Erebot by aevek

[raw]
made by aevek for LD 39 (COMPO)

screenshot_7-30.16-42-47.png

You play as an Erebot, a small utility robot sent to Mars to help finalize preparations for the first arrivals at the new human outpost near the Erebus crater. Unfortunately, your Erebot has sustained serious damage to its battery unit, and is now entirely dependent on solar power.

screenshot_7-30.16-44-3.png

Remain in the sunlight and navigate the Martian surface and attempt to reach the repair building to restore power to your robot.

Gamepad and keyboard/mouse supported.

I'll post OSX and linux versions as soon as I can verify that it works ok on those platforms. If you're willing to test out a build for me, let me know how to get that to you. My twitter is @Aevek if you want to get in touch.

Ratings

Overall 36th 4⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Fun 129th 3.571⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 15th 4.233⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Theme 6th 4.488⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 26th 4.273⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Audio 259th 3.023⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Humor 282th 2.429⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Mood 46th 3.905⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Given 55🗳️ 26🗨️

Feedback

Lovro Kalinovčić
31. Jul 2017 · 09:53 UTC
Very nice, I like the unique mechanics! The low poly aesthetic is quite nice too!
frostdragonliz
31. Jul 2017 · 10:00 UTC
Excellent compo entry. I very nearly did something similar (cute solar robot on mars avoiding shadows) but glad I didn't now.

There are a few awkward bugs you probably know about. In one place, because the shadows seem to be cast by an object floating in the air. The result is that when the shadow hits the top of the robot, it isn't necessarily hitting the ground, so its not very intuitive when you are in shadow or not. You have to watch the solar panels, not the robot's wheels.
There is also an issue with buttons not resetting when you die. This means you can get stuck if you fail a puzzle (for me the bridges stayed down after I died, so I respawned stuck on the wrong side of their shadow!

I liked the puzzles and the feedback from going in the shadows was great. Great achievement for 48 hours, better than many steam games.
cowa
31. Jul 2017 · 10:23 UTC
So good! I really like the mechanics, the puzzles and the art. The GUI needs a lot of polishing though :)
tuism
31. Jul 2017 · 10:31 UTC
No OSX :( sadness, looks really cool and an achievement for 48 hours!
rijnswand
01. Aug 2017 · 02:39 UTC
Looks really cool, would be great if you could publish a linux version.
Tyler Miller
01. Aug 2017 · 02:40 UTC
Agree with @tuism, looks really great though! and judging by @frostdragonliz it was pretty good, good job!
Awpteamoose
01. Aug 2017 · 04:01 UTC
Pretty clever, avoiding shadows from rotating windmills is really cool. Also I understand why you did the camera the way you did it, but I wonder if it wouldn't be better with free look.
zee
01. Aug 2017 · 06:05 UTC
I love the idea! The game-play feels like a reverse stealth game; great work with the theme! Low poly Mars looks great, and the ambient wind sound really sets the mood. Good work on the the puzzles. The puzzles weren't too involved, which is to be expected from a dare, but they didn't feel like just tutorials like many LD puzzle games end up consisting of.

@frostdragonliz I'm pretty sure you can hit the button again to re-raise the bridge! I also agree with the shadow hitting the solar panel! It took me way too many tries to notice the solar panel was in shadow, where my robot wasn't! In retrospect, it should have been obvious the panels needed light and not the robot, but it's kinda hard to tell when the camera is so zoomed out.

Which brings me to my main complaint, the camera always felt way too zoomed out, or way too zoomed in. Sometimes it really interfered with the puzzle. Adding some type of manual zoom function would have avoiding the problem. Whenever a pop up occurred, it blocked the top 1/4th of the screen, which made it hard to see what was coming up, and I ended up having to wait for it to go away. Thankfully, there's only a few.

Other then the camera, I don't really have many complaints. The game is just a really solid package. I feel the game could be the start of something bigger.
PeachTreeOath
01. Aug 2017 · 06:07 UTC
Brilliant game...

-The player realizes what to do within 1 death, no tutorial needed.

-It did take me a bit to realize it was the solar panels that needed to be in the light, I thought it was a hitbox issue at first. Once I realized this, it just made it better because I've never seen a variation like that before so I really like that touch.

-Well thought out puzzles. You really explored different ideas on the mechanic and made me look forward to each one.

5 stars
Wheffle
01. Aug 2017 · 06:33 UTC
Cool concept, and well executed! The graphics were simple but perfect, everything fit really well together. The controls took me a while to get used to, but they were fine. It also took me a bit to realize that the robot's wheels could be in the light while the panels on his head could still be in the shadows, and vice-versa. I thought the game was bugged until I figured this out. The camera was actually really great most of the time, but there were one or two moments where my view was blocked by a bridge in front of the camera and I just had to keep the gas pedal down and have faith.

Overall this was one of the best executed and most fun games I have played so far. Well done!
Egor Iv
01. Aug 2017 · 06:44 UTC
Cool) but namuchalsya with the camera!
Arkthalohs
02. Aug 2017 · 02:58 UTC
I really liked this one. Cool mechanic, really great art. I found the camera a bit fiddly to wrangle and had a lot of difficulty at the beginning navigating the narrow passages of light without getting my solar panel into darkness, but once I got to the windmill section (which was a really cool twist on the navigating-the-light concept), it was pretty smooth sailing. Great work!
Deanard
02. Aug 2017 · 03:14 UTC
Very Interesting Concept, has potential to be very fun, however the shadowed areas felt poorly defined and it made it hard to get through.
GoldRanger
02. Aug 2017 · 04:03 UTC
Great idea of the puzzle!
I enjoy in solving it.
However, as others say, sometime the camera position will go to some awkward place/scale and I need to suicide to reposition it. Actually that's cool I can have some way to resize my camera HAHA so it may not really need to be count as a problem.
Overall it's a great puzzle game!
greysphere
02. Aug 2017 · 04:36 UTC
Really well done. A lot of interesting puzzles here from such a simple mechanic. Great presentation of the mechanic too. One small thing, I'm pretty sensitive to motion sickness and the camera switches were kinda rough, but understandable for a jam. Great work overall!
ick
02. Aug 2017 · 04:56 UTC
Really enjoyed the art - the environment looks fantastic. I wish that it told you the basics before you could potentially die but once I learned you can just hold still to read it it's fine. The UI unfortunately detracts a bit from the quality of the other assets, but understandable for a 48 hour game.

I wish the camera were a little closer to the player character. It seems like I'm looking behind myself more than in front of myself.

Overall a nice gameplay mechanic and the hit detection seems precise for the most part but I had a few instances of not being sure why I died one time and lived another time - a closer camera would help in the narrower areas.

For me the desert rocks aesthetic really shines though so great job on the look.
Bocodillo
02. Aug 2017 · 05:42 UTC
The look of the game (lighting, dust storms, camera) and the mechanic of avoiding the shade was really cool. Really good atmosphere, cute robot character and solid overall polish. Liked the control scheme even though it took a little getting used to (being on diagonal axis through me off). Good game!
jahndis
02. Aug 2017 · 06:35 UTC
Art is beautiful. I'm not sure I was a fan of the isometric paths with non-isometric movement, but adjusted to it well enough. Pretty simple concept but executed very very well. Nice work!
Royoyo
02. Aug 2017 · 06:36 UTC
Love the mood. You have to observe your surrounding to play instead of rushing through. It's nice touch!
Imphenzia
02. Aug 2017 · 07:29 UTC
Nice work! I was planning to have solar power on my robot too but I couldn't quite think of how to put it together but I think your method of shadows, including having them animated was very clever. I had a couple of goes at first thinking that I died even though I was in the sunlight, but that was the robot and not the solar panels that were in the light so I realized I needed to look at the avatar shadow instead to make sure that the solar panels were always lit. I like the low poly look and the "lonely feel", just like in the movie =)
leesoar07
02. Aug 2017 · 12:32 UTC
Both of the gameplay and the art are great indead. Nice work!
Sarrixx
02. Aug 2017 · 17:00 UTC
This was a really pleasant experience! Great art & atmosphere, and I think that the use of the light and shadows is great! Took me a couple of tries to realise that its the solar panels on top of the character that have to stay out of the shadows rather than the character itself but once I realised that it was smooth sailing! Although I did go exploring on the second level, climbed up a hill and then my camera got booted waaaaaaayy off into the distance :P Awesome work man!
pcmaster
03. Aug 2017 · 10:08 UTC
Wow! I love the mechanic. The graphics and the sounds are awesome. I managed to run into a hill somewhere (right to the right after the 2-piece falling bridge) and the camera flew somewhere into hell and I couldn't continue. The only thing I missed was camera control (I'd map it to mouse or right stick). Other than that, fucking awesome!
Robber
03. Aug 2017 · 22:09 UTC
The game looks gorgeous, very impressive work for a compo entry. few points of critique are the controls, they felt really awkward starting out the game, but i eventually got used to them. I would suggest using maybe different colors for switching the buttons, so maybe green would be 'bridge up', blue would be bridge down. sometimes i would retrigger a button, a bridge moves on the other side of the level and i didn't know what state is was in anymore. had to drive back to check again and again. The camera-work is lovely and makes for a very cinematic experience which is nice, but sometimes obscures the playing field, which can be troublesome when trying to stay in the sun. The shadow mechanic is very original and put to good use. thank you for this lovely game!
JCMonkey
04. Aug 2017 · 03:37 UTC
other then some minor shadow misplacements, the game was pretty good.
diptoman
04. Aug 2017 · 05:33 UTC
This is very cool. I was being completely stupid initially and not understanding why I kept dying the first few tries hahah (moving into shadows). Neat puzzles otherwise, atmosphere is cool (warm?) - great stuff for a compo!
junjunlowpoly
04. Aug 2017 · 06:21 UTC
Very well-polished game with amazing low-poly art. The only two problems I found are camera positioning (like other people already pointed out) and the fact that you lose power when you step on dead robot bodies (This means that if you died a lot of times at the same place then it just becomes harder and harder for you to survive through the place).
Togis
06. Aug 2017 · 02:25 UTC
I uploaded my gameplay of this game on youtube, you can find it here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7tjZVPE7J8

Thanks for being part of the stream :)
Sarrixx
13. Aug 2017 · 13:00 UTC
I have been making a let's play series of my favourite LD 39 games, and Erebot was in part 7. Here's a link if you are interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-HjQqlkj5I&feature=youtu.be
Drums
14. Aug 2017 · 19:37 UTC
I love puzzles and robots! I think my game had that too XD (btw thanks for streaming it). It looks beautiful, you guys have a future in building game making for sure.
sgt3v
16. Aug 2017 · 08:28 UTC
Very original idea, energy running low too quickly is a bit frustrating but overall quite a nice game.
jasperarmstrong
21. Aug 2017 · 02:48 UTC
Very cool game. Aside from issues with the camera, there was nothing that I didn't like about the game. The art was very nice and I had a lot of fun solving the puzzles. With more levels and a bit more polish, I could definitely see paying for this.