FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD25 → Neutral Balance

Neutral Balance

By koller-digital

View on Wayback Machine

CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness291
Innovation713.69
Overall3503.02
Fun3722.83
Mood4352.65
Graphics5202.55
Theme5252.83
Audio5621.50
Humor5641.97

Comments

hints 2012-12-17 07:19

Really quite enjoyable; maybe I don't fully understand it but it's difficult as well.

ddionisio 2012-12-17 07:21

I can't seem to run the game...Windows 7 64-bit, if that helps. Also ran it on the desktop. Nothing happens when I run it (not even showing in the task manager processes)

celeron55 2012-12-17 07:23

@ddionisio: Same thing for me.

koller-digital 2012-12-17 07:48

@ddionisio, @celeron55: You need java version 7. Type "java -version" in a Command prompt. Your java version have to be "1.7.0_xx". If it is, maybe try the jar-version from the linux-link. And if it still doesn't work, try in a Command Prompt "java -jar Neutral_Balance.jar" and tell me what it says.

gemberkoekje 2012-12-17 08:39

I found this game pretty hard, in addition to that it took a bit for me to understand it.

- Graphics are pretty good, though I guess you could've added some variety.
- I'd have liked a menu and/or a tutorial, especially as your concept is quite unique it could've used some explanation.
- I think it would've been better if one of the sides was AI-controlled, or by another player, but I'm not fan of the equilibrium.

h8urf8 2012-12-17 09:38

I also have problems to run it on windows 7 64-bit.
LWJGLException: Pixel format not accelerated.

h8urf8 2012-12-17 09:42

Ok, the system I used, didn't support OpenGL...

ragepyro 2012-12-17 09:55

Fairly cool, my only regret is that my aim is terrible, so evil always loses.

tompudding 2012-12-17 10:20

This was very enjoyable, jolly good show. A really simple mechanic that's easy to grasp, but is fun and addictive too.

robotic 2012-12-17 10:31

I really enjoyed the concept, even though the good side always won :(

starspell 2012-12-17 10:39

Unfortunately with my laptop being a load of fail I can't run this game :_:

lorancou 2012-12-17 12:37

Took me a while to grasp the mechanics but I finally found out out to get the evil side growing. Problem is the game tends to crash after 30s of play so I can't really try beating my highscores :/

svenardo 2012-12-17 16:26

Good concept, also challenging. Seems like the good side has some unfair advantages. For some reason it crashes after a short while (Windows 8).

koller-digital 2012-12-17 17:25

Sadly I have no Window 8 machine to test it on. So I can't reproduce these crashes. If possible, please start the jar-version (linux) with a Command Prompt and tell me the exception if it throws any.

bipolarmike 2012-12-17 23:53

It's an interesting concept, but I didn't find myself having much fun...

ddionisio 2012-12-18 05:31

@koller-digital Yeah that was it. I was under the assumption my java is up-to-date since it always nags me to update it.

Definitely took a while for me to understand the mechanics. Pretty good game, may actually work well for 2-player.

zenmumbler 2012-12-18 16:22

Trying to open this on Ubuntu 12 with Oracle Java v7, got this as output:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: setSelectedIndex: 0 out of bounds
at javax.swing.JComboBox.setSelectedIndex(JComboBox.java:622)
at de.koller.ld25.launcher.Launcher.<init>(Launcher.java:15)
at de.koller.ld25.LDStart.main(LDStart.java:9)

dagamesta 2012-12-20 05:27

Interesting concept. You have to use your good ammo to gain bad ammo, it's a nice twist. Personally I felt there needed to be something more, or perhaps some rebalancing, but I think this was a good job under the circumstances.

youdonotexist 2012-12-22 00:39

@ koller-digital: Tried to open on my Mac (Mountain Lion, Java 7) and got the following:

mdaly@mikedaly:~/Downloads$ java -jar Neutral_Balance.jar
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: setSelectedIndex: 0 out of bounds
at javax.swing.JComboBox.setSelectedIndex(JComboBox.java:622)
at de.koller.ld25.launcher.Launcher.<init>(Launcher.java:15)
at de.koller.ld25.LDStart.main(LDStart.java:9)

Ping me on twitter (@youdonotexist) if you need any help troubleshooting.

sclark39 2012-12-22 04:30

Can't run :(

koller-digital 2012-12-22 08:18

@zenmumbler, @youdonotexist: Thank you for the report. This exception occured, when no 16:9 DisplayMode was found, but it should work now.

coffeeonimal 2012-12-23 12:59

I guess no-one said you couldn't NOT be the good guy too.
I applaud your innovative take on the theme. Very well crafted game as well.

barigorokarl 2012-12-25 10:36

Interesting concept, but you have to polish more. I didn't understand how to balance g<->e at first and as I did there was no difference in points because it was to hard for me. But the idea definitly has something to it.

delpes 2012-12-31 03:22

Really love that concept! And of course the faces of the sun/the red thing when the opposing surface came closer :)

beanalby 2012-12-31 18:36

I liked the yin/yang take on You Are the Villain, rather than the "pure evil" aspect of most entries.

maikeroppi 2012-12-31 19:49

One of the more interesting game concepts I've played, well done! A few notes:
-It took me a bit to figure out as I just started firing, but playing both sides at once is cool.
-I feel like the gameplay mechanics are well designed and balanced. The fact that one side grows if it gets too large, and each shot produces a shot for the opposite side results in quite a bit of strategy for such a game.
-Seems heavily tilted to the light side. I couldn't last too long when the light side auto growing speeds up.
-There didn't seem to be any sound. Not sure if a bug or you didn't have time for this.
-I thought the graphics were kind of charming, even though you're mostly killing the poor little green guys.

Very well done!

diningphilosopher 2013-01-01 18:02

Awesome, and really hard! I didn't manage to let evil win, if that's possible.

jmoraguiard 2013-01-02 16:23

Really nice idea, one could the message out of the game! I really liked the mechanics, fluent and well balanced, not meaning it is not difficult ;)

ceronman 2013-01-02 21:51

Very interesting gameplay. I enjoyed it playing it.

neonlare 2013-01-03 07:16

Pretty darn fun once I got the hang of it, does need some more tutorialness though ;o.

m-gryko85 2013-01-03 13:53

interesting idea, but in my case evil always loses

kevinworkman 2013-01-05 02:47

This is a fun idea and could make an interesting 2-player mechanic, with each side able to help or hurt the other.

By the way, if you're looking for a better host than dropbox, you might check out the free Java hosting I offer at http://StaticVoidGames.com. Either way, nice work!