Fission Friends by beardywombat

made by beardywombat for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

Two nuclear-powered pals. One unstable reactor. Zero time to waste!

Help a pair of toy robots help themselves … out of the scrap heap! Try to keep your fission rate within safe limits as you navigate your way out of the toy factory’s reject pile. Will our heroes balance their instability for long enough to save the day?

Summary

Top-down action-puzzle game. Move the reflector robot to manage the reactor robot's fission rate (too low = shutdown, too high = meltdown), while navigating both robots safely through the environment. The reactor robot produces heat and power, which must also be managed; use power to move and shoot enemies, manage heat with a finite coolant resource.

TIP: to survive you must move the reflector robot away from you using the 'i' key. At the maximum distance your yellow fission bar with decrease and prevent melt-down.

Instructions

``` Move w,a,s,d Flip Facing q,r (left|right) Fire space

Move buddy i,k (away|closer) Rotate buddy j,l (counter clockwise|clockwise)

Skip Dialog space Menu/Help esc

```

"REAC: Odds of survival.. 0.01%"
"FLEC: "Never tell me the odds!"
"REAC: Flec odds-disclosure preference updated."
"FLEC: No, Reac, it was a quote. From Star Wars."
"REAC: Quote database updated."

Credits

Code by beardywombat and rixar
Art by Khadia and BlushingCrow
Writing by BlushingCrow
Music by Tom Hackl, reproduced with permission.

Link	https://www.dropbox.com/sh/10dbduft5t7kzze/AABYtVjhPRAISKDg2A-OuBW6a?dl=0
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/fission-friends-1

Ratings

Overall	1271^th	3.074⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Fun	1380^th	2.721⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	647^th	3.412⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Theme	975^th	3.288⭐	35🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	667^th	3.706⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Humor	687^th	3.017⭐	31🧑‍⚖️
Mood	1092^th	3.076⭐	35🧑‍⚖️
Given		25🗳️	44🗨️

Feedback

Dedjo0

06. Oct 2021 · 14:21 UTC

I'd like to play your game but I don't understand the controls :/
Anyway, graphics look good !

TK07

06. Oct 2021 · 15:33 UTC

I think i made it almost to the end but the controls are way too confusing. Awesome graphics and dialogues thou. The concept is really nice. For anyone wondering about controls theres a help menu I found.

![Snímek obrazovky 2021-10-06 173222.png](///raw/282/f1/z/477c9.png)

Frozedon

06. Oct 2021 · 17:36 UTC

Couldn't get past the first level unfortunately because of the wonky controls. It feels like IJKL should have just coordinated to direct movements for the second robot instead of the weird rotation.

🎤 beardywombat

06. Oct 2021 · 22:49 UTC

Thanks for the feedback. The control system did not come out great :) I was wiped out after submission so the page did not get a lot of love.

Ill update the page with some actual instructions

josher

07. Oct 2021 · 11:41 UTC

The graphics are great!
I didn't make it that far because I was confused about managing the bars to avoid meltdown, and the controls of both the robots, but the graphics are really clean, the theme works and the puzzle aspect seems cool, so well done.

Bobi505

07. Oct 2021 · 14:16 UTC

Good Game)

Quoc

09. Oct 2021 · 08:05 UTC

Cool game. I like the graphics and it was funny to play. Only the controls was a bit hard.

BGDC

09. Oct 2021 · 10:55 UTC

Can't get past level 1 because of confusing controls. also are the rotate buttons meant to be q and e? i pressed r and nothing happened while pressing e flips the red robot direction. Graphics looks neat though.

Joror

09. Oct 2021 · 11:04 UTC

Nice puzzle concept! The controls were a bit too hard to figure out under time pressure, leading to frustration. Perhaps a non-timed puzzle first to get people used to the controls would be nice?
Love the little intro chat, sets the stage well.

🎤 beardywombat

10. Oct 2021 · 01:41 UTC

Sorry about the difficult controls, really struggled to find a good way to control both robots. Ill add some more details to the page.

Zapturk

10. Oct 2021 · 02:20 UTC

I really like the artwork. The controls feel a bit wonky but overall good concept. Would like to see you where you guys could take this from here.

KeichiTS

10. Oct 2021 · 03:36 UTC

Very interesting mechanics. Thanks for the great entry!

Px-parallel

10. Oct 2021 · 03:38 UTC

Controls：I thought I was figuring it out, then I lost…
Graphics：This competition only has a short creative time【taking this into consideration】 I think the Graphics is great

OddSocks

13. Oct 2021 · 11:10 UTC

Nice game, controls were a little iffy, but overall a great LD entry :raised_hands:

chesiq

13. Oct 2021 · 13:23 UTC

Great game! Enjoyed playing it. Will give it another go after edits are enabled on LD!

wheybags

13. Oct 2021 · 19:01 UTC

I think the puzzle concept here was quite good, but the complexity ended up getting in the way. IMO, there are too many controls - move, rotate, shoot, push/pull buddy, rotate buddy. That's 5 things, and a lot of buttons, which end up making things a bit difficult. There are also a lot of bars - I would try to bring things down to just one. Like, maybe a single bar which goes up when your buddy is near and down when you move. If it goes over you melt, if it hits zero you can't move (also dead). The discrete bits of the game get in the way of puzzling also, maybe it would work better if the bars where in discrete chunks that only changed when you made a move (so, turn-based, basically).
Still though, I really like the idea, and I think if it were boiled down just a bit it could be really great.

Adnonymous5

14. Oct 2021 · 02:09 UTC

Really cool game! I love the premise and the art. Controls are a bit difficult, but the presentation is awesome

SleepyStudios

14. Oct 2021 · 11:16 UTC

I'd pretty much echo some of the other comments here - you've got a really interesting puzzle game here but it's hard to mentally map the action you want to the control you need to press to do that action. The graphics are really nice too and there's definitely a lot of good design space for future levels. Nice work!

pedrocoden

15. Oct 2021 · 18:35 UTC

good game, but the controls are so confusing :/

LDJam user 257438

16. Oct 2021 · 06:19 UTC

Do you think that the players will understand clearly the tutorial on first level?????
Definitely not!!!! Don't worry it is a process of learning,

You might think it is easy for you because you played the game more than 10 times atleast!!
You shouldn't except that the players will understand the game with ease

But I really love the art style of the game!!!!!

funemaker

16. Oct 2021 · 20:26 UTC

Overall, I think this game is pretty cool plus the graphics were very nice. The only thing that I didn't really understand were the controls.

coolestdoggie

19. Oct 2021 · 10:36 UTC

I really love your art! I think this game is better for theme "Joined together", not "Unstable". Thank you for the experience!

LDJam user 240752

20. Oct 2021 · 13:34 UTC

Your game is excellent, you gave me unforgettable emotions!

LDJam user 239493

21. Oct 2021 · 07:11 UTC

Great art and dialogue. Unfortunately I didn't get very far because of the controls and difficulty.