X-1 - A Game About a Robot Shutting Down

Overall★★★★★★★★★★4.24
Fun★★★★★★★★★★4.05
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.73
Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.15
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.38
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.84
Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.10
Delay X-1's shutdown by reaching charge stations littered across the map! Explore with your jetpack as you search for power to stay alive.

I had some other stuff happening this weekend and wasn't able to put in as much time as I wanted. Still, I think the game is decent, have fun!

Please ignore the minor typo and the incorrect apostrophe character width.


All assets were made by me within the 48 hours except for the sound effects linked on the itch.io page, which are free. (this might conflict with compo ruling, if so I'll change submission type or available ratings accordingly)

screenshot
Genres: platformer
Tools: Construct

Comments58

LDJam user 279610
LDJam user 2796104 Apr 2022, 05:32
The HTML 5 link to itch,io is a 404. Did you make sure to publish and make it public? Too bad I wanted to play your game
Billnoticauthor4 Apr 2022, 05:46
@david-york Yup, forgot to take it off restricted :sweat_smile:. Should be working now if you still want to give it a shot!
benbennett4 Apr 2022, 06:20
Loved the art! The controls were great, the jetpack was responsive and felt good. I would have liked something else in the level to look for other than recharge stations. But overall great entry!

For the sound effects I think it's fine to keep it under compo, but maybe remove audio from the ratings. I did like the song tho
Frizuo4 Apr 2022, 06:22
I love it! It's extremely polished, the sprites look amazing and the music is great! I think this can definitely be expanded upon and made into a full fledged commercial platformer. Great job!
Billnoticauthor4 Apr 2022, 06:24
@benbennett Thanks for playing! Its a shame I have to remove audio ratings since the music was made by me, but if it conflicts with rules there isn't much I can do about it.

I agree that something else besides recharge stations would have been nice, I was considering adding stations to spend energy on upgrades to traverse new parts of the map, but scope creep got me and I had to cut it :sweat_smile:.

EDIT: I've been playing a bunch of other compo games and they seem to be using sounds not made during the 48 hours as well - but they leave audio as an option. Since it doesn't seem to be an issue, I'll reenable audio voting. If this ends up being a problem I'll just disable it again.
Billnoticauthor4 Apr 2022, 06:25
@frizuo Thank you! I appreciate the kind words.
Rxbbie
Rxbbie4 Apr 2022, 06:59
Very polished! The music and ambience are top notch. Controls feel tight too. I like how you tutorialized the game, it very integrated and not intrusive. Overall, super solid submission. Good work!
Billnoticauthor4 Apr 2022, 07:01
@rxbbie Thanks! The music I made was honestly my favorite thing to come out of this jam :smile:.
Tulio4 Apr 2022, 08:55
great game, congratulations!
badoomtch
badoomtch4 Apr 2022, 09:30
I loved this one a lot. The graphics are great, the gameplay is a lot of fun. Great submission!
Uzpykes
Uzpykes4 Apr 2022, 09:31
This looks and plays very good. Great graphics! The only thing that was a bit annoying was that some platforms are very close to the edge of the screen and when you try to jump/fly to them, your trajectory crosses to another room and so camera briefly switches to that room and makes it difficult to control where you land (sorry if the explanation of the issue was poor!). My advice would be to keep platforms further away from the edges so that even if you cross to another room for some time, you would still get time to adjust your landing spot while falling.

Overall, an excellent job!
owca4 Apr 2022, 09:49
Great. Nice graphics and audio. I also like how you embedded the tutorial tips into the level itself. :thumbsup:
Kosmosael
Kosmosael4 Apr 2022, 10:18
This game gets everything right.
The graphics, the music and the overall level design.

Really appreciated my time on it, would love to see it being released in a full fledged version!
Billnoticauthor4 Apr 2022, 12:42
@uzpykes Yeah, I was aware of the issue but didn't really have the time to properly fix it so I added the ability to choose your camera type. It says in one of the text boxes that if you press 1 you can switch to free roam camera but I guess it wasn't the clearest.

Thanks for the feedback!
Billnoticauthor4 Apr 2022, 12:50
@owca Yeah, that's how I do tutorials for all my jam games, it makes them way easier to digest. Thanks for playing!
Billnoticauthor4 Apr 2022, 12:53
@kosmosael Maybe if I added cut mechanics it could become a proper release but I'll most likely leave it as is. Thanks for the compliments though, means a lot.
StephanTTM4 Apr 2022, 16:26
So great! The point guiding you to recharge stations is so cool and the gameplay feels great, I could spend an hour on just the home screen listening to the theme and playing with the play buttons sound effect. The X-1 is so adorable and the whistle sound on pressing play adds that little extra to the games charm. The option to change the camera is very nice.
Billnoticauthor4 Apr 2022, 16:55
@stephanttm Thanks! I tried really hard to make the game feel fluid, especially with the tweening of UI elements and the camera, and it's good to hear it payed off. Glad you liked the music, it was one of my favorite things to come out of this jam.
LDJam user 279610
LDJam user 2796104 Apr 2022, 19:19
Extremely well done. Looked great, played well. Nice job for sure!
waffleworksgames
waffleworksgames4 Apr 2022, 19:30
Awesome! An impressive amount of polish, especially for a compo game. The controls felt quite smooth. Love the graphics and audio.
BubakGames
BubakGames4 Apr 2022, 19:32
Grat game. It's really polished. I like the graphics and great sountrack.
TomatoOmelet
TomatoOmelet4 Apr 2022, 21:27
Cute, I like the art and music. Flying feels good.
foxwater
foxwater4 Apr 2022, 23:56
Well done! The controls are super smooth and the added ability to change camera preferences was nice. Very polished game all around!
CaptainCarrot
CaptainCarrot5 Apr 2022, 00:29
Great game! Very Cute, I felt bad when I ran out of power. The jetpack doesn't work when you jump up through a screen and try to use it, fyi. It's probably disabled while you get yeeted upwards, but it's a small thing.
Billnoticauthor5 Apr 2022, 00:42
@tomatoomelet Thanks! The little shake effect on X-1 really helps feel of flying a lot.
Billnoticauthor5 Apr 2022, 00:43
@foxwater The camera choices were definitely necessary for people who got confused with screen transitions with the jetpack, and it also made exploration easier. I wanted to keep all options available, glad it ended up helping my game! Thanks for playing!
Billnoticauthor5 Apr 2022, 00:46
@captaincarrot It likely still works you just need to hold down W through the transition. The transitions with the jetpack can get annoying though, which is why camera options are there. You can press 1 to adjust camera type and press 2 to switch from pausing on camera transition to not.

I definitely tried to make the ending screen feel sad, glad the blackout and rain sounds were effective at their job.
milq
milq5 Apr 2022, 08:29
Fun, original and challenging game. Maybe the music is a bit regular but not because it's bad, but because the rest is so good. Amazing game!
Billnoticauthor5 Apr 2022, 12:19
@milq What do you mean by the music being a bit regular?
N.O. Games
N.O. Games5 Apr 2022, 18:26
Absolutely amazing. There is so much I could praise but honestly the best thing in this is its level design. The player is easily taught how to play the game and encouraged to explore and it just feels wonderful. Amazing job!
limered5 Apr 2022, 18:41
Really awesome game. Love the music, love the graphics and mechanics. The robot is adorable. I have no idea how you managed to mage this huge map and all during 48 hours. Respect!
One gripe i have with the game: Jumping when the window scrolls up is disorienting and some deaths feel unfair because of this.
(I now learned that you can switch the camera with 1, why not make this camera the default?)

Really good submission! I had fun.
yusovv
yusovv5 Apr 2022, 19:17
Excellent game mechanics, exciting gameplay, music is not annoying. The first difficult moments began when you need to do a double jump on the platforms. This game is amazing!
ollie_d
ollie_d5 Apr 2022, 20:36
Genuinely very fun. I don't usually like platformers, but this one feels really tight. I love the concept and I think it fits the theme very well. I like that you have to be conservative with the jetpack, reminds me of Worms. Well done!
Billnoticauthor5 Apr 2022, 22:04
@limered I was originally going to have it switch the camera type once you get past the beginning but I ran out of time. As for the map, it was originally intended to be like 4 times as big (if you open the project's source code you'll see the way bigger layout size), but again, not nearly enough time thanks to compo being so short. As for how I was able to get what I did have as fast as I did, the answer is the Tiled map editor. Didn't have enough time to make automapping work but their terrain editor did the job well enough although it was pretty finicky, especially when I added grass.

Thanks for the kind words, glad you had fun with my game.
Billnoticauthor5 Apr 2022, 22:05
@n-o-games I appreciate it! I always try to keep tutorials as simple and unintrusive as possible without leaving players confused. Good to hear it worked :smile:.
Billnoticauthor5 Apr 2022, 22:06
@yusovv There is no double-jump mechanic? Are you referring to the jetpack?
Billnoticauthor5 Apr 2022, 22:07
@ollie-d Thank you! Using the jetpack also eats away at your energy, so there is another element to the gameplay to consider. Glad it stayed fun for you.
LDJam user 243193
LDJam user 2431936 Apr 2022, 08:33
Good robot game! basic stuffs are easy to understand. Though I wish all energy eating machines show which platform they activate.
That being said, I love on how big the explorable area this game has. Gives incentive to replay :)
Billnoticauthor6 Apr 2022, 12:22
@bloodbane Originally there was going to be wirrs to connect the machines with the platforms, but as with most jam games, certain QOL features weren't added because I ran out of time.

Glad you enjoyed the map! It was pretty fun to make.

Thanks for playing.
cogcomp
cogcomp6 Apr 2022, 17:36
Wow this was a really impressive compo. It felt like something put together professionally over a much longer period than 48 hours. Everything just felt right. Incredible! Well done!
Rolly
Rolly6 Apr 2022, 18:04
Awesome concept! This is like the perfect combination between a platformer and usage of the theme!

Everything is so good and feels so consistent; the music, the visuals, the sound effects! This feels very polished!

It took me a while to notice that there was actually a marker that indicates to position of the closest battery (was it explained? Maybe I missed something :p )

Great work!
Billnoticauthor6 Apr 2022, 18:24
@rolly No, it wasn’t explained. Like with the camera controls it was thrown in last minute but it wasn’t included as part of the tutorial text because I guess I didn’t realize how unclear it was. Glad you still had fun though!
Billnoticauthor6 Apr 2022, 18:26
@cogcomp Thank you! I spent a good bit of time on game feel in general like with coyote time and movement effects, and it’s good to hear it payed off. Forgot to add jump buffering completely, but the game controlled tight enough already so I didn’t see it as too much of a problem. Thanks for playing!
Jackaljk6 Apr 2022, 20:28
I like the idea and it looks and feels super polished for a compo game, nice!
clemall
clemall11 Apr 2022, 16:27
Really cool game. Controls feels good and responsive.
The art and sound design are nice and the game feels polished.
Strong entry, well done !
Lone_Wolf
Lone_Wolf12 Apr 2022, 16:30
When I first started this up I stayed in the menu to hear the music through, very good job with that.

This was a lot of fun to play, but having to refresh the page after every death got annoying after ~8 runs. Did I miss a button?
Billnoticauthor14 Apr 2022, 21:17
@jackaljk Thank you!

@clemall Appreciate the kind words, I spent a good bit of time making sure the game felt tight to play, but unfortunately I wasn't able to implement every QOL aspect to the controls that I wanted.
Billnoticauthor14 Apr 2022, 21:19
@lone-wolf You didn't miss a button, I made the death screen with very little time remaining and didn't have enough left to add it. If I used the submission time to add new features I might have been able to include a replay button but I was tired and decided not to.

Glad you enjoyed the music so much, it's easily my favorite thing to come out of this project.
LDJam user 250825
LDJam user 25082516 Apr 2022, 15:19
Nice platformer, feels very moody! Thanks for the alternative camera, I definitely like the _idea_ of the segmented camera but it felt like the levels weren't built around it which caused some awkward transitions. The gameplay is smooth and platforming feels good, background music is nice as well :D Wish it would have supported arrow keys in addition to WASD (or bindable, I feel like I leave this comment on almost every platformer lately :D). Nice work!
M2tias16 Apr 2022, 17:14
This reminds me of the old indie games from the golden era like Cave Story. Amazing mood! I couldn't find my way around but seemed really nice. Well done!
Billnoticauthor17 Apr 2022, 17:46
@bqq Yeah, it was difficult to visualize the segments when creating the map so it ended up feeling disjointed. I had to provide an alternate option, which led to the different camera types.

Sorry for not providing arrow keys as an option, it would have been so easy to add but I just never thought about it.

Glad you like the music and mood, the rain and lowpass filter at low health really do wonders.

Thanks for playing!
LDJam user 250825
LDJam user 25082517 Apr 2022, 18:26
@billnotic No worries! Just something to consider for next time, hopefully it's not too bad in Construct :D in Unity I just do `Input.GetKey(KeyCode.A) || Input.GetKey(KeyCode.Left)` for low effort dual controls. And yea the dynamic low-pass effect is super cool!
McGraneC28 Sep 2022, 07:01
Great article! I realized these are my favorite kinds of GI articles. Enough news and reviews, more stuff like this! Let the writers get creative!

https://www.tellhappystar.net/
ShawD12 Nov 2022, 05:34
Everything is very open with a clear description of the issues. It was truly informative. Your website is very helpful. Many thanks for sharing!

https://www.chipotlefeedback.me/

Other games by @billnotic

Found a bug?
Tell us on Discord