Populous

edmond00 2017-12-04 13:13

The gameplay looks interesting. I liked that the number of people jumping around the planet increase when the population increase, it give to the player a more concrete goal. But the rules are hard to figure and it is hard to understand how a ressource affect the population and why. I think you need to explain more at the beginning what is the purpose of the resources/influence/technology and how the cards work because there are a lot of unexplained info on screen.

astavie 2017-12-05 11:34

@edmond00 Thanks for your feedback! I concur that there is a lot of unexplained info on the screen, I mainly focused on the game itself, and so I tried to make it as logical as possible (you can even hover over a resource and see its influences). More food than population = population growth. CO2 hinders food production and population growth. Technology - I had even written this in the hover info - affects which cards you get (better tech = better cards).

The cards themselves... to be honest, I play a lot of card games and so it seemed extremely logical to me how they work. But I understand that, if you barely play that genre, you have no idea how the cards work. Basically, `Instant` cards apply their effect right when you play them, and `X turns` cards affect the resources each turn.

esquirolaire 2017-12-08 20:32

Really cool progression system! I love how you think you've got under control, test few new cards and... you killed all humanity :) Keeping balance between food and population while feeling bad about increasing CO2 is cool. And then, technology gives you a goal to keep on going. Graphincs are ok since is not the purpose, but in my opinion, no sound is better than annoying sound :) Congrats!

chriiis88 2017-12-20 11:38

Two things: - Unfortunately I don't get the rules. I had "Population: +0.01" per turn. I hit "finish" without playing a card for a few turns to grow the population. Suddenly everyone's dead. I think there needs to be a better explanation about the interactions between the resources. - The "boing boing boing" is reeeeaaaally annoying

That being said, card games are cool and I can see how this could become really fun. Kudos to you for finishing your first LD!

andro 2017-12-20 11:53

Game is pretty good, with an awesome concept. I saw it from your post and I can feel your pain. Working on a game and then not getting feedback is one of the worst things that can happend.

Good luck and hope you get 20 ratings!

thefunattic 2017-12-20 14:57

Your concept is truly original, congratulations ! Plus, it's a nice twist on the theme. I love it :) It would be nice to see the graphics, sounds, and mechanics, pushed further, just to see the potential behind this idea :)

Come play our game if you have the time : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/technologis

japes 2017-12-21 18:04

I have so much to say I'm going to use the @lythom style of commenting :)

#### What I liked: - The whole experience was intuitive and fun - not everything is explained up front, but it didn't have to be (and would probably be overwhelming if it was). Maybe you could just mention that mouseovers provide more information. - interesting mechanic, i like how the various factors (influence/co2/food/pop interact). - I like how all the effects are visible on mouseover, so you can get a feel for the cumulative effect on each stat

#### What IMO could be improved: - "boinb boing" sound got a bit annoying :/ it is cool to hear the crowd when it gets big, but maybe the volume could be turned down a notch. - could maybe have some more early-game cards - got a bit repetitive for a bit before I realised more would become available with tech - still not quite sure how influence works, sometimes i couldn't click on cards even though I had more influence than their cost(?) at the bottom right, and there was space on the "board" on the left. Think it might have been a bug, as there was no buzzer sound when clicking on the cards. - Lack of a clear goal is what stopped me playing - would rather win/lose and try again than play endlessly with no goal

#### Overall: - Great mechanic, can see you've put a lot of thought into it! Played this for quite a while! - Reminds me a lot of "Reigns" the mobile game, have you played it?

astavie 2017-12-21 21:31

@japes thanks for the feedback! Yes, unfortunately some cards are unclickable if you get far in the game, which is a bug I didn't have the time to fix (I also found it pretty late).

If I were to expand this game, I would have multiple planets to play on where each planet has a unique goal and unique cards (like... for Earth colonize Mars or something, which would also unlock playing on Mars).

And yes, I do play Reigns :p

handle 2017-12-22 00:27

I had a lot of fun with this one! The sense of progression is really nice, and it fits the theme well.

lythom 2017-12-22 11:01

Nice, since @japes already did an in-depth review i just have to rate this time :D

To gives some feedback, I'd add to previous comments that I was sad it ended very abrubtly, I had thousands of billions and then 0 in one turn (I believe this is due to CO2 but not sure), and I'd have liked to understand since it took me some time to get there :( Well, it demonstrates the main loop works well and even cards out of the screen + cards you can't click to prevent from enjoying the game. Well done!

megabrutal 2017-12-25 11:15

I can't say I fully understand the rules – for example, there were times when I card was there and I still couldn't choose it. Sometimes the unchoosable card was greyed out, but sometimes it was white, and I couldn't figure out why I can't choose a card which is white. I also didn't quite get what is the cost of cards. Probably my technology should be above the number in the card's corner? I think it explained the greyed out cards, but not the unchoosable white cards. When I got my Technology over 10, a lot of cards appeared, some of them were off-screen, and they interfered with the FINISH button. When I resized the game's window, the contents weren't appropriately resized.

Anyway, I like the idea, nice game, I've spent great time with it. It's fun, although it would be better if I fully understood the rules. It certainly has potential, keep up the good work! :)