Metroidvania Month 32

Hosted by Falcon Nova · #MetroidvaniaMonthJam

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A jam submission

PocketBotsView game page

A defective collection of robots trying to make their way in the world.

Submitted by pdil — 1 minute, 44 seconds before the deadline

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PocketBots's itch.io page

Results

Criteria	Rank	Score*	Raw Score
Enjoyment	#32	3.091	3.091
Relevance to the theme	#38	3.091	3.091
Metroidvania	#39	3.000	3.000
Overall	#48	2.818	2.818
Execution	#57	2.455	2.455
Sensory	#66	2.455	2.455

Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Theme interpretation and application
Absurd Size -or- Defective Generation. You control robots with absurdly sized limbs. Turns out a whole batch was botched, so it's a defective generation.

Team/Developer
pacorp

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Comments

abhimonkSubmitted66 days ago

Glad I caught this right before the end of the jam. This was incredibly charming! The level design is extremely tight. It was really cool to return to the starting room and realize that I could knock down a handful of walls I’d completely missed, or use the long-jump to just get around much faster.

This game had me smiling the whole time. Like the idea of a room where you “must be this tall to enter” is just very funny to me, and it’s even funnier that the solution to get in is to stack all the boys on top of each other. Same for the ‘dress code strictly enforced’.

I had a lot of fun with this, well done!

Submitted

winterbraidSubmitted67 days ago

Very nice game! I really liked the theme of 3 defective robots working together to overcome their flaws. The graphics and controls were very basic, but did the job well. It took me a while to figure out I had to press a button to switch between the robots, since I don't think it was displayed anywhere on the page or in the menu. The main song playing throughout the game was pretty nice too. Good job!

Submitted

pdilDeveloper66 days ago(+1)

Yikes, I totally failed to put that one on the page, fixed now, thank you! Yeah, this was my least QA’d jam to to date, the main menu buttons, except for start, don’t work BUT the pause menu ones do which show the controls.

Working on some update for post jam last night I also realized I didn’t actually hook up the in-game text telling you the buttons! I literally had it all setup but forgot to actually call the popup.

Due to some technical hurdles, I ended up cutting half the abilities, hopefully this time I actually do a post jam update that closer resembles what I intended. I’m glad you made it through, thanks for playing and the feedback!

DingusKhanSubmitted67 days ago

This was decent!

My favourite thing was the little wiggly arms on the leg bot.

There are some issues, like the camera, but given the tight deadline and the functionality on show, this is a sick entry. Nice one!

Submitted

pdilDeveloper67 days ago

Ha, thanks, I’m gonna update the page with “this turned out mostly decent.”. Historically I struggle with jams because I’m always learning several new things and this one was no exception. I had some fancy navigation pathing ideas that I cut entirely (and the NPCs) that felt like it was 80% there but is probably only 40% there, as well as a really fancy camera system. I really love the 3/4 view but feel like there are a lot of constraints it imposes on level design so I cleverly chose to make stuff assuming I’d get the camera culling system working but instead didn’t finish the system so this is arguably the worst camera I’ve ever done, whoops!

CardvarkSubmitted68 days ago (1 edit)

I really liked how each robot had their own abilities! I reached a blue box in the locked room, but I wasn't able to break it. I also felt like the leg bot's ability was more useful than the others. otherwise, the game was unique and fun, and I really liked tall mode

Submitted

pdilDeveloper67 days ago

Thanks for playging! I ended up cutting half the abilities even though I actually implemented some but didn’t have time to design any content around them (let alone test) but most of the legs abilities made it in.

FodderLabsSubmitted70 days ago

First off, this is awesome! The fact you made this in 3D is great and not something you see often for a Metroidvania jam.

All the robot mechanics were simple yet served a purpose - there was also a mechanic I didn't realize until jumping from the spawned bot that "Legs" spawns for his special ability. (Jumping a further distance from the spawned bot - kind of like a springboard) This helped with a few of the platforming sections.

And on top of that - the puzzles were creative! (I didn't quite get the on with the 4 squares but I was able to complete the game - so it might have been a work in progress :D)

The bots all assembling into 1 was a neat effect - I did not expect it! (And it made sense for one of the puzzles lol)

I think with a bit more polish and content (improve the controls, more puzzles, character interactions) - you have a pretty fun game in your hands!

Good job! :D

Submitted

pdilDeveloper67 days ago

Thanks for playing and the feedback. This jam really ended up about being foundational work for other things and it shows. The 4 plate puzzle was, like most things in the jam, way half baked. 3 plates control the door door locks, ex the left plate rotates the top left, top right and bottom left locks with the other plates controlling different combos and the right most resetting. All the the locks need to face away but I completely forgot to put in any visuals indicating anything! The saving grace being the alternate route in so it doesn’t impede progress.

VinnyPotsSubmitted77 days ago

Hey this is impressive. I'm always impressed when jammers submit 3d games because that's far out of my comfort zone. For how nice the graphics are, it also ran smoothly on my potato debian laptop. Very few people submit linux builds so I'm always eager to test! I did get soft locked when I managed to fall out of the map but that's the only minor issue i encountered. Overall really great job!

Submitted

pdilDeveloper75 days ago

Do you happen to remember where you fell out? Looking over I found one hole to the right of the store. Indeed, this game had the least about of testing of anything I’ve ever made. Glad to here it ran well, I always build stuff with potatoes and toasters in mind but didn’t have time for a perf pass.

NotYourDMSubmitted78 days ago

Being able to swap parts and use their absurd abilities is fun. I think I got stuck just before the ending as I wasn't sure which items I had collected and which items I was missing. Still, for the rush you put in this is very decent.

Submitted

Unit M - Finding the Spark

pdilDeveloper75 days ago

Thanks for playing, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Yeah, I really wanted to wear the clothes and forgot to at least put up some UI for the items. I also wanted NPCs to tell you off and complain about what your were missing. Maybe next time I’ll scope better…

scy4Submitted78 days ago

The concept is cool and I enjoyed the puzzles I found everything I could and made it to the red zone with the dress code requirement but couldn't figure out how to get past it, Even though its missing some things like textures, I still found it interesting and fun to play, nice work!

Submitted

pdilDeveloper78 days ago

Thanks for playing! I didn’t intend for the final piece to mysterious but the end is a bus line, so you also need a coin, or you didn’t find the shirt, which I think is a little harder to find but since this wasn’t playing until an hour before the final cutoff, I don’t actually know since I did zero playtesting. It was a real mad rush so there’s a ton of stuff I wanted to do but couldn’t make it. I’m glad you enjoyed what was there.