Blimps

Blimps is a top-down, multi-vehicle sandbox RPG and roguelite escape-room puzzle for solo play or local co-op with two players. The surface world is running out of resources, and your goal is to escape it by solving a large mechanical puzzle and refining your strategy over multiple runs. Each time you leave your Hangar, you lose power, pollution clouds spread and rival pirate blimps multiply. Time advances at a rate of 15 minutes in-game for every 10 real-world seconds.

The escape campaign

The campaign has three phases. In the opening game, Days 1–3, you race corporate competitors Space Y, Nile X and Sir Space to reach the Moon. Recruit 10 VIP crew members and secure 10 Golden Cargo crates to launch a rocket to the Moon, or possibly to a hidden silo on Mars, and search for the mythical Moon Crystal. Claim first place within three game days to earn a $1,000,000 reward.

After the timed race, the middle game opens into a building and survival playground. Establish solar and fusion towns, fight to become the King of the Seven Kingdoms, and play arcade mini-games to raise your score. In the end game, use the Moon Crystal to power an Earth Drill beneath your Hangar. Educate and train your crew, power up and board the drill, then descend toward an Earth paradise before the surface collapses.

Vehicles and challenges

Tasks away from the Hangar and cockpit can award score bonuses, gold and ship upgrades. You can pilot submarines, earth-drilling machines, hot-air balloons, motorcycles, slingshots and a funicular. Combat includes twin-stick dogfights and close-range elemental battles: Water douses Fire, Fire melts Ice, and Ice freezes Water.

Other challenges include:

• Goldgotts Dungeon: Descend through four floors in a mini earth drill. Use a water gun to extinguish flames and collect fire ammo, and a shovel plow to break rocks and extract raw gold. Fight Shiska Bob, a giant flame boss, on the bottom floor; after each run, smelt the gold into bars to upgrade your Blimp's size and specs.
• Side-view gauntlet: Fly and shoot along a 2D platformer highway, open hot-air-balloon crates for gold bars, shoot cyberplane minions and battle The Dogcatcher, a pirate blimp captained by a barking dog.
• Cyberpunk motorcycle race: Race solo or with a partner on a neon-lit 2D top-down track. Gather 8 glowing crystals and deposit them in 8 active turret towers to win 8 gemstones, then secure them at the Gemstone Greenhouse to claim your winnings.

Runs and co-op

Blimps is designed around repeated runs and a steep learning curve; a perfect escape on the first run is possible, but mastering when and where to act takes practice. The Captain's Log tracks complex missions, while the H.E.L.P. Computer offers game advice. Completing the gauntlet in under 60 minutes without console cheat codes earns an ultimate high-score bonus.

You can play alone or share the cockpit in local two-player couch co-op.