Eminence

Category	Rank	Score	Count
Innovation	6	4.11	18
Fun	102	3.06	18
Theme	222	2.22	18
Graphics	139	2.94	18
Audio	185	2.00	6
Humor	90	2.83	18
Overall	107	3.11	18
Community	33	3.50	14
Coolness	243

mintman 2011-05-02 08:30

Holy balls - this *is* tough.

I like the idea, taking control of the enemy - the connection to the theme wasn't clear though. It has a good in-game tutorial, but there is an extreme learning curve, and, like you've said, it needs to be balanced.

I think the multitasking nature of the game needs to be streamlined - there's a ton going on right now, it would be nice if there was a solid interface for starting research or switching control.

OR, you could simplify and focus the gameplay drastically by removing the switching-control action - the unique gameplay idea is something like a twist on a reverse-tower defense where you take control of enemy towers and stop them from hitting your dudes - or something - whatever. Point is, having all the abilities and verbs focussed on affecting the enemy would give the player a clearer metal model of what's going on.

Anyway, cool idea.

kurtwaldowski 2011-05-02 19:06

Thanks for playing! ^_^

Yea, I totally agree: there is way too much going on. This needs to be tweaked a bunch and a wonderful UI would help.

One thing I did wrong was going in the direction of making the planets have abilities (even though that's one of my favorite parts) it added way to much to know/do to the game and ruined the simplicity of just simply multitasking and avoiding. (as you said)

Hopefully I can fix it up; I feel like it has good potential.

gopher 2011-05-03 04:03

gonna have to come back and try this again later; took me a minute to figure out what was what. Very original concept, and nice implementation :D

sonnybone 2011-05-04 04:38

OOOoOOOoOOOOOOoooooOOH THIS IS HARD!
Man, this is pretty dang innovative. Kudos!

I want to get good at this game, but the control scheme needs some refinements or changes... or something. Or maybe I just really suck?

Great job!

kurtwaldowski 2011-05-04 18:00

Hahah you probably don't "just really suck" :P It definetly does need some refinement. Im going to try and tweak it, fix it up, and make it much more playable post competition. Ill let you know when i do =] Thanks for the intrest.

the-jack 2011-05-06 00:35

The planet's complaining was the highlight for me, but I'm always looking for a giggle.

Great work, excellent concept here, hope you work it out into a fuller piece.

chrisp 2011-05-07 04:11

Interesting idea! The controls definitely need some work, and I think the game could be slowed down. Also I wasn't able to look at the research while the game was paused, though apparently I should have been able to, so I really didn't have time to use that feature at all.

I think making the game entirely controllable with the mouse would help; e.g. click-and-drag to point the weapons. This would allow an arbitrarily high turning speed, but I think that's fine given that the game is about management; the challenge isn't in the slow turning speed, it's in selecting and prioritising actions to perform under time pressure.

Designing a game without any points of reference means it can take longer to figure out the best way to do it, which is obviously problematic for a time-limited compo, but is excellent practice. IMO the best thing to do would have been to skip the extra features (like abilities) for the compo and just really focus on iterating and polishing the core gameplay (aiming management). Hindsight is 20/20 of course!

Anyway, well done on completing it to this point, and good luck with future LDs.

kurtwaldowski 2011-05-07 05:23

@Chrisp

Wow man thanks, great insight and advice; your dead on.

matthias_zarzecki 2011-05-12 11:28

Cool idea, although it is hard.