Hero's Robot by Yumeito

[raw]
made by Yumeito for LD36 (JAM)
This game is all about the world's first programmable robot which was created by Hero of Alexandrio in around 60AD...

You program the robot to collect coins and avoid obstacles to progress to new levels.
Detailed instructions on how to program the robot is in the tutorial.

Press 'N' during the intro scene if you want to skip it. You can also press 'N' to skip the tutorial if you think you know how to program a 1000+ year old robot :P

Have fun.

P.S: My second Ludum Dare and my third completed game :D All the programming and art(Except the face of Hero which I took from wikipedia) is done by myself in about 15 - 20 hours. All the actual gameplay was made in the last 3-4 hours. I wasn't motivated enough this time and spent most of the time just day dreaming.

Source of info : https://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2007/07/programmable-robot-from-60ad.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_of_Alexandria

Credits for the music and sound effects:
https://www.freesound.org/people/landlucky/sounds/277403/

https://www.freesound.org/people/Timbre/sounds/232890/

https://www.freesound.org/people/Yuroun/sounds/233033/

https://www.freesound.org/people/datasoundsample/sounds/41350/

https://www.freesound.org/people/ProjectsU012/sounds/341695/

https://www.freesound.org/people/ksdj55/sounds/322360/

Feedback

Rico The Jammer
30. Aug 2016 · 02:19 UTC
It seems Hero also invented perpetual motion (drop-front-front)!

Amusingly, because of the theme of the jam I also considered Hero for a while (mostly his pneumatic contraptions), but then went in another direction.
mrwillowb
30. Aug 2016 · 02:21 UTC
Robots are cool, I should have made a robot game :)
Jupiter_Hadley
30. Aug 2016 · 13:50 UTC
Very interesting game! I included it in my compilation video series of Ludum Dare 36 games, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/XIU4hYAXhy0
crazyrems
30. Aug 2016 · 19:44 UTC
That's an interesting game, I didn't managed to pass the second level with the saws :(
You have to be careful at the order you push the buttons, sometimes the robot was turning backward crazy!
🎤 Yumeito
31. Aug 2016 · 11:21 UTC
Thanks for playing my game :)
@crazyrems U can stop the robot while its moving by droping the weight too
npizzle1
13. Sep 2016 · 14:37 UTC
found it fun trying to get it moving but unfortunately I was rubbish and could only get 1 coin...going to have another go now.
amras0000
14. Sep 2016 · 23:53 UTC
First off, love the tiny one-file executable. Always nice not to have to download 100MB of random libs that aren't even used.
I briefly entertained the idea of using Hero's robot as a basis for the game, but couldn't think of anything interesting to do with it, so I'm glad someone else has picked up the baton.
The tutorial scrolls past a bit too quickly, I'd have liked to click through it instead but it's fine otherwise.

Regarding the meat of the game: Often with robot-programming games the appeal comes from having to install a number of instructions before they're executed, forcing the player to conceptualize the worldstate in a number of turns. And I think you lost a great opportunity here. I would have loved to see a game where I had to push around blocks, or navigate mazes by individually controlling when each wheel is turning forwards and back. As it stands it's just a bit frustrating to navigate since I have to re-input the same mouseclicks over and over to run down a longer corridor.

I wasn't able to get past the second level. I got to the exit and the game wouldn't let me progress. I imagine I had to get all the coins but I couldn't get past the gears without dying and being sent to the main menu.

A couple things I'd have liked fixed, from what I've seen of the game:
Death should restart me at the current level, rather than the main menu.
The rotation animation could be smoother
Fixing the ending of the second stage, and ensuring the player can't walk through the walls there
Hotkeys for all the buttons (!!) - clicking in the same positions over and over cramps my hand a bit
Being able to buffer more complex instructions

Not a bad concept, just wish it'd received more polish and care than it did.