A GAME BY MATT SEPHTON

You control a space yoyo—a small ring-shaped spaceshipthat is attached to a larger ball by an elastic beam. By
moving the ring you stretch the elastic and can gracefully
guide the ball in a cosmic ballet.
Your task? Grab the stars, one by one, in order. Easy.
And there’s more! Once you get the hang of things, you’ll
uncover additional layers of depth in the gameplay andscoring systems. In no time at all you’ll be pulling off fancy
moves at high speed—pro style! To reach the top of theleaderboard you’ll need speed, skill, and strategy.
Are you ready to become the ultimate
The stars are waiting, and it’s your time to shine!
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pilot?
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CONTROLS
The opposite page shows the button mapping.
Using ✛ with ⒶⒷ seems to be most comfortable.
When not in a game the Ⓑ button can be used togo back to the title screen.
At the title screen, after a score has been set, Ⓑ will
toggle between: title, stats, and score board.
Hold “up” to speed up the game start countdown.
Note: the Playdate crank is not used in this game.
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GOAL
The aim of the game is to collect the stars in order.
That’s it! Of course, once you get into the swing ofthings the game will reveal additional depth.
As you get the hang of the controls, you’ll soon
notice that you can swing the ball around with highaccuracy. You’ll see that you don’t need to approach
the stars from above or below, but can swing rightthrough them.
is a portmanteau of yoyo (the toy)and yozora (a Japanese word meaning “night sky”)
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PLANNING
Once you are collecting stars from any direction,
you’ll realise that the next targets are visibly different
to each other so you can plan your route through thethree targets currently on screen. Pulling off such aplanned route is one of the most satisfying aspects ofplaying
well!
Planning your route isn’t just about feeling good, or
showing off, it’s about getting a higher score. You see,
there are various factors that influence the score.
Let’s go through them...
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STRETCH
This is the length of the beam connecting the player
and the ball. The longer this is at the moment a staris collected the higher your score will be. Stretch isshown in the bottom bar.
The beam gets narrower as it stretches and flickers
slightly when it is overextended. Stretching too far for
too long will break the beam resulting in game over.

The amount of stretch at the moment of pickup is
shown in two places: at the location of the star as apercentage, and on the bottom bar as a rating:LO (below 20%), OK (20% to 80%), HI (above 80%),and OVER (over 100%, overextended).
The line on the bottom bar is equivalent to thepercentage shown—they’re just two ways of displayingthe same information: one in the player’s gaze and theother in a fixed location.
Higher numbers mean higher scores.

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SPEEDCOMBO

This is equivalent to the length of the combo meter,
the line shown under the current score.

This is the total number of stars obtained in quick
succession. The number is shown in the top right of thescreen. This is a reward for playing well.

The quicker you pick up the next star the higher yourscore will be. Each time you pick up a star before thecombo meter has run out your COMBO will increase.

The longer you play well, the higher you can build yourCOMBO, and the higher you’ll score. If the combo meterruns out then your COMBO count is reset. Yikes!
Each star pickup restores a small amount of the combo
meter, so even if it drops low you can still play well andbuild it back up. It’s a bit of a juggling act to keep all
aspects of the game in harmony.

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SCORE FORMULA
The basic scoring formula is shown below. However,there are some visual clues that appear in-game toindicate other things that affect the scoring formula.
These are detailed later in the manual, but committedhigh score chasers might enjoy searching for them!
(STRETCH + SPEED) × COMBO
Oh, and watch out! As your score increases the size
and weight of the ball also increases. This changes
the feel of the controls, making it tricker to manoeuvre
as you progress.
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TIMER

SCORE

This is shown in the top left of the screen. Each star
pickup restores a small amount of time, but the timer
will always trend towards zero.

This is shown in the centre top of the screen. Beneath
it is the combo meter. And beneath that appears thescore breakdown for the most recent star pickup:
STRETCH + SPEED. As we’ve already seen, thissubtotal will be multiplied by the COMBO count.

It’s the only inevitability in, and life ingeneral: time is limited! Make the most of it.

GAME OVER
To recap, there are two ways a game can end:
firstly if you overextend the beam for too long it will
break, and secondly when you run out of time.
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MENU
At any point you can press the menu button to see
options for: sound, score board, and new game.
On this screen you’ll also see some score information.
• Whilst you’re in-game it will show score info
for the current, in-progress game.
• Whilst on the title screen it will show aggregate
score information—your “bests”—as well as how
many games you’ve played, and how many moves(control inputs) you’ve made over all those games.

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SCORE BREAKDOWNAt the end of each game you’ll see a breakdown ofyour score for that game. On this screen you’ll also see
a “tracer” replay of the path your ball took. This screen
shows more information than the menu score display.
It shows score-per-star and score-per-move, as well as
avg% per star pickup. You can use these numbers tojudge how effective your play was in the last game.
Higher scores per star/move mean you’re playing in amore optimally, and higher avg% per pickup meansthat you’re taking advantage of the risk/reward
balance—all of which are what you want to aim for!
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SCORE BOARD
When you set a new personal best score, it will be
submitted to the online score board. You’ll see a small
icon 🔄 in the bottom right corner of the screen when
this is happening.
The score board is updated on game launch and alongwith every new score submission.
You can see the current standing of the scoreboard bypressing Ⓑ on the title screen to toggle between thelogo, the score breakdown, and the online score board.
Tip: change your name at play.date/account/
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ADVANCED TECHNIQUES• Move to where the ball is going, not where it’s been
• Plan ahead (you’ll get better at doing this over time)• Try to move the ball on a trajectory that passes
through multiple stars• Use the walls to your advantage by bouncing
off them strategically• Maximise all factors of the score formula• Keep your eye out for visual clues as to how you
might increase your score even more
• Most of all—have fun!
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SOUNDCUSTOM MUSIC

Choose between SFX+MUSIC, SFX only, MUSIC only.

You can override the built-in music with an audio fileof your own. You’ll need to encode it in Playdate
format, which can be done using the Playdate SDK.

The music on the title screen changes subtly overtime. Try playing two instances of it at once andlisten to how the melody weaves in and out of itself.
The in-game music features dynamic BPM, so it’stempo increases along with your score, up to a point.
The sound effects are also dynamic depending on
your actions and the game state, from the wobble ofthe beam to the pickup chimes. Additionally, sounds
are panned left/right relative to the ball position.
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Once you have created a suitable audio file you
should name it music.pda, connect your Playdate,and copy the file to:
USB:/Playdate/Data/com.gingerbeardman.yoyozo
Tip: if you need help try the Playdate Squad Discord.

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BEST SCORES

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HAIKU

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GLOSSARYBALLS-UP
The moment when the ball increases in size andweight. Happens regularly as your score increases.

MOVES
This is essentially a count of button presses you’ve
made whilst playing the game.

COMBO
The total number of stars collected in quick
succession. Maintaining this will mean your scoreincreases exponentially as you play.

OVEREXTENDED
This is how much longer than 100% the beam isstretched. Exploiting the extra points available fromthis scoring technique is the ultimate risk/reward
challenge on your way to high scores.

EMOJI
After you pass the 50M points score threshold, all
explosions are shaped like emoji rather than random
starbursts. How many can you spot? See any Moai?
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PLAYDATE
The cute console with a crank on which you can playand many other fun games.
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RINGS (aka SPIN)
This is activated by doing a 360° loop around the ball,or swinging the ball so it loops around you. The game
tracks this as the player and ball move, and resets
the count on a change in rotation direction.

STRETCHThis is how long the beam is at the point you pickup astar. Overextending means that stretch can go higher
than 100% so it is a key element of high scores.

There’s a visual clue when this is activated. Any stars
collected whilst it is active are worth double points
and show as a percentage followed by a ! mark.

players refer to 100M points.

SPEEDThink of this as the time since the last pickup, shownas the length of the combo meter line located underthe score. Collecting stars quickly to keep the bar as
long as possible is a key to high scores.
31YOZILLIONThis is how

YOZILLIONAIRE
Any player that has registered a score of more than
100M on the online score board. Welcome to the club!
YOZO
This is any star collected after game over, as you fall
off screen, and any points received still count!
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CREDITS
A game by Matt Sephton.
With music by Jamie Hamshere.

THANKS• CANO-Lab• Playdate Squad Testers
Manual edition: 2023‑12‑0133© 202334

IN THE VAST EXPANSE,A STAR COLLECTOR GATHERS...
CELESTIAL JEWELSAMIDST STELLAR STREAMS,PERFORMING COSMIC BALLET,GRAVITY'S SWEET PULL !