The Core by Syldarion

[raw]
made by Syldarion for LD35 (COMPO)
Made With:
Unity w/ C#
Paint.NET
BFXR

[IMPORTANT: If you provide any feedback that isn't related to bug, I will definitely still take note of it. I'm going to be building a Post-LD version to post on this page (please don't vote on that one though)]

[ALSO IMPORTANT: Sometimes Chrome won't like handling the memory of this game. If you can't run it because of an error that says something along the lines of "Invalid Typed Array Length", just use the Windows build on the Itch.IO page]

[SO MANY IMPORTANT EDITS: After watching some people play, it seems like not everyone knows you can scroll on the workshop build menu. Yes, there are more than 5 attachments to build in there, so sorry for not making that obvious]

[I see a lot of comments about it being a bit too hard. If you want to progress further, and actually be able to get parts and build stuff, I left key press activation in the game for the powerups; Shift-T for attack, Shift-Y for defense, Shift-U for utility. Hopefully that helps you guys get further, I did make the enemies a bit too good.]

CHANGELOG
---------
v0.1
- Initial LD submission
v0.1.1
- Fixed bug where enemies and workshops from previous level weren't being cleaned up
v0.1.2
- Fixed bug where you could build attachments that didn't actually exist
- Fixed bug where you couldn't go to level 4 because the game thought there weren't any free platforms available
v0.1.3 (CURRENT)
- Reduced the cost of attachments so people can actually get them in a reasonable amount of time
- WebGL fullscreen will capture the escape key instead of my game, so I added X's to the UI so you can close them when playing fullscreen

As Ludum Dare 35 approached, developers were presented with the final 20 themes. One among them spoke to me: Companion. Despite the fact that it was not the theme that was selected, I could not get it out of my head, and so I went against the theme, sacrificing points in the hopes of having more fun developing for the last 48 hours.

And so The Core was born. The vision I had for The Core was an isometric dungeon crawler, in which you would fight against hordes of enemies, collecting parts to improve your robot companion that bestows many benefits upon you. The goal was to protect The Core, the birthplace of all robots.

Given the 48 hours I had, I was not able to really implement the story side of the game, but I plan to in the future. Also, very obviously, these screenshots do not show an isometric game. As another time-saving measure, this initial build is using a procedural platformer generator that I made in the first hour.

The features currently available in the game are as follows:

ATTACHMENTS

Attachments are how you modify the composition of your robot companion. Attachments can be equipped from the attachment manager by dragging them from the inventory to an available slot. Attachments can also be unequipped by dragging them off of the slot and back into the player's inventory. The following attachments are available in the game:

Gun, Sword, AOE Damage, Heal, Shield, Thorns, Jump Jet, Booster, Gatherer

The effects of these attachments can be seen from the attachment manager menu in-game.

WORKSHOP

Workshops can be found in the game on random platforms. When at a workshop, you can press the interact key to open the workshop. In the workshop, you can select an attachment from the left side, and use the Build button to create a new one, if you have the parts needed. You can also select one of your own attachments from the right side, and either disassemble it, granting the player a permanent stat boost, or level it up, granting your robot bonuses while the attachment is equipped. Leveling up an attachment costs the same as creating a new one.

PARTS

All enemies drop parts. Parts are used to build and level up attachments. Keep your eyes open for the green part drops as your kill your enemies.

POWERUPS

If you equip your robot companion with three attachments of the same type, you will activate a temporary powerup based on the class. Once the powerup has finished, the attachments on your robot will be destroyed.

Attack Powerup - Increased fire rate and damge

Defense Powerup - Increased armor

Utility Powerup - Increased speed and jumping power

Ratings

Coolness 93% 2
Overall 2.96 673
Audio 2.07 596
Fun 2.82 675
Graphics 2.04 866
Humor 1.90 565
Innovation 2.59 767
Mood 2.44 723

Feedback

Daws
18. Apr 2016 · 02:25 UTC
Fun little game! Pretty difficult, and could have better graphics, but good ideas. Lots of depth in the customization
FerraWare
18. Apr 2016 · 02:44 UTC
A lot of content for a compo game!

On the downside, the controls seem a bit sluggish, but pretty good nonetheless
Flygamer101
18. Apr 2016 · 02:46 UTC
It was pretty fun, didn't follow theme that well but didn't matter much. Nice little shoot em up game, And I had more fun throwing them over the cliff over shooting them sometimes.
manabreak
18. Apr 2016 · 03:02 UTC
Rather difficult little game! I had trouble advancing because I got killed really fast, didn't get to experience the game in its full length...
candlesan
18. Apr 2016 · 03:26 UTC
Admire that you chose to stuck to a cool idea you had! :) I have thought about doing that too many times !:)
vini60
18. Apr 2016 · 03:26 UTC
Really like the added content.
Could had put more effort on main character and enemies tho.
Lacks a soundtrack.
Overall it's good.
jcmonkey
18. Apr 2016 · 03:30 UTC
Pretty good game, i loved just pushing the red blocks off the platforms. :D
Dooskington
18. Apr 2016 · 03:50 UTC
I didn't like the controls, and the graphics were a little boring. But nice work!
iendsl
18. Apr 2016 · 03:51 UTC
I felt a little confused about my objective. I wandered, looking for parts for a while and slowly got killed. I love the big open area and the moving platforms but I like to have my hand held a little bit more. Really impressive tho! I would play more versions.
CMLSC
18. Apr 2016 · 03:52 UTC
I got an "out of memory" error on the version on this page. D:
Hyden
18. Apr 2016 · 06:12 UTC
Oddly enough trying to play this in Chrome gave me a JAVA error... So I went to firefox and it worked. Fun little game. hard but fun. Floaty controls but it adds to the overall feel I find. Well done :D
Tater_hater
18. Apr 2016 · 06:39 UTC
As Seen on Twitch!
oal
18. Apr 2016 · 06:56 UTC
Nice platformer, but I didn't get very far because I got an "out of memory" error, some WebGL thing, and the game froze.
Berserker_Chris
18. Apr 2016 · 07:05 UTC
Little funny game, maybe it would be better if the enemys don't shoot trough the platforms.
Reis Mahnic
18. Apr 2016 · 07:06 UTC
Had a fun time with this one. REALLY big, impressive level design. Multilayered, different paths... very ambitious!
Great job!
nopogo
18. Apr 2016 · 08:07 UTC
The controls feel a bit floaty for me but maybe that was intended. Also if the enemies would move around instead of being stationary that would make hitting them a bit more rewarding. overall fun game
Autovelop
18. Apr 2016 · 09:29 UTC
This has potential. The keys are a bit clunky. I also think you need to expand on the art a bit in order to give your game a ethos. Maybe dumb down the difficult for the beginning. Would also be awesome to see visuals when attachments are built. Also try introduce features gradually so players are not overwhelmed with features at once. e.g. demonstrate jumping, then shooting, then enemies, then attachments, etc.
hunttis
18. Apr 2016 · 12:03 UTC
Quite difficult. What came as a surprise was that enemies kept shooting me while I was interfacing with the computer thingy :D ouch.
cynicalmonkey
18. Apr 2016 · 12:47 UTC
the controls needed to be a little tighter than they were, i felt really floaty all the time which made the platforming not as enjoyable
Tharky
18. Apr 2016 · 15:08 UTC
This game was really fun to play. I liked the robot system. Although Heal Two was a bit overpowered (didn't take any damage) after getting sword, heal stopped working. Then when I tried to remove Heal, it stuck to the UI and then it stopped working even though it was equipped. Overall, it was quite innovative and fun, I liked it. Good job.
TimBeaudet
18. Apr 2016 · 17:47 UTC
Neat. The power up build system is pretty neat but I had to go back to read how to equip after buying! The falling was a bit annoying, it would have been nice maybe to have a floor to land on always, or something. It was also hard to understand at first that I could shoot through the platforms, and was a bit upset the AI bots could, until I realized I could also!
nintendoeats
18. Apr 2016 · 20:02 UTC
I didn't find the enemies so bad, but I did get an out of memory error when I clicked on the gun attatchment I had just built while using a workbench. I wish the jump wasn't so floaty, but it works well enough and because you get so much air control avoiding enemy attacks isn't too bad. I do wish that the floor blocked bullets. It seems like with some more time this could become a cool metroidvania style thing.
PeachTreeOath
19. Apr 2016 · 05:01 UTC
Difficult but good, enjoyed the leveling up mechanic. Good amount of options available.
Casey Jordan
19. Apr 2016 · 06:02 UTC
Really impressive systems in place given the time constraints of the ld. :3

Unfortunately, game balance crowds out most interesting choices. Self-directed play reveals a lot of interesting potential, though. Power up stacks creating a temporary boost is cool. Deconstruction perks need to be buffed to make this worthwhile, but it's an interesting choice.

Keeping an eye on this. :3
GAFBlizzard
19. Apr 2016 · 08:34 UTC
I got to floor 4, but I never managed to get an attachment to do something even when dragged to the robot as far as I know. I tried making a gun attachment, and even had 2 of them attached in the circle at one point, but it never seemed to fire at enemies and I could only fire at enemies myself.
GAFBlizzard
19. Apr 2016 · 08:37 UTC
I should clarify that I was playing the WebGL version (which was also super laggy on Firefox).
GAFBlizzard
19. Apr 2016 · 08:44 UTC
One more note, the workbenches seemed very random. One run, I got to floor 3 before even seeing a workbench. I think having workbench stuff be a free, pause-the-game action you can always do could actually improve things.
🎤 Syldarion
19. Apr 2016 · 19:33 UTC
GAFBlizzard, thanks for playing! I just want to point out that I never got around to putting visuals on the gun and sword attachments. If you equip them and walk near an enemy, you will see that they are being damaged. Also, the workbenches don't just seem random, they are random haha. I place three randomly on each level. I will take your suggestion down.
M2tias
19. Apr 2016 · 20:28 UTC
Good gameplay, solid idea and pretty great inventory/shop system for 48 hours. I liked the robot companion, even if it didn't do much most of the time :D
Shield seemed to work constantly, but healing stopped working at some point. I'm sure you can do a lot with this if you keep working on it!
The random levels felt a bit too random to be honest. I think that generally, it's easier to create good levels instead of generating them in a short time like this. Because then you just have to figure out how to make a couple, instead of figuring out what makes a level good in general.
Great job as your first LD entry!
zwrawr
19. Apr 2016 · 22:53 UTC
Fun and difficult , could use some nice graphics :)
studdert249
19. Apr 2016 · 23:30 UTC
Nice little platformer, with a lot of stuff to do for such a short time!

Thought the controls felt a little off, the jump was a little too floaty, maybe reducing the time to the apex would help and I had a few issues sliding off the platforms after I had stopped pressing the a or d keys.
ThommazK
19. Apr 2016 · 23:57 UTC
There's a lot of content here, really deep customization! I understand you chose simple graphics and audio in order to achieve this. Controls feel a bit floaty and it's a difficult game. Neat entry.
nextreality
20. Apr 2016 · 03:12 UTC
I like the shooting gameplay, and beside the floaty jump, the overall platforming felt pretty good! Enemies were tough, but using the controls you put in the description I ended up dying due to the pit of death! Overall nice amply and simple graphics to help carry it along. Good Job!
Omiya Games
20. Apr 2016 · 04:35 UTC
As of the current implementation, the "robot buddy" seems less like a pet-caring simulator, and more like a simple RPG equipment management simulator. While I find the upgrading concept compelling (I like upgrades), there doesn't seem to be a specific mechanic that encourages different ways of playing on-the-fly. I think there's a huge potential there, given the plans you've revealed during my stream.

Anyway, keep it up! It's a great start!
medidog
22. Apr 2016 · 20:10 UTC
It would be much more interesting game if there is some graphics other than rectangles, but still appreciate the effort of building an inventory system. I wish there was more of a variety of costs across the purchase items. I also think it would help if there was a way to know how far down we can go when venturing, before we fall to game over.
TheCain
06. May 2016 · 04:18 UTC
I would suggest adding 'w' to jump, and a short tutorial.