Robots in Spring

Robots in Spring is a whimsical game album — like a music album, except with games instead of songs. Each is different, yet much like the others in some ways. They're short, simple, with few bells and whistles, but I hope you have fun playing them. Let me know if you need the rules explained; so far, my beta-testers managed just fine on their own. And check back now and then for more entries. Thank you!

Games Tracks

1. Reverse Robots: A simple but addictive puzzle game. How far can you make it?
2. Tick Tock Rocket: A two-player board game that's like Chess meets Checkers... in spaaace!
3. Tiny Explorers: A strategy game where you battle a tight move limit to reveal the entire map.
4. Robots in Spring: Clone of a popular game, except themed for this album, and with a twist.
5. Flowers for Robots: Part puzzle game, part board game, all hotseat multiplayer. Short, but fun.

Download

• Original Python edition (20K)

• 32-bit Linux edition (470K)
• 64-bit Linux edition (450K)
• Source code (40K)

All games are open source under the MIT License. See the source code for details.

System requirements

For the original edition:

• Python (and Tkinter);
• mouse, touchscreen or the like.

For the native edition:

• 1024x768 screen resolution;
• mouse, touchscreen or the like;
• a recent Linux distribution.

To build the games for another platform, you're going to need BaCon. They're reported to run on a Raspberry Pi 3.

Devlog

Robots in Spring: the game

Sometimes you start to run out of steam just as you're getting well underway.

When I started the Robots in Spring project, the first two games flowed easily. The third had a false start, but still came out well enough in the end.

The next one, not so much.

It was supposed to be the fifth in fact — the titular game for the album should have ended part one on a high note. But coming up with a game in the genre I wanted was another story, and after making the cover art, a different idea started forming.

Only it wasn't at all original.

Oh, game clones abound, especially in this genre (you can probably recognize it). And I've made this one my own, in more than one way. But compared to the others, it's a bit of a downer. Might still have bugs, too, because I only managed to win once, and that was before adding code to actually detect the winning condition. So much for meeting my own expectations.

But hey, it's progress. And hopefully you'll find it entertaining enough despite the flaws. So here it is. Enjoy, and thank you.

Robots in Spring: the album

As of this writing, the Robots in Spring project is a success.

Oh, it's far from perfect. I only managed five games rather than the seven or eight I was aiming for. Of these, most aren't so compelling to be honest. But considering the late start, and real-life issues making my life hell during this time, meeting my self-imposed minimum feels great. And before summer, too!

Besides, the very first game has great gameplay. It deserves a more polished edition. Another one could do with an extended version. Three out of five follow the overall theme, and all are connected in some ways. Not bad at all for something entirely unplanned.

Moreover, reactions so far has been heartwarming. A little more marketing than usual probably helped. Even managed a very nice piece of cover art. All in all, far more ups than downs, and the latter are about as expected.

Will I revisit the project? Maybe. There's much to be done. More games. Ports of these first five. Maybe getting someone to contribute. They're all open source, you know.

But for now, to rest, rejoice and then do something different for a while.

Back soon.

Robots in Spring: 18 months later

After the overwhelmingly positive reactions received at first, the last thing I expected was for interest in this project to fizzle out. Should have known better: it wasn't even the first time. One year later, people had stopped even taking a look at the Itch.io page. So with a heavy heart I took it down. Figured that was the end of it, but after six more months things changed again. BaCon crossed my path (not for the first time), and that meant new opportunities:

• to learn a fun new programming language with its own strange ways;
• to see if these games really are as portable as originally intended;
• to join a new community and introduce my work there for mutual benefit.

So far this has been working out, making for a fun side project if nothing else. As for the future, it remains to be seen. As always, there are enough possibilities to make me dizzy, but only so much time and energy, and much else to work on besides. So, no more promises. Going to do more as inspiration strikes. At least more people can play these games now. And that's a win.

For more posts, see the Itch.io community forum, where the album was originally published.