Great game ! The concept is interesting and well exploited.
There is a lot of contents and the retro graphics and music are also good.
Good job !

It's amazing that you could make something so interesting in such a short amount of time. It's a good concept that was executed well.
One thing: the movement was very clunky, so the parts of the game where you must go in and out of cover/dodge the bullets were nearly impossible

Interesting concept, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I had some difficulty running it in my VM at first, it kept crashing at boot.

Great game, impressive to finish it in this time. Good job!

I liked the game, but I admittedly couldn't finish it. I really liked the first 5 minutes and was pretty excited to see the third drone type, but after getting all the nearby batteries and unlocking the 2nd drone I found myself searching as many rooms as I could before exploding for a good 5 to 10 minutes. It was frustrating exploring down a hole only to blow up and start all over again.

I think you had a good idea here, but mashing up an adventure/search theme with a restarting from the beginning mechanic is really tricky. If you had maybe added hints of where to go or even just had more batteries closer by it would be easier.

The sound was nice, definitely gives off the retro feel. Really made me feel like the game's graphics and resolution were right at home for the experience. I also liked the color choice frankly. I'm pretty happy to play a retro-esq game not in the game-boy palette for once.

Good work!

One of the best ones I've played so far.

The gameplay is just amazing. It plays like a polished final product to be honest. The theme works perfectly and the amount of variety and content is great. This is also the first chiptune-music I've heard so far that doesn't get annoying after a few seconds.

There's a lot to love about this one. I actually enjoyed exploring and seeing where I could go with my upgrades enough to finish the game. So that's awesome. The graphics are very reminiscent of older Gameboy games, and I have a lot of nostalgia for that.

Really great work.

Wow! This retro style feels so polished.
Nice music, nice graphics and interesting concept.
Now I want to play with my old gameboy again :D

Great game, very nice and simple gameplay.
I just had a bit of problem to remember some hotkeys since I only needed most of them later on, perhaps a good option would be to add a "?" or help shortkey to help players while they are already ingame.

I managed to make it bug somehow where I could control the camera freely between different maps without the need to spawn a drone. I was away from the default factory map when I died and before the animation to return to the factory map happened I pressed "2" and right away tried to move. The camera stopped the animation to return to the factory and I suddenly could control it even being pretty far from it

Wow. this game is a complete package!
simple, yet very entertaining,
best one i have played so far!

Great game! I beat the game (with 11/16 unlocks), then got a couple more unlocks, but was unable to get all of them. I swear one of them said that my drones could withstand a hit (losing 50 power), but after getting that, they still seemed to die in one hit, and that seemed necessary to beat one of the puzzles in the far upper left (although maybe there was a speed boost that would have let me do it). Good take on the theme too!

Thank you to everyone who has played, reviewed, and commented!

@edmond00 Thank you!

@omnipotentindie Thank you for the kind words. Sorry for the bullet troubles, looking at some of the challenges after the fact, I definitely went a little overboard!

@brandon-diaz Sorry about the crashing, but thanks for sticking with it!

@raogs Thank you!

@pixelgriffin Sorry for the rough experience after the first 5 minutes. In retrospect, I think a simple map feature to help keep track of where you have or have not been would greatly help in locating additional upgrades and power-ups. Thank you for sticking with it as long as you did!

@zelos Thank you so much for the kind words. I have a lot of nostalgia for the Gameboy too, so I'm glad you got the same feeling!

@quixx Thank you, good to hear it gave you some nice gameboy feels!

@johnnydalvi Thanks for playing, and for the good feedback! I realized near the end that what I started as a simple game ended up having a lot of hotkeys, so I think you're spot on with the '?' idea. Did not realize about that bug either, I'll have to tweak that for the future.

@samuli-salonen Thanks you!

@jimbly Thanks for playing! The armor upgrade only affects the Miner (drone 3), sorry for any confusion! Even with the upgrade, it's still tricky though, I think that particular challenge might have been scaled a bit too high.

Just tried to download but my Windows Defender said it contains a virus (which I am sure it doesn't). Are you going to publish as WebGL as well as I would really like to play it?

@marc-grabow I built with the intention of having an HTML5 version available on the web, but the performance makes the game pretty unplayable, so I don't think I'll be able to have any web versions. Sorry!

I can't say anything bad about this game except that it took too much of my time because it was so addicting!

Incredible job.

This concept was pretty cool. I enjoyed the upgrades as well. I am not a big fan of constantly retracing my steps, though the teleporters fix that kinda.

Really solid game. I do agree with @pixelgriffin, the midgame was a lot of driving around aimlessly until I ran out of energy or got shot by an enemy. Overall though it's really well done. The concept is great, as are the graphics, sounds, and music. Good work!

Fun mechanics and progression ... a lot of content ... good job

Gotta love those cheat keys, but seriously, this was surprisingly challenging and fun to play

Really cool stuff. I just wished there was some mre explanation. I didnt interact with teleporters after trying to touch the ones on the start. Spent a lot of time on this. Also power could be shown in numbers as well since +50 doesnt mean anything when you dont know what a 1 is. Game reminds me robot wants kitty series. Well done!

Simple, nice, well done. Nice retro graphics, spent some time in it.

Very nice game ! Great work !

Thank you to everyone who continues to play, rate, and offer feedback!

@marc-grabow I don't have a web version, but I have repackaged the game in a zip format. Friends of mine have reported a similar problem to yours, and the zip file seems to have fixed it. If you're still interested, please try it and let me know!

@rigdonware Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

@mactinite Thank you for playing, and I totally understand if the restarting mechanic didn't work for you. I'm already thinking up some quality of life upgrades I could do to make it more palatable in the future.

@xel Thanks for taking the time to play, and I agree with you both myself. Hopefully a post-jam version will smooth out the issues with the middle of the game.

@hadesfury Thank you for playing, I'm glad it was fun!

@filippy I built the cheat just for testing purposes originally, but I know how it is to get stuck in a jam game when you want to be doing lots of reviews! I felt it was only right to let people cheat a bit if it made the experience better for them. Thanks for playing!

@clutterarranger Ah, that note about the teleporters will definitely go on my to-do list! I bet even just a weak blinking light on them would be enough to attract some more attention to the ones you can interact with. I'll see if I can get some numeric values for your power too. Thanks for the feedback!

@cpv Thank you!

@repusv Thank you for playing!

This game has such solid gameplay and so much content for only 48 hours. I like the retro style of the graphics and sound effects. Different spatial mechanisms that are used in classical video games are nicely putting together, and the setting that the drone eventually run out of power make them more challenging and interesting. I also like the idea of having 3 different types of drones, each with different abilities. Also unlocking and upgrading your drones gives a good sense of progression.

I appreciate that you also have portals to make the exploration easier. On one hand, it makes it really feasible to go to far area with this power amount, on the other hand, it helps preventing the game from getting too slow paced at later game.

Great job!

Perfect! Clearly a labor of love! Really clever, a unique take on the old action adventure genre, probably one of the more engaging and puzzly games! I love how natural it feels gameplay-wise to explore the world with the different robots and how ultimately your work is retained, giving you the feeling of progress. Good work

I have no idea how you created so much quality content in 48 hours.

To start, the aesthetic is 100% cohesive. The art, music, and sfx all match perfectly with the theme and style of the game. Nailed it.

Next, the concept is just perfectly executed. Some upgrades require intricate puzzles, others require twitch-based skill. Had a lot of "ah ha!" moments when I realized I'd have to use multiple drone types, or multiple drone instances, just to get 1 upgrade. It blows my mind how much content is in this little game.

I only have a few (very minor) criticisms:

* The back-and-forth exploration is kind of tedious after a while. The portals do a great job of alleviating this somewhat, but I wish there were more of them.

* I wish there had been a map. Obviously, part of the game is exploration, so maybe it only allows you to see areas you've already visited. Or add map piece pickups as an alternative goal for the player.

Great game. Going to be hard to beat.

Awesome game! Took me a while to undestand what I was supposed to do but then it got me hooked.

The music is awesome, specially when you pick up an upgrade, very metroidlike :D

Congrats on the game man!

Wow, I really think you got a lot done in the time available.

As many others have said I think the graphics and audio were very coherent for the style you were going for and look very cool. I like the zelda screen switch mechanic, very nice.

I liked that you had multiple drones but after a few tries I couldnt figure out how to get the 3rd drone unlocked. The idea of exploration is directly at odds with the theme of running out of power, so it was hard to buckle in and feel free to explore and do the bullet puzzles with the constant threat of (quickly) running out of power.

Some people need / want that stress and others dont, guess it ultimately depends on what youre going for. Just something to think about.

Thanks for submitting a cool game!

Fun little game! Impressive amount of content and polish. Loved the exploration and puzzle elements. Theme is relevant to the game concept. Well done!

Cool game , pretty hard to beat i think(oe i am lame :D) But keep it up, great work

Really cool game, I didn't manage to find the third drone... as already said after a while the distances start to get further and further which makes it less fun.. the concept is cool but also quite frustrating to keep on on having to go over the same ground before exploding.. also liked the music and consistent look really nicely put together and feel it did bring back nostalgic memories of playing my gameboy a loooong time ago.. so thanks for that too .. the only complaint would be too change the font on any text to be more consistent with the feel of the rest of the game. I stopped playing but still left the music running :)

Your game crashes on shutdown, maybe you have a memory leak or null pointer reference somewhere.

The graphics and music are nice, great atmosphere. I don't get the point though, is the exploration really all there is to it? Like the path is the goal? If so, that is fine but I am not a minecraft player, I like having a goal in a game ;-)

Overall nice entry, thank you and keep up the good ~~world~~ work (actual typo that fits, so I'm leaving it in)!

This was a fantastic game! I loved the puzzle concept and having to use different drones to achieve your goal. The game felt really polished and complete. Well done!

I love the 4-tone gray GameBoy look! In fact, this game pretty much feels like Link's Awakening in some aspects.

The idea was very well implemented and executed, and you manged to design quite the interesting world in such a small amount of time. Getting upgrades feels very satisfying, and the natural progression through exploration is too!

It is, however, quite difficult, and sometimes is asks just a bit too much precision from the player. I couldn't finish the game, but I did enjoy what I played.

Great job!

PS: there's a bug where, after your drone dies and the screen is scrolling to the factory, if you quickly build a new drone and try to move it while the screen is still scrolling, the camera gets confused and will show you other parts of the map. In this case, I'm grateful for this bug because it let me explore the map design without having to complete the tasks, but I don't think that was intentional.

Amazing! The game has some nice audio, and the depth of the puzzles is truly amazing. Great job!

I love the originality of the mechanic that fits the theme perfectly! The different drone types are fun to play with and explore the map through their different respective abilities. I just wish the difficulty ramping was a little better, I picked some pretty difficult paths early on with the 2nd drone and got frustrated trying to dodge the bullets in one of the rooms that I got stuck there for a good while. Also a sort of minimap would be greatly appreciated for remembering which room has what obstacles. Really nice work!

This is probably my favorite game of the jam so far. Complete gameplay with fully fleshed out level design. Not sure how you found the time to do all of this solo, even just the playtesting would've taken me hours! I was surprised to see comments of people quitting early, I felt compelled to get every upgrade and finish.

I loved the idea of multiple playthroughs with Metroidesque unlocks. It felt like everything was interconnected, from the drones to the portals. The progression felt perfect to me, with my only qualm being how slow I suddenly felt moving away from drone 2. Can't praise this game enough!

I absolutely love the retro feel of the game - ol' skool graphics, audio and the screen transitions! Played this for a long time, and had a lot of fun exploring. Hard to believe it's a compo game, you've put in so much content. I'm hoping we'll see this somewhere near the top in the results. Terrific job.

Hi, it's Tess from TVGS :slight_smile:. I loved the concept, very innovative and well put together. I can certainly see the old Legend of Zelda influence. The levels were very well designed and the graphics were very good.

As you said in the stream, it will be much improved with a map and a way to see what you've already collected/what's left.

I look forward to seeing where this game goes in the future :smiley:.

I was really amazed by your concept and felt quickly driven into it. I almost ragequit with the ridiculously timed dodge part but was able finish the game with 15/16 upgrades (didn't get the far up left one). I discovered the portals veeery late, as stumbling into them in the starting room doesn't do anything and them looking much alike pressed buttons, but when I did, my journey become immediately easier. :)

I like the amount of content you put into it and the fact that you don't need to solve every challenge to get to the end, which fits the exploration genre pretty well. I'm just not sure we have much choice s to follow in the very beginning and would have loved to be able to skip the dodge part. :p

Graphics and music although minimalistic wgere pleasant and I appreciated to discover my upgraded drones new look.

Clever mechanics and the game feels totally complete. Stunning that you did it all alone. Great job!

I Recently played your game during a live stream at your request. You can find the video [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEKsM8vugRs) .

Fun game! I can tell you spent some time on level design because I could just barely get an upgrade before I would run out of power. That upgrade would then let me just barely get to the next one. Awesome job!

if you haven't already please give my game a try [Zombie Power Station](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/zombie-power-station) HTML5 Thanks

I confess I'm a bit mixed on this game. On one hand, the repetitive nature of trying something over and over again demands mastery from the player. The dead-ends providing more geographical information to the player so that they can save more time to collect power-ups is a really nice touch that emphasizes this aspect of the game. Combined with the power-ups themselves helping player proceed further into the game, there's a compelling experience in here that asks for exploration and self-improvement.

On the other hand, running out of power frequently, as well as making the wrong choices or turns often requires the player to return back to the starting point and trying the same task over and over again. This gets repetitive fast, especially during the beginning of the game where one doesn't have enough power-ups to elongate their playthrough, giving enough leeway to fix their mistakes. From that perspective, the game gets boring fast.

Ultimately, I'm not sure. I guess I like the simple puzzles, and the feeling of becoming more powerful is really rewarding. But for some parts, especially unlocking new vehicles, I would have liked an easier experience.

Very impressive for a compo game. Effective graphics, a surprising amount of variety, and a lot of clever -- if sometimes a little frustrating -- level design. (The frustrating part being having to travel back to the same screen over and over again. And occasionally unreasonable difficulty.)

If you plan to keep going with this, definitely put in a feature to start the same screen over. Other than that, it's already pretty well put together. Kudos.

For a campo game i'll admit you did a very impressive job, kuddos. I really liked how smooth the controls were and the retro style (in the graphics and the music as well), had a great time playing your game. Maybe you could make it a little bit easier though.

I really like the idea of the game and it's well presented when it comes to audio and visuals. I didn't finish it though as it does get a bit repetitive having to start from the same place again and again. Still, it's very well done so congrats :smile:

Very good job. Love the exploration and puzzle nature with ability to complete in diferrent ways. Great feel and balance. One of my favorites so far.

Awesome game! Great level design and world exploration. Nice use of the theme and mechanics. The aesthetics works really well, very retro feeling!

We streamed your game with Danae plays on Twitch. :) Here's a link:

[Danae streams Ludum Dare 39: Day 3, part 1: Automated Explorer](https://youtu.be/LN1svjCl2z0?t=1h14m22s)

Very nice game with a metroidvania feel to it. The progression and puzzles were quite typically metroid-y but still nicely balanced (considering it was a compo entry). I didn't try the "optional" power-ups, some did look really difficult (the row of turrets shooting criss-cross). The graphics, while they have their charm, could probably be a bit more involved though ;)

Very nice!

Neat concept! I included it in my Ludum Dare 39 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DrJOSU_FjM