FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD29 → Water Temple

Water Temple

By plaw

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness285
Innovation684.00
Graphics1183.96
Overall1353.72
Fun1603.57
Audio3533.08
Mood4203.14
Theme5173.31
Humor8871.97

Comments

rylgh 2014-04-28 05:10

sick presentation, love the visual style and the sfx. i'd be curious to know what a 'good strategy' is... the mechanics are very elegant and simple but I feel like each turn has a clear optimal move, and maybe I'm missing something

plaw 2014-04-28 13:01

@rylgh: In fact, the startegy part you're addressing was the the part I was struggling with the most during development. At the beginning, either you could build temples ad infinitum and no tide could stop you from growing all over the place or all your attempts to go past two temples would be continuously crushed by incoming waves. So there was some balancing there. The main choices you make in this game are supposed to be how to distribute your build actions, whether or not to build a totem (i.e. convert a high value 3 story temple to a blocking tile) and so forth. I admit there need to be some additional elements to make the gameplay really interesting in terms of strategy. Right now it's just a minimal core of a puzzle game, I guess.

ilo 2014-04-28 13:50

As you say, it's lacking something. The first thing I did was fill the entire area with totems - it seems wrong that the cost to create totems and the moves it gives you in return are the same.

oatsbarley 2014-04-28 14:01

It is pretty straightforward, but the graphics/audio are really nice and it's relaxing to play. I'd be interested to see what this could turn in to if you worked on it more!

icylava 2014-04-28 16:44

Interesting game. I got 107, did some silly mistakes :P
I like the visual style as well. Good work :)

gaming_ray 2014-04-28 17:42

Nice game. I think the mechanics are good, but the randomness / balancing is a bit off. This could become something really interesting. Very nice presentation and style. Good job.

foolmoron 2014-04-28 17:44

Really cool mix of short-term and long-term planning in the gameplay. Graphics, audio, presentation, everything is very polished.

whitewolf93 2014-04-28 17:46

It's an interesting idea but seems like is missing something. Fun at the start, bored when I saw that i couldnt do anything more :/

jcvsmc 2014-04-28 17:47

Interesting puzzle mechanic! :)

lacaranian 2014-04-28 17:47

Simple, but very well crafted. The best strategy isn't immediately obvious, but with a little thinking becomes evident. Nice work!

jeffalisk 2014-04-28 17:49

Interesting concept and great presentation. Like cageinabird I also misunderstood the strategy to start with, I thought the aim was to create totems and didn't realise you didn't get points for it! But once I got my head around that I had fun.

lonewookie 2014-04-28 17:51

Wow! Very unique, and very fun! It took me a bit to understand the mechanics, but once I did I loved it! I got stuck towards the end, I didn't die, but I couldn't place anymore pieces. GREAT GAME!

bucketh3ad 2014-04-28 17:57

Great job on the core mechanic! It's got a ton of potential, and is quite unique. I can envision a really interesting puzzle mode, where your goal is to achieve a certain score or final configuration given an existing board. However, I feel like experimenting with more interesting configurations is limited by the small size of the board.

mr_tag 2014-04-28 21:29

refreshing and intriguing. haven't figured out the best strategy yet but the game is quite rewarding so i don't mind :)

bekokstover 2014-04-29 21:12

It took me a while to get the hang of it, but then it really works. And after that, I started devising strategies to get higher scores. At first I didn't understand what the totems were good for. Looks great too!

pansapiens 2014-04-30 03:34

Now I haven't played every puzzle game every made, so I can't be sure, but this feels pretty innovative to me. Great icons, great presentation. I was about to say "oh, but it's too easy to beat by just making totems .." and now I realize I missed the point, since totems are defensive but gain you no direct score. I guess that points to a need for a little tutorializing or popup tips to clue the player in. You should continue working on this game since the foundation of what you have is excellent.

simonld 2014-04-30 17:16

Really like the graphical style. Also quite fun to play. I think this would be a great mobile game!

simon02 2014-05-01 15:13

142. Very nice presentation. Minimalistic, but I like it!

actionremix 2014-05-01 15:18

Figured it out, finally.

tomvert 2014-05-01 15:19

Excellent concept and realisation.

delca 2014-05-01 15:32

I liked the graphics, and the game was fun to play!
Since building the totem buys you enough time to build another, there seems to be no penalty to building a wall of them to totally block the incoming wave (the uprising water will still happen because you have to place temples to let the wave come). Maybe you should find a way to let the player "desynchronize" the wave/uprise timers in some way?
Loved the game anyway, good job!

ken-ichi 2014-05-01 15:33

Awesome Game!

epiphanyg 2014-05-01 15:34

Really enjoyed this game. Excellent puzzle mechanics. :)

thenmal 2014-05-02 19:37

Interesting puzzle game, ended up with a score of 123.

scruffylooking 2014-05-02 19:41

Nice design. Very clean and easy to underderstand. I love the tidal wave effects. Enjoyable puzzle.

teameagle 2014-05-02 19:42

looks pretty cool, but feels like there isn't really a right way to play or balance of some sorts. Or maybe I just feel to see it :)

still great for a ld48!

pichifino 2014-05-10 16:05

Like it

phocker 2014-05-16 00:38

wow this was a super great game - love the idea - great job