Coded Universe is a programming game in which you play as a kid hunting for Christmas dinner (the shops were closed). Armed with just your phone, you have to collect your Christmas dinner. BUT, on your phone is Universe Studio 2015 Mobile Edition, allowing you to alter the universe with code, slowing time and moving objects to kill.
(NOTE: the phone slowing down time when open WAS intended - it would be pretty darn hard killing birds in real-time :P )
Controls:
Move – Arrows
Shoot – Left-Click
Show/Hide Phone – Right-Click
Quick intro to the code:
Objects are displayed as ” NAME: (POSITION X, POSITION Y, ROTATION)”. Feel free to alter the values.
WALKTHROUGH/GUIDE (the concept can be a bit confusing):
Could be better. I couldn't figure out that the screen to the left was my phone at first, so it could have used more work making it look like a phone rather than a wall of text.
Very odd, the FPS dropped when I was on my phone, not sure if a feature :P The snow - fantastic! I must have spent several minutes just head butting the snow, or was is polystyrene? You might want to randomize it on the y (z?) axis too, so it doesn't fall in lines :P
I deleted everything on the phone and a boulder fell on me. Pretty cool game! Well done.
Would definitely like to see this better realised. Sounds like a really interesting concept, but I don't really know how to actually play this game. I apparently collected something from near a rock, but no idea why it was there or what it was.
I really like the idea but I couldn't figure out if there was more to the game than moving things around? I couldn't find any christmas dinner. A fun experience nonetheless :)
There appears to be a problem with the Linux download: I clicked on it, and the archive was empty. The other ones work, but not Linux. Is anyone else experiencing this issue?
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Cake&Code10 Dec 2014, 16:53
The graphics actually remind me of the old Hugo adventure games on DOS for some reason, I think it's the main character's head.
As much as I love programming games, I think this needs some more polish and love. The learning curve is just too steep and when I accidentally selected all and deleted the text in the phone box I had to restart the game to figure out what to do.
Love the idea though! Please keep working on this! :)
Hey, really cool concept. :D My main issue was that making it right click to "Run" wasn't a good idea, as it opens up a pop-up menu within Unity on the web version. But yeah, very cool idea. :D
nice game, between "hack 'n' slash" and "scribblenauts". Need some polishing (hitbox, this damned menu when you right click, update values in phone...) but it's hard for a game like this. And good mood.
Interesting idea, haven't really seen that kind of thing before. But it really is quite confusing, had to read the text above two times and experiment with the game for a while to find out what I might be supposed to do - still not perfectly sure but I did collect 3 things, so yeah, I think I did something right. :D
Hi there, I'm so sorry you found my game while I was getting the servers online again! I'm gonna play pretty often, so if I'm not on just try and catch me on twitter (@Mach60KAS). Thanks for the patience! :)
Hi, I thought the concept of your game was a really interesting take on the theme! I had a lot of trouble working out what to do, but when I watched the walkthrough the idea made a lot more sense.
The graphics were quite nice, I liked the little touches on things like the snow, though I agree that it could have been randomised a little better.
The way the characters spoke was certainly... interesting? Although I thought it helped make the game a little more off beat and wacky - probably what I'd call a good thing! :P
You definitely need to include the ability to restart the level in a game where you can arbitrarily rotate the world. I had to exit and start again several times.
I wasn't able to figure out what to do really, sorry. There a bunch of other games like this, where the player has to change attributes of the world to solve puzzles, I would look to them for inspiration.
It's good for the time that it was made in. I agree with some of the comments that say that I think you could've done more with it as a jam entry and I'd love to see more of it if you do!
The lack of a tutorial makes it pretty difficult to get what's going on at first. See if you can work in using the controls to your story. Once I knew what I had to do, getting around the game was fun and easy. That initial hurdle might keep people away though. Just something to try to iron out.
The idea itself is really neat and reminds me a lot of what Double Fine was doing with Hack n' Slash. You might try taking a look at that, if you haven't already. :)
Cool entry. Thanks for your notes on Natquik and thank you for sharing this! Congrats! :D
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But the concept is very cool - I would like to see an expanded game (take the last 40 hours)
I deleted everything on the phone and a boulder fell on me. Pretty cool game! Well done.
@kalugny Thanks :) I'll try and update the entry's description (there's not much I can do to the game itself atm)
A fun experience nonetheless :)
Graphics are really good too. I think you should increas the walking speed.
@dusho that was intended :P
@vidarn yeah, you had to kill it first ;)
@vortex the coding aspect or the gameplay in general?
As much as I love programming games, I think this needs some more polish and love. The learning curve is just too steep and when I accidentally selected all and deleted the text in the phone box I had to restart the game to figure out what to do.
Love the idea though! Please keep working on this! :)
My main issue was that making it right click to "Run" wasn't a good idea, as it opens up a pop-up menu within Unity on the web version.
But yeah, very cool idea. :D
Once again, thanks for the feedback. I'm improving it atm and hopefully a polished version will be ready after the competition has ended.
@d3garcia did you unlock the rifle?
Need some polishing (hitbox, this damned menu when you right click, update values in phone...) but it's hard for a game like this.
And good mood.
The graphics were quite nice, I liked the little touches on things like the snow, though I agree that it could have been randomised a little better.
The way the characters spoke was certainly... interesting? Although I thought it helped make the game a little more off beat and wacky - probably what I'd call a good thing! :P
Overall good job, keep up the good work!
bit a bit of tutorial wold be even better
I wasn't able to figure out what to do really, sorry. There a bunch of other games like this, where the player has to change attributes of the world to solve puzzles, I would look to them for inspiration.
Here is an overview of some games that use programming as primary elements: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobLockhart/20130905/199667/Games_That_Teach_Programming_A_Brief_Overview.php
The lack of a tutorial makes it pretty difficult to get what's going on at first. See if you can work in using the controls to your story. Once I knew what I had to do, getting around the game was fun and easy. That initial hurdle might keep people away though. Just something to try to iron out.
The idea itself is really neat and reminds me a lot of what Double Fine was doing with Hack n' Slash. You might try taking a look at that, if you haven't already. :)
Cool entry. Thanks for your notes on Natquik and thank you for sharing this! Congrats! :D