Incognity: A Rover Story

Incognity: A Rover Story is one of four entries in the 2021 SNESdev Game Jam, created by cand. It is a top-down, resource gathering game. By: Evan G Last updated: November 6, 2021

The SNESdev Game Jam happened between June 5 and September 10, 2021, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Super NES. The goal was to create a SNES game from scratch in just three months using publicly available resources. The rule was that it had to be playable on real hardware! In the end, there were four entries.

Incognitiy is an interesting concept for a SNES game. You are located on an asteroid, where you must collect a number of artifacts from a crashed ship. The inhabitants of this asteroid are definitely not happy to see you there, and attack you. At first, you must collect various random items, called CY, in order to upgrade your rover to withstand the harsh environment.

This game is polished, and if it came out during the life of the SNES, it would be among the middle tier of games for the system. It is definitely very slow-going, but this was a deliberate design choice. I think the big problem is that at first your energy bar is really short and depletes very quickly, especially if you get hit by a worm enemy. Until you get a solar panel, if you run out of energy you basically have to abort, since you can only restore it at your base. As a result, it is best to stick pretty close to your base at first. The music is very thumping, and the graphics are good. This game is definitely not for everyone, but if you don't get frustrated by the slow pace, it is actually kind of relaxing to play.

Your base. You can get hints about your surroundings by contacting it.	The menu system, with a map to show how much of the asteroid you have explored.

Collect CY to upgrade your rover, but watch for enemies that will sap your energy.	There are varied terrains, which can be more easily navigated when you upgrade your rover.

Link to the Itch.io page for Incognity: A Rover Story