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!

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. :)

Soon after the end of the first level contest we released Nikki and the Robots 0.3.2, which you can download here or via the update menu option of your copy.

[video links: Vimeo | YouTube]

The new features are:

• New Patrol Robots, which will make Nikki fail the level when touched
• Jetpack Robots are more forgiving and easier to control
• No more editor crashes when Nikki has not been added
• Signature checks for updates (heightened updater security - not gameplay-relevant)

A few words about the contest judging: we will announce the winners in approximately ten days. We received some last-minute levels and are very thankful to all level builders who shared their works.

Patrol Robot

We hope that the Patrol Robot is fun to work with. You can get in touch with players and builders on IRC and the forums.

PS: The robot compendium has been updated both in our tutorial and on IndieDB.

At the time of writing, there are approximately 64 hours left if you want to submit levels to the level design contest to win one of three T-shirts and pre-orders of Nikki and the Robots.

We received 23 user-made levels so far (get all of them here or here) and I took a look at how many robots, switches, batteries and objects in total are in them.

Contest Levels 2.5 - See as real table here

My feeling was that robots were under-used in the contest. The statistics show that I'm wrong. What surprised me however is the average 530 objects per level (the current average object count in levels shipped with Nikki and the Robots is 170). Makes me feel lazy. :)

We have been tweaking physics and controls lately in preparation for the next release. (check out this horrible recording of horrible jetpack test physics :) ).

I'm curious if the last days of the contest will spawn many awesome levels. I guess I have to hope for bad weather..