A downloadable game

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About

Spin to win on the Playdate! CranKnight (Crank-Knight) is a short but challenging, chaotic rogue-ish/survivour-ish hack-n-slash game where you fight waves of enemies while upgrading your weapons. Use the power of the Playdate crank to swing your weapons to fight and block!

  1. Select from 5 unique weapon types, with multiple branching upgrade options for each!
  2. Hold up to 4 different weapons at once to come up with endless
    combinations to fight your way to victory!
  3. Upgrade your armour to 4 different styles, changing up the way you play!
  4. Select an amulet that is charged as you swing your weapons. Unleash it at full power for devastating effects!
  5. Choose your own path through multiple rooms with unique enemies that carry forward as you progress, changing up each run!
  6. Complete achievements to show what you've accomplished (and unlock secret weapon upgrades)!


 Controls

DPadMove
CrankSpin Weapon(s)
AAccept (in menus), Spin Clockwise
BGo back (in menus), Spin Counterclockwise
A & BActivate Amulet (when fully charged)


 Install Instructions

Note: This game is only playable on the PlayDate console. 

CranKnight Version 1.1 requires playdate version 2.7.5 and higher.

Following the official guide: https://help.play.date/games/sideloading/

  1. Log into your Playdate account: https://play.date/account/sideload/
  2. Upload the "CranKnight.pdx.zip" file downloaded from this page
  3. On your Playdate, go to Settings > Games. Hit the "Refresh" button and select "CranKnight" when it shows up.
  4. After it's done downloading, you're ready to play!


 Credits

Programming, Art, Sound, and main theme by me (Caden Marofke / Dinosire).

Cantate Domino by Anonymous Choir is licensed under a Public Domain License. 

The Endless by Kevin MacLeodis licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

J. S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

dpaint_8, peridot_7, ruby_12 fonts Copyright (c) 2022 Scott Lawrence. Used under MIT license.

Special thanks to all the people I bugged to play early builds and who provided essential feedback, especially:

Karina Lebedeva, Eric Himbeault, Morgan Epp, Jon Gaudet, Cody Edwards, Christian Lo, Sam Anderson.

More information
Updated 2 days ago
StatusReleased
AuthorDinosire
GenreAction
Made withPlaydate
Tags2D, crank, Difficult, Fantasy, knight, Pixel Art, Playdate, Roguelike, Roguelite, Survivor-like
Average sessionA few minutes

Purchase

Buy Now
On Sale!
40% Off
$5.00 $3.00 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $3 USD. You will get access to the following files:

CranKnight.pdx.1.0.3.zip 988 kB
CranKnight.pdx.1.1.1.zip 22 MB

Development log

Comments

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pixelsurfer73 days ago(+1)

Hey, really enjoy the game! I was wondering if you considered adding a hold down a or B to rotate weapons option for those who maybe aren't as crank friendly?

Reply
Dinosire73 days ago

Hey there, I’m really glad to hear you liked the game! I can take a look at implementing that, thanks for the suggestion!

Reply
Dinosire73 days ago

I was able to quickly try out adding the accessibility option you mentioned (hold A to rotate clockwise, B to rotate counter clockwise).

You can download it now in version 1.0.3.

Let me know what you think, and thanks again for the suggestion!

Reply
pixelsurfer71 days ago

Thanks! I really like it this way. The only comment I have is it can spin faster with the crank than the buttons. I wonder if could have two speeds, a faster one by double tapping the button? I dunno. Anyway great game and looking forward to future updates.

Reply
pixelsurfer71 days ago

One other comment. I find it hard to spot when I get damaged. I dunno if could have a flash effect or something when it happens?

Reply
Dinosire71 days ago

Good point about the damage, I agree that it could be more obvious, as I don’t always notice when I’m playing either hahaha, I’ll see what I can do! As for the speed, I’ll play around with some control schemes, I’m concerned double tapping could lead to some accidental behaviour, but I’ll see what I can do. While I agree the crank can get faster, I hoped the buttons would be at least a fairly balanced speed.

Anyway, thanks for the continued feedback and support, I super appreciate it!

Reply
WearingFin92 days ago(+1)

Here's a review if anyone wants to see it in action. I had fun with it, it's obviously limited in scope being a playdate game and a bit of a linear progression than the game which inspired it, but it's a good take on the genre and uses the crank well to freshen things up a bit. A clear should last a little over 10 minutes if you're lucky, and with a bunch of achievements, it's a good title for short bursts.

Reply
Dinosire91 days ago

Thank you so much for the review! I’m really glad you enjoyed the game, great analysis! You brought up some good points that I thought I should clear up:

  • I’ll work on a fix for the hammers bug you showed, thanks for pointing it out!
  • Shields are intended to give space between you and enemies and block (most) projectiles. Upgrade shields can either reflect or do stuff after absorbing enough projectiles 
  • As for the crank direction, it’s a little tricky as the rotation is just additive (since some weapons have acceleration, like the axe), so weapons won’t always line up exactly with the crank IRL
  • Oh and there’s actually secret combos with certain weapons. You can do critical hits with certain weapons if you hit enemies with specific conditions on them

Thanks again for the review, I really appreciate it!

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Dinosire6 days ago

Just wanted to follow up with this review now that version 1.1.0 released. It’s essentially a whole new game, you can see the changes here! Again, thanks for the feedback, it really helped make the 1.1 update awesome!

 https://dinosire.itch.io/cranknight/devlog/981453/mega-upate-v110

Reply