Black Box Bandit by BillToWin

[raw]
made by BillToWin for LD30 (COMPO)
"You are the Black Box Bandit. You travel through the Interwebs and destroy the black boxes of the Utech corporation's computer systems.

You do so, because Utech's firm grip on modern society is unsettling. You do so, because of Utech's global banning of muffins, your favorite desert, which forced you to the brink of civilized society to satify your muffin cravings.

I am Jack The Muffin Man, the world-renowned human-muffin hybrid and revolutionary. And, you, my friend, are the hammer that will strike at the heart of Utech and bring forth the Muffinpocalypse."

Tips and Tricks:
1) Avoid [red] security drones.
2) Destroy [blue] security drones.
3) Acquire the [yellow] pipe protection device.
4) Reach the pipe to travel to the next Black Box.
5) Move with the Arrow keys.

Ratings

Coolness 79% 2
Overall 3.11 654
Audio 3.18 290
Fun 3.15 456
Graphics 2.56 889
Humor 2.63 378
Innovation 2.81 817
Mood 2.87 657
Theme 2.29 1069

Feedback

Xenolupus
25. Aug 2014 · 02:24 UTC
Super duper fun!
micahcowan
25. Aug 2014 · 02:29 UTC
Fun! Had a hard time, probably because at first I thought you had to avoid blue AND red. D'oh!

Love the randomized sound effects.
kenrickrilee
25. Aug 2014 · 02:56 UTC
I really like the sound effects :D
gr33d
25. Aug 2014 · 03:06 UTC
a bit sluggish in later rounds, but really fun!
allenfreese
25. Aug 2014 · 03:10 UTC
Fun game. I would recommend showing the movement of the ai, even if very simple movement, so the player can better understand their movement... Otherwise it might give the impression that they are jumping around.
soyliquid
25. Aug 2014 · 03:15 UTC
Interesting puzzle game. I liked sounds, and feel it looks good.
siat
25. Aug 2014 · 03:39 UTC
Neat puzzle game. I wasn't sure if the red boxes were moving in a pattern or not, but it was fun!
Kate Kligman
25. Aug 2014 · 03:44 UTC
This is delightful! Love the retro look and feel. I wanted to move faster than the game seemed to allow, but it's a minor nit. The game is fun.
mrexcessive
25. Aug 2014 · 04:59 UTC
Hi. Love the mood and sounds. Nice one! Would have liked a bigger map to step around. Level generation and difficulty balancing a good idea.
Miziziziz
25. Aug 2014 · 05:15 UTC
Pretty tough, but enjoyable. Figured out the controls quickly and found it to be pretty fun.
miro662
25. Aug 2014 · 08:41 UTC
nice game, good idea
icedvariables
25. Aug 2014 · 08:49 UTC
Very fun game, though quite difficult - got cornered several times!
Kedume Bits
25. Aug 2014 · 09:24 UTC
I like the game. The concept is nice. The graphics reminds me the look of the games made with PuzzleScript. Nice sounds too.
n42k
25. Aug 2014 · 09:38 UTC
I quite enjoyed how a simple mechanic was able to make such a difficult game. I'm not sure yet if the red drones have AI but they seem to always jump at me if I jump close to them. The difficulty curve, despite the auto-balancing, seems a bit too steep though.
DarkEngineer
25. Aug 2014 · 09:49 UTC
Nice game!
FeYbraNt
25. Aug 2014 · 09:51 UTC
It's a bit tricky and hard to understand at beggining how IA answers, i think that's the esence of this game, try to find it, good job.
mutuware
25. Aug 2014 · 10:17 UTC
Like a turn-based PacMan
KevRevDev
25. Aug 2014 · 11:37 UTC
Had a bit of fun playing. I liked the visuals and sounds. But I had a hard time figuring out if the ai moved randomly or had some sort of pattern.
Vallar
25. Aug 2014 · 12:02 UTC
Very fun game and I liked the concept and the turn based movement. Was really nice. I liked also that the difference in types of "enemies".

Although some levels (think after 4 or 6) were really hard and I started dying a lot as the red boxes started literally to stalk me. That said, the reset to an easier level is a genius idea. I liked it.

Very well done.
Druid
25. Aug 2014 · 12:29 UTC
Lol, childhood restored! :D
Zayron
25. Aug 2014 · 12:45 UTC
Nice game I like this!
cudabear
25. Aug 2014 · 13:02 UTC
Quite a nifty little puzzle game. I felt it was balanced enough to be challenging but not too difficult up until about level 8. Then it became really hard to progress.
Josh H
25. Aug 2014 · 13:38 UTC
Cool little puzzle game. Brought back memories. I personally found the sound/music a little too much. An option to disable them would've been nice.
ittlebit
25. Aug 2014 · 14:34 UTC
Nice work, Very simple art, fun sound. Fun little puzzle game!
Fanatrick
25. Aug 2014 · 14:39 UTC
Cool entry overall.
vicious_br
25. Aug 2014 · 15:53 UTC
Great game.
dhargan
25. Aug 2014 · 16:27 UTC
great puzzle game! but I really don't understand the purpose of blue ones. we can destroy them, they can't destroy us, destroying them or not destroying them provides nothing. why these guys even exist? I feel sorry for them :P
Jamcount
25. Aug 2014 · 16:54 UTC
Nice game, i had a fun time.
43iscoding
25. Aug 2014 · 17:07 UTC
I loved the random sounds when enemies move :)
hypp
25. Aug 2014 · 17:24 UTC
Fun, but I found it quite hard!
Alexander
25. Aug 2014 · 18:20 UTC
Very cool, the sounds and feel of it are really good!
Jod
25. Aug 2014 · 19:45 UTC
Loved it! It really caputered the Commodor-64 vibe (or earlier?) for me. The sounds, especially with a full screen of nodes is like a retro-waterfall, I totally loved just going back and forth and listening to it.

The humour of hte backstory adds a lot. Love it! Quite difficult sometimes, old-school. I like it :).

Also, did you know that red nodes turn into blue nodes sometimes? Is that by design?
shimage
25. Aug 2014 · 19:58 UTC
I like this. The sound of clearing a stage is very addictive.
c023-dev
25. Aug 2014 · 20:27 UTC
Fun to play and watch the moves. Grafix are fair enough too (although using unity for that may be a bit of an overkill =) And I guess the theme is that the rooms are connected. Congratulations on getting it done in time!
Ariake81
25. Aug 2014 · 20:39 UTC
great playability and nice concept, good work!
esayitch
25. Aug 2014 · 20:53 UTC
Sweet little turn-based pac-man! Liked it :)
🎤 BillToWin
25. Aug 2014 · 21:53 UTC
thanks for the kind words and feedback everyone! It means a lot to me.

@allenfreese: That's a great idea. I tried to accomplish this by slowing down the time between each drone's turn but it didn't work as well as I had hoped. Arrows pointing in the direction the drone moved in and located in the square the drone originated from would be 1000x better.

@mrexcessive: I play tested a very little with a bigger map and I felt like it just took longer to finish. I felt the current 7x7 map captured the essence of the game. There is surely a more fun/optimal board size, it's something to look at.

@dhargan: see Jod's answer below.

@Jod: Thanks for checking my game! The different coloring of the enemies/drones was a last minute addition, I'm still unsure whether it was a good idea or not. Drones that are red are situated at an even Manhattan distance from the player, the blue ones at a odd distance. It's more of a status cue rather than an absolute fact because under certain circumstances a drone will not move during a turn (if all its adjacent squares are blocked when its turn comes) and as such the distance between it and the player will change by one, thus changing the distance's parity, and thus changes its color.
cacciatc
25. Aug 2014 · 23:28 UTC
Demuffinated! Solid entry.
John Drury
25. Aug 2014 · 23:57 UTC
Classic puzzle game! the retro sounds and victory transition was great and really put weight to the game!
Pavel
26. Aug 2014 · 09:13 UTC
Like the idea. Nice game.
Mase
26. Aug 2014 · 15:03 UTC
I dig the title screen. The sounds are also very satisfying.

Different level designs (beyond just changing the enemy positions) might be nice.
jshaffer94247
27. Aug 2014 · 04:57 UTC
Cute but randomness got in the way of my cleverness, and there were a number of times where the red dudes and I hit a Nash equilibrium chasing each other around a block. I need to be able to do something about that. Hmmm.
DragonXVI
27. Aug 2014 · 19:00 UTC
Interesting, fairly straightforward. Wasn't fully sure how the drones were moving making difficulty a bit all over the place, but like the idea of the alternating difficulty depending on how you do!
sP0CkEr2
28. Aug 2014 · 01:21 UTC
That was quite a good game. Very simple graphics, which I like, and great game mechanics. Nice job.
Jupiter_Hadley
01. Sep 2014 · 00:29 UTC
Cool little puzzle I included it in part 13 of my Ludum Dare 30 Compilation video series, if you’d like to check it out :) http://youtu.be/RYkx3DRuabw
Nuclear Napalm
01. Sep 2014 · 06:00 UTC
Neat puzzle game! The first level is the most difficult :)