Archipelago is an action/exploration roguelite developed in a week for the 2020 7DRL challenge. All code, art, and music were made from scratch using PICO-8 over the course of a single week.

In Archipelago, you are a sea cucumber turned into a bipedal wizard by the gods, who are troubled by the rise of a brutal demon king in their beloved archipelago. You must sail the archipelago, explore islands, and grow your power until you can find the location of the demon king and slay him. 

The game features:

  • An ocean to sail around in, with over 15 procedurally generated islands
  • 8-bit graphics and music
  • Two sub-bosses and a final boss
  • Tile-based movement with real-time combat
  • Permadeath/fun!

Controls:

  • Arrow keys: Move (bump into certain NPCs to talk to them)
  • Z or C: Advance dialogue/Open map (when sailing)
  • X or V: Attack
  • Enter: PICO-8 menu, used for resetting the game upon death or victory.

In retro style, the game offers little in the way of guidance. Unless you want to discover everything yourself, read these hints:

  • There are three ways to learn the location of the Demon King.  You can find and talk to all the Banana villages, kill the two Demon Monks, or find the 4 map tablets by clearing islands of enemies. Talking to all the Banana villages will increase your health, and killing the Demon Monks will strengthen your attacks. 
  • The nearest island to the start is a Banana island.
  • Clearing islands of enemies can gain you extra hearts and make your attacks more powerful.
  • The map shows islands that you've cleared, and shows, once you've seen them, the location of Banana and Demon islands. Be warned - islands that are close together are often not marked separately on the map!
  • Nothing respawns except Banana trade ships, once you've gotten them started.


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StatusReleased
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux, HTML5
Rating
Rated 2.0 out of 5 stars
(1 total ratings)
Authorvoidset
GenreAction
Made withPICO-8
TagsSeven Day Roguelike Challenge, 8-Bit, Action-Adventure, PICO-8, Procedural Generation, Retro, Roguelike, Roguelite
Average sessionAbout a half-hour
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard

Download

Download
archipelago.p8.png 20 kB
Download
archipelago.bin.zip 12 MB

Install instructions

Play in browser, or download the .bin.zip file to find executables for Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you have PICO-8, you can download and run the .p8.png file for use as a PICO-8 cart.

Development log

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