FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD38 → Pixel Town

Pixel Town

By automatonvx

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1733.7348
Fun1463.6349
Innovation4383.0048
Theme2913.6149
Graphics4023.4649
Audio2783.2247
Humor4472.4047
Mood2773.4348

Comments

togis 2017-04-28 19:16

Pixel Town is a very nicely made game that can take 5 pixels and make you understand what they represent!

I really enjoyed this game, a management game with enemy wave coming to destroy your carefully build settlement.

The music is really fitting the art style too, making the full package consistent.

I would have love more building, more enemy and more map in the game, but this is a good thing, it just means I love it so much that I want more of it.

This is a game I can only recommend! Try it yourself and have fun :)

(You can see me playing this game for the first time on the vod https://youtu.be/34z-nBWKdEw?t=3h15m44s )

gozz 2017-04-28 23:49

This game is cool !

Simple but effective. The music and graphics are cool, as I said : simple but effective. I know the time is a big matter but as @togis more content would be awesome. I hope you will have the time and the motivation to make it a full game :)

The thing I could reproach is that there are no information about the costs of buildings but maybe I missed something ?

I had fun playing this game, will come back to rate it ;)

Good work !

cameron-seebach 2017-04-29 19:15

A nice concept, executed well within the time constraints. As the others have said, I hope you'll continue work on this and make more levels and more challenges! It's a bit easy at this length.

A detail I felt was missed - it wasn't clear to me how happiness was generated. I guessed that it was making sure monsters didn't get too close to your houses, so I put down a lot of archer towers. In hindsight, I'm not sure that was how that mechanic worked!

move127 2017-04-29 20:12

Great game. I love LD entries like this, since they keep me playing for a little bit longer. I liked it a lot, especially the difficulty of fitting everything into a small space. The music was also good.

The game definitely needs more/ more visible information. Things like building costs and more visible indications for why something can't be built. I know that there is some text at the bottom explaining why, but when I first started playing I didn't immediately realize why my clicking had no effect. You could even add some sound to indicate a failure to build something.

loveapplegames 2017-04-29 23:11

Always happy to see a good RTS on LD. I enjoyed playing it. It was a bit easy though. The monsters seem really stupid sometimes, just hanging in the corner. It would have been great to have procedural levels. Like, pick a world size and let the game generate a world.

simonhutchinson 2017-04-29 23:12

Wow. Very cool.

I'm always blown away by the entries that can create a balanced strategy game over the course of a weekend.

Very cool. I wish it were easier to see what each individual building costs!

anarbitrarymustache 2017-04-29 23:54

Great amount of game for only a weekend. Love the tiny pixels. What were the objects near the monsters that could be cleared? At first I thought maybe spawners. The monsters on the lower left always seemed to just "stack" up on the left edge. Would love to see maybe increased spawns as the town gets bigger or a second threat as time goes by - something to force a change of strategy. Having the building cursor actually align with where it will place would be a nice fix. Great entry, would love to see more.

red-fan-games 2017-04-30 02:41

Great pixel work and aesthetic. The simple graphics mesh well with each other. RTS is not a common genre in the ludum dare scene hope to see more!

elzach 2017-04-30 09:00

Cool game. Although I kinda wish citizens would pay rent or sth. rushing to a goldfield for a mine is really the most important thing. The soundeffects of the ghosts dieing is horrid though. Especially when you get a game going you're gonna listen to them constantly. Also why do the goldfields in scenario2 have to be this far away? Would've made much more sense to me, to start the player next to a mine to allow either a relaxed pace of play or have him wager the risk/reward for going after the edges of the map.

Nonetheless I'm a sucker for townbuilders and the addition of light towerdefense really made the game even better in my opinion. Honestly, and I don't say this often in gamejams, but this would be my kinda game to play on off-hours at home. With added buildings, polish and content ofcourse.

Either way, nice entry and getting through scenario 2 was just enough time to explore all the mechanics and still being excited about the game.

cheers~

automatonvx 2017-04-30 12:19

Thanks to everyone for playing. @anarbitrarymustache ha yes those are spawners and no you are not meant to be able to clear them, so thats a bug, thanks for spotting it, although not a game breaking one so i guess its staying in for now. Yes I should have included the costs of the buildings in game, not sure why it didn't occur to me until i was uploading. The UI generally needs some work to give better feedback about whats going on. Happiness is linked to population and decreased by any existing uncleared destroyed buildings and if food runs out happiness drops also. The enemy movement is the simplest possible random movement, so indeed pretty stupid, not quite sure why they seem to cluster at the bottom left on the first scenario, maybe more bugs. The strategy element is lacking a bit of depth at the moment and in retrospect its weird that you don't need population to run the mines, farms and towers. Just never enough time. @elZach I agree the enemy dying noise is pretty annoying I will definitely swap that out if I continue work on it. I will probably work a bit more on this project for a post LD version. If it turns out well I might try and release it on mobile just for fun also. Thanks everyone.

m-1 2017-04-30 13:43

Nice minimalistic graphics and interesting gameplay. In the second scenario it was quite difficult to balance food and population, but that (apart from starting fast and defending from enemies) is what the game is about. Thanks for sharing!

shantarr-dalrae 2017-05-01 04:26

Overall a fun but simple game. Took me a bit to find where the money and population was and could also do with some randomness on enemy spawns. Art was good, music was relaxing and the sound effects were on point.

Well done!

elykyevrah 2017-05-01 04:38

This was a pretty fun game. Though the graphics were very basic I understood what everything represented. I wish there could have been some audio normalization as the monster death was very load in comparison to everything else. Nice entry!

burgee 2017-05-01 04:54

I had a ton of fun with this. It was addicting, scenario 1 was a bit easy, scenario 2 not so much. It reminded me of the NES games I grew up playing in a way, really hit me in the nostalgia.

I'll come back and defeat scenario 2 when I have more time to spend on it for sure!

cmlsc 2017-05-01 05:57

The art was nice as well as the music, the game itself was good, even though it didn't have that much content. However, I feel like something was missing for some reason. I'm not too sure why. Another thing I noticed was that the sound effects could stack if multiple things died at the same time. It causes to sound to be louder for some reason. I sometimes run into the same problem. :P

xavier-indie-gamedev 2017-05-01 14:12

Beat both scenarios; super fun game (if a bit easy)! Probably the most fun thus far out of the Ludum Dare games I've tried :) Music is really nice too, and the art style works well. I would lower the sound effects on killing monsters (its really loud compared to the music and the sound sometimes stacks and gets super loud) / have options to lower the SFX / music (you probably would have if you had more time). Also having the cost of buildings shown when you click them would be cool.

Anyway: amazing work, well done!

la-mecanique-du-plastique 2017-05-01 15:02

Great entry ! I enjoyed playing your game a lot, and the only disappointment would come from not having more features and asset to play with (and that's only normal with a LD jam game). You did an amazing job on your own in 72 h ! Just one detail maybe, it would have been great to have something to remind you the goals. Rated <3

valicitor 2017-05-01 15:39

Very nice game, Great art, fun to play, I've always liked these sort of "build 'em up games" so I might be biased. I'd like to see more added, more levels, more structures... just more. Very good entry, nice work

ooku 2017-05-01 18:02

Nice one :) It took me a wile to figure out how the roadbuilding works. I tried all buttons because I wanted to turn the road...

makenai 2017-05-01 20:24

Seems really nice and complete, and the graphics and audio are very nice! Laying out the roads was a bit tricky to figure out as the visual indicator on the cursor didn't update for the context of the direction the road was going to face. Totally realize the time constraints. Great job on this!

justinm 2017-05-01 20:25

Solid concept and execution. I really enjoyed the level design and overall aesthetic of the game. The only improvement I would make is try to make it a little bit clearer on how to reach the scenario goals.

ropedog 2017-05-02 01:24

I really like this one. Once you get your economy in place you can start building up your town and defenses. Then you can really go to town (see what I did there?)! I also can't tell you how important having a 'clear' function is! So many 'build' games don't have this, and it's enough to drive a man insane.

Anyway, great work! Neat mechanics, and solid gameplay!

lone-spelunker 2017-05-02 04:29

Nice. I enjoyed the various elements you need to balance - space, resources, housing, etc. - to manage the town. The pixel art did the job for the most part, even though it was pretty simple, and was charming enough for it to work. I didn't feel like the monsters were particularly aggressive, at least as far as I got, and I couldn't seem to get the "clear" command to work. But other than those minor things which I imagine could easily be tweaked, it was a pretty strong offering. Well done.

christina-antoinette-neofotistou 2017-05-02 12:25

Yayy! Very sim-city! I finished both scenarios and had fun! It does seem to need some balancing, have you tried Joris Dormans' "Machinations" tool? It's great for prototyping the economics of games like this.

Great job

peachtreeoath 2017-05-02 14:14

In my first playthrough, I was concerned about the monsters first, so i built an archer tower immediately, then got stuck with no money to buy a gold mine. Maybe it could replenish very slowly without a mine so you don't get stuck in these situations, or perhaps there could be another freebie currency like wood. Anyway, other aspects of the game worked really well, I liked the look and feel. The music was good but the loop was a bit short.

takusan 2017-05-02 14:38

Very neat. Good art concept, even the simplest sprites represent clerly what they're meant to be, that's a huge plus.

Actually it plays so well, the only thing I'd like to see in the future are some UI improvements and more variety (monsters, buildings etc) that would allow for more scenarios. Of course that would need some balance work, but I'm talking about a longer development :)

Cheers mate, really solid job!

automatonvx 2017-05-02 19:49

@christina-antoinette-neofotistou thanks for the tip with Joris Dormans’ “Machinations” tool i will check it out. It certainly needs some balancing and probably a few other things. Until a couple of hours before the deadline it didn't even have any playable scenario though so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

kevtukk 2017-05-03 10:05

Wow, this is really cool! Simple but nice graphics and very "chill" music. The game feels like a Sim-City-demake meets tower defense, I love it. :smile:

One thing: The creatures are just too cute, I don't want to kill them. :slight_frown: Still really good job!

poffle 2017-05-03 11:22

I really enjoyed this game. Nice cohesion with the art, music and gameplay. It feels like a proper game already and simply needs a bit more of everything. It kinda reminds me of a Kairosoft game in that it's fairly simple but really addictive. You should definitely continue working on it!

2017-05-04 11:53

Really nice little game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation [video series](https://youtu.be/15RvXBjxVuU), if you’d like to take a look :)

furazin 2017-05-05 00:01

A cute little game! Creatures are a lot of funny, and I like sound effects. Gameplay is a little annoying at first, but you have to be patient hahaha. This is one of the best games for Compo(spirit at least as you said on itch.io :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:) I ever seen on this jam. Congratulation.

geckoo1337 2017-05-05 20:11

I were totally hypnotized by the background music. The aesthetic is primal but good enough. And that gameplay - addicitve! Really nice little game. Bravo ++

sleepystudios 2017-05-06 07:56

Pretty enjoyable. Felt like it needed a bit more in terms of showing the player how much money each thing costs, when they lose money/happiness/etc.

jangamesdev 2017-05-08 03:44

Nice game, took me a couple of tries to have a nice balanced city. Nice minimalistic graphics and the music works.

pyokoanarogue 2017-05-08 14:27

I had i lovely good old time with this game, very relaxing. I can tell by the looks of it(dramatic pause ) you know how to jam!

icxon 2017-05-09 12:25

Reminds me of Pharaon/Ceasar games. Requires a bit UI/UX polishing and more levels/structures, but overal it plays very good.

Scenario 2 map has a tricky enemies spawn on the left side, that was a bit unexpected.

Here is my playthrough: https://youtu.be/oeXQOvdnl8I

Thank you for the game!

automatonvx 2017-05-09 18:27

@icxon thanks for playing and taking the time to record it, always interesting to see other people play your games. Completely agree on the UI/UX thing, its pretty unintuitive at the moment. I remember playing one of Caesar games a looooong time ago so that was definitely a reference point. Thanks

cheesymoo 2017-05-11 23:48

A lovely game!

Scenario 2 is a big leap in difficulty from scenario 1. If you don't go straight for a gold mine you're screwed!

multiplexor 2017-05-13 13:03

Loooove it! The game loooks and plays great! Once you get the knack on it it's fairly easy, I wish that you would need certain "population ammount" per building (farm, archer tower, mine, etc). That might make it more challenging! Also, the building GUI could look nicer with some icons. Nonetheless,

I loved this entry a lot! I always liked strategy games, and this is a charming one!

Good job! Keep up the great work! :D

juicybrucey 2017-05-13 13:16

This was probably one of the most fun games I've played this LD. Once i learned how things worked and managed to beat the second scenario after a big difficulty jump and a couple of tries, I wished there were more to play, Good job with this one!

cerno-b 2017-05-13 14:51

You made a cute simulation game that was fun to play. It reminded me a bit of Actraiser. Graphics and music came together as a coherent whole. After a few attempts in which I built myself in, I somewhat got the hang of it and finished level 1. After a few more tries on level 2 I managed to hold back the monsters from the west, but the ones from the east snuck up on me and destroyed my main building.

There are a few minor issues that I came across.

First, I didn't see you display the price of the buildings, e.g. in the form of a tool tip you already have in your game. That would help a lot with planning.

Second, I didn't find the placement of buildings very intuitive. Once you try and put something down, you get a message telling you why it didn't work. I think it may have been better to indicate this by using a red overlay over the building as that would allow for quick checking about where a building could be placed. The reason why it couldn't be placed in a certain spot would then be displayed next to the overlay.

Even so, I noticed that the position the building finally ends up being placed is a little different from the indicated position before placing it.

Another improvement in my mind would be to allow setting down buildings without being connected to roads. That would make organizing the city easier. If a building wasn't connected with a road, an icon would appear, marking it as inactive. That way you would retain the functionality you already have in place but the controls may be a bit more agreeable.

Overall you made a very charming simulation game that worked pretty well in my eyes and could be improved with a little tweaking.

pascalman 2017-05-13 16:56

It's good city builder with notes of tower defence. I not often play in that type of game but that game i liked. Second scenario is a bit difficult but lovely. Good job!

kate-kligman 2017-05-14 02:00

Fun game! I'm playing on OS X / Safari. It took me a few tries to get used to the mouse cursor placement of objects, but after that I finished the first scenario fairly quickly. I love the simplicity and the pixel graphics. It's especially nice to see the population using the houses and roads. The UI could use polish, but this is an exceptional game for a weekend jam.

florian-van-strien 2017-05-15 22:51

Nice to see another city builder game, and fun to see that our games are so different! I liked the idea of a city builder RTS, and you executed it quite well! I just thought the enemies didn't seem to be a huge part of the game. The graphics are pretty cool, especially for the really limited amount of pixels you used. There's some pretty nice music, and sound effects too, which is great.

Minor points: - The roads took a lot of space. - It was possible to get "stuck" in the beginning by not having money and also not having enough money to buy something. - There was some help in-game, but some more would've been nice. - A pause function would've been nice. - It wasn't very clear what the maximum happiness was, if there was one. - Having some more buildings would be cool! - I liked that there were two scenarios, great to make that in the limited time of a jam.

Overall, lots of minor points that could have been better but no big ones in my opinion, so great entry!

euske 2017-05-16 04:14

I like this, what, the mood? The graphics and music together make the gameplay very soothing and pleasant. As other people mentioned, there are a couple of minor things (e.g. you get stuck easily) but it was a fun experience overall.

sinclairstrange 2017-05-16 19:42

Wow, extremely impressive, I love when I see games like this on LDjam, it's my cup of tea. I enjoy the small RTS type games as they're rather relaxing and easy to get into. The graphics fit perfectly in my option. At first it was easy to get stuck meaning to reset the game and I'd of loved to have more options in building stuff but for a jam game it's super impressive and shows really amazing work! Love it!

(And oops sorry about my glitch in my game, I was a fool and made the game too big and ran out of time for general polish and bug finding, and thanks for enjoying me music! I used FL studio with a couple of plugins, as it's the quickest thing to make music on when jamming.)

hunttis 2017-05-18 18:48

Trial and error leads to success, while playing. I really enjoyed this entry. The strategy is simple on the surface, but bad planning will force you to restart and nothing is explained in too much detail.

This was really nice. Even the music fit the game really well. Only thing I would maybe complain a bit about was the placement of the bigger buildings. A surrounding box that shows up green/red or something like that, so you know where the mine and the farm will end up when you click.

veralos 2017-05-19 01:30

Neat game. It's pretty enjoyable slowly building up a town to accomplish the goal. It's a shame there aren't more levels. The graphics are simple but they work well. The music is nice too. I feel like there should be some way to generate money without a mine as you can get stuck if you don't immediately build a one. It can also be tricky to tell where a building will be placed sometimes.

csanyk 2017-05-19 01:33

In Scenario 1, I built a road, and a couple of houses, but then I couldn't build anything else. A bit of explanation would have been helpful, as it was hard to figure things out on my own. I guess that's part of the fun, though.