ledez 2017-08-05 04:37
Good and simple tower defense mechanics. More features can be add to this game, but it was fun to play.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD39 → BugsTD
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 489 | 3.00 | 45 | |
| Fun | 540 | 2.72 | 45 | |
| Innovation | 630 | 2.18 | 45 | |
| Theme | 634 | 2.35 | 44 | |
| Graphics | 461 | 2.86 | 46 | |
| Humor | 384 | 2.10 | 32 | |
| Mood | 551 | 2.37 | 39 |
Good and simple tower defense mechanics. More features can be add to this game, but it was fun to play.
Pretty simple game, i had fun, good job!! :)
Very impressed you pulled it off in 12 hours. I did finish the game. Er, I think. After a certain wave, it dropped me back to the main menu.
The game itself is fine for covering TD basics, but my big problem was the UI. I've never seen a drag-click scrolling method implemented like this (where you hold a button to activate edge scrolling). I also would have liked a wave counter to know how far I had lasted. Finally, there's some real weirdness going on with the $400 turret button. Hard to explain, but it doesn't seem to be in the same 'toggle group' as the first and third turrets.
Anyway, I enjoyed my run-through. Hope you had a great vacation!
@ryte2byte: Thanks for the feedback.
I am absolutely terrible at camera controls. They worked well when I started programming the game - they just activated without clicking, but that became a problem once I started working on the UI so I "patched" them so to speak. Something to fix in a post-compo version.
The turret UI is something I noticed shortly after the compo finished. I believe it's something to do with the button hitboxes.
And yes, you did finish the game. There's no fanfare for either winning or losing. :P
Good game. It has all the basics of tower defense, and considering your time constrains that's impressive. I like the graphics but think the UI could use some love. I wasn't able to see the entire map because my middle button doesn't work but adding camera controls was a nice touch.
@ciobeni: Thanks for the feedback, although I'm sorry you weren't able to see the whole map. That takes away quite a bit of playability.
I would agree in regards to the UI. Thanks for the comment on the graphics - I'm definitely interested in what people think of those.
Great job with the tower defense mechanics. Played very well. Add a few more features to the game and it would be great and make it more interesting.
Congratz on finishing the game in 12hrs.
Not bad for 12hrs, really wished UI was better as others had mentioned. More towers/enemies would have been great too.
Seems I couldn't scroll the map with MMB in either the Web or PC builds, which meant I couldn't see what my turrets were shooting at. Whatever it was, they seemed to kill lots of it :P
Impressive work you put in only 12ish hours! It's a "simple" tower defense game, but you managed to make it work. I had the problem where I couldn't scroll the map :( Keep rocking!
I believe I will need to implement alternate camera controls given the number of people that cannot seem to access the current ones.
Please note that the map will not pan unless the mouse is somewhat near the edge of the screen, which could be a source of some confusion.
I also couldn't pan the camera, web and windows versions tested. Good idea and mechanics. Couldn't see any enemies, probably because of the camera issue. Overall, good game idea :)
Okay, I've built a new version with camera controls based on arrow keys: https://github.com/TheMonsterFromTheDeep/BugsTD/releases/tag/v1.0-arrow-camera
Simple and enjoyable, and in only 12h ! Good job.
This is about as basic a TD can get. Sure 12 hours is not a lot of time, but you don't even have any kind of a thematic gimmick? There really should be one as Tower Defense is one of those seen-it-done-that genres.
What could that gimmick be though? A few ideas: * Constantly running out of power, having to generate more power with power cores which the enemies tries to steal or destroy. * Draining energy from the enemies with special turrets which do no damage. Having to balance the amount of weapons and energy drainers in the level. * Building your own robots to steal energy from an AI opponent trying to do the same thing. Closing on RTS this. * The enemy corrupting your turrets disabling (or turning them against you), having to send in repair troops to get them back online (or just paying for it directly).
Something like that. Ok job with the time you had.
@HuvaaKoodia: I assure you that I was most certainly thinking about a thematic gimmick. It just happens that I didn't have nearly enough time to implement one.
In fact, my original idea was to have no specified path - the enemies would follow a path through your buildings (like Desktop Tower Defense). Then, grid squares would "run out of power" - and the towers placed on them would no longer work.
Gratz for the game, i really enjoy tower defense games! In fact the camera doesn't move at the HTML version, i found it too easy, but still fun! Good job!
@EdwingGameDev: yeah, for some reason I couldn't build the "new" HTML version, so I didn't put it up. Maybe I can try again..
First time I've seen a TD in LD. I have been considering making one myself. How do you get the towers to shoot at the enemy that has travelled the furthest?
What I feel is lacking is proper feedback to my actions. I'd like an audible (and preferably also visible) feedback when I place a tower and when I start the next level. Background music is also lacking. The lack of audio and the fact that there's just one enemy, makes the game repetitive quite fast. If you're running out of time, you can just take your enemy prefab and change the color, size and speed, and suddenly you have a variety of enemies. For sound effects, you can just take your microphone and hit various items in your home against each other. It actually works suprisingly well. For music, you can make a simple track in programs like bosca ceoil. If you're really running low on time you can use this autotracker https://github.com/wibblymat/ld24/blob/master/autotracker.py It's a python script which automatically generates an 8-bit theme song in literally less than one second.
@LuckyFeathers: Thanks for the tips on making music / sound, but I already have methods - I simply didn't have time to mess with that.
I also didn't really have time to make multiple enemies, but I certainly did consider it. However, there were more pressing matters...
In order to shoot the enemies that travel the furthest, the enemies simply keep track of how long they have been alive and the towers shoot the one that's been alive the longest. But this is bad, because it means towers will prioritize enemies from the longer track over those on the shorter track, which is the exact opposite of what you want, because the shorter track enemies will get to the exit first.
Cool little game! The camera issue made it hard to play on a touch-pad, but I see you already have a fix for it, so that is nice. The graphics were simple and a bit confusing as there was very little contrast in colors and design between the game world, turrets, enemies and the UI, but I would say that they are well done given the small amount of time you had to work on this. All in all a job well done :)
The graphics are kind of doll and some audio feedback would be nice. Other then that, good work!
The gameplay feels a bit weird to control, and it is not clear how to select and place the different weapons in the map. Aside from that the game is fun and the graphics are really good.
Overall pretty fun and simple game. Could use some tweaks though like indications of the direction of the incoming units and when waves start/ end. Game also progressed a bit slow. Still was enjoyable though!
This is a nice beginning of a TD. Many aspects are still a bit lacking and I see that other commenters have touched upon most of them already: the camera issues, lack of feedback, the non-descript turrets, no variation of enemies. Sadly, one only has time for so much during a Ludum Dare.
** What I liked **
__ + __ a TD ! __ + __ animation of turrets __ + __ playable and has core mechanics
** What imo could be improved **
__ - __ Pace is too slow, it's sooo long to get new turrets __ - __ Is there a end ? There was no indication of progression __ - __ The game is not really about power and treat neither TD nor power management in innovative way
** Overall **
Still something for 12 hours ! Thanks for the game =)
Good work, some sound and visual clues when enemies dies and where enemies begin and its target could be useful. Also turrets sometimes shots and kills enemies before they are visible, maybe spawn them a little closer to the visible area.
Thanks everyone for the feedback! I have to agree with most of it, and perhaps I will have the motivation to make a post-jam version at somepoint. If anybody has specific recommendations for new UI / controls, I would love to hear them.
Downloaded the original and it was impossible to see where my goal was and where the creatures were coming from but luckily the updated version fixed that. I can see the vibe you were going for but I think changing the colours from the harsh green and reds would've really helped with the aesthetic. Overall though pretty clean and simple in terms of gameplay, nice work.
Ran into a issue where clicking on the 400 cost tower would instead select the 100 cost tower. Other than that though I enjoyed it, nice simple tower defense. =)
Good job on your game! A simple tower defense game made in two days, which is impressive, still the game would benefit from sound effects, since there is not much going on gameplay-wise.
@mad-fizban: I'm surprised you're the first to mention this! I noticed it sometime after the compo ended, probably when trying to upload a web version, and it seemed like more people would be bothered by it.
Perhaps nobody used the 400-cost tower, given that it's honestly probably the least effective.