FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD25 → Greater of Two Evils

Greater of Two Evils

By eli

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Innovation134.14
Mood1923.13
Overall2743.16
Theme3043.33
Humor3422.60
Fun3722.83
Graphics4752.68
Coolness74246

Comments

aare 2012-12-15 23:22

+1 for originality :D
Too bad it doesn't come with singleplayer or camapign mode though...

suese 2012-12-17 07:33

I can't see what strategy there is, especially if there are only two players. Regardless, the entry and rules were clear and tight.

eli 2012-12-17 18:07

@aare: thanks! Sorry, it's a board game. Maybe I'll digitize it some day.

@suese: sorry to hear that. In testing I found that the disintegrating board allows for some nontrivial choke strategies. But it's not chess, I suppose.... Thanks for the feedback.

angela 2012-12-18 00:24

um... well, i didn't rate it because it says "Do not score unrunnable entries." But - it's probably still better than my game :) +10 for innovation!

alwaysinbeta 2012-12-18 19:04

Surprising and cool to see a board game entry. I like the concept of competitive wanton destruction!

grifdail 2012-12-18 21:25

Board game ! Awesome ! I'm print it to play it tomorow ! But the rule are well explain ! It's gonna be awesome ! (I'm gonna play it with my math teacher. He love that kind of game !)

galman 2012-12-19 14:33

Eli! Looks like a really awesome board game, I really like the graphics :) I jus't can't wait to play it on our next meetup ;)

lansiir 2012-12-19 18:38

Fellow review-readers, what we have here is a marvelous example of a game. eli has provided me with the best game in the entire Ludum Dare thus far. I'll cover each category separately.

Innovation (5/5): Of all the board/card games I've played, this one manages to pack an interesting mechanic into a game without wasting hours setting it up (See: D&D, or other tabletop RPGs). The gameplay is simple, perhaps too much so, but it has a simple mechanic that captures my attention far longer than any game so far.

Fun (5/5): The idea of becoming a villain just to destroy the environment is a captivating one. The ability to destroy tiles and watching the game become an almost maze is unique and entertaining.

Theme (5/5): "You Are the Villain". It doesn't get much better here. Polluting oceans, burning forests, causing plagues, and enslaving people is about as villainous as you can get. Oh wait. You're competing against another villain at the same time. It's only a pity I can't double this score.

Graphics (5/5): In four words, unbelievable. It felt like I was really on my kitchen table playing this game. Despite my slightly aging computer, I was unable to discern pixels, nor were there any graphical hiccups. 60(+)FPS, easily. A little creepy that the AI looked like my family, but such is a game. The patterns on the cards were the icing on the cake. Simple, yet informative.

Audio (5/5): The clearest sound I've heard from a game yet. Absolutely incredible voice work from the AI as well.

Humor (5/5): Again, the AI is a well-rounded thing, being hilarious without coming off as fake or perpetually chipper. It had me laughing at many a time.

Mood (5/5): I rate mood as "Was I into the game". The answer here? A definitive YES! Nothing beats cackling about burning down forests while you're in a rush to go pollute an ocean

Overall (5/5): An impossibly well done game, with some excellent cross-platform support. Works well on my AFW furniture, on my Ikea furniture, even my floor. I love board games, but hate the setup/cleanup, and you've taken all of that out.


Notes: I love the simplicity of the game, but I made 3 additions to add a little more strategy.
#1: Players start in opposite corners.
#2: No sharing spaces with other players. (or jumping over them).
#3: Add one extra turn to the time it takes for a tile to be destroyed.

lansiir 2012-12-19 19:10

Appendix: My tile set: http://imgur.com/a/mcJa3#0
(glued to a cardboard backing)

impulse9 2013-01-03 16:21

Wow, this is certainly innovative. Cool entry.

matthias_zarzecki 2013-01-03 20:14

Impressive! Love the low-fi images. Gameplay looks solid too.

neonlare 2013-01-03 22:51

Superb, words can't describe how awesome the presentation of this is. Shame it doesn't come with Singleplayer but holy hell, this is something else.

dmilham 2013-01-04 03:59

My "box" was missing the black and red pawn. Also, hand compiling the source was somewhat time consuming. Nonetheless, you came up with a neat little board game with well written rules. The game packs away nicely into a zip-lock bag for future play. Also, nice aesthetics.

somethingbeautiful 2013-01-04 19:26

Wow, that is really original!
I really like the way it looks like as well.
I really like the picture on thewse cards as well, good job!
It is really cool that you have worked on this game together with your wife!
Great entry!

msquirrel 2013-01-05 00:37

I like the innovation in this and the fact it's a non digital entry :)

krasse 2013-01-05 12:19

I enjoy this very much :). Creative and maxed outside-the-box thinking.
I don't own a printer though so I'll have to play some other time.
A 3D-printable game next time perhaps? ;)

start_ 2013-01-06 15:22

I liked the destroying of the board very much, which along with solid simple rules, allows for some interesting emergence. Kudos!

rawbits 2013-01-06 19:09

Nicely done! I'll go and beat my brother in this right now. :)

start_ 2013-01-11 13:16

Having played it a bit more, I actually want to second on what oldtopman said. This was the best game I've played this time around, and I did test the one that ended up winning early on. It was very fun too, and impressive in many ways, but as far as wanting to play it, I want to play this game more. Congrats again!