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I was not expecting the disposable robot to have such groovement. Part of that is the impressive level design. The procedural levels play well with the movement mechanics. You're never softlocked because you can exit to your ship easily.

Starting with one health was a little harsh for me but I respect the design choice. It was genuinely funny to close a door on myself and just explode instantly. I took up all of my tries stepping into a room while telling myself not to hit the button that rains laser on your bucket-head, just to do the same thing moments later.

This game also looks and sounds fantastic. 

I wasn't able to finish it though, it is buggy. That's ok. My game is a mess too and also had many 12+ hour days put into it. As stated on the game page, this is a prototype.

So, sticking to design feedback. I feel this game will be too punishing for most players without some kind of permanent progression within levels. I don't think this failure mechanic should be removed entirely, but there are too many ways to die in the first level that the player needs to adapt to. Doors, laser traps, different enemy types, and different configurations of the three have all had painstaking effort put into them, but it is hard to experiment with them knowing that any upgrades awarded for your efforts will likely go down the drain. I found myself avoiding gears just because I didn't like the feeling of being full.

What if there were fewer lives, but failing a mission simply rescrambled the map instead of generating on each drop? Just, anything different from a complete reset I would prefer.

(4 edits) (+1)

Ciao Roboticy! Thanks for your feedback! We're delighted you enjoyed.

Agreed that the current iteration of the health and reset system is frustrating. It's a solid prototype and enough to capture that addictive "just one more try" feel a lot of players are expressing enjoyment for, but it needs more work. Which is great, because that's exactly what we're going to give it!

In the full version, the health system will probably be in bar form, allowing for more scalability with upgrades and greater failure lenience in the first area. Resets will still wipe some progress (as this is a core feature of roguelite design), but similar to what you're suggesting, not all progress. Another issue in the current iteration is that replays don't have a lot to distinguish themselves from one another, which is also core to a roguelite experience. Stuff like additional powers, stat modifiers, and other resources. So the runs feel too similar even with procedural levels. Finally, I think the overall difficulty is too high in general for a first-time player. Again, a consequence of jam time having only a handful of external playtesting sessions for design iteration. While those kinds of changes and systems were way beyond scope for a jam with everything else we wanted to deliver, we definitely hear you, and they will be a major focus moving forward.

Oh, so that I can update my bug tracker, could you let me know which bug stopped you from finishing? 

Thanks for helping us make the game better!

In the first level, there is a double door in the ceiling that I assume is supposed to be operable. But when I press the two switches, nothing happens. I thought this was the way forward, because I felt that I scoured the level for other exits and found nothing. Not necessarily "game breaking," I might be missing something but it was enough to deter me, lol.

Thanks for making this game! Bug tracker? So fancy! I wish your team the best of luck working on this. More run variety could be cool. My roommate recently finished Blue Prince, which tackles the similar issue of shifting levels with specific story/progression points very well. Even without their ridiculous room variety, you're using the rooms differently every time. Instead of "go from one side to the other" it's "this room gives me a thing I can cash in at another room, but taking it also means you don't have enough steps to get to this other place". The usual "relic" roguelite trope is turned on it's head as the rooms themselves become the major deciding factor in what the player can and cannot do each run.