Man. Robots. Always havin' existential crises and what not, amirite? In Folmer Kelly and Tom Wright's melancholy little puzzle platformer A Void for Machinery, you control a lonely little robot searching for something through a hostile landscape. Use the [arrow] keys to move and [X] to jump, pushing blocks and flipping switches to help you get over or around obstacles and trying your best not to land on anything hazardous. Fortunately, if you get violently disassembled, you'll just start the area you entered over again. It's like if Astar came out of retirement to star in a browser game. ... anyone else remember Astar?... man I'm old.
There isn't really that much new about A Void for Machinery, since it is, in essence, an extremely simple puzzle platformer about pushing things and trying not to die. Without doubt, however, the game is absolutely beautiful, and has a sort of effortlessly engrossing visual style you really want to lose yourself in. The downside is that both jumping over hurdles and pushing blocks can be frustrating... the former because getting up over a small bump you should just be able to hop onto can be finicky, and the latter because blocks can slide and don't always fall the way you need them to if you don't have the proper momentum going while you push them. A Void for Machinery was created to showcase what Stencyl can do for Newgrounds' Stencyl Jam 2012, and though fairly simple and familiar, it's an exceptionally lovely little exercise with a seriously professional design from two creators we hope to see even more from in the future.
Agreed that the design is great, but those controls are a mess. Quit on the third level, just too frustrating.
Controls are a joke, not sure why we can't use UP ARROW to jump like in almost all other games. Also, if you go back to main menu, you lose all progress.
Epic fail of a game in its current form, IMO.
Never got through the first level- the play was way too frustrating!
The main menu has a level select screen, which you can use to jump to the stage you were on. :)
For whatever reason, I found the controls to be very nice... Fluid even... And I liked that. They're different from the norm but were not hard to get used to. In this case it's a matter of preferences but I do get how some folks, including Dora, would say the controls feel off.
Not sure if it was the controls or just me lol. But I had real trouble jumping, and walked into/off of stuff too much to get through level 2.
@Dora, my mistake, I couldn't read the Level Select in that crazy font the designer used.
Has anyone actually beaten this game? The last level is really hard. I think I know what to do but
No matter where I position the two blocks on the bottom level, I either can't make the jump to the second block or can't make it from the second block to the far side.
@clabrunda, I have the same problem
I feel as if it would be possible to place both blocks perfectly on the laser platform if you didn't need to use the first block to get back to the top of the level. Then you could place the first block on the third saw blade, and the second block on the seventh and jump up from there. But I can't find a way up to the top without a block.
**
the sixth, not the seventh, sorry
Aww, Dora. You're not old. You're _Canadian_. *grin*
Level 7 is tricky. I can't tell what to do to get over the pit after hitting the button.
No mention of the "secrets" (aka little blinking squares) hidden in each level? Hmmm. :)
To be fair, though, I have no idea if collecting the secrets actually does anything or is just extra "yay" points, since I haven't finished the game yet.
I finished level 7. Didn't know
those boxes could stick on that platform.
I don't think the "secrets" do anything.
Level 8...I really don't like that level. The controls are too finicky for it.
Is level 9 even POSSIBLE?
I personally get way too much lag on this. Which is weird, because my laptop's usually pretty good with flash games, I don't have many problems. The same thing happened with 100% Complete. I guess the people who did the Stencyl Jam just didn't have time for optimization.
as per astar--
--i was gonna note re: another game that it reminded me of blobbo. dont feel so bad!
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