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[jcorace]

Hello, this is a game announcement and an introduction. My name is Jason Corace and I am maker / educator living in Baltimore MD. My background has been more focused on new media design but recently I have been making some small game projects of my own.

 I have been working on a small game called Robot Taco! Taco! for the past months about a taco loving robot with a detachable helicopter head . Its a short action puzzle game and I would love to hear any feedback etc..

 It my first time using the Haxe Flixel port: https://github.com/Beeblerox/HaxeFlixel, which I am going to use now to try and create an iOS version, though I am concerned about the best way to turn keyboard input into something playable on a touch screen.

It can be played here:
http://www.kongregate.com/games/goldengrave/robot-taco-taco


And It looks like this:







Best, Jason

[teletubo]

I played 5 levels or so, and although the idea is pretty interesting, I was put off because of the head control. I felt it was just too awkward to control it, it was not nearly as smooth as the body control. Sometimes it was moving too fast, other times too slow, and I felt there was glue in the ground (for the head). Maybe the head should be able to "walk" as well, but slower. 

In my opinion you should make it easier to control the head, specially if you're thinking of porting the game to iOS.

[Udderdude]

I have to agree, the head control needed some serious work.  It's really a pain when you're trying to fly through a narrow corridor, it touches the ground and immediately comes to a 100% complete stop, at which point you have to release all arrow keys before you can start moving again.

[JMStark]

Good sound design and pleasant looking backgrounds go a long way in making this game have a suitable first impression. The idea of disconnecting the head from the body and controlling each separately to solve puzzles is solid, but as others have noted, this process doesn't "feel" as good as it really needs to. Moving the character around, and this is in all regards, gives a sensation of stickiness. I am guessing that you are intending to keep the game on the simpler side, but adding more unique attributes between the head and body could contribute more depth and allow an easy and effective way to increase the content. Definitely digging the presentation.

[jcorace]

Hey Everybody,
                        Thanks for all the useful feedback, I definitely struggled to get the head/body control to feel right. I just re-wrote a bunch of the code hoping that it now has a better and simpler feel to it. For this game I wanted to just created something hopefully interesting and small but complete so I don't see adding too much more content wise.

Best,
Jason
       

[FRACTURES]

Nice graphics and aesthetic. Cool game. I likes it.

[devshawn]

This is a nice game. I really like the idea of splitting the head and the body - it's very cool.

However, I do agree with some other people that the head/body connection and control process could be improved, to make it easier and more smooth. I also think that a level panel that allows you to go back to levels and such would be a cool feature to add. Good job!

[jcorace]

Hey DevShawn and Fractures, thanks for the nice words and feedback. I have been tweaking the head control and reconnect code to hopefully make it more playable and have posted a new version.

On that note, I was wondering if  anyone knew of  any resources that help map character control size  to screen size to appropriate movement velocities for different type of games ( platformers, shmups,etc)? Or if even people had basic rules by which they try to design by.
I am thinking that one of the issues with this game is the character sprite is pretty small so connecting the head/body back together is a challenge.