Alien Escape

Overview

Alien Escape is a tense, retro‑sci‑fi rescue game where a lone ship must beam stranded aliens aboard a fleeing mothership while dodging hostile hazards from the Earthlings.

As planetary tensions escalated, many alien communities scrambled to escape Earth. What began as cautious evacuation turned violent: panicked militias, militarized cleanup teams, and opportunistic scavengers now hunt anything that looks offworld. Your ship is part of a ragged rescue effort ferrying refugees to a departing mothership. Each sortie is a race against time and a human response determined to stop the evacuation.

1. Controls
   • Up/Down/Right/Left: Moves ship
   • X Button: Activates tractor beam
2. Gameplay
   • Player controls a small retrieval ship that moves horizontally and vertically while charging a tractor beam to lift aliens out of danger.
   • Beam mechanics reward timing and positioning
   • Hazards include drones, planes that drop bombs, and a persistent soldier on the ground.
   • Boarding the mothership ends the level and grants bonuses for remaining hull integrity.
   • Progression increases hazard frequency and alien evasiveness, demanding better positioning and faster reactions.
   • If the ship is damaged 3 times on a level it will crash and the rescue mission is over.
   • Ship is repaired to full strength between levels.
3. Scoring
   • Points awards for saving aliens - the higher up the ship, the more points given
   • Bonus points awarded after completing a level for ship strength left
4. Ship Picker
   • The ships do not have different abilities. The picker is just for aesthetics.
5. Dev Notes
• This is my second Pico-8 game (first is Big Top Bounce). It wasn't inspired by any particular game from the past. Just thought up the idea and wanted to try to make the tractor beam...and went from there. I feel like it used way too many tokens getting the "beaming up the aliens" functionality just right, but it was core to the game. The mothership also took too many tokens, so I had to cut a few tweaks I was hoping to make. I'm sure more experienced devs could have made those functions A LOT more efficient. oh well.