The Unstable Machine by pinkemma

[raw]
made by pinkemma for Ludum Dare 49 (COMPO)

The Machine is Unstable.

It is up to you to keep it from going boom. Don't go boom. It's bad.

Can you handle your Dinglebops?

Expect to have to play a few times while you learn how things affect eachother.

How to play

The Dinglebops can be rotated by clicking and dragging to the left or right. Keep it in the green.

dinglebop.png

If a Dinglebop overpressure event happens, press the Vent button

vent.png

In addition, make sure your repricipical motion compensator parameters are set correctly, match the lights on the top of the panel with the ones at the bottom using the toggles.

repricipicalcompensator.png

And lastly, make sure one battery is always discharging into the Core (LED will turn of if there are no discharging batteries, flip the switch to set a battery to charging).

pw.png

When you hear the sounds something either changed and you need to fix it, or the difficulty went up

flux.png

There is also a trick involving one of these parameters, but I'll leave it up to dedicated players to figure out how to exploit it.

Tools

  • Unity
  • Krita
  • https://sfxr.me/

Ratings

Overall 468th 3⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 465th 2.786⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 334th 3.167⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 16th 4.381⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 401th 3.119⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 352th 2.833⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 227th 2.9⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 378th 2.95⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 20🗨️

Feedback

Hi7ch
03. Oct 2021 · 22:04 UTC
Ouch! Gonna be unstable playing this. Stress factor 10, Love it!
PixelsAtDawn
03. Oct 2021 · 22:20 UTC
I thought I was going to get seconds to relax at the start. I was wrong. I now know not to apply for a job in the nuclear industry.

Great game though!
SlimmerBurger
04. Oct 2021 · 01:06 UTC
Is it bad that I instantly felt the urge to mess with the dinglebops and broke the machine?
🎤 pinkemma
04. Oct 2021 · 01:08 UTC
Best way to learn what dinglebops do, @slimmerburger ! Some experimentation is probably needed to work them properly :)
Retrisma
04. Oct 2021 · 01:09 UTC
It took me a minute to figure out the controls and the goals, but this was quite fun to balance. Great take on the theme as well. I just wish that the instructions at the beginning were a little more clear. Great job though!
Wassim
04. Oct 2021 · 01:13 UTC
I like the Idea and Excution, the game is hard but It's challenging and fits the theme very well, Well done!
🎤 pinkemma
04. Oct 2021 · 01:15 UTC
@retrisma The instructions were written in the last 10min, I had kinda glossed over the need to include them. I did kinda lean into some thing being learnt by experimentation though
LDJam user 237913
04. Oct 2021 · 01:16 UTC
I thought I knew a thing or two about Dinglebops, and I wasn't wrong :smile: But I know nothing about the rest of the machine! VENT! VENT! That was fun, thanks for submitting!
Vedrfolnir
04. Oct 2021 · 05:27 UTC
Buttons, switches, dinglebops, and a lovely beep to let you know that your life just got harder. Good times.
🎤 pinkemma
04. Oct 2021 · 06:51 UTC
@vedrfolnir I wish real life had a beep to say it just got harder. Unless, is that what my tinitus it???
mborecki
04. Oct 2021 · 08:23 UTC
Dark souls of button pressing, nobs turning and switch switching.
🎤 pinkemma
04. Oct 2021 · 08:58 UTC
@mborecki Best description yet!
Johnathan Peres
04. Oct 2021 · 16:25 UTC
So hard yet so fun, good job!
shp
04. Oct 2021 · 19:29 UTC
awesome concept for the theme, quite hard to play though. the visuals and sounds fit the game like a glove
the.jahn
05. Oct 2021 · 02:39 UTC
Original comment, for history's sake: Ah, crap. Commented on the wrong game. I have too many tabs open. Please ignore, sorry! D':

But I've since played your game. It's a great take on the theme, definitely feels like operating an unstable blackbox device - I have no idea what I'm doing. Sounds instill a good sense of urgency to do something, though. I lasted 41 seconds. Haha.
🎤 pinkemma
05. Oct 2021 · 02:52 UTC
Consider yourself ignored @the-jahn :D
Simpathey
05. Oct 2021 · 03:22 UTC
The game was well balanced but it was a little too hard at the start. Maybe machine gets more unstable with time so that new players can learn controls. The game had fun chaotic energy.
BridgeOnAStick
05. Oct 2021 · 08:50 UTC
Cool game, very chaotic indeed! Once you get the hang of it it gets interesting. However, a tutorial of some sorts would still be appreciated.
🎤 pinkemma
05. Oct 2021 · 09:20 UTC
@bridgeonastick Yeah, I was getting very close to the timelimit, and didn't have time for a proper tutorial. I wish I had made a screen that explain where things were though, since the player doesn't have time to figure it out before it's over.
Listonos
05. Oct 2021 · 11:53 UTC
I love these games with dinglebobs, toggle switches and overall machine operating. This on was a little too stressful for me and, as other pointed out, it throws you right in a crisis and good luck. Still, a nice entry!
glenugie
05. Oct 2021 · 14:00 UTC
I don't think I'm qualified to operate The Machine - but questionable hiring practices aside, this was a neat idea! Definitely fits the theme, and the audio effects fit the tone perfectly. I did have to come back and read the explanation here though, the in-game tutorial was quite sparse for explaining how everything works (notably I didn't understand how the reciprocal motion stuff worked)
🎤 pinkemma
05. Oct 2021 · 14:06 UTC
@glenugie I only JUST added the explanations here. I would have loved to have more in the game, but I was exhausted with fighting Unity on everything and was glad just to get it shipped :)

And as far as hiring goes... at least we're not wasting good talent ;)
Schuster
06. Oct 2021 · 00:55 UTC
Nice game, very frantic
Glen Chang
06. Oct 2021 · 00:58 UTC
I shouldn't touch any machine for a while. I think I just blow things up. I think it would help to show what each knob does. That way you can tell if you did something right or wrong. I couldn't figure out what I was doing except for trying to keep some meters green.
jharler
06. Oct 2021 · 17:28 UTC
Oh man, that is intense! Definitely had me on edge. Nice job for that! Honestly, I had a hard time trying to figure out what did what and what I was supposed to be doing. I think an in-gameplay tutorial would have been very useful in aiding players to know what to do.