Robo Rush Hour by michaelaranda

[raw]
made by michaelaranda for Ludum Dare 54 (JAM)

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It's rush hour, and thousands of robots need to get to work! Help them cram into the limited space available on the subway trains!

There are two version of the game available below: - The Jam Version is what we completed during the game jam. If you're rating our game, rate this one! - The Post-Jam Version is what we've worked on since the jam ended, adding things we didn't get to before the deadline. This version is both more fun and easier to play!

Controls

  • Move robot up/down: [W]/[S] or [arrow key up]/[arrow key down]
  • Rotate robot counterclockwise/clockwise: [Q]/[E] or [,]/[.] or [left-click]/[right-click]
  • Launch robot left/right: [A]/[D] or [arrow key left]/[arrow key right]
  • Pause: [P] or [ESC]

Credits

  • Oliver Wright: Design, Programming
  • Amanda Valent: Voice Acting
  • Steve McStevenson: Design, Programming
  • Juliestrator: Design, 3D Modeling
  • Michael Aranda: Design, Music, Audio, Programming

Screenshots

screenshot_b.jpg

screenshot_a.jpg

We hope you enjoy playing our game =3

Ratings

Overall 120th 4.079⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Fun 143th 3.974⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 307th 3.671⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Theme 31th 4.553⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 54th 4.513⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Audio 61th 4.135⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Humor 393th 3.258⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Mood 241th 3.917⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Given 66🗳️ 52🗨️

Feedback

checkyourgages
03. Oct 2023 · 00:28 UTC
A fresh take on the tetris model! I really like the colors and sounds going on here, and it's very funny to think about these robots getting SOOO tight into this space. I only wish the placement indicators were a little more clear, it's tough to tell if I'm going to collide with a block that's already there when it's further back in the train car.
Tesseract
03. Oct 2023 · 01:21 UTC
A very fun and addictive game - it felt like my skill was improving the more I played. The clock could be made more obvious to new players, it took me a while to realize it was more than decorative, and I wouldn't have minded it flashing or something to remind me when the time was low - even with a bit of practice, trains quite often left with some easy-fill spaces. The 3D graphics sometimes made it hard to quickly tell exactly which spaces were filled and how things were aligned, which caused some frustrating mistakes.
walaber
03. Oct 2023 · 04:52 UTC
really nice job! although a simple premise, it is very well put together, especially the art and sounds, but also the movement and input is really solid and responsive as well. good job!
tomrijnbeek
03. Oct 2023 · 15:06 UTC
A simple idea and elegant reinvention of Tetris. I am not sure if the timer was necessary, since it was hard enough to puzzle out how to fill the train without feeling the time pressure. Especially if you had made the required fill percentage higher over time, that would probably have been difficult enough.
Still, loved the graphics and the music. The game felt like a solid whole and I wouldn't have guessed it were a game made in 72 hours by the looks of it!
Morris
03. Oct 2023 · 15:14 UTC
Very cool take on Tetris. Very well polished, game feels nice and juicy.
I also really enjoyed how you captured the mood of the train station. It was busy, but also a little chill because of the music.

Well done!
0020Dandy
03. Oct 2023 · 15:18 UTC
The robot sounds are so cute! Really enjoyed the game.
Esther128
03. Oct 2023 · 17:58 UTC
The Game is awesome! I like the Robo noices. I wish there was like a slower mode, couse i really wanna do it perfect like tetris 0_0 but not enough time for tiiis
DonutShoes
03. Oct 2023 · 19:03 UTC
Had to come try out another traincar-packing game after one of y'all tried ours! Really cool, the robot models are great and easy to recognize once you get the hang of it. Love the music, the industrial percussion really fits the vibe. And the robot chatter is super charming, especially the speak'n'spell style voice synthesis. Great jam entry!
a327ex
03. Oct 2023 · 19:25 UTC
It was very hard for me to get the hang of it first because it was hard to see where the shapes would land exactly, but once I got used to it it was fine from there. Overall a solid entry with nice graphics, sounds, mood, no bugs, and so on. Everything just came together really nicely. Final score: 3032. Good job!
Diralf
04. Oct 2023 · 09:32 UTC
A very beautiful interpretation of Tetris! I like the visual style of the robots and their design. It took me a moment to realize that I shouldn't occupy the blue area too early and the text with hint was disappearing very quickly. But once I figured it out, things went great. It was enjoyable to play!
Coro_yy
04. Oct 2023 · 19:20 UTC
60% of 60% - failed. You owe me a train cart, Julie :[ Nice game tho. I love the little beep boop background noises and it's a fresh take on Tetris. The models are really cute and high quality. You could really feel that there were a lot of people involved and everyone had their specific role. Well done.
Danjoricey
04. Oct 2023 · 20:41 UTC
A charming game with great assets and nice little robot noises. A perfect fit to the theme and polished looking result!
Lexyvil
04. Oct 2023 · 21:33 UTC
Fun game! Never thought I would play sideways Tetris, which really had me think and re-relearn how to play well. If anything I'm glad it wasn't timed as far as I noticed (despite the ticking hanging clock). I Managed to obtain a score of 3367.
LDJam user 251170
04. Oct 2023 · 21:56 UTC
![Robo Rush Hour.PNG](///raw/225/d3/z/5faad.png)

Very enjoyable tetris-like game with a twist (in both gameplay AND narrative)!

The graphics are really neat and clean, from the tetrominos to the UI (very neat!). Game was very self-explanatory which is always nice (I'm personally not a fan of long tutorials!). The tiny screenshake when "dropping" a block was magical, too.

Music was nice, soothing, and very well-made, but during my first round it really got me in this "chill/soothing/relaxed" mood so I was just casually taking my team, looking at positioning, just to realise there was actually a rather tight timer haha. Sound effects were totally on point, and together with all the animations / effects made the game feel very alive.

One thing I did struggle with was seeing the exact blocks and where I'd have space to place new ones, but I have no suggestions on how this could have been altered besides a top-down view; which would've been out of place and not worked with the design you were going for.

Very nicely done, will try and improve my score over time!!

Already got it improved! can do better though!!

![Robo Rush Hour 2.PNG](///raw/225/d3/z/5fac1.png)

![Robo Rush Hour 3.PNG](///raw/225/d3/z/5facf.png)
JavaSaurus
04. Oct 2023 · 21:56 UTC
Great entry! At first it was pretty rough to figure out where the blocks were going, but once my tiny bird-brain wrapped around it, I really enjoyed it. Everything comes together nicely :) Thank you for making this !
zealous-coder
05. Oct 2023 · 00:50 UTC
Nice job! First several tries were rough going, the timer through me off as I was not expecting it. I could imagine a ringing bell right on top of it when time is up. Not sure why I had two different scores when reaching the game over looks like some last few points were not counted. Really good job and I liked how they all crowded around on the platform waiting to get into the car.
Onygox
05. Oct 2023 · 07:40 UTC
quality game. got a score of 3964.
LDJam user 251170
05. Oct 2023 · 16:14 UTC
Hello! I'd like to report a bug! (Sadly no video). I was grinding to improve my high score, but then train 8 came in. Looks like one of the tetris block fell off the platform and was on the tracks, triggering the "Robot in the middle zone" for each train, having them leave right away (taking a life from me) :D
Wendel Scardua
07. Oct 2023 · 13:41 UTC
![robo-rush-hour.png](///raw/bdb/1/z/5ff38.png)

Nice spin (*wink wink*) on the tetris genre :) I had some trouble with the perspective and with noticing that I shouldn't place robots in the middle area, but the worst part was on me: I kept wanting to move the robot sideways without hard dropping them 😅 (now I know what people felt when accidentally hard dropping blocks on *my* game)

And even though I ended up missing those at first, I liked how some game features were... how can I say... "embedded" into the world, like the timer being the station clock, the "next piece" being just robots waiting for their turn to enter the car.
crelish
08. Oct 2023 · 01:18 UTC
really enjoyed the overall atmosphere, from the designs of the little robotic pals, to their whimsical little sound effects, as well as the ambient soundtrack. i truly felt immersed trying to get these guys where they needed to go in time!! and felt quite stressed doing so which i think is a testament to feeling invested in this game

i did feel the camera perspective could've been a bit closer to top-down to ease the flow of the game a bit but besides that i enjoyed it :>

p.s. thanks for the twitch raid at the end of the jam juliestrator!
Mehul
08. Oct 2023 · 05:34 UTC
Cool idea, I think the camera could be slightly tilted to a more top down view as I had a bit of trouble with reading the exact shape of certain robots.

Also very cute designs
burchyn
08. Oct 2023 · 15:22 UTC
I love tetris and I loved this game too. It was a nice change to play it sideways. Music and sfx were really fitting to the game.

A few things could be tweaked/changed (maybe you already did in your post-jam but here it is anyway). I had trouble understanding corresponding drop lines in 3D. Couldn't fullscreen so it was really tiny to see exact spots even with the blue line indicator. I always forgot about the one pixel space at the back of the train and got frustrated a bit.

Imo, time is unnecessary. We have 10 trains and doing our best to squish robots and reach high score can be enough for the difficulty of the game.

Other than that I had fun playing. I might play more but here is how my first run went. Well done!

![Screenshot 2023-10-08 170802.png](///raw/23f/8/z/6005f.png)
AlexTengu
08. Oct 2023 · 21:45 UTC
Cool approach to tetris, awesome graphics and sound. I'd like to see more thrilling lore or story behind the scene :D
JustMars
18. Oct 2023 · 12:50 UTC
Amazing entry! Took a second to realise that the middle lane had to be kept clear, but once that clicked the game was very enjoyable! The in-game visuals and audio blend together really well, the concept was inline with the theme and the core gameplay was really fun.

Visibility of the back rows was a bit hard to decipher with the tilted camera angle. It could be remedied by having the camera fully top down or by some visual clues like outlines or markings on the ground showing the tiles that are clear with different style etc. UI was a bit rough in contrast to the 3D visuals, but that's understandable for a game jam. + It seems that you have already fixed some of these in the post-jam version.

More gameplay variety in terms of different shapes and sizes for the carriages and adjustments to the overall gameplay loop could go a long way to make this concept into a full fledged game, but for a jam game what you have is outstanding, fantastic job!
WeeFairyFabi
19. Oct 2023 · 10:05 UTC
This is a super cute take on tetris, the art is absolutely adorable I love the little Robot bois! I totally sucked in comparison to some of the amazing scores I see on here so I won't share my loss but I had loads of fun!
ShinanXu
19. Oct 2023 · 16:27 UTC
A highly polished variant of the classic Tetris game that fits the theme perfectly. I love your visual expression. Welcome to play our game.