Little Robot Run by KunoNoOni

[raw]
made by KunoNoOni for Ludum Dare 45 (COMPO)

NOTE: YOU ONLY GET 1 LIFE, IF YOU LOSE IT YOU MUST START OVER. ALSO THERE ARE NO CHECKPOINTS BUT ITS NOT THAT LONG OF A GAME.

BUGFIX EDIT: I can't tell you how many times I played the game as I was designing it. But while testing it after uploading it I discovered a game breaking bug that I never encountered in all of my testing. The issue was when you got to the bottom of the red section after getting the spring the player would no longer be grounded which would cause you to be unable to jump, I checked the code and saw a potential problem and removed it. After testing it again everything seemed to be working. So I continued to play to make sure there wasn't anything else. Which of course there was because the universe is out to get me. This new issue dealt with trying to go through the red door after getting the red key. This made zero sense to me as the player has a collider and a ridgidbody and the door had a collider of it's own. If I jumped while touching the door it would open. I'm not sure what the issue was so if you encounter it, try jumping at the door. The yellow and blue doors work fine and I never encountered any error with them.

TL;DR: Fixed a game breaking bug dealing with the ability to jump and found another potential one that only happens some of the time.

BUGFIX EDIT2: I believe I have resolved the issue with the red door not opening after you get the red key. So run little robot run!

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* KNOWN ISSUES *

  1. As mentioned above sometimes the red door will not open when you have the key. Jumping at the door is a possible way to fix it.

  2. Speaking of the doors, there is no sound when you open them. I meant to put one in but it kept getting pushed and as you can see it was never put in.

  3. Sometimes when pressing down the animation for the box is slow to start but the effect still works. Not sure why this is happening.

  4. Because of the way the character controller is setup it is possible to jump when falling off a platform while in the air after getting the spring that enables jumping.

  5. While moving forward and falling off a platform after having gotten the DUCK, if you press and hold the DOWN key to turn into a box you will continue to move forward. This is especially bad if it happens when you are going for the blue key. As you will land on the bottom platforms and be shot by the turret. Thus ending your game and snatching victory from your grasp.

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After suffering a vicious defeat six months ago, life with Dr Lud Umdare started getting worse and you've decided that you need to leave. After months of planning your route to the portal and the items you'll need to be successful you are ready to run.

First you'll need a SPRING so you can jump. The way to the portal will require it. There is one in the Red section of the base.

Next you'll need to get a DUCK if you're going to get by the floating sentries. The DUCK is a device Dr Lud Umdare created that allows robots to turn into boxes which the floating sentries are programmed to ignore. It just so happens to look like a duck and of no coincidence there is one in the Yellow section.

Lastly you'll need to get a weapon installed so you can defect the creature who guards the portal room. You have a spot for the weapon already you'll just need one last piece to complete it. That piece is stored in the Blue section.

Each section will also require a door key of the same color to open them. You know each section keeps its own door key but you were not able to discover where that was.

Besides the floating sentries and the portal guardian you'll also have to contend with the turrets that guard the base. The are indestructible so you'll just need to avoid their shots.

Once you get the SPRING you can start jumping using the SPACE key/Joystick Fire 1.

You use the DUCK hold the DOWN arrow key/DOWN on the joystick.

To fire the weapon once you complete it press the RIGHT CONTROL button/Joystick Fire 2.

* If you miss the spring you can restart by pressing R to restart the level. *

You are little robot and this is your story...

Ratings

Overall 402th 3.077⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 342th 3.019⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 464th 2.423⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 416th 2.865⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 405th 2.769⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 180th 3.28⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 269th 2.391⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 394th 2.78⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 26🗨️

Feedback

burnedkirby
08. Oct 2019 · 02:25 UTC
Alas, I tried to pass the red door with three separate runs, and I could not get it to open (I did get the red key each time). Otherwise, the game controls are responsive and the music is neat.
🎤 KunoNoOni
08. Oct 2019 · 03:06 UTC
@burnedkirby Did you try jumping at it? Its such a perplexing problem. I'll look at it again tomorrow and see if I can figure out why its happening since this would fall under game breaking bug. Thanks for playing it though. :slight_smile:
burnedkirby
08. Oct 2019 · 03:23 UTC
@kunonooni I did spend a good chunk of time trying to press myself against that red wall over and over again, but to no avail. One workaround could be to just remove the wall itself immediately after getting the key, but that would make it less apparent of where to go if the map is big.
Corrade
08. Oct 2019 · 04:14 UTC
The red key doesn't open the red door for me, even after jumping a lot. I'd love to continue the game if this is fixed. I think you're allowed to patch game-breaking bugs like this (if you want to).

The instructions were way too long. I think you should've introduced mechanics as the player encountered them using key prompts, dialogue, etc. Also, in-game, the instructions were pressed up against the borders of the screen and that didn't look great.

The player gains a jump whenever they touch the edge of a platform. If this is intentional, I'm not sure it's a great mechanic. Small issues include the key not really looking like a key, and the player's walking animation running when the player isn't moving.
karlipoppins
08. Oct 2019 · 16:31 UTC
Nice little platformer, I didn't run into issues until the very end with the red key. Otherwise the only complaint is that I had to keep another tab with the instructions to remember how to use the newly gained abilities. Would have been awesome to also add that inline in the game. Good job!
🎤 KunoNoOni
08. Oct 2019 · 23:37 UTC
@burnedkirby, @corrade, @karlipoppins I am 99% sure I have resolved the issue with the red door. I humbly ask that you give my game another try. I will warn you though it gets a lot harder in the yellow and the blue sections. Patience and timing will be your friends.
burnedkirby
09. Oct 2019 · 01:34 UTC
Tried it out again, red door bug is indeed gone, made it to the end. Reminds me of my previous Ludum Dare entry because it also didn't have checkpoints. People did complain that it was too hard to complete, and I'm not sure if this game suffers the same issue but it didn't seem that hard if you're patient enough. Good little platformer, good job!
🎤 KunoNoOni
09. Oct 2019 · 02:41 UTC
@burnedkirby I'm so glad you decided to give it another try. I thought about checkpoints but with it taking less than 10 minutes to play they seems a little too extraneous. As for being hard, I'll be the first to tell you I do think it is a little too hard at some points but I feel that once you beat the game you get a sense of accomplishment. Thanks again for playing it :slight_smile:
dob
09. Oct 2019 · 02:49 UTC
Fun game, good music and sounds. A little frustrating to have to restart each time - that eventually kept me from finishing, because I got frustrated with having to redo so much. I know, I'm lazy, but still. But it was fun, looks nice, and has a clear set of goals and interface.
Pizzasgood
09. Oct 2019 · 04:50 UTC
That gradient background is rad, and I love the music.
mildmelon
09. Oct 2019 · 04:56 UTC
Enjoyed this game, it was fun but quite challeneging. I might have preferred one or two extra lives. It was pretty easy to finish the first three items, but after that I kept dying to mistakes I started to get frustrated.

Nonetheless I liked the audio and difficulty, good luck in the ratings!
p-r
10. Oct 2019 · 21:23 UTC
Reminds me of the first Apogee games, love it, would be nice to have a lifebar or a checkpoint. I read the story, but I think you could've flesh out the theme better.
FredFilo
11. Oct 2019 · 02:32 UTC
Nice platformer game, well done ! :)

I particularly liked the different musics and sound effects. I completed the game without using the duck or the weapon (now that I wrote about it, I realized that the grey box was probably the weapon... I was wondering what it was ^^;).

The character was not responsive enough (for my taste). When I do a platformer in Unity, I generally set a "gravityScale" to 5 or so and increase the jump force. For this game, staying in the air for a while helped to pass the floating sentries though :)
🎤 KunoNoOni
11. Oct 2019 · 03:04 UTC
@fredfilo How did you get by the portal guardian without killing it? Yeah I really need to work on my character controller. I realized when I was done why you were able to jump by touching the sides of the platforms? I only have one collider on the player model instead of adding second one just for checking if you are on the ground. Thanks for the playing.
Gauphastus
11. Oct 2019 · 03:55 UTC
Cute, basic little platformer. Feels a bit floaty but not bad.
Hadn't read any of your writeup there and dove in, got to blue door without using any items but unfortunately jumped into a bullet. Haha.
FredFilo
11. Oct 2019 · 05:10 UTC
@kunonooni __> How did you get by the portal guardian without killing it?__

If you mean the one that stands in front of the blue door, I was just walking on the floor top-right of it (basically the roof of the room with the portal). I just jumped above it, and passed between the guardian and the blue door. There was enough space to go without hitting any collider. That was my first attempt, never really thought about it, and since I never fired the weapon in the game (I totally forgot there was a weapon), it seemed very natural to me :)

Yes, I realized that you can jump when touching the sides of the platforms, that helped going through the levels more quickly. Also, once you touched a ground, you can fall and jump later mid-air. I figured out that the jump was not based on whether or not the player is on the ground, but instead that the player was able to jump once, if it collided with a platform in any way.
oddarock
12. Oct 2019 · 01:17 UTC
Nice and engaging game. The music is cool. The mechanics are clear, the controls could a little bit more nervous. Some checkpoints would have helped. Well done !
pkenney
12. Oct 2019 · 01:23 UTC
This was cool! There's a lot of little things going on here.

(UPDATE: The problem I am about to describe is caused by playing on the web in fullscreen, I leave my confused description for completeness but will explain what really happened after.)

I felt a little betrayed by how I died though. I'll walk through my experience:

I figured out the first challenge of dodging the turrets, and was on board. I went to the bottom and got the spring, and while I was down there I was careful not to fall off the bottom of the map since I figured that must kill me.

Then I went back up to the top and learned I could not open the red door. I didn't see any key, so I went back to the bottom but there was no key there either. The only thing left to try was to jump off the bottom of the map, so I did it and was surprised that I could walk around down there, so I went under the wall and found the key.

The the duck area, same thing: had to go off the bottom of the map, but this time I just didn't even see myself when I got the item (read it was a duck in the description), but then I could duck.

So two challenges taught me I had to go off the bottom. Then the third time I went off the bottom when I couldn't find the next item, and poof I instadied. Not having made a clear mistake I called it quits there, even though the game is otherwise fair, and very charming/fun.

UPDATE: I loaded it up again to verify this, and I learned that the problem is that when I go into fullscreen, I don't see the whole screen. There is part of the map on the bottom that I just can't see, but need to go into.

I solved this by zooming my browser out and not playing in fullscreen. FIXED!

I played another ten minutes and killed the guardian. But it's akward to shoot. I either have to right click, or else hit Alt key. But both of these keys confuse the browser in not-fullscreen mode, and move my selection out of the game, meaning that my inputs don't go to the game anymore. So to shoot, I have to hit alt/rightclick, THEN left click to return my focus to the game.

This got awkward and I fell back down after killing the sentry and trying to dodge a turret shot, and then I got hit by a sentry in midair where I couldn't duck. So I figured that was it.

This was pretty charming and I enjoyed the distinct challenges. The platforming was a good tough-but-fair, and I never felt ripped off by the controls except for the gun.

So I know you were not super-happy with your controls, but I found them mostly fine! If there were checkpoints I definitely would have finished, but after getting so close to the end, and dying twice to weird technical issues, I didn't have the heart for a third.

But overall a nice entry, dug the music, liked the sound effects, graphics solid and the controls solid too even if not perfect. A very nice all-around compo entry, congrats.
🎤 KunoNoOni
12. Oct 2019 · 06:18 UTC
@pkenney what resolution is your monitor set at? I tried to reproduce the issue you had and was unable to do so. Also what browser are you using? I tried in both Chrome and Waterfox (this is a forked build from Firefox). I'm really sorry the technical issues you had made your experience of the game less than stellar. I can say there is only one enemy in the game you need to shoot and that is the portal guardian in front of the blue door. Also I just learned and did it myself today that you don't even need to kill the guardian as I left too much space between it and the door... so if you fall off the platform above you can actually open the blue door and enter the portal without ever firing a shot.
Danielcmcg
13. Oct 2019 · 15:52 UTC
Nice little platformer, good stage design and nice puzzles. I found the jump a bit floaty, however, I liked the way that the features are being found around the game. Good job