JEZZAK ( Playdate )
A downloadable game
Jezzak is an arcade style area capture game similar to Qix, Jezzball, or Barrack.
Listen Up Pilot!
Earth has been invaded by alien Ultra Dense Spheres ( UDS ). It is up to you to save humanity by capturing the indestructible UDS before they destroy our home world.
- 50+ levels.
- 2 Arcade modes.
- 3 Episodes with unique locations and bosses.
- 30+ balls, enemies, and power-ups
- Animates cutscenes
- Scoreboard
- Playable Credits
How To Play
The object of Jezzak is to capture over 80% of the play area. Various enemies will try to make this as difficult as possible.
Directional: Move player
Button B: Rotate player
Button A: Extend isolator
Crank Forwards: Overcharge isolator( build walls faster ). Careful, over charge too much and the player explodes.
Buttons A+B or Crank Backwards: Deploy power-up
For more details play through the Tutorial
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Jezzak 1.0.1 - Released. Now with Arcade Mode!Sep 03, 2023
Comments
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Just grabbed this from catalog and am really enjoying the Arcade mode. I loved Jezzball back in the day and was hoping someone would make a version of it for playdate.
The campaign game escalates in difficulty too much for me so don't think I'll be playing through it. I also found it confusing until I came to this page and learned there was a tutorial. I missed the How to Play menu item on the main page and the Tutorial item when starting a new game as in both instances, they were off screen—I suppose I'm coddled by modern games that ensure you go through the tutorial first before dumping you into the main game.
Thanks for the feedback! I think I will add a tutorial slide for the first level as many people have missed the tutorial and the info on the game page. No one really wants to play a tutorial anyways.
The campaign is intended to be difficult but not impossible. Some levels have a little bit of a puzzle aspect to them as well. A few additional notes. The game will usually provide a way to get out of difficult situations. So if the balls are too fast there is a good chance there is a lightning or snail power up incoming. If there are seeker missiles there will likely be a chaff countermeasure power up. Also missiles can be confused be exiting the screen and appearing on the other side as they don't have that ability and instead must arc back towards you. The play through video posted here illustrates some techniques that might be useful.
If you get stuck on a level and want to move past it you might give the Konami code a try from the main menu ;-)
Hello, sorry for the silly question, but as a huge Barrack fan looking for any alternative, is this playable in any way on a computer or does it require the playdate?
You can actually using the simulator included in the free playdate SDK . It works pretty well and has controller support. You can also 2x the size of the display making it 800X480 which isn't too far off from Barrack's original 800x600. I made the Episode 1 play-through video using the SDK on 2x using the playdate as a controller if you want an idea what it would look like.
Thank you for your extensive reply. It will probably be a bit hard on my eye, but I am getting this lovely looking game - I guess this will also be another incentive to eventually get the wonderful little console!
I can't seem to get this game to side load onto my play date.
How are you side loading it? Through the simulator or through the website? Also, does it give you an error or some kind or just not show up?
I will add that when I have side loaded it through the website it took a while before showing up. I think because the game is bigger by playdate standards.
When loading the game, I get a error that states: https://help.play.date/e0/
I will try deleting the game data and update
Please give that a try. If it doesn't work email support@optimalprime.com and I will take a look.
Hi, did it work after you updated?
I uninstalled the game, deleted game data, then installed the latest version. It now works. I'll update if any issues come up.
When I start the game, it works, but if I leave and return to the game, I get the same bug. Using a Gen 1 Playdate with the latest OS.
This one is a tricky one. I am having a hard time reproducing the bug. Could you possibly try it plugged in to your pc and with the simulator console open to see if it dumps anything interesting? You can email me at support@optimalprime.com if that is more convient to share results.
Sure. I'll try sometime soon.
This game looks great! Do you think it might get a Catalog release as well?
I hope so! I submitted Jezzak to Panic but haven't heard back yet.
FYI. JEZZAK was released today in the Playdate catalog!
This game is cool but crashes if I try to reopen it after playing other games. If I delete the save data it will play again but still crash if I try to reopen again. I can send error/crash logs if there is a good email to send them to. The issue happens in both 1.0.0 and 1.0.1.
That's a strange one I can't seem to duplicate. Yes, please send the error/crash logs to support@optimalprime.com . I will take a look.
Thank you! Sent an email.
Finally someone made a jezzball game :)
I would appreciate if you would add a ”vanilla mode” to the game though, while I appreciate the effort with all the new stuff and new enemies and such I personally wanna play something as close as possible to the original one.
Doing the tutorial is a must before playing this game, as it adds a mechanic to control the speed of cutting line. Also the turorial shows how to use powerups which is required to progress in the game. Its quite a hard game but defently good fun!
Hum, an arcade mode perhaps?
something like that would be nice :) I would guess there are quite a lot of old Jezzball fans out there and would be a nice option to have if it isnt to much work to add it in :)
Give the newest release a try. The "Arcade Classic" mode was created with your request in mind.
I love it! Thanks a lot for adding it in, its pretty much exactly what I wanted.
Cool game made by a cool dude. 😎 It's like Jezzball but with powerups and scary enemies. It's hard!