> deploy helper bot by Chartle
A ship in the nothingness of space, stranded. Its automated AI has started sending out robots to help recover the ship, but unfortunately those robots have a fault: each of them only lasts for about 10 seconds. Make the most of your time and find your way around the ship, flipping levers and opening pathways until you reach the ships console.
If the game embedded on ldjam.com doesn't work, try the itch.io link or download the game if you're on Windows.
Controls:
Movement: WASD/Controller left joystick
Interact: Spacebar or bottom face button on joystick
Pause: Escape or Start button
Controller in menus doesn't work unfortunately.
Credits:
Art: @saskle
Audio: @pat-cleaver
Programming & Level and Game Design: @chartle
Programming: @pepn
Ratings
| Given | 36🗳️ | 50🗨️ |
Well done!
I had a ton of fun! There were really only a few minor issues I had
- Arrow key movement is off axis with the map, so it's tricky to stay on the speed pads.
- Sometimes, pressing a switch makes something happen off screen so you have to spend a few turns hunting for the right place to go
- I wish there was an instant reset button for when you know you've already messed up (the tighter timed sections)
The graphics are all super nice and coherent, the style is simple but works really well and feels good. Mechanically the game has a nice bit of progression; the speed upgrade in the end is tons of fun!
I'd love to see more if this if you ever make a longer version. Nice work!
This is an awesome game, one of my favorites that I've played so far! (Though I have a soft spot for cute robots)
I particularly loved the liberating feeling that came with picking up that speed chip.
The puzzles were interesting, I think they perhaps could've been more complex, but I think the simplicity works better with the backtracking mechanic.
Excellent work!
What a great take on the theme. I've never played a puzzle game that had this kind of constraint before.
I thought the isometric perspective was great for the art, maybe not quite as suitable for the gameplay which was really intense at times, and diagonal hitboxes can be a little bit jarring. That said, I don't think it really detracted from the experience, which was overall very positive. Music was really nice too. Not a lot more to say about this one other than I enjoyed it and would have gladly played more.
Thanks for sharing!
The art was nice.
Felt like it needed some music and some SFX, some parts do have SFX like the intro scene.
The controls were ok, but could use some polish, it felt weird sometimes and personally i got stuck a lot in corners.
Overall a nice entry, pretty fun and interesting.
just note, i dont always know what the levers did, and I haven't seen the speed upgrade during a bit of time.
but the game is still great
system rebooted

Really like the music, graphics and animations!
The little box robot looks cute.
5/5
a quality of life improvement would be a kill switch for the current robot, like another person said. the controls felt a little hard to control sometimes. i swear i somehow ended up in a bad state with the doors in the top right, and had to restart the game, but i finished it the 2nd time around. i would play an extended version of the game with more to explore, if there were clues about what door was being affected.
As already stated above, I wish there was some kind of display on what levers did. Perhaps something in the line of Portal's cable-esque indicators between levers and doors?
On another note, I wish Bot's hitbox was more circular, so it'd get stuck less on tight entrances.
The sound design works well, and the art looks pretty.
Overall, I liked the experience, and would play a longer version, if you were considering expanding it in the future.
Also the music is awesome! I sounds great, and the dynamic evolution through the game gives a great sense of progression.
The art is so good. I love 2D handdrawn art that emulates a 3D look, and this game has a fabulous execution of that. The color palette chosen is beautiful and very spacey/atmospheric.
The music is PHENOMENAL. I love how it builds up throughout the game. The music does an incredible job of setting the mood and it honestly makes the game 2x more fun and immersive. Please release the music as a standalone track!
The sound effects are also great and feel very cohesive. Also, you added sounds to your UI buttons!! That's an AWESOME level of polish that I don't think I've ever seen in a LD game before!
The one thing I didn't love about this game was the controls. The way the level is laid out, a lot of diagonal movement is required. When playing with a keyboard, this requires pressing two keys simultaneously; I found this to be an unfun level of cognitive overhead to keep track of, as compared to most games in this genre where the primary directions of movement are up/down/left/right. Maybe it works better when playing with a gamepad? I wonder if the control scheme would work better if the directions the keys correspond to were rotated 45 degrees, as if the keyboard was on an angle, so you only have to press one button to move in a diagonal direction.
Another detail I'd like to mention is that I love how your corpses stay in the level persistently. It was very cool and intense to watch them build up throughout the game.
This is one of my favorite games that I've played all LD51. Thank you for making it :)