Objective

Quasar Kid is on a quest across the galaxy to meet new friends and bring them together.  Each new planet you visit is inhabited by potential alien friends.  Some of them are not very friendly though, use your rainbow thruster to fill them with joyful colors and bring them to your ship.

Controls

  • d-pad/arrow-keys:  move quasar kid left and right
  • x button:  use your rainbow thruster to control movement up and down
  • down+x close to your ship:  launch your inventory of friends screen
    • use arrow keys to browse your collected friends list
    • press x to see details and potentially release friends into the universe to allow space for new friends
    • press z to close the inventory
  • up+x close to your ship: skip the current planet and go to the next one

Features

  • A gazillion procedurally generated alien friends.  Collect your favorites!
  • Hundreds of different worlds to visit.
  • A rainbow thruster!
  • This game was inspired by a great famicart designed by @KeithAWood

Updates

  • 1/17/2023 BIG UPDATE
    • a new uber extra ultra mega rare alien "color" (rainbow shiny).
    • planets can't be skipped until all "unknown" aliens are captured.
    • Quasar Kid is no longer indestructible, if your quasar power goes down to zero, you teleport back to the ship.
    • planets ending with 9 have a better chance at having rare aliens
  • 12/29/2020:
    • Quasar Kid suit changes color when more than half of your inventory is filled with friends of the same color.
    • added some player stats to the inventory: times hit, planets visited, adventure time and number of aliens collected so far.
    • other minor fixes
  • 12/16/2020:
    • New upgrade: after collecting 50 friends you can now see where all the green aliens are on the radar so you can easily ignore them (100 for blue, 200 for pink...)
    • Fixed ship launch on radar.
  • 12/14/2020:
    • BIG CHANGE: now your upgrade power is based on the alien friends you have in your inventory and not on the ones you release.
    • inventory is now only accessed by getting close to your ship and pressing: down+x
    • now you can skip the planet by getting close to your ship and pressing: up+x
    • revamped inventory screen
    • inventory screen now shows the time the game is played and the number of collected aliens
    • you can also do a "galaxy jump!?" from the menu (press <enter>) to randomize the levels again and start from the beginning (without losing your collected friends)
  •  10/28/2020: 
    • Added music.  
    • A new uber ultra mega rare alien color (1/1000).  
    • More sfx.
  • 10/21/2020:
    •  Added a title screen and some tuning, polish and sfx.
  • 10/17/2020:
    • misc bug fixes and polish


    StatusReleased
    PlatformsHTML5
    Rating
    Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars
    (7 total ratings)
    Authorpicoter8
    GenreAction
    Made withPICO-8
    TagsAliens, Arcade, PICO-8, Pixel Art, PROCJAM

    Development log

    Comments

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    I know this has NOTHING to do with the overall gameplay, but while playing, I decided to play some kirby music. Let me say, the game matches so well with that type of music! Oh, and I love the game also. Amazing job!

    (+1)

    I LOVE THIS GAME!!!

    ...and I love to hear that!  Thanks for playing!

    (+1)

    Lovely game! The procedurally generated aliens look stunning. I sincerely thought that they were hand-drawn until I read it in the description. If could I change anything it’d probably be the “follow” algorithm, so that the “friends” wouldn’t get in a way when I’m trying damaging “future friends” :)

    That being said I enjoyed playing your game. Thank you!

    (+1)

    Thanks for the feedback @indutny!  My thinking was that having your new friends annoy a little would be an incentive to try and bring them back to your ship as soon as possible.  So, at any given point you have to decide to deal with them blocking your progress or spend the time to bring them to your ship and come back.

    Thanks again for your comment and for playing the game!

    (+1)

    Ooh, right. This makes sense now!

    (+2)

    I’m a little biased because I created Quasar Kid, but with 100 different levels Picoter8 really outdid himself for the agbic jam.  I really hope everyone loves collecting new friends as much as I do! It’s been so fun to see Quasar Kid come to life in a fun action game! ☁️✨

    High Five, Keith!  I'm having lots of fun making this one.  Stay tuned, I have plans for adding a few more things: planet clusters, a planet map, way more levels, music, etc.

    It's so fun to see everything coming together for Quasar Kid.  I've shared the game with many people and they all seem to enjoy it! I can't believe there are over 100 levels and still more to come! Keep up the great work and I'll continue making new friends! ☁️✨

    (+1)

    Great idea and execution on it. Have had an alien friend stuck on a green block which can't seem to clear him to complete the level.

    gah... thanks for the bug report.  I'll see into fixing that soon.

    (+1)

    Nicely done! I almost picked this image for the "A Game By Its Cover" jam. I think you really nailed the spirit of the image! It kept me playing for quite a while.

    (+1)

    Thanks a lot!  Any favorite aliens in your collection yet?  :)

    > Any favorite aliens in your collection yet?  :)

    For this kind of aesthetic, I'm partial to the big head/big eyes designs. They seem more sympathetic.

    BTW, are you French-speaking by any chance? (Just wondering, since your username is a French word.)

    Just found out it's a French word.  It was only meant as a variant/tribute of my love for pico8.