Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → Escape from Sytlanta
By gundatsch
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 551 | 3.09 | 24 | |
| Fun | 592 | 2.77 | 24 | |
| Innovation | 520 | 2.86 | 24 | |
| Theme | 513 | 3.18 | 24 | |
| Graphics | 406 | 3.45 | 24 | |
| Audio | 239 | 3.33 | 23 | |
| Humor | 312 | 2.80 | 22 | |
| Mood | 484 | 3.04 | 23 |
Nice entry! Took me some time to understand how to unlock the ruins (the 4 gems must be on the same character, and you can make a char take all the gems from another simply walking into him), but I managed to beat the game! Congratulations on it ^^
@fiote, Thanks for playing :D
I probably have to explain the goal better ingame (how to achieve it). But honestly after not being able to start the jam right away i was pretty happy that the game is beatable without any major glitches so far :D
Once again, thanks for sharing your experience.
Hey, sorry about taking so long to actually come here and rate the game. I think my main problems with the game are the same as I was talking about on stream - it's a little difficult to understand what's going on, even after reading the help menu, and it's very difficult to actually beat the game after you understand the rules. I've played a couple times since the stream, and I still can't manage to beat it! Although, that may just be me sucking at games as per usual. Anyway, I still love the game and I hope that you do well in the ratings!
@pixlark well ... actually i have this discussion with a team member :D He tells me that the game is too hard (on easy) every day and i'm unable to understand why :D. But since everyone seems to have issues with the difficulty and what to do exactly, i may have to work on that.
There are 2 other difficulty levels after all and no one except me seems to be able to beat easy without issues ... oh well.
But thanks for playing of course.
It may be difficult, but it is very pretty, and the music gives an excellent mood to the game - you can feel the impending doom of the island sinking. Nice job!
The first link in this page's description (WebGL link) gave me a 404 not found error, but the second link, to the itch page worked. I enjoyed the music and artwork in the game, and how the buttons on the title screen appeared in time with the music.
@andyman404 Oh, you're right ... the WebGL version was updated and itch.io always links to specific versions. Fixed now.
I have no idea what's going on with this game. I figured out you needed gems to get into the ruins, but even when I had all 4 gems on one character I couldn't unlock anything. It took me a while to even realise I was collecting gems.
This game really suffers from a lack of player feedback
Great game! As mentioned before it takes a while to figure out whats going on but once I did it was fun! It's hard enough on easy though, god knows how to beat it on hard! With a bit more information given to the player, this could be a really fun game, keep working on it! Well done great entry :smiley:
@geeitsomelaldy uuh ... i can only guess that you had 4 different gems on you when trying to unlock a ruins field? You need 4 gems of the same type and then you can unlock the ruins of this gem type (and only this one). It would be of some interest to me if you have played the ldjam version (which suffered from major lack of feedback due to time) or the current one (which tries to give hints with tooltips and icons with the needed gem types). Now i'm still thinking about giving the player some hint that he needs to explore the island but currently am unable to find a good idea how to present it without overloading the ui.
@kcreanor well in the latest version (which i uploaded just yet) the characters have special abilities which make it a bit easier to solve the game. I tested it to be solvable on hard (well i don't beat it every time, it's hard for a reason after all). My team members are sure to tell me every day to make it easier though :D ... if there are still a lot of opinions that easy is too hard in the current version i will consider making the island smaller for easy and normal ... but i need more feedback here as i'm unable to lose on easy :P
Though this game has a lot of borrowed concepts, it still kept me playing for a very long time. I can beat it on easy but only after 10+ tries of learning to really be really efficient with all my movement. Looks like you cleaned up a lot of the UI issues in the post-jam version so I don't need to go into that. All in all, fun but tough game, and for whatever reason I always thought I was within reach of beating it, so I just on playing over and over.
The game was fun! Figuring out exactly how all the bits worked together took a little while, but I figured it out eventually. I like the art style!
I'm not sure whether I got this game to work correctly. I think I was missing graphics: sytlanta.png Is this intentional? Should I be doing something else? (WebGL build in Safari / macOS 10.12.4)
Note: I didn't rate the game just yet.
@maartene uuh no ... it shouldn't be black. Looks like some Safari does something wrong there. I can build a mac version which usually works out fine (just can't test it, as i have no mac, but friends usually report no bugs).
Keep in mind though, that you shouldn't rate any version other than the Ludum Dare version (which is windows), because everything else contains post jam updates (which wouldn't be fair to rate). So if you can't test the original version, just enjoy the current version but don't give ratings based on the polished version.
*Turn-based*, *hexmap*, *treasure hunt*, *low-poly graphics*. This was made for me! (I choose to believe)
Played both versions. The graphics and audio are neat in both.
The post-jam certainly has many improvements which I agree on (auto search, thank goodness!). There's still one GUI feature which doesn't make a lick of sense to me. The *This hex has already been searched* checkmark only shows if the hex has not sunk at all. Why? This defeats the whole purpose of the checkmark.
The map size is also a bit big for being *a small world* on paper. I'd prefer a small enough map to fit on a single screen; with fewer, more impactful decisions to make.
Good job overall. The mechanics could be tightened up is all I'm saying.
@maartene okay, i uploaded a mac build but totally can't say if it works (due to lack of mac) ... but chances are it will show more than a black screen :D
@huvaakoodia well ... the checkmark does show, but it sinks with the island :D. If you look carefully though you can sometimes make it out shimmering through the water. I agree though that there should be a better way of presenting it so that it is always clearly visible. I'm not sure how though. Just letting it float in air just feels wrong.
And i agree that the whole game would be much cooler if there would be a smaller map but in turn more actions which gave a more strategic depth. But jam :D ... and i guess this game will get lost in the depths of the internet anyways.
Once again, thanks for playing ...
@gundatsch Thanks, I'll give it a go later today.
I like the idea of managing your small team to explore the island and find all the artifacts you need. The graphics and audio are really great too. The main problem I had (when I figure out what was going on) was that I was unsure of how to pass items from one part member to another, and spent so much time messing around trying to figure it out that I lost.
Really enjoyed this game, Thanks for making it!
As a lot of others have already told you, it takes a while to figure out what is going on, but once you get the hang of it and start planning your routes and raising tiles to keep the island afloat it's really fun!
Was finally able to play the game (the new Mac build). By golly, what an amazing game! Best game I played so far. I'd say: some more polish and then an iOS/Android build and put it on the App Store. Note: I know I played a post-Jam build, so I won't be scoring. But I do want you to know I really like this game.
@blaster391 ... ah well ... i understand ... we need a more detailed help screen :D
@Nahkala NP ... that's what the jam is for (i think) :D
@maartene i always like positive feedback. Gives me the impression, that we did something right. Actually the post-jam build is available on android (perhaps the link on itch.io is a bit small). Other than that ... thanks for visiting again :D
I'm a little torn on what to think. It's kind of an exploration game, but since I can already see the full game world from the start, it doesn't feel like exploring pays off. I'm trying to score tick marks on hexes more than wondering what's ahead.
That said, you have three characters, a colourful world, a solid soundtrack, interesting camera movement (though sometimes it pauses a moment when I want to act), three difficulties, and dialogue. So that's a full game right there.
I'd say a tutorial level to explains the mechanics would be nice, I had to read some of the comments to get the gist.
A very polished entry, and even if I feel the concept has some issues that prevent me getting too excited for playing, I have to commend you guys on getting something this complete done.
I beat easy and normal mode. It's great to have such a polished game !
However it's hard to distinguish checked tile when they are sunked. Maybe add a list of unvisited tile somewhere ? About controls : action arc is a bit slow to show and i'd liked to move camera with keyboard.
Good entry overall !
Very interesting game ! Exactly the kind of games i could play for hours on end. But it took me 3 tries to understand how to use the 4 gems, and i played 5 times on easy mode but i never won ! I swear 1 gem was missing for my last try :D. I don't know what happend, maybe it falled in the water... You could do several levels, which you could win only by using the different character's abilities. Much potential in this game !
This game is fun! Your team did an excellent job on everything, models, music, design, and art. And it's fun to play!
@Flaterectomy mmh ... a fog of war or something like that might be a nice idea. Automatically solves some of the issues (like pilot getting to all places of the island right at the start). But this would need some island resizing and i guess i shouldn't do it on easy as there where several voices that easy was way to hard before.
And a tutorial is a nice idea too ... some small predefined level where you get told all of the movements and goals and whatever.
@kasarun yeah, the sunken checkmarks is still an issue i'm thinking about. The action arc was faster before, but some testers had issues with it because when it shows faster und you are kind of a noob in clicking or touching the tiles the arc would show and execute move instead of executing the default action (what the player wanted).
@pixelstuff another interesting idea. This would need some small work on the level generator, but certainly is possible. At least for the diver and pilot (currently i can't think of a situation where it is absolutely needed to dig all the tiles around you for winning. it just makes some situations easier).
But there are some setups imaginable which would convert this to a puzzle game ... predefined levels where it is predefined which tiles sink when and where the optimum movements are setup. Would need some tight level planning but perhaps an interesting game mode.
Thanks to everyone again for playing, there are some nice insights to gain here ...
First of all, "spanked monkey", thats a great name! lol
You've made a good job. Very polished entry. I just miss a feedback showing me better what character I'm controlling. If they are near each other, it's veory hard to see what I'm controlling. I've liked the graphics and the sound effects.
Good job! :D
Nice little sort of puzzle game (although, I don't think, it's possible to lose) but it was fun to play, and I liked the end dialogue. Anyway, good work!
@dejvo tell that to the people who think it is way to hard :D. If you don't play easy in one of the post-jam versions it should be possible to lose, but due to some balancing changes hard in v0.8 got a bit to easy again. Anyways, there are several changes in line which came up through the comments. I just need some time to spend :D
Oh and thanks for playing ... i'm really grateful for a voice which actually has the opinion that the game is easy :D
Really interesting game! 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=z8tza0thP_g