[RELEASE] Computer Processing Unit

[Zakharov]

The game is working! Mostly.

Visit http://www.robotball.xyz to play!

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You are three robots.

You must get the ball into the goal.

You must not let the opponent get the ball into their goal.

You do not have enough instructions to do what you want to do.

 

Neither do they.

 

 

Computer Processing Unit is a multiplayer game where both players give each of their three robots four instructions from a set of sixteen available instructions. Once both players are done, the robots execute those instructions, attempting to maneuver the ball into their goal.

Ten of these instructions move your robot: forward or backward up to three spaces, or left or right up to two spaces. Grab makes your robot grab the object in front of it, either the ball or another robot, moving that object to your robot's location. Throw throws a previously grabbed object three or four spaces ahead. Steal lets your robot steal the ball from an adjacent robot which has grabbed it. Escape lets a robot which has been grabbed escape the clutches of its kidnapper (a grabbed robot is otherwise immobilized).

The robots execute their instructions in order, with the red (player 1) robot executing its first order, then the blue (player 2) robot executing its first order, then the pink (player 1), green (player 2), yellow (player 1) and purple (player2) robots. After every robot has executed its first order, the second row of instructions are executed in the same order. Starting player alternates each turn, so in the second turn of the game the blue robot goes first, then red, then green, then pink, etc..

The object of the game is to either push or throw the ball into the goal at the end of the field. Scoring a goal immediately ends the round and moves the ball to the center of the field, but does not change the positions of any robots. Play continues until one player has scored three goals.

[Xeneth]

Digging the board game aesthetic and use of Robo Rally-esque mechanics so far!

[Zakharov]

I've almost beaten the game into a working shape, and that means I need playtesters. Anyone want a go? I'm in Australia, so that makes timezones a little tricky, but I'm free for the next two days.

 

Video of a turn being played: http://webmshare.com/eR3bR

[Zakharov]

The game is working! It's hosted at http://www.robotball.xyz/

[Zakharov]

I've been working on polishing this up a bit, fixed some bugs, moved the image hosting off of my dinky little server. I'm now trying to get it onto itch.io; I need to figure out how to open a websocket from html served on itch.io to my server.

[Zakharov]

I wasn't able to get the game working on itch.io. Itch uses https, which means I have to use wss for my websockets, which I can't figure out how to get working.

 

I also decided to change the name of the game from Sports to Computer Processing Unit, because Sports is a terrible name for a game.