D I S P A T C H
IS A DARK SCIFI THEMED, GENERATIVE SURVIVAL HORROR TEXT-BASED ADVENTURE.

YOU AS THE PLAYER ARE A RUNNER, A SOLO OPERATIVE SENT TO RETRIEVE THE FLIGHT DATA RECORDER BLACKBOX AND GET OUT ALIVE.

Z = SEARCH / PICK UP / INTERACT / START GAME
X = DROP / SWAP
ARROWS MOVE

PLAY IN BROWSER OR DOWNLOAD
CLICK GAME IN BROWSER IF INPUTS DO NOT RESPOND

THX TO EIYERON, THATTOMHALL, TOBIASVL, AND KRYSTMAN
+ EVERYONE IN THE AMAZING AND WELCOMING PICO-8 COMMUNITY ON TWITTER AND DISCORD

LOVES TO EVERYONE THAT SUPPORTS ME AND THE WORK I DO <3

WWW.AERIFORM.IO

StatusReleased
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux, HTML5
Rating
Rated 4.3 out of 5 stars
(6 total ratings)
AuthorΛERIF°RM
GenreSurvival, Adventure
Made withPICO-8
Tags8-Bit, ascii, Atmospheric, Creepy, Dark, glitch, Horror, Pixel Art

Download

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Click download now to get access to the following files:

aeriform_dispatch_20061901.zip 6 MB

Development log

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Comments

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(+1)

Dispatch is a real hidden gem. You managed to balance eerie atmosphere with perfectly executed moments of urgency, while compelling me to solve puzzles and achieve an objective, with only text and two buttons.

You should be very proud of this. It may seem small but those are huge achievements. Most games that try fall wildly short.

(+1)

Found the blackbox, couldn’t figure out how to get back out the airlock with it, accidentally put myself into cryosleep forever. Well, at least I’m alive. XD

As others have mentioned, the font is hard to read, but I got the hang of it eventually. The main thing that bothered me was spending half the time putting out fires - is there some way to turn the fire suppression systems back on? If so I didn’t see it.

The interface brightening when the reactor comes back on was a nice touch though. This is a neat little game conceptually & visually, just it could use some polish re: accessibility and intuitiveness.

(+1)

AH! I just realised something. I got the current itch.io bundle and found Tape. I saw the name Aeriform and was like “Huh, hold on… I’ve heard this name before!”. So I went on your profile and found Dispatch just neatly sitting there on the shelf. I saw the game while browsing SPLORE randomly. Anyways, as for the game, it’s incredible. Gives me Duskers vibes.

Thank you !

(1 edit) (+1)

Nice aesthetics but it is incredibly difficult to read. After I get attacked and begin to bleed out, it takes me approximately half the bleed out timer to read the message on the screen. After that, I pretty much have to panic run through rooms because there's no time for me to read/process any of the messages... I feel like if your game is supposed to be primarily text based, you shouldn't make it this difficult for players to visually parse the info on the screen.

I'll keep it on my watch list for now but in its current state it is very frustrating to play. Granted, I'm playing this on the mac version since the browser version doesn't work for me so maybe your previous adjustments weren't applied to the mac version?

(+2)

Also agree that the text is extremely difficult to read, would like to play it and will save it in my play later collection, but it is too difficult to read. Hopefully with an update if possible where the font could be changed I'd be able to play in the future. 

(+3)

yea the text is really hard to read and i had to start pressing random buttons until it began

(+8)

So interested in this and really wishing I could play it but the font you chose for the text makes it incredibly hard to read. Not sure if anyone else had commented on this aspect but it is a major detractor for a player trying to feel immersed in the world you've crafted here. Want to play it so bad, though :-) The little I was able to play immediately told me I would be in for a great atmospheric experience.

Keep it up, dev ;)

How do I hit Begin?

Hahaha nvm, I found it!

I am an old school player, so I like this.  Got horribly killed, but I like it!

can you tell me how to begin?

please?

Thank you for reaching out. X and O for Pico8 are mapped to Z and X on the keyboard, so you will need press Z to start.

(+1)

thaks