We want to allow to preorder the storymode very soon but before talking about business plans, let's take a look at the levels in the story mode first!

We used some of the level contest entries as a basis to create story levels. Lootninja by sauer2 for example:

Original Lootninja Level, as included with the latest release

"Upgraded" Lootninja Level

Some of the steps when "upgrading" a level are the addition of...

background, skyline and info/data terminals...

shadows and characters...

hidden areas...

... and new content in general. Most "upgrade levels" are larger and require more time to do a 100% run than the originals.

Here is a big screen of a different, jetpack robot-heavy level, which is not based on a contest entry:

Codename "Jetpack Intro" (1920x1200)

We're nearly done with all the levels for episode 1 but some bugs, the preorder website and paypal integration will probably not allow us to release before January...

Scaffolding, scaffolding, scaffolding...

46 days of no updates...

One of the decorations we use in story mode levels is a scaffolding tile set. Today, I spent some time trying to find an alternative look, which would look better in a single-row/column line of these tiles. I ended up using the original set.

I uploaded the set of alternative 64px scaffolding tiles to OpenGameArt, hoping it will serve some other purpose.

In the next blog post I will tell and show how the story mode levels differ from the freeplay ones.

Indie Connect Prelude. One step of an effort to nurture and build the Indie Games Scene in Berlin, Germany. We will be there.

What? Developers talk (English language) and everybody plays games.

When? This Friday, starting 18:30ish (aka "like 6:30 PM") GMT+1.

Game developers will talk about developing games. For example team GameStrom will introduce their game design brainstorm events, Anjin Anhut will tell us how to "Just do it!" and Christiaan Janssen and I will talk about Game Development Jams in general.

You will be able to play the latest Nikki release and other indie games as part of an exhibition.

So if you're in Berlin or close and haven't played Nikki and the Robots yet or would like to meet one or two of the game's developers, do come!

PS: It's free of charge and no registration required.

If you see above error message when trying to run Nikki and the Robots, please download libstdc++-6.dll here and unzip it to the nikki\ directory or alternatively download the game again - the problem has been fixed in the latest release for Windows.

PS: the updater won't restart the game on Windows! (Also fixed in the new release.)

Video: 0.4 changes [Vimeo | YouTube]

We released Nikki and the Robots 0.4.0 (0.4.1.1 actually), which you can download here or via in-game updater.

The new features are:

• New robot: Cannon! It shoots cannon balls that disappear after 10 seconds
• Players can download and upload levels in the main/editor menus
• Author name and license agreement added for saving/uploading levels
• Sounds added for menu, jumping, buttons and batteries
• Last level switch to be pressed now blinks green
• Added "transient" switches (won't stay pressed)

Some news not directly related to the release:

• There now is a Joyride Labs Reddit, a discussion forum with a social web touch
• The compile instructions on our wiki have been updated, let us know if you run into trouble!

Two of us were at BIGJam this weekend. It was fun! We produced a Haskell- and an Inform-based game prototype. Both are silly.

Video: Acrobots on YouTube

For "Acrobots" we modified our open source Nikki and the Robots Freeplay version to have no gravity and added a new floating robot. The robot is supposed to collect engines and trash that floats around the level which would add thrust and mass respectively.

The Inform-based text adventure can be played here online. It begins with:

You are in a room that looks fancy-dancy. You can see backyard door, a glass box (closed) (in which is a cat) and a unicorn here.

The Inform text adventure language is very natural-language-like and is a good learning tool for some beginner programmers.

We're looking forward to more Game Jams and the BIGJam 2012!

You can check out many BIGJam 2011 games in this thread.

The contest results are in! And a new update, which you can download or get using the in-game updater.

[video links: Vimeo | YouTube]

The winners are

• Julian (for Greed) [Shirt + Game]
• sauer2/C. Hackenberg (for lootninja, hanoi, powergrid and obstacles) [Shirt + 4xGame]
• Jukkeri (for Trick Series 02) [Shirt + Game]
• pixma (for robopractice) [Game]
• 2048 Terrabit (for Robot Race) [Game]
• Marius Ghita/mhitza (for stairway to heaven) [Game]
• 3sdras (for Geronimo) [Game]

New in 0.3.3:

• Added 30 levels from the first level design contest (in standard levels/03-contest1)
• Jetpack robot physics tweaked again
• Level names are now sorted correctly

PS: you can download the levels without changes here.

I'm afraid we have to stretch the "in about ten days" which I wrote eleven days ago to (hopefully just) 14 days. We decided on the ten winning levels but can't make windows and os x releases before monday.

Sorry for the delay, we'll try to make it worth it. :)