Robot Panic

by rab236
Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.44
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.12
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★1.96
Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.06
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.28
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.31
Humor★★★★★★★★★★1.38
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.37
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★100%
Use the arrow keys to move and the up arrow to jump once the rocket pickup is collected.

There are two pickups in the game,:

-Rockets, which let you jump
-Pusher, which lets you push crates

screenshot

Comments43

CdrJameson27 Aug 2012, 10:18
Pleasant, Metroid-esque exploration platformer.
Somewhat frustrating until realising that 'jump' was a pickup.
Seriously needs some checkpointing, as death sends you all the way back to the start.
Could see myself enjoying this a lot with a few minor tweaks.
rab236
rab236author27 Aug 2012, 14:36
Thanks for the advice. Checkpoints have been added when you find each part.
Zoomyzoom28 Aug 2012, 16:36
pretty fun and addictive game! i die alot :)
dekart28 Aug 2012, 16:38
Fairly hard to star, but looks nice. Would be better to start somewhere close to the point where you died.
Kayelgee28 Aug 2012, 16:42
this reminds me of robot wants kitty, I'm not sure what the second abiltiy does a little information on pickup would be nice
pythong28 Aug 2012, 16:45
i don't get what the second update is doing :? the white bar
gustavodort28 Aug 2012, 16:45
I loved moonlight sonata XD
rab236
rab236author28 Aug 2012, 16:59
I have added more information to the description of the game. Sorry for not being more specific in-game. The rod allows you to push crates.
RARoadkill28 Aug 2012, 21:07
Very hard game, but fun. Music got a bit old.
DevoreUK28 Aug 2012, 21:10
Make you dropbox link a http one or most browsers won't load your content (which is served via http).
rab236
rab236author28 Aug 2012, 21:13
Alright. Link fixed
kyyrma28 Aug 2012, 21:23
A bit too hard for me. I kept dying at the part where you have to run (slide?) under all those moving pistons until I just gave up. The music got jarring really quick as well. Was it something off from public domain?

Still a nice game. Hopefully others will have more luck finishing it :)
pjchardt
pjchardt28 Aug 2012, 21:27
I could not get past the smashing cylinders and the fact that I had to start over got me pretty frustrated. I like the idea of it but just can't get over the difficulty without frequent checkpoints. Props on the music though, one of my favorite songs.
rab236
rab236author28 Aug 2012, 21:28
This copy of Moonlight Sonata is public domain. A hint for the pistons is don't try to clear all of them at once.
patrickgh3
patrickgh328 Aug 2012, 21:33
The overall game idea wasn't bad, but in a game like this, where platforming is all the player is doing, the little things matter a lot. The controls and physics were very sketchy. Many times I pressed jump and the player didn't jump. Also, the checkpoints were a good idea, but I really think that there needed to be one right after the section where you ride the block upwards. I had to repeat that part about 6 times. And it took a while and I was a bit frustrated when I found out that you had to push those blocks over the spike pit because there were no directions.

Other than those small things, I enjoyed the unique traps and jumps, and the metroid-ish level design was pretty good.
daydalus
daydalus29 Aug 2012, 00:23
Exploration gameplay was fun. Thought gravity was a little sluggish. The most frustrating thing was getting sent back to the start upon death. Not sure if the piano music "adds" anything to the game. Overall though, nice work on the game.
rab236
rab236author29 Aug 2012, 00:38
Thanks. There are checkpoints .They are when you collect new parts, which are positioned right after the harder puzzles. Once you make it through a hard puzzle, you won't have to worry about losing all progress.
Sestren29 Aug 2012, 01:08
Pretty soothing music for a game called Robot Panic. :P
tigerj
tigerj29 Aug 2012, 01:27
The music was very fitting to the mood.
CataclysmicKnight
CataclysmicKnight29 Aug 2012, 03:02
It seemed like a few times when I wanted to jump it didn't respond, so I'd jump and then move to make sure it would succeed. Very difficult but, especially in so little time, very well done!
Glamdring29 Aug 2012, 03:13
I actually really liked the music, and the difficulty made it more fun for me. Until I reached the point where it seemed there was nothing else to do or it was effectively impossible to go anywhere else.
gbellgames
gbellgames29 Aug 2012, 03:18
You can actually pass through all pistons at once. And I also had trouble jumping.
Switchbreak
Switchbreak29 Aug 2012, 03:22
It's a good effort, and you should keep at it! It was a bit too difficult for me - the physics and movement felt too slow, and required pixel-precision to avoid some of the obstacles. The checkpointing was really unforgiving - I would have liked to see checkpoints before each obstacle, given how hard they are and how slow the movement is to get back to the spot where you died. I would have liked to see some animation on the ball too, some kind of rolling movement when it moves. Sometimes I had air control, other times I would just get stuck in mid-air which could be really frustrating.
rab236
rab236author29 Aug 2012, 03:51
I'm aware of the physics problems, but wanted to get all base mechanics down before fixing them. The biggest bug in my opinion is the inability to move if stuck on a wall. The precision and timing of the puzzles is what makes the game challenging (maybe I've been influenced a little too much by IWBTG when it comes to difficulty). We actually had a real robot at first and it looked had animations and pretty good. When trying to pt it in, though, this happened: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/53668348/robot/robot.html
It eventually was fixed, but it was too late to include into the submitted version.
mes
mes29 Aug 2012, 04:17
the physics is not too great; jumping feels super floaty, and you lose the ability to air control if you run into a wall. i like the concept of searching for your robot parts though.
QualityAssurance29 Aug 2012, 04:28
Very unforgiving. At least it plays soothing music to keep your nerves calm.
pjchardt
pjchardt29 Aug 2012, 05:26
I gave it another go and managed to survive the crushers. After that I had a much easier time and completed the game :)
fruitfly29 Aug 2012, 06:34
nice game that you have to play alot to finish. or you have to be able to look in the future ;-)
the ambient music is not mine though. could be more "aggressive" to fit the game...
johnfn
johnfn29 Aug 2012, 06:35
I died to the pistons like 10 times. Getting reset back to the beginning was too much for me :( I watched the walkthrough video to see what I was missing out on. The game is nice, but checkpoints would really really help. The audio was an interesting choice. Moonlight Sonata and a platformer game. Hm.
rab236
rab236author29 Aug 2012, 07:00
My logic was that soothing music would help calm anybody who was getting angry with the game (well, that and it was public domain)
eyehawk29 Aug 2012, 08:02
Chilled out atmosphere - nice!
Knighty
Knighty29 Aug 2012, 08:43
Simple but fun. The physics were a little weird, like if you jump and hit the side of a wall you'll just start falling, and your speed would never decrease while you're in the air. Also would have been nice if there were more checkpoints.
matthias_zarzecki29 Aug 2012, 12:22
I approve of the use of Beethoven, although admittedly it doesn't fit that much.
Rex Peppers
Rex Peppers29 Aug 2012, 16:52
Pretty fun game, first puzzle was a toughie!
Cake&Code30 Aug 2012, 05:10
This is among the harder LD games I've played. That's not necessarily a bad thing but since I blame the physics making it hard it is something you should watch out for :O

The level design wasn't half bad! Puzzles were good and the concept was solid. I think you should keep going with it!
rab236
rab236author30 Aug 2012, 05:54
Thanks. Unfortunately, bugs are like a hydra when it comes to physics; if you fix one, two will take its place.
Thurig30 Aug 2012, 07:40
This will be a great game with some tweaks.
infernet89
infernet8931 Aug 2012, 20:45
I didn't feel very comfortable with the controls, but the music is very good!
Accidental Rebel
Accidental Rebel1 Sep 2012, 04:19
Haha. Very unforgiving platfomer. Had to go back to start everytime I die. As everyone suggested, a checkpoint would be nice. :D
DaveDobson
DaveDobson1 Sep 2012, 04:44
I like the look and the idea a lot - I typically enjoy this kind of puzzle thing a good deal. This time, though, the gameplay was pretty frustrating for me. I died a lot, sometimes to stuff I couldn't see before sliding off a ledge (so that my death was actually mandatory to learn how to play). The traps with the moving pegs were difficult enough that you had to have pretty terrific timing, and that required me to navigate all the way down to them about six times to make it through. I found that too much and quit shortly after - sorry. I did really like the graphics, and the controls seemed responsive, and I totally appreciate that you want the game to be non-trivial, but for me it ended up not working in this form. Having three lives or something before being sent back to the checkpoint might help me out.
ggiraldez
ggiraldez1 Sep 2012, 05:00
It's missing some polish, but it's good. I like the graphics a lot. Music is too soothing and after a couple of loops it gets a bit tiring. Physics bugs are annoying, especially since you're already expected to die by game design, but I do understand it's hard to get right.
rab236
rab236author1 Sep 2012, 12:45
The music loops? Huh. The only goal of the level design was to make the level possible (though not very easy). I will continue with this project, and I'll certainly add more checkpoints, especially one before the pistons.
thewiseguy997 Sep 2012, 01:39
Fun game to play. But it was hard so I died a lot!!! Nice graphics and music. Good job!

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