Robo Instructus devblog
Updates on the development of coding puzzler Robo Instructus
Teleporting In Style
I'm a game developer currently working on robot engineering puzzle game Robo Instructus. For my previous posts look here.
The beta-3.2 update for Robo Instructus comes out today. It brings 3 new features to polish the game looking forward to the upcoming release. First and most obvious is the new teleportation effects.
With the beta MVP done, it’s a time to implement from a priority ordered list of “wants” for the full game release. All 3 new features are from the top of this list. The teleport fx really help this fundamental concept come alive in-game. They also provide a convenient effect to transition a level reset, as the robot can be reset to teleporting into the start position.
The game thus far also had a small issue with the messages players receive from the company, ie Judith, they could not be re-read. So if you didn’t pay attention the first time bad luck, or restart I guess. Anyway, no longer, in beta-3.2 there’s a new button in the facility view Company Inbox where you can re-read these messages to your lore loving heart’s content.
Robo Instructus is a nuanced game, and it can be easy to under explain certain concepts. Take for instance the 3 score statistics, it won’t be immediately obvious what they mean. So some hover tooltips will be appreciated, no? Well, they exist now.
Also back in earlier versions there used to be a breakdown of the time score by function. I scrapped this after a while as it took up too much vertical space, but it’s back in the hover tip in this latest update and even better. It’ll list each function’s total time, ordered by biggest, plus a count of the calls that took this time. A nice tool for time optimizing players I think.
I’ve also been working on a demo version of the game. I like demos they provide a nice try-before-you-buy experience for people that can answer lots of questions. Will it run on my machine? Will I like it? Demos also just lower the barrier to entry by removing the price, maybe people will be less likely to leave the game languishing on a wishlist and actually try it out.
The demo is the first 4 levels of the game and will be available soon.