Robot Rodeo by anjack
***Update: I don't want to clutter this page with post-compo information, so please read about the improvements to the post-compo version here:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/08/27/robot-rodeo-post-compo-version/
Thank you again for all the feedback!***
Here's my game, now with SOUND!
The game is called "Robot Rodeo". The theme made me think of a rodeo where the rider has to stay on the bull for 8 seconds. In this game, you upgrade a robot and send it into an arena. The arena is littered with traps which will damage the robot.
After every match in the arena, the robot will be repaired back to maximum health. You will receive a certain amount of money for every second the robot survived in the arena.
If the robot lasts the full 10 seconds, you win! If you want, you can keep going at a higher difficulty. That means more traps in the arena!
This game was written in JavaScript with Notepad++ and NFOPad. I didn't use a pre-made framework so the code is pretty janky. I used GIMP for the graphics and both Audacity and BFXR for the sound.
I wanted to set up some kind of leader board so people could compete for higher scores, but my web programming knowledge isn't up to the task.
I am currently working on improving and expanding the upgrades available for your robot. Let me know if you have any suggestions!
Known bugs:
1. *FIXED* You have to click "Close" twice on upgrade windows.
2. Some parts of the buttons don't respond to clicks.
3. *FIXED* Strange graphical errors.
4. *FIXED* The "Heat Shield" upgrade doesn't work.
I greatly appreciate your feedback! Please let me know if you see any bugs or have any gameplay suggestions.
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/08/27/robot-rodeo-post-compo-version/
Thank you again for all the feedback!***
Here's my game, now with SOUND!
The game is called "Robot Rodeo". The theme made me think of a rodeo where the rider has to stay on the bull for 8 seconds. In this game, you upgrade a robot and send it into an arena. The arena is littered with traps which will damage the robot.
After every match in the arena, the robot will be repaired back to maximum health. You will receive a certain amount of money for every second the robot survived in the arena.
If the robot lasts the full 10 seconds, you win! If you want, you can keep going at a higher difficulty. That means more traps in the arena!
This game was written in JavaScript with Notepad++ and NFOPad. I didn't use a pre-made framework so the code is pretty janky. I used GIMP for the graphics and both Audacity and BFXR for the sound.
I wanted to set up some kind of leader board so people could compete for higher scores, but my web programming knowledge isn't up to the task.
I am currently working on improving and expanding the upgrades available for your robot. Let me know if you have any suggestions!
Known bugs:
1. *FIXED* You have to click "Close" twice on upgrade windows.
2. Some parts of the buttons don't respond to clicks.
3. *FIXED* Strange graphical errors.
4. *FIXED* The "Heat Shield" upgrade doesn't work.
I greatly appreciate your feedback! Please let me know if you see any bugs or have any gameplay suggestions.
Ratings
| Coolness | 100% | 1 |
| Overall | 2.66 | 926 |
| Audio | 1.73 | 881 |
| Fun | 2.44 | 929 |
| Graphics | 2.00 | 1051 |
| Humor | 2.02 | 690 |
| Innovation | 2.75 | 726 |
| Mood | 2.18 | 938 |
| Theme | 2.90 | 792 |
The UI design could be better. It's annoying to have to (slowly) walk around in a room just to get to fragments of menu. Sometimes I can't buy things without apparent reason -- armour seems to max out at 19 and Auto Heal and Heat Shield at 3, which means after a while the only investment is Health. At $10 per click, that takes a while if you've just cashed $1000...
For UI things, I often find it easier to use HTML instead of drawing everything on a canvas. You get click detection, styling and event handling for free.
It was pretty satisfying though to see my tiny robot grow into a mean mine-busting monster :)
"hummm... max health does not seem to have a limit, everything else seems to be maxed out, and I have a ton of cash... Buy More Health!" 100+ clicks later... "Yay max difficulty beaten!"
Very interesting and original idea!
I tested the game in Chrome and IE but not Firefox, which was a big oversight on my part. Also I understand that the upgrade system is not balanced very well. For the next LD I need to find people to test the game while I'm developing it so I can address these sorts of things.
And yes, it is possible to beat the hardest difficulty, without cheating :)
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=5288
I basically kept playing until I maxed out everything and then just pumped all my money into health :)
Sure, it lacks animation, but the little black and white workshop was quite charming. The game kept me playing for an embarrassingly large amount of time. I just wanted to see if I could beat the next difficulty level, and then the next, and the next...
The balance between the available upgrades and the difficulty was surprisingly good for a 48 hour game.
Really, the only major complaint that I have is that the gameplay is largely just pure luck. If the robot stays mainly in an already cleared area, you win, if not, you're fucked :)
Good job overall though :)
That being not the case, and seeing the "you beat the highest difficulty" message was VERY rewarding :)
That should be "Also, I don't see the in-game instructions".
It's a great idea to have workbench instead of just menu.
For the arena part, I should admit I had trouble to understand what was happening, but I've seen you fixed that in the post compo version.
I'm still working on an option for giving the player something to do during the 10 seconds in the arena. I don't want to give the player full control of the bot because it's a rodeo and you're not supposed to be in control of the ride. I have some ideas about limited manual control or adding buttons to buff/heal the bot (on a cooldown timer). I'll update the post-compo version with some more new features.
It seems like you fixed movement in the post compo version but something should still be done about buying upgrades.
Quite innovating idea.
I can ply the rodeo 5 times without updgrading near the beginningb and the results are between 1 and 5 seconds.
after few upgrades I can "try often enough" and reach 10.
So in the beginning, I just start like 10 rodeos and then begin buying stuff...
The menu would have been better with more menu-like controls.
Mouse only would be good with an option to "buy health 100 times".
The idea was good, but the only thing that kep me playing was "higher stats, higher stats"... oh geeze I love having high stats...