CrankVenture Capitalist

Story

You wake up in a cold sweat and your mom is gone!! The only thing you know is...that kidnapper up there on screen must have taken her! Go! Be a good kid! Help HERRRR! 

Note: although you may look young obviously no one would make a game about you having to rescue your mom as a kid. Okay I lied, I did, you are a middle schooler, now go rescue her so you can get back to being an angsty teen!

Gameplay

In  CrankVenture Capitalist you act as a real estate and ice cream bar mogul. The more ice cream you eat, the more you earn per crank.  Think like those games where you tap the screen to earn money, except its a Playdate, soooo you crank to earn!! But the more ice cream you eat, the stronger you can crank. Get to crankin'!!  

But what good is an incremental game without an idle component?! You have to be able to idle. What happens when you need to go take a break IRL? Well obviously you use your Playdate case as an impromptu stand anddddd let the game just run until the screen times out. Why would you do this super wasteful thing with your precious Playdate battery?  Obviously you buy a bunch of real estate and then that brings in passive income so you can be a real estate emperor/emperoress (is that a word?) and make lots of money without needing to lift a crank!

Like any good idle/incremental there is an upgrade system, Mana lets you earn permanent bonuses to the currency of your choice.  Essence lets you earn short but big bonuses (shown on screen with a handy "S" or "B"! Balance these with your cold hard cash to rescue your mom, because for some reason the kidnappers, bankers and ....aliens? all seem to want a bit of all 3...I wonder why? Hopefully no one is messing with the dimensions and time, wouldn't that just be a bother!

With 2 fully fleshed out game modes, both endless and a story mode, you will get to play to your hearts content. Play while you watch tv, play while you work (Or maybe just use the idle function. "Disclaimer: If you get fired for playing this game I am only partially responsible ;)" ) JK! Anyways it's a lot of fun and if you just like to beat the next level and like watching numbers get bigger and bigger you will dig it!  

Fun deets

This originally came out as part of the Uncrank'd Fun in The Sun Bundle in early to mid July 2024.

The best part of this game is that it never ends! (Well I'm not sure how integer overflow works in Pulp...I'm sure there's a point where endless breaks, but I haven't found it yet *shrug*)

There's a hidden easter egg on the last level, it's super hard to find...sooo good luck!

There is a hidden secret in the game that I will reveal if someone can screenshot that they have beaten level 100 in endless ;) Unless you all can figure it out first!

There's some bug inherent in Pulp that causes timers to sometimes be weird. Occasionally, when you go to buy an upgrade with essence or when your buff expires, all the buffs will expire. Not sure why that happens with Pulp, but if it happens, don't fret. Just wait 2 seconds and rebuff and you'll be good to go! (Essence gamewide is a tad more plentiful just in case this bug rears its ugly head)

Hey this was a Collab, read below!

This is my fourth game as an indie dev and my first one collaborating with a few other people.  The colored main art comes from Russell Reeves (also featured on the trading card from the Uncrank'd Bundle).  The pencil art comes from KGQuarts.  Inari the witty humorist (in game) was courtesy of kwolf.  

Russell and KGQuarts can both be found in the story mode as themselves telling their favorite dad joke! Inari can be found offering witty lines and strange humor on each level like a man's best friend...except he's a fox and he sure as heck won't help this poor kid, they're just watching to see what happens lol!

Controls

Use the crank to crank, wait to earn passive rental income, bump into stuff to purchase it, wait to earn mana, wait to earn essence, B to open the mana permanent upgrade menu (if you have mana), A to open the essence temporary boost menu (if you have essence), and dock the crank to go to the main menu. The game saves on finishing a room, so make sure to finish a room before going to the main menu or the home screen!

P.S. There is a setting in the Playdate settings that allows the device screen to stay on if it is plugged in. That + Time is always my trick to get to the next level, no matter how much those kidnappers be chargin'.

Last and Very Very not least

Please give me some feedback, a comment, or maybe give my game the first rating ever!! (Although none of my games have a rating, so first one to do it gets to claim title of first rating I've ever gotten? And then go rate the other ones so I know what you all think! I've got my own secret rating of all my own games... (; ) 

Anyways, this was a passion project and although I've crossed level 100 in Endless, I can't wait to hear just how far everyone else can get to. Fun fact, Pulp automatically handles big numbers in scientific notation at a certain point!

Updates

1.01 - Fixed a bug displaying the wrong mana cost for upgrading mana bonus in story mode.

1.02 - Mana boost wasn't working correctly for the upgrade that costs essence. OOF! Fixed! Also I'm past level 200 in endless! Catch me if you can ;)