Calor

alexhoratio 2017-04-26 21:50

Well, it's a big game for 1 person in 48 hours, that's for sure!

Unfortunately, I feel like the scope for this one was its own biggest disadvantage. The tutorial honestly wasn't great. It's best to teach the player how to do by letting them do it than by telling them. I found myself rounding off paragraphs as I waited to get into the game.

Unfortunately, even having read the majority of the tutorial I still wasn't clear on what the *goal* was. I knew what I had to do, but not why or to what end.

I'd be interested to see you expand on this, either way!

batmanasb 2017-04-27 22:06

Okay so, first I have to say, that tutorial was super long and boring, so I only understood half of what it was saying. And then after an hour of playing, still had no idea how combat works, lol. Then I came here to complain and noticed the bottom screenshot! That one screenshot made me realize that combat consists of connecting nodes together! I didn't realize you get to use all three (at the cost of extra power of course) at first. But then naturally (being the brutal and violent person that I am), I beat the shit out of the peaceful Zorr IV's spaceships simply for my own amusement, until he was no more.

huvaakoodia 2017-04-28 14:25

Mighty impressive work for 48 hours when it comes to scope and execution. I really love the rotating planet idea, even if using massive turbines to rotate it is somewhat silly.

One major problem: What is the point of it all? I fought some aliens, kept dying but not losing much and it just continued as if nothing had happened. Life on this unnamed planet orbiting Calor is very violent, but in the end mundane; Rince and repeat. A countdown to a final battle or to the arrival of reinforcements would have solved this problem right away.

A pretty sweet accomplishment. Have a diorama: :sunny: :globe_with_meridians: :rocket: :anger: :alien: = :boom:

batmanasb 2017-04-28 23:24

@huvaakoodia I too didn't realize that I was dying and restarting the level, at first! Combat works in lanes, you have to connect one of your nodes to a defense lane to match the enemy's attack, and to the attack nodes to mount an attack (preferably in a lane without defense).

stevenjmiller 2017-04-29 01:41

@huvaakoodia @alexhoratio I think one of the major issues with the game is the dissonance between the mechanics and actual structure of the game. As both of you noted, the goal isn't clear, and to keep the game moving forward, death simply restarts the game from the most recent dialogue. The game is currently broken into five distinct levels, each one with three enemy encounters and separated by dialogue. However, the mechanics suggest that there should be more continuity between levels.

As for the turbines, you are correct, the torque they would apply would actually make the planet spin on a completely different axis, as the torque naturally aligns itself with the direction of angular momentum.

maldo19 2017-05-02 02:15

I can apreciate the effort that this game took, It's a big game that has a lot of potential but as it stands It's execution was really too ambitious. That tutorial wasn't a good idea but as it's a complex game is understandable. The game needs to give some feedback in a way that you can understand what everything does, For example if I have a solar panel directly facing the sun it should show the amount of energy that I'm getting from that. If you implement things like that it should be easier to not get lost.

TLDR: It's really a nice idea but it needs more ways in which it gives it feedback.

candlesan 2017-05-02 07:29

That is super impressive that you found time to do a tutorial. I find most games in Ludum Dare are presented without instruction whatsoever and though I try to figure it out I kinda wish they had built-in tutorials - though I understand with the time crunch why so many do not.

Music track is solid and didn't even feel like it repeated too much

As others have already mentioned, this was a very ambitious project. I really like the promise of what the mechanics will be. The idea of all these various copmonents interacting with each other is really compelling.

buck-supergoose 2017-05-02 09:03

There is clearly a lot of work here! I like the idea, and I can certainly see the relationship with the theme. Your game was a little bit too complicated for me. I think having instructions on the screen that one can choose to look at might have been a good idea, rather than forcing your player to go through a tutorial at the beginning. Also, you could try introducing the player to mechanics in stages whilst the player is playing, rather than all at once in the tutorial. I wasn't sure exactly what I was doing unfortunately.

cerno-b 2017-05-04 20:28

I truly marveled at the scope of your game. A neat intro sequence, then a fairly complex simulation and I thought man, that's quite a lot of content! And then you go and slap combat on it for good measure.

The mechanics of the sim and the combat felt really fresh and interesting. The graphics are pleasant and convey well what's going on. The intro sequence was cute and added a lot of character to your game.

That being said, I wasn't really able to figure out how to actually achieve something, so I went and built some stuff in different sectors and tried to keep them in the sunlight, but I didn't really feel I was working towards something, or trying to evade some pending doom. Then came a fight and I had totally forgotten details of the combat mechanics. I had to connect to a red node for attack and to a blue one for defense, and I could optionally pick up these other nodes on the way but didn't remember what they were good for.

I should note that I'm not really a simulation buff, so from my naive perspective it was all a bit tough to optimize both the sim and the combat.

Against the consensus here I actually enjoyed the tutorial, although I agree that it was a bit too long to keep all the aspects in my head. It may not be perfect, but you actually went through the trouble of making a tutorial, instead of slapping on a wall of text explaining what to do as many other games around here do.

I have to say that the music is a weak point for me. I don't know whether you composed it or used a tool like Wolfram, but it sounds like random notes without much of a musical structure. It kinda worked for [Carefulzilla](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/carefulzilla/) because it's a wacky game, but if time as an issue, I think I may have preferred some spherical, drawn out notes using a pad instrument to create auditory atmosphere.

So although it's not my cup of tea genre-wise, I still appreciate all the effort that went into the game. Definitely an innovative concept that very well deserves to be expanded on. Impressive game!

clickmation 2017-05-06 07:05

I was super impressed that there are two types of gameplay in a one-man 48 hours game. The music fits the atmosphere nicely. But frankly, the game mechanics were a bit too hard to understand. Although having the tutorial was better than having no tutorial at all, I thought having the whole game mechanic tutorial in one take was too much information. But I'm pretty sure that this problem wouldn't have appeared if you had more development time. I would like to retry the game when the tutorial gets optimized. Keep me in touch for more updates!

Also, PiP has been updated and can be found here https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/$19665 but no new content was added as there were technical difficulties(more info at the bottom of the page.) so there's not a need to go and replay the game. I just thought I'd keep you in touch. Good Luck!

cogcomp 2017-05-07 08:29

Interesting idea. The tutorial was a bit too long though. Well done!

quetzakol 2017-05-07 08:44

Wow, hard to believe you really did that in only 48 hours ! That's impressive ! The music and graphics are quite simple but very well done. The gameplay is full of innovative ideas that I liked too, and you even put some narration :) But actually it was a bit too much I think, the tutorial was quite long and it was not easy to know how to play. Apart from that, good job !

chao 2017-05-07 11:39

Man, I didn't expect to see something this deep and complicated in a Ludum Dare entry. Fantastic job, I really liked the idea of having to rotate the planet to power different buildings, but also to destroy aliens, thereby creating an interesting trade off. The combat system was also really interesting, though it would have been nice to be able to drag a line instead of clicking each hex. The visuals and music were both fine, and I especially liked the short story interludes between each mission giving some back story.

Overall, fun strategical challenge with a bunch of interesting ideas that carry it through till the end.

chaseplays 2017-05-07 19:39

Amazing! At first, I was honestly scared by the tutorial (in fact, I stopped playing altogether), but when I came back, I realized what a great game this was. The battle system is really fun (like, really fun), and it's something that I would love to see more of. The graphics were also great, and it's incredible how much you fit into this. My only complaint is that certain aspects were really confusing, and never really got an explanation (such as what happens when you die, and the HP system). I really loved this, and great work!

chaseplays 2017-05-09 03:33

I'm honestly coming back to state how much I loved this battle system. If you made a more complete game based completely around that system, I would probably play it a whole lot. It's a relaxing sort of puzzle that I just really enjoyed a lot. Great job again!

stevenjmiller 2017-05-09 06:24

@Chaseplays Thanks for the kind words!

I've actually been toying around with the game recently and have been trying to turn it into a rouge-lite of sorts (basically survive for a certain amount of turns before help arrives), which I think would compliment the design better and hopefully allow for some harder enemies and more meaningful gameplay (things like having all of the structures and resources reset between levels really detracted from the management aspect).

It was an idea I messed around with during the event, but decided instead on a more structured experience so players would only have to restart from the most recent dialogue if they died and to save some time.

pcmaster 2017-05-09 16:35

A very complicated game :) Amazing and admirable you managed to put this much together in one weekend!

caterein 2017-05-09 20:13

Very ambitious and many kudos to you for pulling it off! I really appreciate the extra effort you took in adding a tutorial. Well done :)

mar3k 2017-05-10 12:31

Overall just an amazing entry! The graphics are simple but nice, the music is ambient and not distracting and the combat is unique and fun. Also the tutorial is really well done and complex! Only flaw might be, that you made it a bit more complicated and Im worried that lot of people will just click quickly through the tutorial and will end up lost in the game! But from me a big thumb up! Great job!

Oh and also, you commented on my game (thanks for that) and you said to tell you when I fix the bug it had - so I finally had some time and fixed it (sorry it took so long). Cheers

sn0uk 2017-05-11 10:19

Really enjoyed playing this, especially with the consistent art style. Good job.

lord-bobyness 2017-05-11 18:31

My big problem with this game was trying to understand it (the tutorial wasn't fantastic, but it was better than nothing). Once I did though, I thought it was, except for the combat (see below), quite enjoyable.

I got really stuck trying to understand combat, even after replaying the tutorial a few times. The length limit of the line seemed arbitrary and would change depending on factors that I didn't understand. So I just kept trying until the game let me draw the line I wanted...

So despite the fun I was having outside of combat, I eventually got frustrated and gave up (sorry, I really did try).

stevenjmiller 2017-05-11 20:00

@lord-bobyness There actually isn't a length limit for combat, the line starts at a dark green tile and ends at either a dark blue or red tile, but it can hit any number of tiles in between. Thanks for giving it a try!

ajayajayaj 2017-05-12 00:02

Really like the long detailed tutorial, but the game is still hard to understand. Congrats on making such a big game though! I just think the game is **too** big for the time you had. I finished the tutorial and didn't really know what to do... But, the concept looks really cool.

gfm 2017-05-14 15:45

Hm... I liked the idea, but not so much its current implementation... :slight_frown:

My main issue is with the game's pacing... The tutorial is overwhelming and after it you are directly dropped into the game. I failed utterly at parsing all the information and memorizing it for the game.

You should had introduced each mechanic separately, giving the player time to play around with it. Or, at least, it should be included in a README or on the game's page...

After surviving for two waves (i.e., two messages from the alien), I finally started to understand the game... But then, I had to manage everything happening while I tried to devise a strategy.

That aside, I really liked that you can control the planet's rotation. It took some time to get used to, but it's a pretty interesting and unique way to manage acquiring resources.

The battle system was also pretty cool! It took me quite a while to notice that the light-red tiles decreased the action by 1.

All in all, this is a nice game, but it has quite a big wall that must be overcome.

madjackmcmad 2017-05-15 03:19

Crazy huge goal you set for yourself over the time period. What you managed to do, including packing it all up nice and providing tutorials, is no mean feat.

Connecting lines to make damage / shield events was confusing at first, but I picked up on it after the first battle. The tutorial did a pretty good job but if you had more time you would have been able to highlight features more cleanly perhaps.

You can tell a ton of work went into this, I hope you are proud! Great stuff and keep it up.

mrjoshuamclean 2017-05-15 12:34

Very complicated game which would benefit from a more interactive (player-driven) tutorial. A lot of really interesting concepts. The RPG battle system connecting the hex grids would have been an awesome game on its own - I mostly got confused with the strategy/sim elements. Solid graphics, good sound, lots of strong design ideas but maybe too many in one game. Good work overall. :)

omiya-games 2017-05-16 03:25

What a ridiculously complex game...that I had some of the most fun with! To me, the hex battle by fair was some of the most entertaining turn-based battles I went through. The 3-lane attack/defense portion, combined with a simple line puzzle was really fun to plan and execute.

The planet turning aspect of things wasn't nearly as fun. I found trying to manage the supply stuff to stay on the sunny side a bit cumbersome, and the seeming randomness of the solar flares didn't help. I get the reasoning behind those 2 mechanics: you need to get the player to encourage them to move the planet around somehow, and have some sort of sacrifice to come with it. Ultimately, though, I felt like the level of randomness made an already-complex system that much more frustrating.

That said, I did get a hang of both things, and even managed to farm a good chunk of supplies before besting the final boss, so I clearly had fun to play it all the way to the end.

siegfriedcroes 2017-05-19 13:46

Quite complicated at first but still nice when you get the hang of it :) Well done!

batmanasb 2017-05-21 18:34

@stevenjmiller first game? lolwat? but yeah, our games kinda flopped this time around (mine mostly), but oh well... we can't win them all. I realized the error of my ways, and will hopefully do much better next time around. See you in three months!

edit: we only have 2 months! wtf! panic!!!!!