Portugues
this is my mech
Saved games stay in this browser only.
About the game
this is my mech is a short comic adventure about a team that cannot work as a team. You play Nikita, the newest pilot of Rhinocelator, a giant robot formed when five rhino-shaped mechs join together. The alarm goes off on the orbital base: a space beast is closing in on Earth, and the only thing able to scare it away is the full-sized robot. The trouble is that someone has to form the head, and nearly everybody wants the job.
Most of the game happens on foot inside the station. You walk between the quarters, the bridge and the launch bay, examine screens, posters and machines, and above all talk to the other pilots: Adam, the self-appointed leader; Turk, who is convinced he is the fans' favourite; Hank, who wants to test a dubious new targeting system mid-battle; and Carrie, the quiet one nobody ever thinks of. Conversations branch, and what you choose to say changes who will back whom.
Sooner or later the team launches. If the pilots are still arguing, you fly your mech through space while they bicker over the radio, your lasers bounce off the beast and the mission fails. Losing is part of the fun: each defeat sends you back to the base with a hint and new things to try, until you find the right words.
Playing it here
this is my mech was made for TIC-80, a fantasy console: an imaginary 1980s-style computer with a 240 by 136 screen and 16 colours, for which independent developers write new games. Emma Bukacek and Phil Hagelberg wrote it in the Fennel programming language for the Lisp Game Jam 2019, which it won. It runs here in the official TIC-80 web player. Click Play and press any key on the title screen. A full attempt takes only a few minutes.
The game does not save; each visit starts from the alarm. Esc opens the TIC-80 menu, so the in-game invitation to press Esc and look at the code does not apply in this player, but the cartridge served here is itself the game's complete, readable source, code, art and sound included. A gamepad works directly, and on touch screens an on-screen D-pad and buttons appear. The game's texts are in English, and a few optional dialogue choices use mild swearing.
Controls
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Any arrow key, Z or X (title screen) | start |
| Arrow keys | walk around the base |
| X (B button), held | run |
| Z (A button) | talk to someone or examine something in front of you; next line of dialogue; confirm an answer |
| Up / Down arrows (in a conversation) | choose an answer |
| A (X button) | ask to restart from the alarm |
| Arrow keys (in the mech) | fly |
| X (B button) (in the mech) | fire the laser |
| Z (A button) (after losing) | try again |
| Esc | TIC-80 menu |
A few things worth knowing
Everyone has to agree. The beast only runs from the complete Rhinocelator, and the robot only comes together when one pilot forms the head with the others' blessing. Think about who on the team never gets a turn.
Hank is the key. Adam's and Turk's conversations are fairly direct, while Hank needs more care: be honest about whether his ideas can work, but do not crush him. The hints shown after a defeat point in the same direction.
Look around. The bridge display explains what might drive the beast away, and examining objects in the base, from the posters to the mech diagnostics console, adds jokes and even hides a shortcut.
Credits and licence
this is my mech was created by Emma Bukacek and Phil Hagelberg, who wrote the story, the dialogue and the code and made the graphics and music, inspired by the song "I'll Form the Head" by MC Frontalot. It is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later, as stated in the cartridge's header; on their itch.io page the authors also offer the assets under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The cartridge served here is the game's complete source code, and the project's repository is public. It runs here in the TIC-80 web player (MIT licence). The licence texts are linked from this page.