LudumData

while(true) by TomekS

[raw]
made by TomekS for Ludum Dare 47 (COMPO)

typing.gif

You are a controller of an exploration robot stranded in far away planet, sadly its code corrupted and it will break once it runs out of commands, so your task is to type navigation orders into console as fast as you can.

HOW TO PLAY: - TYPE in COMMANDS to operate the robot and submit with ENTER - Each grid cell executes 1 command. - Navigate the robot to the GREEN point to complete the level. - If the robot RUNS out of commands the game is over. - You can START typing during the countdown, so plan ahead. - Don't drive to rocks, out of the path or out of the map. - The command line is always focused, you don't need to click it to type. - The turn command execute in spot.

THE GAME HAS TWO DIFFICULTY LEVELS: NORMAL: You just type first letter of a command "l" for turning left, "r" for turning right and "m" for moving forward one tile. HARD: you need to type full commands "left", "right" or "move". It's similar to a typing test :D

THE GAME HAS 101 PROCEDURALLY GENERATED LEVELS, with progressive size. The progress is saved, so when you reopen it will start from previously played level. The game also has a "completed" screen, screenshots of it are welcome in the comments :D The algorithm used for levels is called Wave Function Collapse.

TOOLS USED: - Unitu 2019.4 - VSCode - Blender - Photoshop - Bosca Ceoil - Bfxr

Screenshot 2.png Screenshot 3.png

Youtube https://tomeks.itch.io/whiletrue
Youtube https://drive.google.com/file/d/11_Muw8ayHtmK5ZedQ42COfxMWe-cKr8Y/view?usp=sharing
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/whiletrue

Ratings

Overall 92th 3.838⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Fun 93th 3.824⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 125th 3.743⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Theme 509th 3.041⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 54th 4.162⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Audio 157th 3.486⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Given 47🗳️ 47🗨️

Feedback

Seth Tal
04. Oct 2020 · 16:00 UTC
Just got done playing through the normal mode. This game has a pretty solid foundation. I felt as though the easier levels dragged on in the beginning as the correct path to take was very straight forward. I will be playing this game again on Hard mode once The Jam has finished and provide some of my final thoughts. Congratz on finishing, I think this game is very well executed.
Rolly
04. Oct 2020 · 23:06 UTC
That was so good! It's really simple but very entertaining. Are there levels higher than 6x6? Those were crazy already (I played in hardcore), but I wanted more :D

The visuals are really good, and the music was fine for what it was, just maybe too repetitive?

Great entry !
Ausstein
04. Oct 2020 · 23:30 UTC
very cool game!

I played in "super expert mode" and only used left and move, so I had to type three times left for a turn right :D
🎤 TomekS
05. Oct 2020 · 03:38 UTC
@seth-tal thanks for good word, on every gameJam I used to make the game too difficult for other players so maybe this time I went over? try the hard more its quite more challenging.
🎤 TomekS
05. Oct 2020 · 03:39 UTC
@rolly thanks for playing, the levels go up to 8x8 later on, of course the music is my achilles heal as on every game Jam :D
🎤 TomekS
05. Oct 2020 · 03:41 UTC
@ausstein haha that's cheating :D, but nice trick as right has 1 more letter. In the initial iteration the "move" was as "forward" but had to change as it was too much to type. If this game goes forward there will be more actions/commands. Thanks for playing <3
testuser
05. Oct 2020 · 04:41 UTC
The concept is cool. Maybe it's meant to be this way, to make typing harder and add to the pressure, but with moving back and forth from mouse and keyboard (clicking between every level) it would have been nicer to have "Enter" move to the next level. I don't think the countdown was visible either, so I wasn't able to gauge easily how much time I had. Overall, still pretty fun though.
🎤 TomekS
05. Oct 2020 · 10:53 UTC
@testuser thanks for the feedback I was thinking about the enter to proceed but run out of time. The coundown should be on top of the screen, and it's layouted for 960x600 screen, do you remember if you played full screen window?
bereg
05. Oct 2020 · 11:03 UTC
I enjoyed playing it. The concept is original and smart and it's challenging even on the normal level. Nice job!
ProbeProb
05. Oct 2020 · 11:37 UTC
The game is really fun. I wish there were a super easy mode, where you could type a sequence of letters without enter and it would execute all. It can get a bit confusing, but this also makes the charm.
Dominium11
05. Oct 2020 · 11:41 UTC
realy really cool, played through a lot of easy levels, once you get the mechanics down you beat the levels pretty much automatically, i guess some new shenanigans could be imolemented in the later levels, because it clearly becomes a little too repetitive
BeaverGames
05. Oct 2020 · 11:44 UTC
Really cool, I played through all the normal levels. I think that there shouldn't be a time limit on commands. But overall its awesome, but just make the music a little less annoying.
mincho
05. Oct 2020 · 11:45 UTC
The graphics are great, including the effects and the overal feel. The game itself has a solid concept and good execution, altough the levels are a bit easy. I found this game strangely addictive and played to the 6x6 board on hard mode, with a bit more variation I think that this game has a lot of potential.
🎤 TomekS
05. Oct 2020 · 11:58 UTC
@beavergames thanks for playing, the going against the time was supposed to be the challenging part otherwise it's quite boring :)
INCD021
05. Oct 2020 · 13:14 UTC
Really like it :D Just had to get the hang of it, and it all started coming together. Amazing you did all this in only 48 hours. :thumbsup:
nethead
05. Oct 2020 · 13:39 UTC
really cool game! impressed with the level of detail and polish you were able to add, and the mechanic is quite fun.
ChickenCastle
05. Oct 2020 · 14:11 UTC
I like games like this that represent a game loop mechanic. The commands were easy to remember and get used to, and I found myself getting into a kind of zen state as I parsed the map while executing commands quite quickly to get to the end tile in one go.
Really nice work!
irwatts
05. Oct 2020 · 16:21 UTC
Love the mechanics of this! I had some technical issues with the web player though. Tile graphics weren't loading so I couldn't see the rocks and it became a memory game, but I really like the art in the screenshots. Performance was also a little sluggish, making typing feel less than ideal, but that could be my machine. A hotkey to move to the next level without touching the mouse would be a nice addition. Nice work overall!
Albuquerque
05. Oct 2020 · 16:27 UTC
Nice game! Really solid. And wait... was that procedural? Holy! The only thing is that I did not see much of the theme in it. Well, congrats!
🎤 TomekS
05. Oct 2020 · 16:31 UTC
@irwatts I am sorry to hear, I actually did the optimisation pass, and clamp the resolution to 960 x 600 so it should run smooth for everybody. What browser did you use?

Thanks for playing
🎤 TomekS
05. Oct 2020 · 16:33 UTC
@albuquerque yeah I used Wave Function Collapse here is some examples of levels https://twitter.com/_TomekS/status/1312760428905201672?s=20

My idea about the theme was, that the robot is running on while(true) so you need to give it commands on time so it has something to execute (hence the theme), not sure if I telegraph it enough or if it matches. Thanks for playing
irwatts
05. Oct 2020 · 17:15 UTC
@albuquerque I had tried in Chrome, Firefox, and Edge with the same results. I just gave it another go in Vivaldi, and it worked fine! All the art loaded and everything was nice and smooth. Great game!
MZ Dino
05. Oct 2020 · 17:32 UTC
Cool game, I would suggest being able to see previous commands.
Meek Bits
05. Oct 2020 · 17:56 UTC
I really like your game.
I had an idea for a similar game some time ago and your creation is much better than what I imagined :)

It was fun and rewarding to play it.
The only thing I would change is the music. After a couple of levels is was more of a distraction than mood setter. But, that's a detail. Thank you for making this game.
Coding4rtist
05. Oct 2020 · 18:16 UTC
Really cool concept! The game is challenging and very well executed. I'm also impressed by the procedural generation of levels. Congrats!
joonamo
05. Oct 2020 · 18:40 UTC
Wow, this was a blast! Furiously typing with the crazy music playing, so good! Only complaint I have is that I wish you could restart/move to next level with keyboard.
Remzo
05. Oct 2020 · 19:22 UTC
Great game! Got to level 16 on hard before stopping. The sounds were very fitting and the visuals were solid. It began to get a little repetitive towards the end, was hoping for some obstacles that you would need some slightly different commands to pass. Overall great submission!
MrScythe
05. Oct 2020 · 20:48 UTC
Fun concept! Really makes you think ahead of your actions haha
Future Labs Unlimited
06. Oct 2020 · 00:01 UTC
I'm a big fan of the board game "RoboRally" so I just had to play this game which actually feels a bit like a (much less relaxed :D) realtime version of it. It could have been a bit more challenging with some dangerous elements, other robots etc. getting in your way, but on the other hand it might be hard to add those elements without making the game frustrating. The visuals and general aesthetics are really great, and I also liked the music (although I can imagine that it might get a bit repetitive if you play to level 101 :D).
Seth Tal
06. Oct 2020 · 01:37 UTC
@tomeks Finally got around to playing the game on hard, definitely an overall more enjoyable experience for me. Once again, my prior thoughts on this entry still apply, its very well polished for a Ludum Dare game. I think the main issue I have with level design is that a path is for most of the game very straight forward. For most stages you are exclusively moving from left to right or top to bottom etc etc. I dont know how possible this could have been for you, but spicing things up with less linear level design could have gone a long way for replay-ability. Overall this was still a fantastic game, and one of the few I fully played through multiple times. Nice work!

Edit: about my thoughts on level "paths", I just want to clarify that I dont literally mean a straight line path, when I describe a level's path I am thinking of the path in general. I am not sure If my thoughts will come across clearly or not but hopefully you get the idea.
🎤 TomekS
06. Oct 2020 · 03:21 UTC
@albuquerque Thanks for the info I will try to figure out what's the problem.

@mz-dino Thank you for playing, you can see previous commands on the left I have to clip them, or you meant commands from previous run i.e. after you crash and restart? That would be interesting as you could compare the run and see what went wrong, nice idea.
🎤 TomekS
06. Oct 2020 · 03:23 UTC
@meek-bits agreed completely music is an abomination, I am terrible at it, but in the spirit of compo and to be fair to other devs, I left it in, there is mute button in top left of main menu to turn it off (that's the least I can do :D). Thanks for playing <3
Shortbread
06. Oct 2020 · 04:00 UTC
Great concept and well executed, a very different take on the loop idea. Reminds me of the "learning to program" robot games.
Jordanfb
06. Oct 2020 · 04:23 UTC
This is really cute! It turns out I can type left, right, and move very quickly! A ton of levels which is super cool, I also love the art and aesthetic, from the old style "code" on the left to the static at the top of the camera view. I absolutely love the animation for falling off the edge of the map it's hilarious. While the gameplay gets a little old (especially on the hard mode, I didn't realize there were a hundred and one proc gen levels wow!) it's quite fun, I made it to level 21 before deciding to take a break and write this. A very coherent and nicely styled game! Nice work!

It would be interesting if you added things like rocks you could scan as extra commands to add more interesting gameplay after you've mastered the basics?
🎤 TomekS
06. Oct 2020 · 06:26 UTC
@seth-tal Yep I get your point, it's all about adjusting the difficulty curve. Thanks again for a great feedback
pekuja
06. Oct 2020 · 19:07 UTC
I had fun, but it's a bit easy for me since I can type quite fast (I played on hard) and there were no real tricks to the levels other than keeping mental track of which way the rover is oriented. Played through 20 levels. I failed only once, where I misread the initial orientation of the rover and drove it straight into some rocks. I mainly wish there was more happening in the levels.

The visuals are quite nice and I didn't even mind the music.

Oh... and where's the loop?
🎤 TomekS
07. Oct 2020 · 05:55 UTC
@pekuja thanks for playing, the loop is in title while(true) the robot operates on it, so if you don't insert commands fast enough it will crash. The theme loop doesn't need to be geometrical loop does it ?
noahw
09. Oct 2020 · 03:49 UTC
Really fun and challenging, looks and sounds great too. The increasing level size made for a really nice difficulty ramp for me. It did get old after a little though- maybe adding optional pickups that require more complicated routes would keep it interesting?
Vodzik
11. Oct 2020 · 20:35 UTC
Excelent game design and execution for compo :) Your game feals compleat, while my projects have always something missing, because I design it too big :P

With simple design you had time to polish it. I really like graphics. Console interface, film grain and noise on top are really adding to feeling like you are remotely operating this rover.

Great job :)