RowBot Rally Manual
Dec 17th, 2024 • rowbot rally
Synopsis
Team up with a mechanical pal and row for the gold in the annual Fish Bowl!
Not too long ago, boat racing was a sport for everybody! Whether you were a rowing pro or just a novice, it was an activity that anyone could celebrate. The annual Fish Bowl was a town institution, pitting the best rowers up against each other in a high-stakes racing tournament - the winner bringing home a big trophy, and of course, infinite bragging rights.
…But that all changed, after the nefarious Robo-X corporation started manufacturing what they call RowBots - mechanized automata that could pilot a boat better and faster than any organic being ever could. It didn’t take long at all for the RowBots to overtake the racing circuit entirely. They played so well that any non-RowBot who dared to enter, would have gotten knocked out of the tourney pretty much immediately.
Soon, the only opponents the RowBots had left to fight against were themselves! Their skills were essentially perfected. The tournament’s now comprised of just a few champion machines, the rest being sent off as scrap. Trying to compete in the Fish Bowl is seen as a fool’s errand by many now - ask anybody, they’d tell you that you’re crazy if you think you can beat those robots at their own game! Nobody could possibly do it.
Well…not on their own, at least.
Gameplay Basics
Controls
The Crank is the main control method for this game. The D-pad and A and B buttons are used to navigate menus.
If you lack the dexterity to use the Crank, there’s an alternate control scheme that lets you use the D-pad to steer the boat. See Options > Button Controls for more info.
Gameplay
In RowBot Rally, you play as a scrappy bunny mechanic trying to take down the nefarious Robo-X corp, who’s dominating the competitive boat-racing circuit with their line of evil RowBots.
You wouldn’t stand a chance on your own, but luckily you found a junkyard RowBot who’s totally down to exact revenge (if it knew the feeling of revenge, at least) — problem is, his circuits are a bit busted, which means he can only turn left.
By using the crank, you effectively row one oar of the boat. By matching pace with your RowBot companion, you’ll move in a straight line. If you row quicker, you’ll take over and turn the boat to the right. If you start cranking more slowly (or not at all), the RowBot will steer you to the left.
At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see your Power Meter — this shows your relative cranking power compared to your RowBot. Match pace to move straight ahead!
Modes
Story Mode
Story mode is the main mode in the game, where you try to take down Robo-X across all seven stages sequentially.
When you start Story Mode from the Title screen, you’ll have three save slots to choose from. If you’re starting a new game, choose an empty slot, and hit Start! to begin a new game. If you’re continuing an existing save, select your slot and hit Play! to pick up from where you left off.
💡 The game automatically saves at various points, noted by an indicator in the top-left of the screen. Please do not turn off the console or exit the game while saving is in progress!
When you complete the Story mode, you’ll have the ability to replay the story within the same slot up to three more times, with slightly more difficult opponents each time.
To erase an existing save, select the save slot you’d like to delete, and then press the Up button to initiate the file erase sequence. This can’t be undone, so please make sure beforehand!
Time Trials
💡 This Mode is only unlocked after beating the first stage in Story Mode.
In Time Trials, you’ll be able to replay any previously-beaten stages without any opponents on the track, and compete for a best time. After you unlock Time Trials, you can access the mode from the Title screen.
In the Time Trials mode exclusively, Rocket Arms can give you an opportune boost at specific points in the race. Press the B button at any time during the race for a temporary boost of speed! You’ll receive up to three in every race you play.
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 time to the global leaderboard, simply complete a full race in Time Trials. When you reach the results screen that shows your new time, your score will be submitted to the stage’s respective leaderboard automatically.
💡 For a time to be eligible for submission, it must be a better time than one you’ve achieved before.
Viewing global scores
You can view global scores using two primary methods:
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Visit the RowBot Rally game page on Catalog, at play.date/games/rowbot-rally. From here, you can view all available scores in the Scoreboards section. You can see top 10 scores in every available board.
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Enter the Time Trials stage select within the game, accessible from the Title screen. When in this screen, you can press the Up button to view best times for the currently-selected stage. (On device, you can only view leaderboards for stages you’ve unlocked in Time Trials.) From here, you can see the top 10 times for the selected stage, as well as your own score and ranking (if available).
💡 Within the game, best times are displayed in a human-readable format — on web, a player’s time can be calculated by dividing the given number by 30. This results in their best time, in seconds.
Other Scenes
Stats
In the Stats screen, you can see all-time gameplay stats. This info is tracked across all save slots in Story Mode, as well as all Time Trials races.
- Total play time (increments at all times while the game is launched)
- Time spent racing (only increments when the player is actively in a race)
- Total crashes
- Races completed (disqualifications or premature endings don’t count)
- Stories completed (times the Credits screen has been seen)
- Distance cranked
- Favorite Stage (with the most plays across all modes)
- Least Favorite Stage (with the least plays across all modes)
💡 Toggle “metric” from the Slide menu to adjust the read-out for Distance cranked.
Some stats are also saved on-line! To view these boards, open the Slide menu, and select on-line stats. This area will show the top five global rankings for time spent racing, total crashes, and distance cranked. The game will attempt to send this data after the completion of any race, or on manual checking of the Stats leaderboards.
Cheats
In the Cheats menu, you can toggle cheats that you’ve unlocked in the past. To unlock a cheat, enter its respective code in the Title screen. If you entered a successful code, a notification will pop up telling you what you’ve unlocked.
⚠️ When cheats are on, you can’t set new best times.
Options
The options screen allows you to change various settings and accessibility features pertaining to the game.
- Music — Toggles all the music throughout the game; including gameplay, menus, and cutscenes.
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SFX — Toggles sound effects throughout the game; including gameplay, menus, and cutscenes.
- Button Controls — Use the D-pad to play! Hold Up to start rowing straight-on, and hold Right to row clockwise.
- Easier Cranking — Makes matching pace with your RowBot require less cranking. (Has no effect with Button Controls.)
- Pro UI — Toggles a simpler UI in races, removing a lot of stuff. You can also toggle this during races, if you want.
- Minimap — Toggles a minimap in races, which also shows where the player and CPU are in the course.
- Performance Mode — Knocks down a bit of the visual quality, in exchange for better FPS when using Playdate Mirror.
💡 If you’re prone to photosensitive epilepsy, the Playdate console’s Reduce Flashing feature can dampen bright flashes and disable screen shaking.
Credits
- Lead Coder, Lead Artist — Rae
- Music — Kevin MacLeod; CC BY 3.0
- Asst. Music — Modem
- SFX — pixabay.com; License
- Asst. Coder — Voxy
- Collisions Analyst, Asst. Font Conversion — Toad
- Audience Art — magPlex
- Dithering Advisor — NickNack
- Bugsmashers — NickNack, orkn, Toad, superfunc, Omikron, budpikmin, Lavender, Yadis, dwfp, Zel, Soinksters, The3DPrintist
- Playtesters — AidenKT, magPlex, kiwi, puttheyarndown, sourencho, ThatWontCompute
- Team Optimz — Superfunc, The3DPrintist
- Asst. Polys — TheMediocritist
- Pedallica — Neven Mrgan; CC BY 4.0
- Kapel — Font End Dev; CC BY 4.0
- PDV conversion tool — Dave
- Tanuk library — Toad & Schyzo; MIT
- Thanx — Panic, the Playdate Squad and devlog members, playtesters and bugsmashers, all my friends, SquidGod, and YOU!