mathype 2017-04-24 18:13
Hope you like it!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → Ascension: A God's Test
By cassio-eduardo, dakikad, mathype, gustavo_jendiroba, arlamjr and Ana Clara Guimaraes
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 568 | 3.06 | 32 | |
| Fun | 644 | 2.60 | 32 | |
| Innovation | 434 | 3.03 | 32 | |
| Theme | 421 | 3.36 | 32 | |
| Graphics | 588 | 2.86 | 32 | |
| Audio | 323 | 3.06 | 32 | |
| Humor | 535 | 2.18 | 29 | |
| Mood | 572 | 2.85 | 30 |
Hope you like it!
Not gonna lie strategy games are about as far from being my cup of tea as you can get. I am a fairly lazy gamer so the whole genre is bad for me. That being said I can tell you put a lot of thought and a lot of effort into making this game and it was actually quite a bit better than my stream made it look like! Good job!
Very impressive that you managed to make this in such a short time. Reminds me a lot of games like Dungeon Keeper and Evil Genius, which are some of my favourite strategy games. The only problem is that the early game can be a bit boring, but that's to be expected - with only three days there's not much chance to balance out the gameplay. Also, I love the cute little god portraits :)
This is a very solid base for a "god game". The voice acting was an unexpected surprise! The beginning is a little slow because of how little mana you have at the beginning, it might be worth it to have an extra early objective to incite the player to have a second temple and more villages, to gently influence them towards building up mana early on. There is definitely a problem with lava though, it spreads so quickly that if you don't know how to act right away, it can just ruin your game entirely. It might be a good idea to have an in-game message warn you about how to deal with lava when a volcano first erupts, telling you to use rubble to block its way immediately. Might also be a good idea not to let lava spread diagonally, that feels very unexpected! Played it here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/139473859 (starting at 2:33:24)
Confusing at first but once you get into it, it seems like the kind of game you can sit down with and play for a long time. Visuals suit the game really well and I enjoyed the voice acting too!
A strategy game that is kind of hard to get into, but is a pretty decent game nonetheless, and it is evident that a lot of effort was put into it. The beginning was sluggish (as mentioned already), but it got better after a while. Also mentioned above, lava is annoying. The sound was pretty nice, music was a bit unexpected, to be honest, but still did a good job of adding to the mood of the game. The voiceovers and interaction with the other gods were also great at that aspect.
One problem I did notice may have something to do with me having a 4k screen and the scaling not being set correctly: some of the text appeared way too small, such as the objectives, taking up a tiny fraction of the box they were given.
Overall a solid game, though pretty hard to get engaged into without any sort of tutorial in the beginning.
The biggest detriment to this entry, I feel, is that it's not really the type of game that can be picked up and learned, but it presents itself like that. I think this is also the reason why it feels so slow. For my first two playthroughs, I was expected to build a temple and create villagers, but was given no indication as to how this was supposed to work. As a result, I was always losing the first round. I actually don't think I even won a round when trying to match the objectives, because collecting resources and making stuff required mana, all of which you don't get very much per round to start with. There was just a lot of guessing and checking involved with playing the game, which I couldn't find myself enjoying here. A tutorial, maybe even integrating narration with it, would have made it a lot more engaging from the start.
(also the text gets cut off here) Ascension 01.png
That being said, the combination of 3D and pixel art in the game really works in your favour. And of course, I love me a game with some voice acting in it. If you were more dramatic in your inflections, I think this could have made the game more charming. And maybe more voice acting in between the rounds when your turns get all used up, eh? The music also is fitting enough; I like how you seem to have two different tracks in game to switch it up.
It is very pretty game. I love what graphic style did you use. Mainly the combination of pixel art and 3d graphic. Gameplay is great and the strategy mechanics too.
It took a while to understand what is going on and how to play, but eventually, it happened. Mechanics are fun and most of all I liked gods quests mechanics. But I was overwhelmed by volcanos( Good job :)
The game is very good.
I liked the mix of modeling and pixel art. I also liked the voice overs, expanded my experience, as if I really were being challenged by other beings.
It was very challenging to learn to play, I had to exercise my patience. Hahahahahah.
There are a few minor errors (such as actions that waste mana points at random and other relatively nebulous things). In full screen mode I had some trouble reading the floating window that appeared half cut.
Tip: I wish somehow it would be easier to learn. Perhaps increasing visual feedback for when actions were possible. I suppose part of the intended experience was actually learning by itself, in my opinion the game is on the way to get there.
A very intriguing strategy game!
There is an impressive variety of terrain types and actions in the game, and the quest mechanic was pretty efficient in giving the player some concrete goals to work towards. The tooltips very pretty efficient in explaining the game mechanics, while still leaving . One thing that could have been explained better was how resources are earned (e.g. through tool-tips on the resource icons). The base mechanics of harvesting and imbuing terrain worked really well.
The lava-mechanic gave some additional urgency to the game, but it felt a bit counter-intuitive. The placement of rubble at the beginning of the game, seem to signal that lava will not spread diagonally, which then came as an unpleasant surprise later. It also seems that lava keeps multiplying, even when cut off from the source (i.e. a single lava-field, with no connection to the volcano, seem to be spreading in multiple directions). Finally, the Lava-mechanics and the quest-mechanic felt like they collided occasionally: Racing the clock is one thing. Racing the clock, and then having to abandon your plans at the very last moment, or face being buried in lava, felt a bit frustrating.
The art and music worked really well, and the element of the gods talking to you during the game (being voice acted no less) was a very nice touch, that made the world feel more alive. The UI worked quite well, with the exception of the tooltips sometimes being cut off (for the mountain and stone tooltips for instance) or obscured behind other UI elements. The map was very clear, it was easy to get a grasp of the world and resource status at a glance.
This was definitely an interesting game to play, I hope you'll expand on it!
>Volcanoes appear, >at the behest of Ogun. >World drowned in lava.
I... need some tutorials... sorry, I couldn't see where my actions were taking me and I lost interest fast. I really want to play the games of the ones who commented on our game to the fullest. Could you maybe tell me the mechanics of the game on my game page?? I promise I'll come back and re-rate the game.
This game looks good and i like the idea behind it. A good goodgame can go a long way. I had some fun figuring out the elements and the resource generation. The quests are a nice touch it helps to explorer the game. I did have alot of difficulty staying in the game because it was so hard to see what was going on.
I dont understand why after each turn the game is replaced with a black screen. This makes it insanely hard to see what resources change. I think just removing this screen will make the game ALOT more enganging.
The lava was very annoying and i did not understand how to counteract it.
I think this game is about a day away from being something very awesome, but it needs some extra love. Good job!
A bit too difficult to follow initially and there was no real indication what to do. i think it would have benefitted from a nice tutorial. I can see you have put quite a lot of thought and effort into the design and making of this game, but sadly it wasn't my cup of tea. I liked the graphics and the voice sounds. I didn't like the lava.
I spent a good while during the start of my playthrough hovering over every thing and reading the mouse-over texts, so I didn't have many issues with the game.
The only information that I felt was missing is that building towers (and having villages/shrines around it?) gives you the deity's resource. I went through most of the game without building a single one, until I almost ran out of stones.
Overall, I liked it, but it could use some more polish...
At first I didn't know what to do , but when I got the mechanics the game was so much fun and addictive!! It looks like you guys put a lot of effort to do a strategy game this complicated in such short time. The music is awesome, if a little evil. The voice overs would benefit with some treatment, maybe record in a more quiet enviroment? Overall I loved this one. Good job!!!
The audio in this game was very complete, with music and voice acting too. The graphics and UI are decent, although sometimes the tooltips end up behind other elements like the dialogue boxes at the bottom of the screen. An objective system to teach the player the basics is great, although it could be supplemented with a tutorial system that explains the basic mechanics, rather than relying only on tooltips. The map looked good, although the colors were a bit jarring. Nevertheless, I liked the little 3D models that really added a lot of life to the game. Good job and congratulations on making a great game in a short time! :)
You've obviously put in a lot of work here, but unfortunately the game is still rather obtuse. I managed to get to the end, but I never managed to figure out how to power the various statues. I had the water one going for a while, but none of the other statues ever worked for me, even when next to villages. Some more feedback there would have been helpful...
I'm back. I think the main reason I was having a hard time was because of the UI. I didn't quite catch the difference between a +4 and a 4 whereas(if I understood correctly...) a +4 means it will gives you 4 of that resource and 4 means it requires that much. +4 and 4 might look like a big difference here, but in the game I was concentrating on the numbers that I didn't quite catch the meaning of the UI(but I think it's just my bad now that I think of it). Additionally, I think it should be mentioned early in the game that mana is gained each turn and I think it would be nice to show how many mana you will receive next turn. Other than that, I was amazed at how much work was done on this game in 3 days. And knowing the basic mechanics, I enjoyed the game more than I thought I would. Great Work Guys!
Hi everybody. Please rate my in danger game!!!! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/monster-island
I not have Windows but game looks really great! Simple and good art, good idea, good job!
The game is very well made even though it could use some more polish here and there. I liked the inclusion of voice acting (haven't seen that in any other LD game I played). Congrats to all of you :)
Love the story! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piKz6z64rgg