Robot Taco! Taco! [Finished]

[goldengrave]

So I have been working on a small game for the past months about a taco loving robot with a detachable helicopter head.Its a short action puzzle game and I would love to hear any feedback about the control, level design, difficulty etc...

It my first time using the Haxe Flixel port: https://github.com/Beeblerox/HaxeFlixel, which I am going to use now to try and create an iOS version.

It can be played here:
http://www.goldengrave.com/projects/RobotWantsTacoBeta

And It looks like this:

[boybokeh]

I love single-player games that feature a pseudo-cooperative mechanic. From my short play time I would say the difficulty scales nicely. It's not really a criticism, but it would be great if there were a more dynamic way to direct the laser. It staggers the flow a bit to have hover your head around a bit, charge, hover, repeat, when there are multiple enemies. Obviously that may be your intention, anyway :)

[goldengrave]

Hey Boybokeh,
Thanks for the feedback...I didn't want the game to turn into a shoot-em-up so I thought that having a small charging time would allow you to alternate between offense and defense and hopefully make you think a little more strategically , that said it might not work or be more fun. I'll try removing the charge time and see how it plays.

best,
Jason

[boybokeh]

Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. To be honest, I didn't really mind the charge time so much as how you aim (by moving the head independently). It feels a little bit weird if, say, the robot is standing level with an approaching enemy and the only way to deal with it is by detaching the head, sinking to the ground and shooting.

Those were just my initial thoughts, but like you said, it's not a shooter, so your current approach basically just encourages players to think in a lateral, rather than offensive way :)

[Aaron Santiago]

I didn't play through all of the game, but I'm very much liking where it's going. However, there are a number of technical problems along with a couple ideas I have.
1) This game runs at a painfully low FPS on my comp, I'll try to test it somewhere else, but I've seen this machine run flash games well enough.
2) While running into a wall, jumping does not work.
3) You can't walk on top of switches. While this was probably intended, I wholeheartedly disagree with that.
4) The jump mechanic feels horrid currently. It feels incredibly floaty going up, but then matches a parabolic system on the way down. Maybe it's due to the low fps.
5) I've seen the character bug through walls or otherwise do weird things with them (regain vertical momentum upwards after hitting a ceiling, lose horizontal momentum after hitting a ceiling)

Other Points:
-I agree with boybokeh, it doesn't really feel good to have to detach your head to kill enemies at your feet, especially when the controls for the head make it so that left/right don't work on the ground. (it makes sense, but it doesn't feel that great when trying to kill monsters/avoid them) However, I do really really like the separation mechanics and how they interact with the laser -- I could foresee having to juggle the head, start charging the laser, quickly switch to the body and hit a button, then quickly have to fire the laser and move the body to a different switch immediately. With tighter controls and more solid physics, puzzles like those could easily be made and add a frantic air to the game. (having to catch your head in midair would make the player feel like a god.)
-The separation/reparations themselves should have a "juicier" feel to them: particles and sound effects and maybe a (very) small screen shake. Switching should, too, I should feel it when I transition from body to head.
-Maybe you could consider changing physics between just the body and both the body and head combined. Maybe the body jumps higher without the body attached; it could lead to some interesting puzzles.
-The enemies you have in the game are kinda lame. And by kinda, I mean very. I doubt they're final, but they could be a bit more scary, or just have less of them. (why does every level have to be mirrored? it adds nothing to the puzzle)
-The switchy walls/door things don't make much sense. They look like lasers, but they're walls.
-The background is pretty, but the levels themselves are not. Here is what I mean. (excuse my shitty paintification, I'm at work currently)
-Terrain could (should) be more varied, move the robot through different places and see wildly different things. They don't have to tell a story, and they don't have to make sense (after all, why does that robot want a taco?), but they would make the game all the more engaging.

Looking back, I just absolutely ripped on your game, and I apologize. That's all meant to be constructive criticism, I swear. I really do like your game, it's clever.

[goldengrave]

Hey so after making a bunch of changes, editing the levels,renaming the game and refining the controls the final version of the game is done and can be played here:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/599064

or

http://www.kongregate.com/games/goldeng ... -taco-taco

Thanks for all the help and feedback,
Jason