pointing that out! I’ve re-uploaded the zip. It now contains a Meowdiver.pdx folder with all the files inside, so sideloading should work.