Angelic Design

remco 2017-04-27 10:52

Nice to have some music added... It felt kind of silent in the 'pre-release' version you sent us on monday evening :smile:

First of all, mad props to you for codeing an entire 'grand strategy' game in 3 days. Despite that I keep loosing, I do definitely feel at least a small pull to try again!

Haveing played it a third time now, I think it merely 'too hard' as opposed to 'way, way too hard'. I think the main problem is that there are too many catagories; one effect is that it's too easy for a race with say, 'very strong magic' to gain a level in 'pie making' (err, I mean, 'spirit').

Or maybe I just don't place enough of the fantasy races on the map... are the levels tied to the size of their 'nations' as I assumed (may be a wrong assumption)? Hm. That would also answer the question of why you'd need 'curse', and why the growth rate feels sligly too slow to me! Maybe I shall try a fourth or fifth time, after all :wink:

I still think that the varois menu's could use some color... The first time I played it, it took me a while to notice 'See Challenges' which players definitely need to click at the end of the game!

Oh, I spotted another typo (a real one this time). The first time you mention 'Chaos' (when the word is emphasised with black lettering), you've spelled it 'Choas' (not a bad name in its own right, though).

I like all of the modifiers on the names. I got Cannibal Halflings that where peaceful. I guess it's just their way of honouring their dead... and I bet those snotty Elfs named them that anyway. Stupid race-ist Elfs... :upside_down:

reactor-scram 2017-05-06 00:04

Here is what I wrote while playing: - I don't know what I should be doing - Exalting is a good thing, right? Why do the races decline when I exalt a hero? - The races have no pictures so I have to read all those words and then try to remember which races have which traits and somehow map that to the challenges presented. - The coloring of the words doesn't tell me much. Strong is orange and yellow is weak?

In short, the game makes me feel dumb, and although that may be accurate, it's not how I want to feel. I gave up at 176 AD. I had made some humans and exalted an eagle halfling but I don't know what I was actually meant to be doing.

For me it needs more handholding - Games should generally start with a small "safe zone" where the player can learn the mechanics one by one without being punished. This game seemed to drop me right into a genre I've never played.

2017-05-06 00:38

I found it very entertaining! Although, I would have liked to have seen a better tutorial to get started, but I'm amazing you managed to get a 1000 year civilization simulator working in just 3 days! I enjoyed it a lot, so good job!

citsua 2017-05-06 10:41

I really liked this game and played it three times (without ever winning of course). I didn't think it needed more handholding. For those who didn't notice, clicking on one of the actions (exalt, bless, curse, smite) tells you what it does. The only thing that wasn't clear to me is why a race that is average in combat got to 4 combat, and the one next to it that was very strong only got to 1 combat. I also felt like smite was underpowered, or maybe I used it wrong. Anyway, thanks for making this game, I really enjoyed it!

rockhoppergames 2017-05-08 14:55

You have a very interesting idea here, and one you managed to develop surprisingly far given the time limit! As for things I would improve, I feel like the timescale could be a little slower, so I had more time to read the information about all the races and what they're doing. Also, a hotkey to pause the game would help alleviate a lot of the stress when you see messages you didn't expect popping up.

Overall, though, I thought this was a really pleasant experience, and a very creative approach to the theme!

eli-delventhal 2017-05-10 21:16

Cool idea. I made it to the 1000th year, and only figured out what I was doing by about year 800. Then I lost on the final mission... I could maybe have done it but didn't feel like min/maxing stats to make it work out. I like the idea of the missions but the way they are implemented feels a little tedious, and it's kind of a bummer to have no idea what you're aiming for until the end. I'd rather have missions come up as I play, and be told what the next mission is so I can plan for it. That way I would actually use the curse etc commands to get rid of undesirable traits.

japes 2017-05-10 21:58

Great entry, was it inspired by the Small World board game?

I beat it on my second go, but I feel like I didn't really deserve it. I just randomly placed races all over the map, giving them some space to grow and "harvesting" them when it looked like their capitals were about to get destroyed, or they seemed to be stagnating. At year 1000 I then just shuffled heroes around until all 3 tasks were marked "passed". (I think there may actually be a bug and that some stats arent modified properly when you rearrange heroes on the task screen, but I didn't look into this more carefully)

I love the mechanic, and I'm sure that if you'd had more time you would've sorted out some of my major criticisms: - icons/pictures instead of text for the races and their modifiers - race colours that had some kind of meaning and weren't random - a more intuitive/helpful tutorial - have the underlying rules be a bit more transparent (although I feel this way about some AAA games too). It would be nice to know exactly how the stats are awarded(or are they random besides for the starting bonuses?). I was dropping orcs and goblins when I needed combat, dwarves when I needed tech etc but it seemed like after levelling they could actually get stronger in other areas. Is size and time all you need for strong races (and therefore strong heroes)? does the terrain have any effect? Would "frost" races do better in the north, for example, or "sea" races do better with a coastline?

With all that said, I have to also say that this is quite an achievement for a jam. Very impressive, well done!

pikopik 2017-05-11 03:44

I'm not really into grand strategy games but that doesn't mean I'm not impressed as heck. great concept too.

kate-kligman 2017-05-14 06:13

I would buy this if you built a post-comp version! I love the concept and prototype. I wasn't able to win, but it didn't matter, it was fun. Please continue!

neon 2017-05-14 15:49

What a cool game! I really like the idea of simulating civilizations through the ages, and being a long time EU4 player, I liked the way the map is presented (like, on a canvas). Won on the second try, but needed to exalt everyone to win, so I guess all of the civilizations are now in decline? At least they're not in chaos. One bug I found: when you win, it displays a text "{years} AC: The First Age Survived", I think you missed a replace there :wink:

damien-remars 2017-05-14 19:52

Complex...

skruffye 2017-05-14 20:18

The concept of this game was really interesting, but I feel it might have been just slightly out of scope for a game jam! The way that civilisations interacted and grew was fun to watch, although the game did feel a little bit more like a sim than it did a game (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). :)

The races themselves were hard to keep track of because you had to click on them to find out what they were (the shorthand names on the capital didn't really work all that well) and it was pretty hard to gauge when to exalt. Additionally, I felt that there could have been some deeper mechanics involved, but considering it was done in a weekend, I think that's completely understandable!

Overall, really nice work, keep it up! ^^

-Skruffye

clegamecoop 2017-05-15 21:55

After I got going, I definitely enjoyed it! I think it would help to better explain the reason for building up the various races as well as indicate the final deadline for doing so. Other than that, great job!

diegoctorguet 2017-05-15 22:20

I completely love this one. It just need more polish.

- I wanted to see how every civilization grew but everything was happening too fast. - In the final fight I lost because I tried to fight without choosing my classes by error. - The music gets a bit annoying when heared too many times. - The controls in general are a bit hard to learn how to use them at first.

But hey, I'm writing this because I would totally love to play this one without that lack of polish of a game jam. Seeing how the civilizations grew and having a log of every event was amazing. Great job!

boorik 2017-05-16 15:57

I didn't understand some things but it was very pleasant to play. Great job

kasarun 2017-05-16 21:25

I won the 2nd time.

I love god games and indirect control games. Here what i wrote about it : * The game is too fast. I want to read each log, but cant. If i pause game, it automatically unpause after an action. * How does civilization growth ? What is the use of each attributes ? How can i use it best to make a civilization growth ? * The last part isn't really fun. I end it with 20+ heroes and trying to have a perfect match for objectives (an algorithm can do it better than me :smile:) * More control would be great (like influence civilization to make a defensive pact/trade agreement ?)

Had fun playing it (rise and fall of civilizations) good work overall !

kcreanor 2017-05-17 21:57

I've been playing LD games for about 2 hours now an dI was chomping at the bit for a decent strategy game then along came this! I could quite happily sit and play only this for another 2 hours now, maybe more, it has everything a good strategy game needs for extensive replayability. It's randomized, but within controllable parameters, making each game a challenge even once you've got the underlying principles down. Really, can't describe how impressed I am you managed to code this in the time given, I cant imagine where I'd even begin. Really well done, a fantastic entry, thanks for making it! :smiley:

lone-spelunker 2017-05-18 17:13

Interesting premise. Reminds me of the "Small World" board game in a lot of ways.

I get the feeling that there's a lot going on "under the hood" in this game, but it just wasn't exposed very well to the player. I realize that's hard in a game jam - a post-compo version with better on boarding would be a good idea!

I liked the element where you raise up races and they decline, only to make room for new races. Gave it a grand feel.

I didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing, with regard to cursing, exalting, etc. And there was something about "tasks" that I didn't know what I was supposed to do in order to complete them. I got all the way to the 1000 years, and it said to exalt the heroes - which I had been doing all along - but then it appeared that there wasn't anything to do after that.

I didn't care for the manner of navigating the map. I think I would have preferred a smaller, static map that wouldn't have to be scrolled just to get to the edges, and instead had a slightly smaller world where it could all be reached without scrolling. It seems that the only reason it was there was to give you access to the very corners of the map that were intruded upon by the HUD displays, so I think you could slightly revamp them to the point where it doesn't require moving the map at all.

Anyway, looks like it's the start of a compelling strategy game. I enjoyed the parts that I was able to connect with, and I suspect after getting into the rest of the mechanics, I'd enjoy them, too. This is probably a game worth fleshing out into a larger offering.

jod 2017-05-20 11:39

Sorry bro, took me a long while to review, but finally did!

Really see some potential here. Like other reviewers said, there's a _lot_ happening under the hood, but we don't get to see it. Showing us some of that good stuff will make us as players very happy.

Lovely interface, some decent background musics, that's all good. Making the steps more discrete really worked better then the more analog version. There's potential here.