Cowboy and Robot by techsec

[raw]
made by techsec for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

* Looks like this lovable robot crashed from the sky into your village. Guide this little guy out through the slums and past the imperial soldiers who have come to kidnap it. But watch out, this robot likes to wander if it gets bored and the guards are everywhere… *

Cowboy and Robot:

Screenshot (8).png

* Cowboy and Robot * is at heart a stealth game where you must outwit imperial soldiers while your cute (but annoying) robot constantly wanders off and does its own thing.

Controls:

WASD to move, direction arrows to look around

Press space to whistle and call the robot to you

How to Play:

The goal of the game is to navigate your little robot to one of the exits around town all while avoiding the imperial soldiers. The robot will wander on its own so to help it stay on track you can whistle, but be warn you will also alert guards! As well, you can peek in order to see whats up ahead so your little robot friend doesn't get caught

Special Thanks To:

-Isabela Arriojas Ocampo: For the amazing cover / win screen art

-Jaden Nixon: For lending your very masculine voice for the imperial soldiers

Hope you can keep it alive!

Ratings

Overall 2509th 2.457⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 2496th 2.217⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 2245th 2.674⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1893th 3.304⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 2153th 2.674⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 1253th 3⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1697th 2.4⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 2194th 2.682⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 18🗳️ 24🗨️

Feedback

Willian Oliva
21. Apr 2020 · 04:39 UTC
The game has no tutorial, or anything explaning what I'm supposed to do.
I walked around, nothing happens, a the game crashed. :/
doodlebrisk
21. Apr 2020 · 04:53 UTC
It looks like a cool concept, but nothing happens when I click "play game."
🎤 techsec
21. Apr 2020 · 04:57 UTC
@willian-oliva the controls are in the description
🎤 techsec
21. Apr 2020 · 04:57 UTC
@doodlebrisk I made a note about it turns out webgl doesn't play nice with our map it will take 10 seconds to load up the game.
lectvs
21. Apr 2020 · 05:06 UTC
Interesting concept. I liked some of the graphics effects, like the cape flowing behind the player. Somehow I glitched the robot into one of the boxes, and thought I was unstoppable until the game ran out of memory:

![oom.png](///raw/4cc/2/z/3114b.png)
YYZ
21. Apr 2020 · 06:46 UTC
The game needs in-game instructions. I wasn't sure what spacebar was doing or what I was supposed to do. I understand that you write the instructions on your description page, but not everybody will read your page before launching the game and you can't assume all visitors will do that. Displaying some in-game tooltips would have gone a long way to alleviate my confusing starting experience, especially when first impressions of your game are crucial to the audience.

The map design isn't too interesting. I get the feeling that the map should be smaller OR my player needs to walk faster. I spent more time walking and finding things which isn't very exciting.

The game also needs to provide me with objectives or some points of interest on the map, or some kind of feedback to let me know I'm going the right way. Otherwise players will easily feel lost and unsure what to do.

I liked the attention to detail in the player sprite. The cape fluttering is a nice touch. The pink robot contrasts very nicely against the dull, brown background, and it's bright colours helped me establish that he's a friend not foe, which is subtle but much appreciated.

Overall, I can imagine if the same effort on the characters went to the map, UX and gameplay, this would make for a very lovely game. Nonetheless, good job and all the best! :)
Tony_Artz
23. Apr 2020 · 16:43 UTC
Great game and great art. Love the concept. However it was easy to get lost and sometimes left me wondering whether I was going in the right direction or not. Still, its really nice.
PythooonUser
23. Apr 2020 · 16:47 UTC
Interesting idea. Reminded me of the Firefly series. The peeking mechanic is quite fun.
Sheepolution
23. Apr 2020 · 22:25 UTC
I like the idea but the area is way too big. I'm walking straight for a whole minute until I finally reach a corner. In the end I encountered a soldier and died instantly. Didn't feel like walking the whole route all over again. So my suggestion would be to make the area smaller, and perhaps add more soldiers, because it took me a while before I encountered one.
Giordas
23. Apr 2020 · 22:27 UTC
I actually liked this game. Sure, it can be improved on with more content here and there, but i liked it overall. Nice little game to play when you are bored.
HuddyBuddyGreatness
27. Apr 2020 · 15:30 UTC
Right off the bat my robot got stuck on top of a building. Other than that little mishap, the game concept was pretty cool! Some more SFX would have been nice, but I love the dialog. Menu could have looked nicer though, even just changing up the font, which takes like less than a minute, makes a huge difference.
aeveis
30. Apr 2020 · 05:13 UTC
I was able to beat it! I died a couple times, and then my robot got stuck inside a building. So I wandered around trying to find the exit. I think the map is a bit too big and I also think it loops(?) which makes it really hard to figure out where I'm going. Eventually though I did find the exit, but nothing happened since the robot wasn't with me. So I went to find the robot, and it came back somehow! Then I was able to escape with it while being chased by the guards.

![CowboyAndRobot1.png](///raw/2e2/1/z/3395b.png)
I think win screen got a bit buggy

Overall, I couldn't do much stealth as the robot would move around enough that I would end up getting chased or the guards would hear me.

Keep up the good work!
daria-toni
02. May 2020 · 16:46 UTC
It seems to me that this game has potential, but I would add a few things. For example, a mini map or the ability to hear enemies from afar. It's very difficult to understand where you need to go and how close the enemy is to you. I like music and simple graphics. Is the little pink guy a robot? He is very cute :)
Omiya Games
07. May 2020 · 03:58 UTC
Oof, I'm the worst player for this. I have zero patience for stealth games, and this game in particular really rubbed me in the wrong way for that reason. The map is definitely too large for this game, and it's exceedingly easy to push the robot into a building, thereby making it impossible to progress any further. I want to appreciate the look functionality, but because it prevents your character from moving, I didn't find it as useful as I would have liked. The fact that the imperial soldiers move means merely looking around while standing still is actually quite dangerous, so I would have appreciated being able to move and look ahead at the same time. Besides, the camera moves far enough that you might be unsure the robot wandered off elsewhere, which introduces its own risk.

Sorry, wish I enjoyed the genre more.
SpaceWizardJ
12. May 2020 · 07:08 UTC
I like the concept of trying to save an adorable little buddy. Nothing is more motivating in a game. I couldn't quite figure out how to "win" although I went around several times. I'd like you to go back and play your game and ask yourself a few questions:
-What is it I'm asking the player to figure out or master?
-Is my level design a compliment to the mechanics? Does the level give the player a place to use the mechanics to plan and execute?
-If the A.I. is hard to implement in a jam (trust me, it is!), what could an A.I. do that's challenging given the mechanics and won't call attention to itself in a negative way? Like what if the A.I. patrolled so the player had to observe, learn, plan and execute?
-Go play some of your favorite Stealth games, how do they do it?
Good job on completing your game! Thanks for letting me play!