Static Charge 'Cleaner' 5000 by SeriouslyCrunchy

[raw]
made by SeriouslyCrunchy for LD32 (COMPO)
For this Ludum Dare I had a bit of a problem. I had to work for most of the weekend, so a full submission was completely out of the question. However, I refused to let a lack of time get in my way, so with my trusty Construct 2 engine by my side, I planned out my weekend into four 2-hour slots, giving me 8 hours to cobble something together, an LD8 if you will!

Of course, this means my game is lacking in a lot of areas, but I actually found this little challenge refreshing. Having so little time meant I had to make a simple but effective set of mechanics quickly, and breaking up my time in such a way allowed me to focus in bursts, and have a different focus for each two-hour slot. I would quite like to see a semi-regular LD8 or similar mini-jam that works in this way. As for my entry, well, I'm just glad I got a working concept together with a playable prototype!

Apologies for any bugs left in the game due to this rushed development, please leave a comment with any issues and I will attempt to fix them ASAP!

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You control a lone robot, tasked to disable groups of other aggressive and armed robots with electronic bursts. The aim is to clear as many rooms as possible by disabling its robots. You can disable these robots in many ways, such as :

- Getting them to shoot each other by crossing their line of sight. Getting hit by weapons fire decreases your power level

- Colliding into a robot will cause a static charge to deplete your power and disable the robot, but will also activate their weaponry. Bumping into a disabled robot still activates their weapon but causes you less power loss than an active target

- You can release a burst of static that causes all weapons in its effect to fire and also disables all robots it hits. However, this burst drains your power levels

Clearing a room provides a small boost to your power. The game will spawn progressively more and better equipped enemies for each room you clear.

CONTROLS :

- Arrow keys to move
- Space to activate static burst
- R to restart game

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 2.85 851
Fun 2.94 653
Graphics 2.09 1033
Innovation 3.25 453
Mood 2.43 911
Theme 2.96 836

Feedback

Floko
20. Apr 2015 · 15:48 UTC
Very interesting mechanics!! I didn't get it at first, but on my second / third playthroughs it was pretty fun :) Nice job for 8 hours worth of work .

About your request, I'm glad you liked my game =D I'm also glad that you want to post about it. Sadly I don't use twitter, so no handle :/ I do have a facebook page and a website for my indie group, there's even another solo project I did on construct you can play there :)

So if you want to use it , here you go :

https://www.facebook.com/DoubleDashStudios
http://doubledashstudios.com/

Keep up the good work, man .
Cheers!
Borkleby
20. Apr 2015 · 20:58 UTC
I love the randomly generated levels and the cool aspect of taking control of the enemies. Congrats, you spent your weekend fruitfully!
ker0chan
23. Apr 2015 · 10:52 UTC
Great idea ! I'd love to see this as a bigger game ! New weapons or upgrade would work nicely :)
Great job on finishing something in such a small timespan.
Junber
23. Apr 2015 · 14:26 UTC
Nice idea. Very fun. I dont know if this is intended but you could static burst during level generation.
guigrillo13
23. Apr 2015 · 14:56 UTC
Great Game and smart idea!
awestsecurity
23. Apr 2015 · 15:03 UTC
I had fun and didn't encounter any bugs. I like this it's more of a puzzle game than it seems. Congratulations on getting an entry in only 8 hours!

Only issue I found was when I trapped myself in a corner, but that could have been solved with a little forethought on my part.
Victor RENE
23. Apr 2015 · 15:05 UTC
That's a shame you didn't have enough time. But still, nice effort. The spawning algorithm is a bit unfair. You receive projectiles before controlling the bot.
cyand1317
24. Apr 2015 · 10:49 UTC
I thought they are tanks at first, but soon found I was wrong. The idea is interesting!
DarkMeatGames
24. Apr 2015 · 21:27 UTC
I really liked that there were so many different ways to get disable the robots. Was a bit limited, which is understandable given your short amount of dev time, but I liked how far you tried to push the one mechanic.
ProgramGamer
29. Apr 2015 · 13:36 UTC
The mechanics were fun and the idea is indeed very unique and unconventional, but the fact that levels are randomly generated kind of took away from the game in my opinion. I think homemade levels would have been better suited for this particular entry.
psychonull
30. Apr 2015 · 23:44 UTC
Really funny. It would be great have some music or sounds.
volkoivan
05. May 2015 · 16:56 UTC
Interesting mechanics, but it's really becomes harder and harder and that's not good, cuase at some point it becomes unplayable
But I really liked it, thank you for ENTERTAINING ME!
PaperBlurt
06. May 2015 · 09:21 UTC
The gameplay is cool and way to difficult for me. But it was addictive!
Cheshyr
07. May 2015 · 16:01 UTC
this was clever. the different weapon types were a nice touch, and being able to kick a dead body to cause it to fire another round made me laugh. nicely done, especially under the additional constraints.
GenericTeamName
08. May 2015 · 02:48 UTC
Really cool!
broknecho
09. May 2015 · 02:06 UTC
Not too bad of a start here for the time put in! The dynamic levels kept it fresh even though the collision had a few issues.

Also I got a good chuckle from the "Constructing" text....because this was made with Construct :) ......i think i am too tired.....

Good Job!
Embalaje
09. May 2015 · 06:23 UTC
Good job! You took benefit of every second you had. Great mechanics!.
ThirdMoon
09. May 2015 · 23:19 UTC
Nice game! Good job! I appeciate a lot that levels are never the same :)
Norgg
10. May 2015 · 13:59 UTC
I like the mechanics of this in general, although when it gets beyond just a few robots it starts to get really chaotic and they lose their impact a bit. Nicely done for 8 hours though!
pikkpoiss
10. May 2015 · 16:27 UTC
Really cool gameplay mechanic, and more impressive given the fact that you only worked on it for 8 hours. Hope that you get the full time to work on your next LD entry.
freeholdgames
10. May 2015 · 16:54 UTC
Cute little game. It'd be nice to have bonuses for more challenging finishes (i.e. using less static discharges, or killing only via enemy bullets)
yuigoto
11. May 2015 · 15:00 UTC
You did a great job in 8 hours, sir! :3

Time was limited, and maybe some bugs remain (sometimes I get stuck when colliding with other robots), but that's a really nice idea!

Randomized levels are also very much welcome! ;)
Xanjos
11. May 2015 · 22:02 UTC
Too bad there's no sound but I like the primary gameplay mechanic (although the player could be a bit faster so it's easier to dodge stuff) and I love the random level generation.