Evoroid by ahnimal

[raw]
made by ahnimal for LD24 (COMPO)
So I made this game and everything went perfectly until a bug came up 15 minutes before the deadline.
There is an overwhelming number of variables that need to be balanced in order to make the game work, and I wouldn't be able to do it even if I had another 24 hours, so the game may be very unbalanced.

Anyway the idea is that you are this robot, in a tiny world of similar robots. You have some random parts attached to you and other robots usually have more parts. When you die or run out time/fuel, you evolve, and gain either new parts or upgrades to your existing parts. If the game didn't break and I hadn't overslept I would have added bosses with special parts that would can only gain my killing them.
The objective of the game is to survive as many levels as possible, as you only have limited lives but unlimited "refuels".
If you can actually survive the aggressive AI, then you will evolve as planned, but when you die the game crashes.
I would have tracked you guys' statistics with Mochi, but apparently it broke the game even more and therefore the Kongregate version doesn't load, at least not for me.

Have fun!

EDIT:
I've fixed it and also made some slight balance changes and increased the size of the level.

Ratings

Coolness 45% 641
Overall 2.59 577
Fun 2.73 401
Graphics 3.55 150
Innovation 3.05 288
Mood 2.47 452
Theme 2.64 465

Feedback

panzermancer
27. Aug 2012 · 16:48 UTC
It's a damn shame this game doesn't run well, and that I have to refresh in the Newgrounds version every time I want to respawn. However, I do like the graphical style, I'll give it that.

I feel like the problem here is that you might have gotten a bit too ambitious, considering your available time. There were a lot of awesome ideas in this one, although, as with many other games, it was rather dubious as to how the mechanics worked.

I personally think you should keep working on this one post-comp; there's potential in this idea yet. Just make sure to fix those nasty bugs, though.
josefnpat
27. Aug 2012 · 17:38 UTC
The crashes everytime I die on newgrounds as well. Otherwise, could use more introduction as to what I'm doing.

Very cool game, I immediately knew I had to run away from the baddies. That kind of intuition is important and thrilling.
LiteLab
27. Aug 2012 · 17:44 UTC
As stated before, it crashes when I die. I never really understood what I was supposed to do, but the graphics are nice.
Brassawiking
27. Aug 2012 · 17:46 UTC
Way to aggressive robots and the fuel last forever. Still, this looks like the beginning of a really awesome game.

One component in the future to make it work, is that perhaps when refueling, you also replicate yourself into lets say 4 copies based on what you have + new parts. The replicates are your lifes. That will make into a true evolution as a bad robot will never be able to survive long enough to replicate. If all of the robots/replicates were bad, then you will go extinct =)
Porter
27. Aug 2012 · 17:47 UTC
You definitely got started, but it sounds like your idea was out of scope for the time you were given. The graphical style was cool, I like the direction you were going. Best of luck getting it back together.
My Milked Eek
27. Aug 2012 · 17:49 UTC
Looks cool, a shame it crashes upon dying. If you could fix that issue, it would be awesome.
🎤 ahnimal
28. Aug 2012 · 13:40 UTC
I've worked out the crash. Please report any other major bugs, while I work on a post compo version.
bobiniki
28. Aug 2012 · 14:18 UTC
After my second death I spawned in closed area where I cant escape... And enemies were trying to reach me. Overall I like the graphics and how the controls feel. Very mild game.
Colapsydo
28. Aug 2012 · 15:15 UTC
Really smooth mouse tracking and animation.
I'm not sure to understand how are determined the part we got and the upgrades, but who cares? That's fun.
Starmen
29. Aug 2012 · 12:58 UTC
I like the art a lot. It's a very simple and clean art style but it works very well. It's a nice idea too. Could've done with a bit more time, but overall it's a good entry.
chaosBrick
31. Aug 2012 · 11:33 UTC
I like the idea of the game, but i can imagine that this would work out better as a top-down shooter as I didn't really know if I was attacking the enemies or they were attacking me.
Teknik
01. Sep 2012 · 19:33 UTC
great game!!
someone
11. Sep 2012 · 12:51 UTC
Took a while to figure out what was going on. The goal seems to be to die in some way. It didn't help that the first time I played it I spawned in a small box with no way out and no other robots.
Khayet
11. Sep 2012 · 15:43 UTC
Overly attached robots O.o

Like 'someone', I once spawned in a small room without any way to escape and no other robots in sight. Other times the other robots just got stuck to me.
I also kind of didn't understand what I was supposed to do or how to attack. What are the winning/losing conditionns of this game?

What I did like was the instantly fun movement system and the spriting.

This could be the start of a great game, but it's not really there yet.