Robo Instructus devblog
Updates on the development of coding puzzler Robo Instructus
Putting Names To Puzzles
I'm a game developer currently working on robot engineering puzzle game Robo Instructus. For my previous posts look here.
Today I released the beta-1.3 update for Robo Instructus. It brings a nice chunk of quality of life improvements to the game based on the feedback I’ve received. One of these is, each level now has a name.
Level names
Naming levels was requested by multiple sources and this surprised me even though I had been planning on adding level names eventually. Names are pretty useful though if you want to talk about a particular level without having to count rows and account for multiple level rows. So this is a good feature to have if you want to complain about a level.
They also provide a little flavour about the puzzle itself or a possible solution. Although so indirectly that I don’t think they’ll actually provide any help if you’re struggling. Let’s take a look at a few of them.
Hello Robo is, of course, a play on “Hello, World” as this is the very first level.
Use Your Powers Wisely is the recently introduced early game level where players puzzle out power switches. You have to robo_use() power switches in this level, so I’m sure you can see how I came to this name.
The Deductive Dance is my favourite puzzle in the beta. Solve it and see if you think this name makes sense!
Moving directions underground
Another change in beta-1.3 is both direction levels are now underground. In some ways this is quite a minor change, you still face the level at around the same time. However, it has a major advantage in that players will be able to complete the above-ground introduction levels before they get stuck on this one. I hope finishing the scaffold levels and revealing the underground ones will give players a boost to help them get into the much harder puzzles below.
