Bona Fido Manual
Oct 13th, 2024 • bona fido
Synopsis
Turns out the afterlife’s not as bad as they say! Well, except for all the terrifying monsters, at least.
“Hey. Name’s Fido. I’m a dog, as you can clearly see; but really I’m nothing but a bag of bones. The afterlife’s pretty nice; it’s a bit repetitive, but I can get used to it. It’s pretty chill! …Well, aside from all the unmentionable horrors that are out to kill me *again. Maybe if I keep running around, I can find a way outta this place? Or at least set some new high scores.”*
Bona Fido is a fast-paced, single-screen platformer, inspired by classic arcade games but with a spooOOooky twist. Try for a new high score again and again as you narrowly dodge enemies, dig up treasures that could either help you eke out a record or spell your utter demise, and bark your way to becoming top dog of the afterlife! Don’t worry, it only goes on forever.
Gameplay Basics
Controls
The d-pad, A and B buttons, and crank are required to play this game. The face buttons are also used to navigate menus.
During gameplay:
Gameplay
The d-pad runs around. A button jumps, B button barks. The crank helps you dig up opportune stuff in the ground. Run around and dodge the enemies; bark to kill ‘em and move up to a harder (but higher-scoring) level. You’ve got three “lives” (hah) — run out, and it’s game over.
Enemies, obviously, are bad. If you run into them, they’ll kill ya (…again), as quick as can be. Luckily, your bark seems to shut ‘em up and make ‘em go away. Press B to use that, if you find yourself in a pinch.
Dig-ups are items that sprout from the ground occasionally. Some are good, some are bad, but you don’t know what’s what until you go fish it out. If you see something buried in the ground, use the crank to dig it up before it disappears. Trick or treat!
On-line Capability
About on-line play
This game connects to Playdate’s on-line leaderboard API, to enable sending and receiving of high scores among players across the globe. To use on-line functionality in this game, make sure your Playdate has an active Wireless connection.
Submitting your scores
To submit a new score to the global leaderboard, simply complete a game. When you reach the ‘Game Over’ screen, your score will be submitted to the proper leaderboard automatically.
⚠️ Be careful — if you close out of the game without properly ending the round, your score won’t be saved or submitted!
My score didn’t send! What do?
If you obtained a new high score, but it didn’t get sent up to the leaderboard, there are a few things you can try:
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Give it a little time, and see if it sends up automatically.
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Try playing another round — it doesn’t need to be yet another new high score, but this might kick the OS’ caching into high gear.
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Try checking the scoreboards in-game (see below), which will attempt to send a “fake score” and bump the cache.
Viewing global scores
You can view global scores using two primary methods:
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Visit the Bona Fido game page in your Web browser, at play.date/games/bona-fido. From here, you can view available scores in the Scoreboards section. You can see top 10 scores in every available board.
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Enter the ‘High Scores’ menu within the game, accessible by opening the Slide menu within the Title screen. From here, you can see the top scores for the board, as well as your own score and ranking (if available).