The Unstable Machine

2021-10-03 22:04

Ouch! Gonna be unstable playing this. Stress factor 10, Love it!

2021-10-03 22:20

I thought I was going to get seconds to relax at the start. I was wrong. I now know not to apply for a job in the nuclear industry.

Great game though!

slimmerburger 2021-10-04 01:06

Is it bad that I instantly felt the urge to mess with the dinglebops and broke the machine?

pinkemma 2021-10-04 01:08

Best way to learn what dinglebops do, @slimmerburger ! Some experimentation is probably needed to work them properly :)

retrisma 2021-10-04 01:09

It took me a minute to figure out the controls and the goals, but this was quite fun to balance. Great take on the theme as well. I just wish that the instructions at the beginning were a little more clear. Great job though!

wassim 2021-10-04 01:13

I like the Idea and Excution, the game is hard but It's challenging and fits the theme very well, Well done!

pinkemma 2021-10-04 01:15

@retrisma The instructions were written in the last 10min, I had kinda glossed over the need to include them. I did kinda lean into some thing being learnt by experimentation though

doc-kaos 2021-10-04 01:16

I thought I knew a thing or two about Dinglebops, and I wasn't wrong :smile: But I know nothing about the rest of the machine! VENT! VENT! That was fun, thanks for submitting!

2021-10-04 05:27

Buttons, switches, dinglebops, and a lovely beep to let you know that your life just got harder. Good times.

pinkemma 2021-10-04 06:51

@vedrfolnir I wish real life had a beep to say it just got harder. Unless, is that what my tinitus it???

mborecki 2021-10-04 08:23

Dark souls of button pressing, nobs turning and switch switching.

pinkemma 2021-10-04 08:58

@mborecki Best description yet!

johnathan-peres 2021-10-04 16:25

So hard yet so fun, good job!

shp 2021-10-04 19:29

awesome concept for the theme, quite hard to play though. the visuals and sounds fit the game like a glove

the-jahn 2021-10-05 02:39

Original comment, for history's sake: Ah, crap. Commented on the wrong game. I have too many tabs open. Please ignore, sorry! D':

But I've since played your game. It's a great take on the theme, definitely feels like operating an unstable blackbox device - I have no idea what I'm doing. Sounds instill a good sense of urgency to do something, though. I lasted 41 seconds. Haha.

pinkemma 2021-10-05 02:52

Consider yourself ignored @the-jahn :D

simpathey 2021-10-05 03:22

The game was well balanced but it was a little too hard at the start. Maybe machine gets more unstable with time so that new players can learn controls. The game had fun chaotic energy.

bridgeonastick 2021-10-05 08:50

Cool game, very chaotic indeed! Once you get the hang of it it gets interesting. However, a tutorial of some sorts would still be appreciated.

pinkemma 2021-10-05 09:20

@bridgeonastick Yeah, I was getting very close to the timelimit, and didn't have time for a proper tutorial. I wish I had made a screen that explain where things were though, since the player doesn't have time to figure it out before it's over.

listonos 2021-10-05 11:53

I love these games with dinglebobs, toggle switches and overall machine operating. This on was a little too stressful for me and, as other pointed out, it throws you right in a crisis and good luck. Still, a nice entry!

glenugie 2021-10-05 14:00

I don't think I'm qualified to operate The Machine - but questionable hiring practices aside, this was a neat idea! Definitely fits the theme, and the audio effects fit the tone perfectly. I did have to come back and read the explanation here though, the in-game tutorial was quite sparse for explaining how everything works (notably I didn't understand how the reciprocal motion stuff worked)

pinkemma 2021-10-05 14:06

@glenugie I only JUST added the explanations here. I would have loved to have more in the game, but I was exhausted with fighting Unity on everything and was glad just to get it shipped :)

And as far as hiring goes... at least we're not wasting good talent ;)

schuster 2021-10-06 00:55

Nice game, very frantic

glen-chang 2021-10-06 00:58

I shouldn't touch any machine for a while. I think I just blow things up. I think it would help to show what each knob does. That way you can tell if you did something right or wrong. I couldn't figure out what I was doing except for trying to keep some meters green.

jharler 2021-10-06 17:28

Oh man, that is intense! Definitely had me on edge. Nice job for that! Honestly, I had a hard time trying to figure out what did what and what I was supposed to be doing. I think an in-gameplay tutorial would have been very useful in aiding players to know what to do.