I like the idea, and the design is attractive. I'm a bit confused by the difficulty, since I had 4-5 sabots chasing me down on the first level by the time I was able to get to the factory, and I thought there was just supposed to be one on the first level. The controls are very interesting; I'm not sure if they make more sense on a non QWERTY keyboard, but on my keyboard they are pretty unintuitive, and the numberpad navigation keys didn't seem to work. Overall it was a challenging and interesting experience
They spawn every 5 seconds. The amount that spawns depends on the amount of factories remaining (1 sabot per still standing factory) (so on the first level you get 1 sabot every 5 seconds), so to avoid getting overwhelmed you are supposed to sabotage them as quickly as possible.
Yeah, sorry about the controls, I didn't have a numpad to test it on. Maybe if you toggle num lock it works? The hjklyubn keys I took from Cataclysm DDA (vi keys + some additional ones for diagonal movement). The qweadz[x/s]c keys are supposed to be more intuitive on a keyboard as that set of keys more closely resembles the shape of a numpad. I'm thinking about adding the option to navigate by the relative position of the mouse to the player, which is what Gnome Robots does. I also should add the option for players to set their own keys bindings (which is something still have to implement in any game I've ever made XD).
It was quite fun but a little bit to luck-based. If the factories spawn close to you, gg, if they don't well gg anyways. Also controls were a bit quirky, I'd prefer WASD + QEZC but maybe thats just me...
Yeah, I just took the controls from Cataclysm DDA, but that is a turn based game, but here one must be quick so it's problematic if the controls are weird. I already made a commit to allow wqazxcde movement, because I thought that might be more intuitive for people without numpads (I will probably upload the new version, since it was a really quick and easy thing to do, so it shouldn't affect my trijam time too much).
> It was quite fun but a little bit to luck-based
You have 5 seconds before the sabots spawn. If you are far away from factories you can use the teleporter to quickly try to get to a more advantageous position (there's no cooldown and there's no risk involved, because there are no fires or sabots yet). That's the strategy I use.
I also intentionally made the player faster than the sabots so that the player may outrun them and lure them into each other or into the fires. The game (without taking into account teleportation) becomes easier the higher the fire to sabot ratio is, because the sabots only try to avoid the factories, so if there is a wave of sabots coming from one direction, you only need to stand behind a fire to fully destroy them. I managed to complete level 7 with that strategy.
Some versions of the Chase game (1984) (which is what this game was inspired in) also have so called safe teleports that you can use a limited amount of times that put the player somewhere where there is no fire or enemy. Maybe I might some day add something like that.
Edit:
Uploaded the updated version with the improved controls, which took 1 to 2 minutes.
Ok, I just found a major bug that was making the game many times harder. The probabilities are completely off, because every time you were teleporting the game would teleport you 20 more times and if in any of them you die, you die. So with every teleport, it is 20 times more likely that you are teleported into a fire or into a sabot. XD I won't upload the fix for that until after the jam is over, because despite that bug it is still playable and because it took quite a bit of time to find that bug (and to notice it ("Why did I land into that single fire in all of that terrain?! What are the odds? This is happening way too often...")).
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I like the idea, and the design is attractive. I'm a bit confused by the difficulty, since I had 4-5 sabots chasing me down on the first level by the time I was able to get to the factory, and I thought there was just supposed to be one on the first level. The controls are very interesting; I'm not sure if they make more sense on a non QWERTY keyboard, but on my keyboard they are pretty unintuitive, and the numberpad navigation keys didn't seem to work. Overall it was a challenging and interesting experience
Thanks! :D
They spawn every 5 seconds. The amount that spawns depends on the amount of factories remaining (1 sabot per still standing factory) (so on the first level you get 1 sabot every 5 seconds), so to avoid getting overwhelmed you are supposed to sabotage them as quickly as possible.
Yeah, sorry about the controls, I didn't have a numpad to test it on. Maybe if you toggle num lock it works? The hjklyubn keys I took from Cataclysm DDA (vi keys + some additional ones for diagonal movement). The qweadz[x/s]c keys are supposed to be more intuitive on a keyboard as that set of keys more closely resembles the shape of a numpad. I'm thinking about adding the option to navigate by the relative position of the mouse to the player, which is what Gnome Robots does. I also should add the option for players to set their own keys bindings (which is something still have to implement in any game I've ever made XD).
It was quite fun but a little bit to luck-based. If the factories spawn close to you, gg, if they don't well gg anyways. Also controls were a bit quirky, I'd prefer WASD + QEZC but maybe thats just me...
Thanks for the feedback. :D
Yeah, I just took the controls from Cataclysm DDA, but that is a turn based game, but here one must be quick so it's problematic if the controls are weird. I already made a commit to allow wqazxcde movement, because I thought that might be more intuitive for people without numpads (I will probably upload the new version, since it was a really quick and easy thing to do, so it shouldn't affect my trijam time too much).
> It was quite fun but a little bit to luck-based
You have 5 seconds before the sabots spawn. If you are far away from factories you can use the teleporter to quickly try to get to a more advantageous position (there's no cooldown and there's no risk involved, because there are no fires or sabots yet). That's the strategy I use.
I also intentionally made the player faster than the sabots so that the player may outrun them and lure them into each other or into the fires. The game (without taking into account teleportation) becomes easier the higher the fire to sabot ratio is, because the sabots only try to avoid the factories, so if there is a wave of sabots coming from one direction, you only need to stand behind a fire to fully destroy them. I managed to complete level 7 with that strategy.
Some versions of the Chase game (1984) (which is what this game was inspired in) also have so called safe teleports that you can use a limited amount of times that put the player somewhere where there is no fire or enemy. Maybe I might some day add something like that.
Edit:
Uploaded the updated version with the improved controls, which took 1 to 2 minutes.
Ok, I just found a major bug that was making the game many times harder. The probabilities are completely off, because every time you were teleporting the game would teleport you 20 more times and if in any of them you die, you die. So with every teleport, it is 20 times more likely that you are teleported into a fire or into a sabot. XD I won't upload the fix for that until after the jam is over, because despite that bug it is still playable and because it took quite a bit of time to find that bug (and to notice it ("Why did I land into that single fire in all of that terrain?! What are the odds? This is happening way too often...")).