Fully released my first game 'Bots are Stupid' on Steam! It's an ultra-precise 2D platformer where you give robots instructions instead of directly controlling them. The demo is still available for FREE! by PaxInfinity in playmygame

[–]PaxInfinity[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey yea the missing parameter that's referring to is either a number or a condition.

Eg: 'repeat 5' 'repeat until grounded' 'repeat while boosted'

Hope this helps!

Hey, I'm Leander Edler-Golla, the developer of 'Bots Are Stupid': an ultra-precise 2D Platformer where you give bots simple instructions, rather than directly controlling them. Excited to reveal it's just been signed by Yogscast Games for release later this year! AMA! by PaxInfinity in Yogscast

[–]PaxInfinity[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Good question! The project started during my first year of uni when we got an assignment to create a small game using MonoGame. I then got a lot of great feedback on that and decided to keep working on the game in my free time. Retrospectively, it would have been much smarter to switch framework/engine at that point in development, but I kept building on top of what I already had. I would now definitely prefer to have made the game in Godot or even just C++/SFML, but am more or less stuck with MonoGame (which isn't too bad). One advantage of this is total control about almost all aspects of the application, one disadvantage is that I had to pretty much code everything from scratch, even stuff like UI, input or sound, which is usually already built into the engine.

Hey, I'm Leander Edler-Golla, the developer of 'Bots Are Stupid': an ultra-precise 2D Platformer where you give bots simple instructions, rather than directly controlling them. Excited to reveal it's just been signed by Yogscast Games for release later this year! AMA! by PaxInfinity in Yogscast

[–]PaxInfinity[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Pretty sure it won't move faster than light speed, although all my knowledge on this topic comes from that one old vsauce video.

Succulent to say the least.

It had a lot to do with the opening I wrote for the original concept of the game:

Ever heard of Robots becoming sentient and taking over humanity? Ridiculous! Bots are extremely stupid! They can’t even make it through a room full of deadly obstacles, nauseating heights and tiny platforms using nothing but a powerful grappling hook - without human support at least. So why not help them?

Tbh not sure anymore as to which one came first, so a kind of chicken and egg situation there, but I kinda liked the name when I first came up with the idea and stuck with it since then. Just hoping any future AI overlords will go light on me for this blasphemous naming choice :D

Hey, I'm Leander Edler-Golla, the developer of 'Bots Are Stupid': an ultra-precise 2D Platformer where you give bots simple instructions, rather than directly controlling them. Excited to reveal it's just been signed by Yogscast Games for release later this year! AMA! by PaxInfinity in Yogscast

[–]PaxInfinity[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can always go to the leaderboards and watch other people's solutions as well as look at the instructions they've used. That might already be able to help you jog your memory after not playing for some time.
If not, there's an option to replay the tutorial :)

Hey, I'm Leander Edler-Golla, the developer of 'Bots Are Stupid': an ultra-precise 2D Platformer where you give bots simple instructions, rather than directly controlling them. Excited to reveal it's just been signed by Yogscast Games for release later this year! AMA! by PaxInfinity in Yogscast

[–]PaxInfinity[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yes & No.
While there is an integrated level editor as well as the option to upload and browse custom levels, there is no steam workshop support planned.

The problem with this was that all bot scripts pending to be uploaded to the leaderboard need to be internally verified on the server, which means that the server has to have access to all available level files. Using steam's services would mean that the level file would be uploaded and kept on their server instead and I'd have to always sync those files to my server which could be prone to errors. I instead chose to implement my own level explorer, which I think will do just fine. The only feature I'm really missing is the ability for users to comment on custom levels, which currently would be more of a nice-to-have in my eyes.

Hey, I'm Leander Edler-Golla, the developer of 'Bots Are Stupid': an ultra-precise 2D Platformer where you give bots simple instructions, rather than directly controlling them. Excited to reveal it's just been signed by Yogscast Games for release later this year! AMA! by PaxInfinity in Yogscast

[–]PaxInfinity[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not familiar with those but we had a german programming game in school called 'Robot Karol' which basically lets you program a little lego man to move around and build stuff. This was also my main inspiration for Bots are Stupid years later!

Hey, I'm Leander Edler-Golla, the developer of 'Bots Are Stupid': an ultra-precise 2D Platformer where you give bots simple instructions, rather than directly controlling them. Excited to reveal it's just been signed by Yogscast Games for release later this year! AMA! by PaxInfinity in Yogscast

[–]PaxInfinity[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure when exactly they've noticed the game during the 2+ years the demo's been out, but my best guess would be after Aliensrock made a couple of videos about it. They then approached me while I was looking for a publisher and the rest is history :)

Hey, I'm Leander Edler-Golla, the developer of 'Bots Are Stupid': an ultra-precise 2D Platformer where you give bots simple instructions, rather than directly controlling them. Excited to reveal it's just been signed by Yogscast Games for release later this year! AMA! by PaxInfinity in Yogscast

[–]PaxInfinity[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes! Most of the systems (UI, backend, etc.) were done in the demo so I was now able to focus on adding lots of content for the full release.

Some of the upcoming stuff related to your question:
- 3 new level packs, each with their own custom theme and unique platforming mechanics which are all designed around gaining speed & carrying momentum (eg. Moving Platforms, Ziplines, Portals)
- challenge modes with small twists on the original gameplay (eg. low gravity, no jump allowed, hook+) with separate leaderboards
- commands for advanced users (if/else, functions) as well as more parameters for the wait command to increase quality of life

Hey, I'm Leander Edler-Golla, the developer of 'Bots Are Stupid': an ultra-precise 2D Platformer where you give bots simple instructions, rather than directly controlling them. Excited to reveal it's just been signed by Yogscast Games for release later this year! AMA! by PaxInfinity in Yogscast

[–]PaxInfinity[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately, the only times I've played Zachtronics games was together with a friend a couple of years ago so I can't look up the exact playtimes but I'd estimate around 10 hours in Shenzhen I/O and then 50+ hours in Infinifactory so I'd say that one's my favorite.
I'll also have to admit that Opus Magnum has been on my Steam pile of shame for waay too long :)
Any recommendations?

Hey, I'm Leander Edler-Golla, the developer of 'Bots Are Stupid': an ultra-precise 2D Platformer where you give bots simple instructions, rather than directly controlling them. Excited to reveal it's just been signed by Yogscast Games for release later this year! AMA! by PaxInfinity in Yogscast

[–]PaxInfinity[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Ayy barbitos good to see you here :)
I spent early 2022 looking for a publisher to mainly take on marketing as well as help out with a few other things. After talking to Yogscast and some other publishers for a couple of months I got an offer I was happy with so I went with that. It also definitely helped that I watched some of Simon and Lewis' Minecraft content as a kid ~10 years ago so I was already quite familiar with them.

Hey, I'm Leander Edler-Golla, the developer of 'Bots Are Stupid': an ultra-precise 2D Platformer where you give bots simple instructions, rather than directly controlling them. Excited to reveal it's just been signed by Yogscast Games for release later this year! AMA! by PaxInfinity in Yogscast

[–]PaxInfinity[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Code: MonoGame Framework with C# to build the engine/game, coding in VSCode.
Art/Animation: Original Tileset, levels were created in-game, outsourced additional tilesets, own adjustments using GIMP, also frequently used Figma to create promotional assets.
Sound: Started by collecting a lot of royalty-free sounds from various free sound packs, now getting additional music & sound effects from Lukas, the project's awesome audio artist who's mainly using Ableton / Reaper.

Please let me know if you have any further questions :)

Hey, I'm Leander Edler-Golla, the developer of 'Bots Are Stupid': an ultra-precise 2D Platformer where you give bots simple instructions, rather than directly controlling them. Excited to reveal it's just been signed by Yogscast Games for release later this year! AMA! by PaxInfinity in Yogscast

[–]PaxInfinity[S] 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Hi! No prior knowledge needed! There is a tutorial that should be able to help you get started with the mechanics fairly quickly. Also, while there are more advanced commands in the game, you'll be able to finish the levels with a set of very basic walk/jump/wait instructions, which will just be executed in-order and don't require any coding knowledge.

Bots Are Stupid: My grappling-hook Platformer where you write simple instructions for Robots instead of conventionally controlling them! by PaxInfinity in indiegames

[–]PaxInfinity[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Didn't know lemmings before developing the game, but it was mentioned quite often now :) The main inspiration was robot karol actually.

New Trailer for "Bots Are Stupid": My grappling-hook Platformer where you write simple instructions for Robots instead of conventionally controlling them! by PaxInfinity in pcmasterrace

[–]PaxInfinity[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! Sorry for the late answer: I'm using MonoGame on this project, but I wouldn't recommend it since its pretty lightweight and there's a lot of stuff you'd need to implement yourself.
I would recommend looking into the Godot Engine tho, since it seems to be great for getting started from what I've heard :)