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Plankter
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About the game
Dr. Plankter, a scientist who uses a wheelchair, and Pixel, his robot dog, have found a ship drifting in space. It looks abandoned, so they go aboard to see what is there. Plankter cannot pick up a key from his wheelchair, and Pixel cannot read the computers, so the two have to work together.
Plankter is a puzzle game built around that pair. In each room you switch between the two characters, and the camera follows the one you control. Pixel fetches the keys and Plankter reads the computers that are left running; to leave a room you need the key and all the computers read. In the computers there are diary entries of a person who wrote about meeting another version of himself. Between these moments the two talk, and the story slowly turns from a mystery about a station into something larger about the people who made Pixel. There are four rooms, a few minutes each, and the story stops at "to be continued".
It is small and quiet, with pixel art, a gentle ambient soundtrack and a lot of dialogue, so it suits an afternoon coffee better than a sprint. The author describes the game as a small tale, and it works as one.
Playing it here
Click Play and wait for the game to load (about 11 MB, downloaded only when you press the button). Click once inside the game so that it gets the keyboard. The game saves how far you got in your browser, and the pause menu has a button to restart the current level.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys or W, A, S, D | move the active character |
| Tab | switch between Plankter and Pixel |
| Space, Enter or click | advance the dialogue and close the computer screens |
| Esc | pause: resume, reset the level, sound and music on or off |
Tips
Switch often. If you are stuck, you are probably controlling the wrong character. Pixel can fetch the keys but cannot read the computers; Plankter is the other way round.
Read everything. The computer entries hold most of the story, and in every room Plankter will not go through the door before he has read them all.
Look at the doors. Each door needs its own key, and a message tells you when you have found the right one.
FAQ
Does it work on a phone? The game needs a keyboard.
Is my progress saved? Yes, the level you reached is stored in your browser, and the menu then shows a Resume button.
Why does the text look different from the original? The original used the default font of its engine, whose licence is not clear, so this version uses Jersey 20, a free font.
Is there an ending? Not yet: after the fourth room the game says "to be continued", as the author planned.
Credits and licence
Plankter was made by mio (supercell) for the Purism Free-Software Game Jam 2024, with the HaxeFlixel engine. The code is under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later; as the licence requires, the complete source, the build script and the licences of the libraries it uses are hosted next to the game and linked from this page. The art, music and sound effects are under the Creative Commons Zero dedication.
- Sound effects: door by rubberduck, key by legoluft, computer by OwlishMedia, all on OpenGameArt.org, CC0.
- Music: "Tragic Ambient Main Menu" by brandon75689 and "Solar Sail" by vitalezzz, on OpenGameArt.org, CC0.
- Font: Jersey 20, Copyright 2023 The Soft Type Project Authors, SIL Open Font License 1.1.
This version does not change the game. It is compiled for the web from the original source with the versions of the tools listed in the build script, and swaps the engine's default font for Jersey 20.