A lone colony on a small planet

lone-spelunker 2017-05-01 05:32

I liked the aesthetic of this game. Figuring out the mechanics of purifying the planet was interesting, although it felt a little odd "purifying" the planet by absolutely replacing the wilderness with mines, coal-fired plants, oil refineries, etc. Overall, the game felt pretty solid and engaging. The worst thing you could say about it is that it just needs more content because what's already there is strong. I'd love to see more terrain types with more options for building, or some other mechanics that throw a wrench in the gears, such as things that cause the corruption to spread, enemies that attack your infrastructure, etc.

I would also like to see the price of the purifiers go down, or their range increased. As it stands, covering the planet with them would be a rather long and tedious process, so having some better shortcuts might help people complete that.

But overall, a strong offering that fits the theme well, is fun to play, has a good look to it, and is fun to explore as long as it lasts. Thumbs up!

2017-05-01 18:44

Nice game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation [video series](https://youtu.be/gkrBZLZ7noU), if you’d like to take a look :)

takusan 2017-05-02 15:00

Solid and very oldschool idea. It's really neat that you decided on pico-8 for this. Really thought out, fun to explore, really brings back memories of old strategic games. You're riding my nostalgia here!

With more variety (content) included (building types/resources) or with some plot included, this would be a very solid game outside of jam.

With jam in mind, it already is. It's good that you made it well, without trying to sqeeze in more and breakinig it.

Leaving my rating, cheers!

ironchest 2017-05-02 19:46

This one is super good!

The thing that strike me the most is how everything is so well put together, all buildings have a very special place in the logics. I agree with previous commenters that this is a solid game even outside a LD. Very impressive work!

I really enjoy the abstract approach to graphics, the game happens in my head instead of on the screen. And just as I was beginning to wonder what this has to do with the theme of the jam the map wrapped. Genius!

plz make more games

simonhutchinson 2017-05-03 00:30

Nice! I love Pico-8, and this is really nicely done.

I'm not sure if there's an ending. I purified a bunch of the planet, and I didn't feel like I had discovered much new, but, that said, I played for about 20 minutes, so it certainly was compelling!

citsua 2017-05-05 19:53

At first I was quite confused, but the more I played this game the more I enjoyed it. I thought the graphics were minimalist in a good way, meaning that I forgot about them quickly and it helped me focus on the gameplay. I ended up playing for way longer than I thought (~20 minutes). Great game!

joel-j-lyberg 2017-05-06 16:44

I totally agree with last comment me to was a bit confused at start but when i realized what to do in the game then the time kept passing on and i had fun expanding my small world. Can see the games potentials, missed out maybe more graphics and couldn't hear any sounds, (could be something wrong wit my own config) but overall a nice and well packaged game! Would be great too see you continue develop the game.

Real good work!

adroitconceptions 2017-05-06 16:45

has a nice aesthetic. Could use some explanation on how to play the game, I only started figuring it out when I was 'cornered'

mar3k 2017-05-06 20:00

I love really small res pixel art/games so this one was just for me! You did really nice job with the graphics for what you had - mostly with the UI (it is not clustered). The game is a bit slow though (lots of waiting) also it would be nice if there was some kind of threat or something that would make you lose so you would have to play around it. Oh also tutorial would be really nice, cause it takes some time to figure the game out. Good job overall!

kaystar 2017-05-07 10:27

Interesting concept. It reminds me of the map section of A Dark Room without the combat or the need to get back to base. A narrative would work well with this. An easy way to add one (should you choose to) is to just hide some lore in some of the terrain so that every once in a while, you find a spot that you can't build in, but you uncover a stone or monolith or something that tells you a bit more about the place and its history. That would also give people an incentive to explore the whole map once the mechanics are worked out and it gets a bit repetitive.

samusoidal 2017-05-10 21:31

It's a cool concept, I liked the graphics and I just love Pico-8 games, but it played too slow for me. Good job!

thinkofname 2017-05-11 13:22

Love the graphics style. Gameplay started off interesting but I felt like I had no end goal after a while. Kept playing for a while though :smile:

matita 2017-05-12 09:15

Cool! It took me 2 hours and 12 minutes to purify all the cells! (Not of continuous playing, I need to work, you know?)

The game is very solid nad I think the balance went out exactly as you expected, since at the end of the "purifying" there is very little room to colonize yet!

Also the idea of purifying the planet with quarries, coal and oil refineries is very clever :D

It could be a bit slow at the beginning, and maybe just my illness in seeing uncompleted stuff (like "oh no, there's a square I didn't explore yet") made go through the end of the game.

Maybe you were thinking about me when developing this?

Great job!

frodewin 2017-05-12 18:48

Nice to see a rather complex game designed for a very reduced platform. The different keys between the pico-8 and web version were a bit confusing. I love the pixel graphics.

makiki99 2017-05-12 19:08

@frodewin how these controls are different? They are default controls used in Pico-8.

skosnowich 2017-05-13 00:39

Nice and complex game, I like the simple graphics. It is cool to figure out how everything works.

nightshadow0 2017-05-13 17:04

This is interesting. The game is a little dull at first when you have to wait to get minerals, until you get a few quarries going and don't have to worry about them so much, at which point it becomes quite fun. But then having to constantly build solar panels ends up becoming quite dull as well. I played for a while and never came across any coal or oil, not sure if i was doing something wrong, but that meant that i couldn't accelerate my energy production at all, and eventually just got bored. It is quite an impressive game for the platform and the timespan, though. Great work!

jelch 2017-05-13 21:17

Slow to get going, but very cool. I would have like to have either more resources to manage or upgrade paths to choose from.

damien-remars 2017-05-14 18:40

Nice graphics, good concept, just a bit slow to see a real evolution.

euske 2017-05-16 13:54

I had a fun time with this. It gets monotonic after a while, but it has a nice addicting feel. I purified about 1000 cells.