Team Droid: Multiple Robots

Wednesday, 10th January 2024

Spoiler alert: the last level in the Jam Levels pack has not one, not two, but three Robot Spawners. I believe the level has no solution with just a single robot. It can be solved with two, but is designed to be solved with three. I believe the three-robot solution is probably the quickest. In the Double Trouble level pack, ever level has two Data Cards, two Card Readers and two Robot Spawners. Today's article will describe how these levels work.

It's possible to encounter levels where two or more robots carry two separate Data Cards to two separate Card Readers without interacting. But I don't believe there are any such levels in Double Trouble (my memory may fail me, it was released many months ago). Usually the robots will have to work together, even if they never meet.

The way the robots most often work together is by passing items to one another through teleporters. Robots themselves can pass through teleporters, so you need to look closely at the level to see whether it's better to send the robot through or just the item. If there are multiple items to push through then it's probably the latter.

I've often designed levels such that one robot will shoot generators whose adjacent forcefields are blocking the other robot's path. I've used this a number of times in the Double Trouble level pack, but it's also a feature of the last of the Jam Levels too.

Levels with multiple robots working together are some of the most interesting puzzles. I sometimes wish I'd put more of them in the original Jam Levels. There might be other ways I can engineer team working into future level packs. We'll have to wait and see what inspiration hits me.

In the last article in this series, I'll talk about level tiles and thinking ahead.