LudumData

Train your Turtle by bushmango

[raw]
made by bushmango for LD36 (JAM)
"5/5 Turtles" - Turtle Weekly
"Best turtle training game on the internet!" - the Internet
"Turtlerific!" - A. Turtle

You've always wanted to train your own turtle to solve puzzles, and now you can!

Enter a riveting adventure full of sand, turtles, treasure, more sand, and more!

With advanced turtle AI based on neural networks and the finest genetic* algorithms known to humanity!

Use WASD to walk
Use 1-9 to shout commands at your turtle
Use POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT to encourage your turtle to do things in response to the commands
Use PATIENCE to train your turtle using only POSITIVITY
Remain STEADFAST even when your turtle just wants to hide in its shell

Then... when all hope is lost... give me feedback to see if you like this highly experimental game.

*Sorry no turtle mating so this part isn't very useful

Made with much love, enjoy! Thanks for playing and share with all your turtle loving friends!

~ Stevie Bushman with help from Brenden
Web http://ludumdare36.steviebushman.com
Source https://ludumdare36.steviebushman.com/game/bundle.js
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-36/?action=preview&uid=5852

Feedback

Pikby
30. Aug 2016 路 10:07 UTC
Super cute! It's just like me yelling at my turtles in real life.
I think it would be even cooler if there were sound effects for walking (crawling) on the sand! Great job :)
kingpirux
30. Aug 2016 路 16:15 UTC
lol! really hard! but intresting! more polished can became a really intresting game for experimental game lovers
Wevel
30. Aug 2016 路 17:21 UTC
Really nice idea, but it just seems that the turtle just does random things not relating to what I do.
Zettelkasten
30. Aug 2016 路 18:26 UTC
5/7 Would turtle again!
馃帳 bushmango
30. Aug 2016 路 19:50 UTC
@Wevel -- the turtle does just do random things until you train it. Training is... hard to explain. Ideally there would be a long tutorial to introduce the training concepts but I haven't yet figured that out yet. Basically there's a bunch of weights for what the turtle can do after a command, and reinforcing the correct behavior makes it more likely to do that next time. Repeat this many times and your turtle will do exactly what you expect, most of the time, if you trained it correctly! :)
jeremyfa
30. Aug 2016 路 20:38 UTC
My turtles don't listen to anything :P More seriously, it may be a good idea to try to make the interface simpler, with less information at the same time. I don't know were to look at when playing the game at the moment!
CMangas
31. Aug 2016 路 10:23 UTC
I think this idea is really cool, with a bit more polish this would be an amazing game.

It is really hard to make the turtle do what you want it to learn. I get that it is the whole point, but since it moves randomly it is hard to reinforce what you want to do, and even then, the posibility doesn麓t seem to vary that much. Maybe make the turtle learn a bit faster?

The concept is amazing thou, I think you have a very nice game on your hands!
Hammers
31. Aug 2016 路 10:49 UTC
Lovely concept :) It's a really original idea. Like you say I think it probably needs some more explicit tutorials near the beginning, maybe the first level walks you through step by step how do program your first command to make the turtle walk forward. Something like "Press 1 and see what happens" and if the turtle walks forward pop something up saying "Give a treat now!"

But I love it and you got an impressive amount done in the time limit.

Plus I love turtles so this was always going to be a winner for me :P
PanicTheFirst
31. Aug 2016 路 21:24 UTC
I didn't really get how to train the turtle. But I like the idea and could see this as a base for something bigger. :)
sararyCow
02. Sep 2016 路 02:03 UTC
I didn't manage to finish the game (that turtle desperated me on the separated island level) but I think this is a nice concept to be developed. Graphics and written and audio text makes a great mood.
mcjackso
02. Sep 2016 路 02:23 UTC
Good idea. Might need a better tutorial on the first island. But sweet concept.