2954: Robot Puzzler by sewerbird

[raw]
made by sewerbird for LD 42 (COMPO)

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Guide your intrepid robot Unit::2954 to the exit of each level in this robotic puzzler!

You have very limited harddrive space, and so have to rely on picking up and ejecting diskettes found littered around the map. Available on itch.io for Mac and Linux. Also available on the web!

I wrote a blog post about it here

Features

This COMPO submission features

  • 5 Levels
  • Puzzle Tips from sysadmin AKU
  • Full UI
  • All Assets & Music made by myself in 48 hours. (Credit to Bosca.ceol and BFXR for saving my bacon here)

Plans

Post-COMPO, there will be a JAM mode with

  • Extra Levels
  • Better music
  • More Diskettes
  • Animations

Ratings

Overall 317th 3.447⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 371th 3.222⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 181th 3.526⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 243th 3.789⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 406th 3.132⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 416th 2.737⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 250th 3.167⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 9🗳️ 7🗨️

Feedback

George Darling
13. Aug 2018 · 03:07 UTC
Good game! The music is catchy and the puzzles are good.
hierarch
13. Aug 2018 · 12:31 UTC
On windows I get a can't launch because of a missing love.dll SDL2.dll lua51.dll
Are there libraries that you forgot to ship with the game or do I have to install something? Game looks cool, I hope there's some way to play it on windows.
🎤 sewerbird
13. Aug 2018 · 13:21 UTC
@hierarch Apologies! I'm on mac so wasn't able to test the windows executable. Try my just-made web version of 2954: http://sewerbird.github.io/scripts/LudumDare42/index.html
hierarch
13. Aug 2018 · 13:32 UTC
Awesome that worked, cool game! The levels are well designed in that they properly introduce you to different limitations of the robot. The music is a bit too beepy in my opinion. Overall good use of theme.
randdir
13. Aug 2018 · 14:58 UTC
First of all i'm a big fan of typographics used (like weapout psx). Your game remind me old days of robotic stuff. It's kinda cool in puzzle game with those graphics (should a lil improove to get it i guess more atractive in my opinion). But really a good puzzle game. Keep it up pal !
bradleypollard
16. Aug 2018 · 15:41 UTC
I love the aesthetic of the game, and the concept is great, interesting twist on your usual block pushing kind of puzzle game that is instead more about carefully moving around the disks to plan out your route.

I was about to leave a comment saying you can't beat level 2 until I had a eureka moment and realised the error of my ways. Always good when a puzzle game gives you that feeling.
MZA
16. Aug 2018 · 15:53 UTC
I like your idea of a puzzle game and your take on the theme. I did run into a bug where I couldn't eject a disk. I was playing the html version.
thunderawesome
16. Aug 2018 · 17:26 UTC
I feel like I got a tiny bit smarter after playing this, lol.

Here's my playthrough: https://youtu.be/kNqCLqRqZnU
🎤 sewerbird
17. Aug 2018 · 01:54 UTC
@mza Were you on an empty tile? The "Advanced Knowledge Unit" mentions that you can only drop diskettes on empty tiles in the second level. If you were on an open square, let me know: it seems to be working on my end
Coal Creek Game Devs
18. Aug 2018 · 02:57 UTC
Got stuck on 2nd level in Html version. Everything else seems good. Nice game.
Eric Kulbiej
02. Sep 2018 · 00:23 UTC
Your game is very nice to play. The general impact is positive.
As a professional game dev I would suggest... just kidding haha
Nonetheless, if you want to work on this project more I suggest making a difficulty incresing algorithm.
Graphics - very nice. Controls are also working very well.
Maybe you could also take a glimpse at my game? I already enlarged it into a wholesome Android game :)
wisstopher
03. Sep 2018 · 19:49 UTC
An interesting game, I did get stuck but enjoyed myself until that point. Took me a while to understand what was going on, but then I was on my way. Good entry
candlesan
03. Sep 2018 · 23:44 UTC
Got to the second level and really feel like there was no solution. Tried various paths but there's not really that many decision branches.
geekdrums
04. Sep 2018 · 06:25 UTC
I beat the game! Well designed puzzle.
blubberquark
04. Sep 2018 · 08:03 UTC
Your game is impossible to play for on my screen because of the aspect ratio. I can't click the buttons.
CBdeVilla
04. Sep 2018 · 08:29 UTC
This is an enjoyable little puzzle game with an interesting implementation of the theme. The simple matter of having a "move backwards" instruction opens up some interesting solutions to some of the levels. I would love to see how much farther you can take this game design with more levels.

A critique I have for the graphics would be that the icons for the instructions are not immediately obvious. Until I played around for a bit, I thought the up arrow might have been "move upwards" rather than "move forwards in the direction you're facing". Also, the way the view centers on the player prevents you from seeing the entire room all at once in larger levels such as the final one. This hinders the player's ability to plan ahead, which is not really ideal for a puzzle game. Especially since here, once you start moving at all, you should already have a plan in mind.

Also, this is more of a technical issue than a game design one, but I played on the hosted version since I'm on Windows, and the game doesn't fit vertically on my screen even when I make my browser fullscreen. (For context, my screen resolution is 1366x768.) The game is still fully playable, but it's not ideal.

Overall, I like the mechanics used in this game, and with some more polish, I think it has real potential.