After getting around last place in the game-jam..

We looked at the problems- there were many. First, there were the problems that prevented people from trying the game at all.

• The HTML5 player did not work for all of the players. No idea of what the ratio is.
• People were getting stuck in the main menu. No idea of what the ratio is.
• If they made it into the game at all, they'd get stuck on the capacitor in the first room. 
  • Could've been the tool menu.
  • Could've been the glitchy move while switching tools thing.
  • Could've been the quirky connection plate.
  • Could've been because it was too dark.
  • Could've been unclear you had to vacuum, then make sure it's placed right and solder twice.
• If they made it passed that, they would be met with a decent puzzle level.. If they knew the mechanics.

There's just too much neglect to teach the player, and on top of that confusing mechanics that honestly don't make much sense in retrospect. All-in-all, WE had fun playing the first Robbie demo, and some (not all) of whom we could actually teach the mechanics too and help them while we watched them play.. So to us, it wasn't complete garbage.

The reality is, we discovered an enormous problem with Robbie. We never expected to place well, but near last was not something we thought would happen. We did kind of go into this with a sort of, "We're built different" attitude, so it was a lot disheartening- at least for me- that we didn't place somewhere in the middle.. Oh well.

I knew something needed to be done...

So, Some Major Changes Took Place

• Ditched the tool menu and the emphasize on using different tools for different jobs. We may or may not reintroduce this in a better way later. As a replacement, we guess what the user wants to do based on the state. We look to see if the player is holding a wire, holding an object, has empty hands, is looking at something interactable, and more. Based on these observations, we guess which interaction should be used- if any.
• Standardized our level-building process and eliminated (some temporarily) many of the old features and assets- stripped it down.
• Rebuilt the Powerline and Wiring system to better integrate with the other objects and also to get rid of that weird, buggy particle plugin.
• Reduced the player Movement complexity from that other add-on, and basically made it new.. Disregarded crouch- not sure if it's temporary or not.
• We focused on the fast-movement, empowering the player while challenging them from a platforming aspect
• We heard you all cry, TEACH THE PLAYER YOU iDIOTS! and focused largely on improving the learning curve.
• We rebuilt the new level from scratch, and made it bigger. Much bigger.
• We added secret areas, and will very shortly have perks there haha. Sorry I disabled the battery because it's buggy right now.
• We made sure there was a way back so you didn't get stuck, while striving to allow the player to follow the level in their own way.
• There are speed-runner shortcuts.
• There's surfing on particular things. You'll have to experiment with different areas to find it, and I'm sure not everyone will lol.

Some of these things are discovered bugs that we decided were fun, so we left them in. At the end of the day, Robbie is much more fun.

This is the first demo showcasing our desire for you, the player, to have fun playing Robbie. If you've never played Robbie before, please give it a try and let us know if you liked this direction we're going, and if you feel obliged, let us know what we could do better.

If you tried Robbie during the game jam, thanks for your time reading this. We sincerely apologize for our ignorance regarding the user experience. We'd be really happy if you gave Robbie another chance. Please, let us know if you like this direction and where you think we could improve.

Thanks so much!

Spencer A. Lockhart