Running Out of Power

superpokeunicorn 2017-08-01 04:55

Well this is a bit meta.

Jokes aside, this is a neat concept for a game and an interesting take on the theme. I always enjoy games that break the 4th wall and use the computer's actual interface as a mechanic. Though it's mostly just a matter of plugging and unplugging you computer while keeping an eye on the charge, the game certainly is unique. I did almost fail when I went to watch a YouTube video and nearly forgot about it, so there is some tension there. It's mostly just a neat thing to have on in the background, is cool in and of itself. It's an entirely different type of game compared to what you usually see coming from Ludum Dare.

sebastian-m 2017-08-03 02:52

The game is innovative, that's for sure. You are really creative and it's nice how you make people use their actual laptops as the game control. But I'm not sure how fun it is, is more of a task than a game. But props for the concept anyway.

Also, not sure how healthy this is for the computer's battery life

matt-fabius 2017-08-03 03:00

I'll give you (metaphorical and I guess also literal) points for innovation and taking the theme in a weird meta direction. But obviously the game isn't much of anything. I'll give this game a solid: Interesting.

gentel 2017-08-03 04:18

Pretty funny - also cool that the game sort of takes place in the physical world. Accessing the computer's battery life is impressive from a technical perspective - I had no idea that a game could do that.

One funny thing I noticed was that I could use the arrow keys to move off the main menu and onto other screens that were supposed to only be accessible by clicking the buttons.

As far as improving the game goes, maybe there exists some change to the mechanics so it doesn't take so much time to get intense. Like if you set a minimum power of 90% it wouldn't take as long to reach from 10% and you'd have to plug and unplug to hover between 90 and 100%.

razveck 2017-08-03 04:18

Can't play the game, unfortunately :( Tried both the 32 and 64 bit versions. Windows 10.

Error main.lua:309: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'percent' (a nil value) Traceback main.lua:309: in function 'getBatteryColor' main.lua:100: in function 'update' [C]: in function 'xpcall'

Hope I could help!

emery 2017-08-03 08:34

This is such a cool concept for a game. I have not seen another game like this and it really goes well with the theme. Though quite simple, it is such a good idea. Good Job :)

theflyingkeyboard 2017-08-03 12:58

Fun idea, but I think it might have bad impact on some laptop batteries.

jordanfb 2017-08-03 14:40

@razveck, were you trying to play the game on a desktop computer? I should have specified that it needs to be played on a laptop, otherwise there's no battery to charge and use up. Thanks for the bug report!

@gentel oops, yeah, those are from when I was debugging the movement of the screens, oops. Every button should work, even if you use the arrow keys to get there, not that there's much reason to... About the idea for a minimum bound: yeah, that probably makes sense to add, I was going to add a setting which allowed you to "start" the game at a lower percentage than what you were at, and then it just wouldn't count the scores until you got there, (and I even added that in the hover text over the asterisk if you drag the slider as far left as possible) but I didn't have the time. Thanks for the review!

lamm 2017-08-14 01:19

You did a great game congratulations.

odd1in 2017-08-22 11:11

I had the same problem as @razeveck https://i.imgur.com/TMrqUnt.png