FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD39 → From the Shadows

From the Shadows

By maybelaterx, alimcomposer and Megalon

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1673.7522
Fun1723.6022
Innovation394.0521
Theme1893.8522
Graphics2284.0022
Audio1343.7022
Mood1183.8522

Comments

essell 2017-08-01 08:40

Hi there - cool game. Just a heads up that I really recommend putting your how to play instructions in the game itself for this kind of thing :)

theflyingkeyboard 2017-08-01 09:33

Really nice idea and graphics. Good Job!

huvaakoodia 2017-08-01 18:38

Asymmetrical turn-based strategy game! Now this is right up my alley and after playing it I can say the design is indeed nice, but the execution does leave a few things in the dark.

The main problem in solo mode is not seeing the shadow turn. My people just die seemingly at random even when I *clearly* had them far enough from any lvl. 1 shadows. My only option is to blame the program as it doesn't show me what happened.

The other problem is related to the first one. Your instructions say lvl. 1 shadows can attack one space away, yet in reality their range orthogonally is two. That threw me off initially before I checked the multiplayer mode. Of course if the shadow turn was shown I would have gotten it immediately.

The graphics are neat and the audio serviceable. I really like the simple, yet effective animation of the characters.

With visible shadow turns and a solo shadow mode this would be just great. Now it's merely ok, so not a bad effort.

danielilett 2017-08-02 12:58

I really like the idea! I played the single-player mode because I don't have anyone to hand to try the multiplayer mode with, but checked the multiplayer mode for clarification on the game mechanics.

-I have to agree with @huvaakoodia that it would be greatly helpful to have a visual representation of the shadow's turn in single-player mode. I too wasn't entirely sure how my people died sometimes.

-Perhaps include instructions within the game? A tutorial mode that shows visually how each movement option operates for both teams would help. It wasn't immediately clear to me that level 1 shadows can move one space THEN they kill anything one space away from them including diagonals.

-I did unfortunately encounter a bug twice. Not sure what it means because I don't use Game Maker, but here it is:

Unable to find any instance for object index '100293' name '' at gml_Object_oController_Step_0

Sorry that I can't remember the circumstances in which it occurred!

The graphics are great, especially the animations. The animation of a human being swallowed by the ground is cute, even if it's resulting in their untimely death. :p

The music is very catchy, and I'm impressed that there are multiple tracks for the title screen, the actual game and a little jingle when you lose (and I assume also when you win, but I didn't manage that haha).

Just a couple quality-of-life fixes are needed I think, so it's most of the way there!

ezaudiolabs 2017-08-02 16:48

Awww game crashed at turn 24 :((

I'm not really into turn based games but I gotta say I had a good time playing this one. I guess the game being well balanced and fluid helped on that!

The audio is really nice as it helps to set the mood and it doesn't distract the player!

Well done!

reggnos 2017-08-03 18:03

Had a lot of fun playing this, managing energy while still trying to kill of the shadows. Really nice concept. I love the art and audio effects really good job with that. Great Job!

solah 2017-08-04 10:48

I'm not really into strategy games but this one is very interesting. I love the graphics and the mechanics work very well. Nice job!

mrboxbox 2017-08-06 15:15

Great entry! Was a bit hard to understand at first but it got a lot easier after reading the instructions. Cool idea for an asymmetric strategy game though it's a bit biased in the shadow's favor i think :D

magicspore 2017-08-10 15:04

Cool, I really liked the idea!

shess 2017-08-10 20:58

Great game, one of those easy to learn/hard to master types, demanding of strategic thinking. It looks sweet and stays true to the jam theme. I think I encountered a few input bugs, but nothing game-crashing.

joebeard 2017-08-10 22:49

I really liked this, the game is quite well balanced and it took me a few goes to win as the humans. My only criticism would be as mentioned in one of the other comments - the shadows attack very unpredictably, and it's not clear when a human dies, how they got killed. I lost at least one of my guys from a position I could have sworn was not too close to another shadow.

pavelsovushkin 2017-08-11 13:26

Nice! Want see territory of damage without press on enemy

gideonthebard 2017-08-11 13:55

Very well designed! Some more explanation would have made the game less frustrating at first, like putting the instructions in the game and showing the shadow's turn so it won't look like you're humans die at random. But the rest of the game seemed well thought out and I enjoyed playing it!

catoto 2017-08-11 23:20

Very nice game play! It's hard to beat the shadows... =P