FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD40 → .SWARM

.SWARM

By hegemege

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1403.7226
Fun2393.4726
Innovation44.4126
Theme4793.1026
Graphics2333.5626
Audio1103.6026
Humor4502.2621
Mood3373.0625

Comments

jeremy-wolf 2017-12-04 20:43

One of the most creative I've seen so far. Very creative. Nice work.

gistnoesis 2017-12-04 20:48

Nice original game. It's fun to see the ants wandering around just to get zapped by laser. But with only a few pointers you can really help them. I couldn't reset the level when I realized the path (first laser level) I sent them towards was hopeless, after a few minutes a few of them succeeded but not enough to overcome the growing boredom and I then quit. Maybe you can add moving predators, so we can see some flocking behaviours. There is some potential but you should probably limit the number of ants to give the player some challenge.

rasblo 2017-12-04 20:50

Unique and fun! Difficulty definitely increased with the amount of bots, fitting the theme. I often wanted a regret button or to erase just part of the drawn paths. That would be at the top of my wishlist. I'm always impressed with an audio package as well, nicely done! Thanks for sharing.

frozencow 2017-12-04 20:55

Wow. I did not expect this to be such a great game. I really loved the way swarms moved and having (indirect) control where the swarm went. Reminded me a bit of Darwinia! <- which is very much a good thing!

Having a way to remove individual arrows would've made things a log easier, but still the game felt not frustrating and very enjoyable. Great job!

kraftkar 2017-12-04 20:56

Nice music, pleasant graphics, interesting gameplay. Good job!

prostone 2017-12-04 21:02

Love the wrapping effect, actually wondering how you managed that. Graphics area really enjoyable and the game itself is really fun. Haven't seen anything like this one yet.

gwolf86 2017-12-04 21:28

This is a really interesting mechanic. Nice work. It would be nice to have the ability to erase part of the path, but it works just fine as is. Great work!

machrom 2017-12-04 21:37

Really really unique. One thing that kind of annoyed me was that I couldn't erase just some parts of the path, but it's a minor thing(like i accidentally place **one** marker wrong and I have to redo the whole path). I really like it, and great job! :)

exezin 2017-12-05 22:59

Pretty cool game dude! Surprisingly difficult and tactical, The endless scrolling effect on the third level is pretty awesome also :D

deathray 2017-12-06 05:48

Really great work. I was confused until I figured out the wrapping of the board, but I enjoyed every single level.

stratoskakalis 2017-12-06 19:41

Very nice game! Add some more gameplay and this would make a great playstore/appstore game, real potential imo!

candlesan 2017-12-06 20:16

Took me a little while at first why the WASD was there but by the fourth level I thought "Okay - this is really awesome". I loved how you influence the little guys where to go.

I also really appreciate that you didnt' put any fail conditions in. I think it would have been tempting to fail but for the purposes of a game jam it was very satisfying to be able to place influencers and play around and feel like I could be succcessful. Great call.

teekeks 2017-12-06 20:19

I love swarm based games, so I loved this one, good job!

poller 2017-12-06 20:20

a bit too indirect feeling and i am not limited in my spawns so its kinda easy just wait to fill the goal. otherwhise extremly fun and solid game

feel free to see me there: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/team-or-greed

mathiouza 2017-12-06 20:27

Great game ! I like the graphism, the audio, the concept and the gameplay ! Well done !

hatchet 2017-12-06 20:37

Great visuals, really relaxing! Love the use of the ant algorithm and the general idea of the game. Perhaps having an option to remove single arrows as was mentioned above would be nice. Otherwise, very interesting and fun entry!

samboyer276 2017-12-06 21:28

Really liked this game. Clear concise graphics, simple but devious gameplay. Very clever stuff with the looping world too!

pkenney 2017-12-07 04:59

Really enjoyed this - made me think. Due to a technical problem on my end I played it without sound, so when I saw that it was my mistake I went back and replayed the first two levels with the sound and was markedly improved from my first tries.

I kept kind of feeling like wait wait no don't start yet, but it's probably better that the game is the way it is there! I wouldn't have minded seeing a % of probes that died, as it was hard to gauge the success level from the time. I was basically listening for fried probe sounds the second play through, which really helped this aspect.

I liked the core mechanic here, and I also liked the presentation and graphics style. Nice work! Diagonal switchback paths were my main strategy after a while.

zee 2017-12-08 20:02

Good concept! With a few tweaks and added features, it could make a interesting mobile game (draw the path with the touch screen). The screen wrap was nicely implemented, and controlling the swarm felt fun.

My only real issue is there's no "lose" state, so you don't really have to draw or think about the most optimal path, leaving most of my time waiting until the level was over. It also doesn't really fit the theme.

Overall, a solid entry with promise!

sebastian-lague 2017-12-11 12:05

Really cool way of interacting with the game, I haven't played anything like this before. As others have mentioned, being able to erase selectively would be nice. The game was very easy, so perhaps you could introduce some scoring system that takes time/number of deaths into account, so there's more motivation to optimize the paths. Nice work!