Runaway Convoy

hilvon 2017-07-20 16:20

Getting ready for my third LD. :) Now even more prepared than before. Hopefully this will allow me not to bellyflop like the previous two times.

Lessons learned from the previous attempts: 1) LD is not only about making a game. Playing other games and judging others is as important... Probably even more important. 2) Need to plan the workload. Trying to push in features at a cost of bad UI is... not good thing. Simple things that take time - need time. 3) Plan for enough food and sleep. An exhausted programmer is a bad programmer! 4) Will I be able to cram in sound-effects this time?

And as a final sidenode - Binge-slaughtering 2500+ themes was fun!

taffaz 2017-07-31 19:57

Cool concept. Like an advanced version of the Wolf, Goat, Cabbage puzzle.

thelukker 2017-07-31 19:58

I don't understand what I am supposed to do.

sivael 2017-07-31 19:59

Looks ok, a bit standard problem and no replay value though :P

gonutz 2017-07-31 20:00

Please do not call your zip "Windows.zip" or I will not know your game from "Windows(999).zip". Also the content of the zip is called "LD39" which does not help either.

But the real problem is that I cannot run your 64 bit exe on my 32 bit Windows. Please make a compatible build and upload that as well.

pitpony 2017-07-31 20:04

Interesting puzzle game. I'm terrible at it but its nicely put together and I like the sound effects.

Well done.

dnp 2017-07-31 20:06

I did not expect a puzzle game but I was pleasantly surprised. The difficulty was really well balanced. It took me several attempts but I never felt frustrated. Every attempt I was able to improve. This was the best game I played so far. Good work!

nintendoeats 2017-07-31 20:10

I got it down to all but one.

Pretty straightforward puzzle game. Desperately needs a restart button, since if you make a mistake it's not like you will be able to save it. There seems to be exactly one solution to the puzzle.

The graphics are quite nice for an LD game and the sound effects never become annoying, which is pretty hard with those beeps and such.

hilvon 2017-07-31 21:50

Thanks everyone for your feedback! Really appreciate it!

@thelukker - click on ships to select. Them click on buttom in Top-Middle to Warp them. Select which ship will return the key and warp it back. Repeat untill you run out of power, or all ships are transferred. :) There should be a help button in top-left. :smile:

@sivael - Well.. Never intended it to be infinitely replayable. On the contrary wanted to give some players satisfaction of 100%-ing a game...

@gonutz - Please tell me if that works: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Byqjs9lBsVIXVWkwY1h2bng2cGM

@nintendoeats - There are 2 solutions to be precise. :smile: Though I didn't think the restart button woul be neccessary... the play session should be pretty short... and you can start warping civilians like mad if you want to burn power and restart... but maybe you are right... will kep this in mind for future.

hilvon 2017-07-31 21:54

Holicow! Did I just reset all the ratings by adding the link to game page???

---

Nope. Seem to work fine. Phew....

loyance 2017-07-31 23:52

A nice implementation of a wolf, goat and cabbage puzzle. Took me some time to figure it out. Feels nice to finish it

Some chill music would be nice, good luck with your learnings.

thorneto 2017-08-01 06:24

An interesting take on a classic puzzle. Not much to the game but its nicely put together. Cool ship designs.

simon-millard 2017-08-01 06:57

Interesting game. I would have liked to be able to see easily how much power and protection each ship provided when clicking on them, without having to go back and forward between Rules all the time. Short and simple, but overall a decent little game, well done :)

hilvon 2017-08-01 07:58

@simon-millard Heh... I could joke that this was intentional part of PvUI challenge... :smile:

But in reality this was in the TO DO list... and then I decided to try creating some music.. and 5 hours later... it is time to go to bed, and my head hurts from all the sound-torture I subjected it to... and I Rage-publish without finishing all those small touches that would've been pretty easy to do.

((For example each ship was supposed to have a "Crew" number and at the lose screen it would tell you exactly how many people you had to leave behind...))

stlunatick 2017-08-01 09:29

It's really fun to play. Might not have the best graphics but I really was racing against the power loss. So a good theme interpretation.

theflyingkeyboard 2017-08-01 10:09

Really nice concept, graphics could be better, but this game main advantage is amazing and unique gameplay. Good job!

selftitled 2017-08-01 10:42

Nice game, wasn't expecting a puzzle game but I like it. Although I diddn't manage to figure out how to get all the ships across.

smbe19 2017-08-01 12:37

Did not really convince me, but it's hard to say exactly what could have been done better. :thinking:

But interesting idea.

hilvon 2017-08-01 17:43

@smbe19 For one - music. This game desperately needs music. Especially the intro scene.

Then there should be some more slear deliniation between "Here" and "There" so the fact of ship transit is more obvious. For example this might have been done by having two cameras on the scene, each rendering a different portion of skybox and some Gate sctructure that is partially visible on both cameras...

Also there are numerous UI improvements that can be done. Like displaying the Warp cost / Military strength on mouseover; indication of power cost of current turn and projected military power on each side...

An finally - the game haz zero replay value. You beat it once and you're done... ((This was in fact intentional, but is still not a good thing for a game. And if this concept can be expanded... for example by introducing a series of puzzles rather than just one, it would improve the game...))

abductedplatypus 2017-08-02 16:36

Can confirm that macOS runs fine!

Fun concept, but I would have loved a couple of extra levels. Also I couldn't find out how to transfer all ships (but if I understand the rules correctly its not possible). Would be a really cool game if you add some more levels!

hilvon 2017-08-02 17:30

@abductedplatypus Thank for confirming Mac build!

There is a way to save all ships. Two ways even. But it does require some... specialized approach.

And as for multiple levels... the problem is - once you figure out how to win this one level, you know how to figure any similar level. So in order to keep the game interesting, the other levels would have to be different puzzles... and that would push the game out of GameJam scope for me...

But you are right. Adding more levels would be good. :smile:

hilvon 2017-08-03 07:06

I'm not really in a habit of doing this, but please check out this game:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/glow

It definately deserves some love!

tim-eriksen 2017-08-04 00:51

What a nice Star Wars / Battlestar Galactica mashup :) It's a pretty simple game, but it is a job well done in 48 hours. A few more levels or more goals to meet would give the game more replay value, but all in all it was a decent game. Well done! :)

novotmike 2017-08-05 08:31

I really like puzzle games! For a 48 hour game this is great work and your take on the theme is very nice. I would personally like to see some background music or a bit less annoying sound effects. Over all I like the concept and the execution!

gonutz 2017-08-06 17:59

Hey cool, your Windows 32 bit link works, thank you very much!

It is cute how your texts are missing "the" all the time, I assume your mother tongue is Russian? Then there is "... a ship thar will...", "oreder" instead of "order", "pover" and also the rules text starts left of the screen and scrolling with the mouse makes it only move one pixel at a time.

The rules would have been nice to know before playing the first three rounds and losing all the time. The little rules button is hidden away in the corner.

Managed to get the ships over with 1 power left :-)

The rules are actually pretty easy but the explanation is very complicated. Maybe a diagram or any other way of explaining it would have made me understand the rules more quickly. A small tutorial would probably done the trick.

I really liked the game in the end, nice little puzzle. There could have been more levels.

The sound effect for beaming sound like that from Star Trek which is fitting the theme (although the floating text is from Star Wars, but hey). There could have been a little background music, but in this case I do not think you lose too much without music, puzzle games do not always require them.

The graphics are fine, nice programmer art.

Overall a fun little puzzle game. Like I said, you should try to make the rules more clear in your next game. Keep up the good work!

mat4dor 2017-08-13 07:55

Its a really cool implementation of that goat and sheep game. I think there was too much text showing then you selected the ships. I tried to select the Civilian first, knowing that i would need to select the military, and it would just slap me with a popup. Other than that, really nice.

sanguine 2017-08-17 11:08

Cool puzzle! Took me a while to get and I didn't make it in the end, but I was very intrigued!