LudumData

Robots Save the Day by udo

[raw]
made by udo for LD27 (JAM)
In this game, you take the role of two helpful robots trying to save a space ship in trouble. During their journey they must work together to solve a couple of problems, and they don't have much time!

The robots must solve each task within 10 seconds. As the player, you program their actions in advance and then watch as they perform their magic (or fail miserably).

It's a very short game with only 6 levels and two alternative endings. It's all very laid-back. You can play it through completely within a few minutes.

This has been tested on Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. I can't test it on IE, it most likely won't work there.
Web (HTML5) http://openfu.com/ld27/robots-day3/
Source http://openfu.com/ld27/robots.zip
Post Mortem http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/08/26/robots-save-the-day-is-finished/
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=6821

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 3.51 115
Audio(Jam) 2.96 248
Fun(Jam) 3.21 181
Graphics(Jam) 3.62 197
Humor(Jam) 2.65 234
Innovation(Jam) 3.50 93
Mood(Jam) 3.32 144
Theme(Jam) 3.52 100

Feedback

Wulo
27. Aug 2013 路 01:13 UTC
Pretty cool puzzle game, some were even pretty hard. Good Work.
Qaterknan
27. Aug 2013 路 01:24 UTC
Nice entry, definitely works with the theme. Also nice graphics.
mamoniem
27. Aug 2013 路 03:58 UTC
The gameplay is a bit new for me, i enjoyed playing your game for a while, until i fail to win :D every time i take a screenshot for the edits i entered and then refine it next time :D
Good luck, and make the music less loud ^_^
Reicher
27. Aug 2013 路 08:40 UTC
Best puzzle game I played this ludum dare yet!
馃帳 udo
27. Aug 2013 路 08:45 UTC
Wow, thanks Reicher! :-D
eckcz
27. Aug 2013 路 08:55 UTC
Cool consept. Write program inside a program inside a program. I love it. programception
Doctor Broccoli
27. Aug 2013 路 09:04 UTC
Really neat game. I do feel like some things could be explained better though (like that you can turn whilst moving or that you don't need to face something in order to activate/kill it.) Still really good overall though.
Reicher
27. Aug 2013 路 10:48 UTC
Ever played the board game "Robo Rally"? Reminds me a bit of that!
RHY3756547
27. Aug 2013 路 10:59 UTC
goodbye killbot :'( she was my best friend

Really smart gameplay, the graphics and audio were really well done too! My favourite puzzle game so far.
馃帳 udo
27. Aug 2013 路 11:08 UTC
Reicher: I haven't played it (yet), but people told me before this was kinda like that.

RHY3756547: ah, you had the sad ending... :-D
Thanks a lot, I'm glad you liked it!
kbm0
27. Aug 2013 路 14:39 UTC
The concept is innovative, though it is very hard to control. I would really like to see a next version of it.
truiton
27. Aug 2013 路 14:49 UTC
Great game mechanic! It will be better if we can stop de program and restart when we want.
torvik88
27. Aug 2013 路 14:51 UTC
Love the gameplay and the game itself. Nicely done.
wtfrara
27. Aug 2013 路 14:55 UTC
I failed some levels just because I didn't notice the robot defaulting back to the first bot instead of the killbot. Made it frustrating to have to start over and tedious to select the robot I was currently using each time. I think if it just defaulted to the last moved robot (per user, not order) it would be better. Otherwise, really fun!
Nizan
27. Aug 2013 路 15:01 UTC
Brilliant. A genuinely great game. :)
馃帳 udo
27. Aug 2013 路 15:02 UTC
wtfrara: you're absolutely correct, that was suboptimal. I noticed that too as I was testing, but forgot to change it.
kannas
27. Aug 2013 路 15:34 UTC
nice game. it's sad that i suck at puzzle games, and i stopped after the third level :P good work :D
Jason
27. Aug 2013 路 20:32 UTC
Fun game. The first game thats actually made me think!
tompudding
27. Aug 2013 路 21:28 UTC
This is the first game I've rated, and I hope they're all this good! Great concept (I love games with programming!), really fits the theme well trying to get the instructions done in time. If anything I'd say the last few levels were too easy, but extremely impressive overall.
馃帳 udo
27. Aug 2013 路 21:33 UTC
tompudding, thanks for your feedback. I know the levels are pretty easy, I wanted to make sure people could play it through in a short amount of time. More and more sophisticated levels would be interesting, I'd be down with that.
bitserum
28. Aug 2013 路 00:48 UTC
I love "programing" games! Nice one
savethejets1
28. Aug 2013 路 00:54 UTC
Cool stuff! innovative game play!
murilo
28. Aug 2013 路 00:54 UTC
Very good puzzle game. The best puzzle one so far on LD. The audio and graphics are kind of cool too!
manuq
28. Aug 2013 路 03:25 UTC
Excellent! Reminds me to some board games that have this setup-play mechanic. I was looking for something like this.
noddy2006
28. Aug 2013 路 08:52 UTC
Excellent game! I loved it. Puzzle 4 confused me though, as I didn't realize you didn't have to face the evidence to kill it.
klambrike
28. Aug 2013 路 08:56 UTC
Nizze puzzle concept.
馃帳 udo
28. Aug 2013 路 08:58 UTC
noddy2006: it's right there in the help text ;) but I understand why people are confused by the facing aspect. Originally I had "facing" enabled, but decided against it later during development.
Colapsydo
28. Aug 2013 路 10:19 UTC
This game is excellent.

I like how you create a unique atmosphere with sounds and graphics. And you succeeded in making alive your characters. Puzzles are nicely done.

Plus, this game reminds me of a toy I had when I was a kid (Compurobot), it was programmable in the exact same way.

I'm going back to see the second end.
SecondDimension
28. Aug 2013 路 16:53 UTC
Nice game, great concept and game mechanics.
mrspeaker
28. Aug 2013 路 18:53 UTC
Looks great, but takes along time to set up the commands the for first time - i think the first levels should be reeeeally short ;)
zkenshin
28. Aug 2013 路 19:39 UTC
Clever game. :)
keyboardmonkey
28. Aug 2013 路 19:41 UTC
I love this. Once you grasp how the timing of it works, the puzzle solutions explode in possibilities. The mood is fantastic and builds well around the robot characters. I feel it unnecessary to show the mission debriefing on each level restart, and the levels gets tough, quickly. But trial and error will prevail! Good work, robot overlord.
imef
28. Aug 2013 路 20:30 UTC
Cool game! It's a bit like mine but yours has much better graphics. ;)
Larzan
28. Aug 2013 路 20:50 UTC
Great idea, looks really nice, but it doesn't work for me on chrome. The commond forward x does not what it is supposed to, the robots only move one field, independently what number x is...
馃帳 udo
28. Aug 2013 路 20:54 UTC
Larzan: that's strange. I developed this on Chrome. What version/OS?
Larzan
28. Aug 2013 路 21:24 UTC
Absolutely awesom, very captivating puzzle the second one, couldn't let it go until i got it!
Love it, enjoyed playing a lot.
mrcdk
28. Aug 2013 路 21:29 UTC
Good game! I like the concept and execution!
nddrylliog
28. Aug 2013 路 21:40 UTC
Really nicely done. Brain was too toast to figure out the ending, but I might play it later. Looking forward to your next entry!
theholychicken
28. Aug 2013 路 22:07 UTC
Terrific concept!
I would have preferred a horizontal flow for your program selection menu, since it would take less eye and cursor distance than the vertical flow right now.
Great job!
MinionStudios
28. Aug 2013 路 22:17 UTC
Very difficult and fun
Crazi456
29. Aug 2013 路 08:00 UTC
Neat puzzle game. Enjoyed the artwork and sound effects. Nice work!
Will Edwards
29. Aug 2013 路 08:01 UTC
Excellent puzzle game :) Really enjoyed playing, thank you.
aschearer
29. Aug 2013 路 08:59 UTC
It's fun to program robots :-)
ratalaika
29. Aug 2013 路 16:09 UTC
good job
Erhune
29. Aug 2013 路 16:59 UTC
Great puzzler!
PaperBlurt
29. Aug 2013 路 17:33 UTC
Baffled and amused. Robots are teh skit!
VoidChronos
29. Aug 2013 路 23:06 UTC
An awesome entry. The graphics are cool and the theme is used really good! Thumbs Up!
Angrycrow
30. Aug 2013 路 02:42 UTC
Very nice art and theme! I still can't remember the name of the icehouse game where I first saw this mechanic.
klianc09
01. Sep 2013 路 21:21 UTC
That's what those pesky humans get for leaving cubot and killbot alone at the ship! (For what did they have killbot anyways?)
Nice programming game, had a cleaner interface than another one I recently played. Although some things should be explained beforehand (facing and turning while moving). And the "music" and sound effects nearly drove me insane (thank you for implementing a mute button :D).
zconnelly13
03. Sep 2013 路 15:25 UTC
I was really pleased with the idea behind this. It reminded me of this little toy truck I played with as a kid where you would enter a set of instructions and then hit go, I thought it was the coolest thing. The UI leaves a bit to be desired and keyboard shortcuts would have been clutch. It didn't work quite as expected either which was confusing. Also if the "play" button turned into a "reset" button after you hit play that'd be phenomenal. Great game! Would love to see a polished version :)
Gaspard_
04. Sep 2013 路 20:11 UTC
I know this gameplay from somewhere, but it wasn't at this level. You did a great job with the "turn while you advance"!
I wish I had the patience to play it again and see the other ending...
X-0r
06. Sep 2013 路 19:53 UTC
Neat game! Reminds me a bit of Light-Bot (and Light-Bot is awesome, too!)
Sebby
09. Sep 2013 路 05:53 UTC
This is really cool! I enjoyed all of the puzzles, especially the one when you first get to control both bots... it was fun to figure out how to get the program the most efficient :D
motty
11. Sep 2013 路 01:37 UTC
Superb. I particularly like the way the commands overlap one another - definitely a new wrinkle in the 'program a robot' genre, at least for me. Made it a lot harder and more fun that way.
Urfoex
15. Sep 2013 路 11:11 UTC
Solid entry.
TammiLion
15. Sep 2013 路 13:23 UTC
This is a cool game. Sub-theme Good Old Fashioned AI perhaps ;) One thing that bugged me is that you have to clear the program and can't really edit it in the following way: changing an operation to a forward operation only works for 1 not for x2, 3 or 4.