Koko & Kebi - Crank Harrier

Neko-Tokyo has been attacked by every self-respecting cat's greatest enemy - vacuum cleaners! Only brave cats Koko and Kebi sitting at the controls of their Crank Harrier can defeat the dangerous invaders!

In this pseudo-3D arcade shooter referring to the genre's classics from the 80s and 90s, such as Space Harrier, you will face space robotic vacuum cleaners. But be careful while maneuvering at breakneck speeds between trees, admiring the Japanese landscape with the majestic Mount Fuji in the background.

Meet the heroes

	Koko – male cat – skilled pilot of the Crank Harrier –  he loves raw salmon, so look out for nigiri sushi to replenish lives – his meows in-game indicate if you lost or gained lives – he also likes tomato soup and olives (for real!)
	Kebi – male cat – skilled laser operator of the Crank Harrier – his meows in-game indicate if your laser battery is full or empty – he hates going to the vet – he can stretch his paw  really long if he wants to steal his human's food – he likes bread and croissants (for real!)

Beware the enemies

	Cosmic robot vacuum cleaner – basic enemy  – they move in groups of 3 to 5 units – they have four different spawning patterns – they can be destroyed with one shot, but can't be reached when they fly in the distance – they can also shoot by surprise when they appear from the edge of the screen
	Cosmic Boss robot vacuum cleaner – big and durable – he will arrive after you defeat 50 of his minions – you can hurt him only when he opens his core to shoot you – you can't hurt him while he is flying away, but he can shoot you from a distance – it takes a couple of hits to defeat him

Other stuff

	– you got 4 lives – after getting a hit you will have a short moment of invincibility – but don't take too risky tactics as you can lose easily – Koko will inform you with meowing if you will lose or gain a life point
	– the laser battery indicator will show you how many shots you can fire – the battery has 20 charges and uses one charge per shot – charging it with the crank replenishes 5 per spin – Kebi will inform you with meowing about the battery status
	– Salmon nigiri sushi can sometimes be dropped by enemies – Catch it to recover one life point

How to play

• Control crank harrier with a D-Pad
• Shoot enemy vacuum cleaners with B Button
• Recharge your laser by spinning the Crank
• You can turn off the music on the menu
• If you want more challenge, you can turn on in the menu classic Space Harrier style control mechanism which will automatically pull back your ship to the bottom center of the screen. 
• Meows of Kebi and the UI will tell you if the laser is empty or full
• Avoid the tress – they can hurt you too, but shoot them if you need to clear the way
• If you lose some lives, hunt for the healthy salmon nigiri sushi, which can drop from destroyed enemies. But why do vacuum cleaners keep sushi anyway? 🤔
• Survive long enough and destroy 50 enemies to spawn a powerful boss!
• Accumulate points by surviving long enough, shooting regular enemies, and defeating the boss 
• For now, this game has an endless gameplay loop so you can try to beat your own high score. More enemies, different levels, and bosses are planned for the future.

Note from the author

This game is a tribute to my cat Koko (Kokos or Coconut) and his cat-friend Kebi (also known as Kebab). Kebab is no longer with us and my "Koko & Kebi" games are a way to keep memory of fluffy friends.

It was made from scratch in October 2023 as part of the Yellow Square Jam challenge for the PlayDate from Panic . It's available for free and will be improved. This is my first real game project, with no prior experience,  as I just started my indie game dev learning journey in August 2023. 

All the assets were prepared by me which included sprites, sound effects (made in FamiStudio), and of course cat photos and meows – the actors were of course Koko and Kebi.

The only one exception is the music track which is royalty-free and composed by the amazing Space_Cat. I plan to prepare my own music for the game though, but I didn't have time before the deadline of the YellowSquareJam.

My game is quite resource-heavy, pushing PlayDate to its limits. For now, I'm aware of weird lag spikes in my game, while it's played on the device. They appear in intervals and aren't directly related with amount of objects on the screen. They also stop appearing after a couple of minutes of playing, so it's probably some garbage-collector / memory issue.  You can turn off the music on the menu to be less aware of these lag spikes.