Playdate game RowBot Rally

Made by Rae

Staff note: A boat-racing game that has a clever use of cranking to row your boat in the right direction. It includes a cute animated story to give you a nice break between each intense race!

Team up with a mechanical pal and row for the gold in the annual Fish Bowl!

So, you wanna enter the big annual boat-racing competition! It's quite an important event, you know. Alas, evil “RowBots” have torn the whole tourney from the hands of human — (err, animal?) — racers, and the competition’s only getting worse. By tandem-rowing with a defective junkyard RowBot of your own, it’s your goal to defeat these baddies…but soon you may realize, that these waters go deeper than you thought.

Can you put a stop to the nefarious Robo-X corpo-conglomerate led by the mischievous Shark Boss, put the evil RowBots in their place once and for all, and win back the spirit of the Fish Bowl (and, perhaps more importantly, that big golden trophy)?

With a lengthy story mode across seven stages, loads of hand-animated cutscenes, competitive on-line leaderboards, and more; RowBot Rally is the definitive top-down boat-racing game for Playdate! (…Trust me. It's a competitive field.)

🏅 PDCA '23 Nominee - Most Anticipated
🎖️ Featured in Catalog's Staff Picks!
👀 Seen at XOXO, PAX, & PRGE in 2024!
🎥 Spotlit in Playdate Update #5 & #6!
⭐️ A nice review from Playdate Unofficial!

Art and code — Rae
Music — Kevin MacLeod
SFX — pixabay.com
Addtl. art — magPlex and NickNack
Addtl. code — Voxy, Toad, superfunc, The3DPrintist, and TheMediocritist
Addtl. music — nexusnecromance
Pedallica font — Neven Mrgan
Kapel font — Font End Dev
PDV conversion tool — Dave Hayden
Tanuk library — Toad and Schyzo
Bugsmashers — NickNack, orkn, Toad, superfunc, Omikron, budpikmin, Lavender, Yadis, dwfp, Zel, Soinksters, and The3DPrintist
Playtesters — AidenKT, magPlex, kiwi, puttheyarndown, sourencho, and ThatWontCompute
Thanks — Panic, the Playdate Squad/devlog members, all my friends, SquidGod, and YOU!

More cool info

Featured In…

Scoreboards

Short Circuit: Best Times

1: hekhound; 2,276
2: JimmyPlacid; 2,283
3: RPDev; 2,291

Surf Sanctuary: Best Times

1: hekhound; 2,950
2: RPDev; 2,967
3: Lyman2012; 3,037

Paddle Beach: Best Times

1: hekhound; 1,922
2: orkn; 1,983
3: Lyman2012; 2,030

Lake Labyrinthus: Best Times

1: hekhound; 1,048
2: orkn; 1,064
3: btap; 1,080

Roguebot Jungle: Best Times

1: hekhound; 2,882
2: Lyman2012; 2,911
3: orkn; 2,989

Cavern Canal: Best Times

1: hekhound; 1,229
2: orkn; 1,243
3: Lyman2012; 1,354

Robo-X Factory: Best Times

1: hekhound; 1,456
2: orkn; 1,460
3: Lyman2012; 1,512

Short Circuit: Best Times (Mirror Mode)

1: hekhound; 2,343
2: Lyman2012; 2,351
3: 8_bit_BEAR; 2,450

Surf Sanctuary: Best Times (Mirror Mode)

1: hekhound; 3,036
2: Lyman2012; 3,043
3: orkn; 3,224

Paddle Beach: Best Times (Mirror Mode)

1: hekhound; 1,965
2: Lyman2012; 1,986
3: dwfp; 2,362

Lake Labyrinthus: Best Times (Mirror Mode)

1: hekhound; 1,074
2: Lyman2012; 1,087
3: orkn; 1,286

Roguebot Jungle: Best Times (Mirror Mode)

1: hekhound; 2,875
2: Lyman2012; 2,908
3: Lav_JuiceBox; 3,156

Cavern Canal: Best Times (Mirror Mode)

1: hekhound; 1,336
2: Lyman2012; 1,372
3: orkn; 1,471

Robo-X Factory: Best Times (Mirror Mode)

1: orkn; 1,464
2: Lyman2012; 1,501
3: hekhound; 1,644

43.8 MB.
First published 12/17/2024, last updated 12/19/2024.
We think this game is appropriate for everyone. There's some mild cartoon violence, like slapstick humor and exploding robots. (Don't worry, they're the bad guys.)
This game uses the crank, and requires dexterity in the form of precise, repeated rotations. Alternate button-only controls are also available. This game respects Playdate's Reduce Flashing setting; dampening heavy flashes and screen shakes if enabled. Some cutscenes may contain brief flashing sequences (such as explosions).

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