JOULE THIEF
How to play
- Go fast, go far, stay alive.
- Accelerating, hitting cars or using your EMP depletes your battery.
- Get close to other cars to recharge your battery.
- Once you have enough energy, use your EMP to clear the road
Controls
- Left/Right arrows : turn
- Up arrow/O button/W key : accelerate
- Down arrow : brake
- X button/X key : trigger EMP (when charged up)
Credits
A big thank you to Piero, Scotaire, voidgazerBon and my partner for playtesting and for their feedback!
Cart cover image by The Sailor
PICO8 and fade to black code by zep
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Update : v1.0.4Mar 14, 2026
Comments
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Excellent.
amazing gamefeel!
Any chance for a windows download ? Frickin love this game
Reminds me of burnout in the best way possible. Only instead of the relentless aggression of burnout, you're more on the defensive here. Having the option of using your emp and being strategic about where and when you use it is also pretty interesting.
The only piece of feedback I have is that it isn't really as clear as it should be what you're minimum health should be to be able to use your emp. Maybe if it was a different colour when your health is below the limit ? A good number of my deaths were because I thought it was high enough, but the emp didn't happen
Other than though, this is amazing. I kinda want to make something like this now lol. Great stuff
Burnout was definitely one of the inspirations for this game, so this makes me very happy!
Regarding the EMP charge, I try indicating it using a different color and sprite on the player’s car (the reasoning being that it was what the player would be looking at), but I can see how having the meter change color could help getting the information at a glance. Thank you for the feedback!
Also, the download links should be available now!
This is a really good game! Genuinely. I haven't gotten very far, but the music and feel is absolutely splendid. 5/5
Thank you for your kind words!