Ascii commando

nullval 2023-10-02 20:25

ok... so the ldjam player (AGAIN is having trouble with godot and this time I can't seem to find a fix (if anyone knows let me know!) in the meantime I'm just uploading it to itch.io.

jiri-one 2023-10-02 21:17

I really like the aesthetic of the game. The gameplay is not the most thrilling, but if the intention is to be a more educational game it works well in showing how letters are encoded in ascii & has a fun little puzzle attached to it. :)

gawain-doell 2023-10-02 22:04

It feels like an older education software that fell into a time portal. You nailed the aesthetic, including the lack of playability without the paper manual. I felt like I had gone back in time, and despite the modern color use the graphics did take me back to staring at old CRT TVs trying to comprehend what was on the screen.

Sadly, the gameplay, much like the source "education entertainment" it is emulating, just wasn't very fun for me. It's funny, yes, and definitely a mood! But the controls feel a bit terrible to use, I couldn't just hold down a key when needing to go across the entire screen for example.

Or when stacked it was not clear which number would move when I pushed them. (Maybe they are not supposed to be stacking up inside each other in the first place?)

There also does not seem to be a way to recover if you push a block into a corner/edge. Not sure what would help here, perhaps if the field wrapped the boxes around and movement looped as well to remove the edges completely.   I think adding sound might have gone a long way to making it feel better to play.

A great improvement would be to make a little "ok" sound when the correct digit was pushed onto a target. The game would be technically able to stand up without the manual as well if that was added.

I loved the style of the game, the graphics nailed that retro low memory aesthetic! Nice work making an entry!

kanity 2023-10-02 22:59

Wow that's pretty educational, though I probably won't remember the codes for long ^^' I just scrolled down, looked at the code once and then scrolled back up and did it by memory, so it was also a fun short-memory game :) The gameplay itself is not too complicated, and I tried to be careful to not put myself into a situation where I can't move the blocks anymore. I like the visuals (especially our character) and the take on the theme is so great and very fitting. The music also fits the vibe of the game nicely :)

nullval 2023-10-04 18:17

@jiri-one Thank you for the feedback :D

@gawain-doell wow thank you for the amazing feedback, this is honestly some of the most detailed and well written feedback I've ever received for any creative work I've made. I do agree that the gameplay is not the most entertaining, but at the same time it's also very close to the mark of what it's emulating.

@kanity thank you so much for the feedback :D It's pretty impressive that you just memorized the encodings XD I had to look them up constantly, so I thought it would be waaaay to difficult to just memorize.

kanity 2023-10-04 20:15

@nullval not all at once of course! sorry if I gave that impression, my short-term memory is not THAT good ^^''

vadzim 2023-10-05 22:29

The game seems too much hard for me, I don't even know ascii codes from memory. But I have not encountered game like that before, so it is kinda innovative

mooptychunk 2023-10-05 23:45

Cute and funny with a unique aesthetic. Felt random whether my character would push a block or not, ended up mashing the keys sometimes. I like the cover image a lot. Nice one!

rsheepdv 2023-10-07 22:07

Interesting concept, though it's not really fun to play. Definitely nails the aesthetic though, would like to see a full game using this aesthetic!

the3rdhunter 2023-10-09 02:28

This game oozes nostalgia. The soundtrack is great. Repetitive labor style gameplay on a CRT monitor really captures the of early education computer games that you're emulating. It really made me nostalgic. Awesome work!

Sometimes I suffer from imposter syndrome at work. But now, thanks to this game, I know that I am a REAL programmer!!! Lol!

cyphix 2023-10-11 01:28

A very innovative little game. Great job with the audio and implementation of the idea

gary-the-enchanter 2023-10-11 02:11

Man, that just oozed aesthetic.

As an aside, I too couldn't figure out how to get my Godot game to run on ldjam player.

papaver 2023-10-12 23:32

I am now a real programmer! ;)

I completed some letters, but sometimes it was not clear why it wasn't complete yet. :thinking:

The gameplay isn't the most fun, but I enjoyed the manual and I like the esthetics of the game!

fernando-tonon-de-rossi 2023-10-18 02:30

I loved the theme and the look n' feel. Not that much fun, but it can be a nice game for teaching purposes! Congrats!

zeias 2023-10-20 20:18

What an interesting game!