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Tiny Empires
Tiny Empires
By jack-maxwell
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 510 | 3.50 | 79 | |
| Fun | 547 | 3.34 | 79 | |
| Innovation | 672 | 3.05 | 79 | |
| Theme | 980 | 2.82 | 78 | |
| Graphics | 786 | 3.09 | 79 | |
| Audio | 661 | 2.46 | 75 | |
| Humor | 866 | 2.25 | 67 | |
| Mood | 705 | 3.11 | 46 | |
Comments
tthe
2017-12-05 12:31
I bet Catan was a source of inspiration for this game :)
Anyway, I liked it. I think you should draw the cost information onto the building button, instead of a different info popup, because I couldn't remember the costs of the building, and had to constantly switch between the info popups, and the shop popup (because I had tons of livestock to sell).
Also, you can move troops multiple times, but doing so will advance the round. I think you should instead not let the troops to be moved two times, and leave the turn ending to the player.
lhouyez
2017-12-06 00:33
Really interesting treatment for this theme , the only thing that perturbate is the camera , it is really hard to moves it . But it's great , really great , what an tremendous work ( special mention for "wind's sound" which is awasome )
@lhouyez Hey thanks for the feedback! I'm really happy with the wind sound, it was my first time EVER doing SFX, and for the camera, yeah I added inertia to it but I don't think it was quite the right move. @tthe Yes! I had the game board right next to me while I made it. Yes the costs was a thing a considered. I ended up graying out the button if you couldn't afford it. I wanted to avoid cluttering the UI but also displaying enough info. Yes, the troop moving twice is intentional but I have made changes which I will release on itch after Ludum Dare is over that let you do as much as you want (Building, moving ect) until you end your turn yourself. I will take into consideration Not letting troops be moved twice in 1 turn.
exezin
2017-12-06 00:40
Cool civ-esque game! I couldn't really understand the end goal though because I ended up getting a butt-load of coins pretty easily, guess I'm just to good :D
@exezin Hehe yeah well technically there is no end goal. You can play FOREVER. I was planning to add randomly spawned towns that you need to move 4 troops to to take it over and then you would win
I tried playing for a while but after about 10 minutes no more troops spawned, I couldn't move the troops, and pirates/enemies were able to defeat my castles, causing me to quit. Either way, I did really like this entry! It was pretty simple to grasp- good job on this!
@mikomikisomi Yeah unfortunately there is a bug where the castle stops producing troops and the pirates defeating your castle is unintentional.
illabom
2017-12-06 01:37
As previously mentioned, there are a few bugs but overall its a pretty solid concept. I would love to see an update to make the game more playable!
Check out my game if you would like! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/virus-detected
@illabom haha Ive already played yours!
This is the skeleton for a coherent 4X game, and that is impressive.
@shinyogre Thank you, that means a lot.
I had a lot of fun playing this game. Found an issue with moving troops around causing turns to advance & the game got a little easy at one point as I was far too rich. The game looks quite nice though, and the sfx is good.
Very interesting and I will be bookmarking this to play in Bio :P
@bocodillo Troop movement advancing the turn is intended. Yes it does get easy as the AI is not very advanced but as you get rich more will spawn. Thanks for your feedback!
arya
2017-12-06 02:03
It's a fun game, I love Catan so this was awesome to see! It felt like it only got easier the more buildings I had though. I hope you keep working on this! I'd play a more polished version of this for hours!
jean
2017-12-06 02:06
Not my favorite kind of game, but really nice! The only problem I see is that the menus keep "stacking" and sucks to close them one by one.
Good job!
@arya Thanks! Yes the game does get quite easy and that will change in future updates :). But hey, better too easy than too hard in an LD game, am I right? Haha
Neat little game! It doesn't look like any tiles give bricks, so I ended up buying a lot of bricks trying to build things. I also spent a lot of turns just sacrificing villages to get enough resources to sell to buy a bank. It's got the great starting of a good civ game though!
Great job!
@jean Yes I know! I'm pretty sure I fixed the menu stacking of the info panels but the shop and info panel can stack and that should not happen. If the info panels were stacking I will take a look at this and fix it. Thanks for the review!
@serpentworks-games Thanks! That's weird that no bricks had spawned (They are the brown tile) but they are all random so I guess the game felt like making bricks rare, haha. and yes I believe the best way to start is to build a bank and a village.
disperse
2017-12-06 02:13
Yeah, I agree. I'd play the heck out of this game if it were finished and bug-free. Doesn't even need fancy graphics and sounds...
Loved the game, spent some time playing. Love Catan! The use of the theme is incredible!
@disperse I will work on it :)
@arculadomal Thanks! I'm also a fan of Catan and had the game and some pieces with me constantly as I developed
elodeon
2017-12-06 02:43
I'm going to be playing this for awhile! Good job!
@elodeon Thanks!
deathray
2017-12-06 02:57
That's a pretty good game. I'll echo the same concerns as tthe, and ran into the same bugs as mikomikisomi, but I still had fun with it.
@deathray Thanks!
deathray
2017-12-06 03:12
game.png
Did I win yet? The more I have, the better it gets.
@deathray ...OH MY GOD
I think you have won hahaha.
acnuker
2017-12-06 03:27
This game was fun!! but after a while it get repetetive if this game was more developed it would be very fun to play!
@acnuker Thanks! Yeah as there really is no end you can play forever and the game does get repetitive. I will be updating post Jam
Very Catanish, but still it's own game. I also noticed, but it has already been mentioned, that the troops stop spawning and I was unable to move them. Finally, on my MacBook, The UI was kind of squished in, so after I got over 100 of each resource, the final one (Livestock, I think??) was moved to the next line on the left making it look pretty bad. :thumbsup: for the Web build and for the wind sound. I could see me playing this more with some of the issues fixed.
Loved the game, I could play it forever, seriously. Great job :smiley:
2017-12-06 09:22
This is the best game here so far
2017-12-06 09:22
This is the best game here so far
gruhh
2017-12-06 12:23
A good concept that has growth potential. Congratulations on the project.
Um bom conceito que tem potencial de crescimento. Parabéns pelo projeto.
I liked the game... probably played it the longest of any of the games I've played on here yet. Unfortunately i got the bug where troops stopped spawning but I was still able to make a vast sprawling empire!
@meanmon13 Thanks! Im really happy so many people are having fun! And for the castle spawning bug I'll get on it when I get home today,I don't think I can update my Ludum Dare submission but I believe I can add another version on itch that is updated.
@gruhh Thanks! I'll be working hard to reach that potential.
@empiray Wow Thanks!
@srabatata Thanks!
@james-dunlap yes the castle spawning bug is known and I will be working it out tonight, I'll do some testing to try and get UI to fit better. Thanks for the feedback!
Solid game, you did a good job at getting the core mechanics of a game built and working well. I see that you have a lot of ambitious things planned for the future of this game and they sound awesome but I think you should focus on fully finishing out your core experience before adding in bigger and better things. Just play your game through and think of the player experience. What things would someone with no knowledge of your game find helpful, add that in; what would they find annoying, take that out or improve it. More player feedback is usually always something that can be added to a game to make it feel like the player has an impact on the gameplay. Overall I think you have a really great base to build off of, be sure to share your improvements with the GDU Discord if you continue development! Congratulations on making a game in a weekend!
@johnny-turbo Thanks!
sherwood
2017-12-06 21:19
The only reason why I stopped playing was because at a certain point I was unable to move my troops. Just like @mikomikisomi. Beside this fact, I really enjoyed it, I just don't really see how the more I have the worse it gets. Maybe you should clarify this point.
@Sherwood, yes it is a bit unclear. The more coins you have and tiles there is the more enemy troops spawn
xahell
2017-12-06 22:29
As promised, I come to your game :)
The programing part is well done, the interface is very clear, animations are smooth, it's all well done!
It lacks some increasing difficulty, once you have the first villages set, you are unstoppable. It's an impressive work for a one-man-team!
Keep it up!
@xahell Thanks! Yes it is way too easy. Ive you read the planned updates section of my LD page I plan to add a lot of factors that can make it more difficult.
xahell
2017-12-06 22:35
Yes, I've seen ^_^
We had the same problem, first the mechanics, then the balance and content, if there is time, it's always the same :p
awerar
2017-12-06 22:42
Really great game with lots of content. I only have one complaint which is that the start can be really quite tedious. On all other regard, really fun game!
lukuluk
2017-12-06 23:48
The game's concept and the controls are really nice! I think some balance would be welcome. I had a bug too: when I want to move my troops, they do nothing instead, and I can't open the "move troops" menu anymore! Excepted that, it was fun to play with!
@awerar Thanks! Yes I will be working on that.
@lukuluk Thank! I agree, yes I am aware of that bug, it is because your troops, data wise are no longer there, but physically are still there.
Had a lot of fun playing, got all the way to 2000 coins before I quit! For some feedback, since you can sell resources for as much as they cost, it doesn't really matter what tiles you put your cities on, and the tiles with resources worth 1 coin are just useless. I'd rather put my city on livestock and sell one to buy 2 wheat than put it on wheat.
rasabi
2017-12-07 01:47
Cool concept! It's simple but I could see the capacity for a lot of depth! I also had the move troop bug.
Hey @rasabi Thanks for reviewing my game! So I'm currently working on the post LD version and you said you got the troop bug. When and how did it exactly happen? Where the troops on a castle tile?
@team-infernos Wow! That's a lot. I will take that into account when balancing Thanks! The original reason and has them buy price = sell price was so people could build stuff at the beginning of the game with greater ease. I will change the balance of the shop.
It's quite cool concept that is well-balanced. Few ideas that could be used to extend playability:
- making prices go up and down (supply/demand model) - upgrading buildings - forcing player to actually move units around (other units didn't really spawn or endanger me at all)
@zgragselus Thanks for the feedback! I have considered supply demand in the shop and probably will implement it, upgrading buildings is a great idea, and instead of forcing the player to move troops I plan to spawn objectives that the player needs to move troops to and capture.
Nice concept: I'm always a fan of empire building games. I didn't have too much difficulty after the first few turns. Even with the enemies around, I could pretty much spam the End Turn button until I got whatever resources I wanted since they seemed to wander randomly, instead of actively trying to attack me. Unfortunately, I saw all three of the known bugs, but it was still fun to expand out my empire and rake in the resources. Overall, a good start on a cool concept. It'd be cool to see some more stuff going on, like variance in the market, more buildings and units, that sort of thing.
@arkthaohs. Thanks! After about 3 hours of working on the post LD version if got those bugs worked out, if only I got rid of them before! I will be definitely adding a lot more in post LD version including variance in the market, different units and upgrades and lots of other stuff
west
2017-12-07 20:28
its quite a fun game altho in the beginning i had a bit of trouble remembering what tiles were what(maybe add a button wich takes you back to the tutorial screen?) but luckilly i could just sell stuff untill i had a village on every tile other than that i encountered a problem where i couldnt move my troops anymore after a while.
other than that its a neat little game and i enjoyed the concept
Impressive when you consider you did it by yourself in three days. The sound effects made me laugh, I liked it. The concept itself I didn't find really innovative, it looks a lot like the settlers of Catan. Still I really like Catan and I also liked this game.
@alleskapaul Thanks! Yes I did take inspiration from settlers of Catan. Is it different? Yes. How much different is it? Not a lot. How is it different? I'm not sure, its a jam game so these more philosophical ideas haven't been a focus...yet.
@west Yes that was a problem to Play Testers as well, I will update graphics making it easier to tell what gives what in post LD V. All Bugs have been fixed. 12-07/6:42 EST
mess110
2017-12-07 23:52
I can't see the shop button. Screenshot from 2017-12-08 01:52:05.png
Fun little game. I ended up in a similar situation to deathray's too quick though. Well done :-)
Well done, I think? I really cant get anywhere because I don't have access to the shop. I would love to play this game when you have the shop button again.
@wetdesertrock PROBLEM FIXED! Thanks for telling me! You should try it again with the shop, its pretty crucial! :)
Check it out! https://youtu.be/zU9vU-FQwMQ
west
2017-12-08 07:08
i just keep comming back to this game, you should definitly update it since its really fun!
2017-12-08 08:01
Love the catan inspiered setting but it could use more balancing
@indie-gaming Awesome! I will check it out!
@west Did you notice the bugs are gone? I learned you can update the game to fix bugs!
@solidtiger Thanks! I agree, I will in post LD V.
@king-kujito Thanks!
@mess110 Fixed! Thanks for telling me!
mess110
2017-12-08 15:12
@jack-maxwell thank you, I can now build my little thing army and conquer tiny empires!!!!
@indie-gaming
I watched your video, when I uploaded the new version that fixed bugs I disabled the tutorial! Sorry! It tells the player what each tile gives. Also you never clicked on the shop button! You can buy and sell resources there!!!
@jack-maxwell I used the shop to buy bricks at 5:30.
@indie-gaming Yes sorry didn't see that, thanks for your review though, the live reaction was really helpful. I will be doing balancing to make the beginning easier and the rest harder, as you've seen many others have gotten past the initial difficulty and then were fine.
almost
2017-12-09 09:17
You should probably disable the itch.io fullscreen button and change the size of the iframe (to 960 x 660) so that the blue fullscreen button is visible.
To make the UI scale with resolution instead of having stuff move around, select the canvas and choose UI Scale Mode: Scale With Screen Size. This should make it work in smaller resolutions.
These sort of changes are allowed even now because they are bug-fixes and not gameplay features.
As for the game itself: * Building stuff is fun, and having more stuff to defend with slow-moving soldiers is a nice interpretation of the theme * The enemies weren't actually very threatening and I became quite wealthy by building a few buildings and then spamming 'end turn'. * Nothing costs Iron? * Some colored icons for the resources and resource costs would be more readable. * Being able to buy and sell resources at the same prices means that all resources are equivalent (except some are twice as good as the others) * Opening the shop should hide the building-info popup * Placing a building on a tile that has units should not count as clicking on the units * The wind sound gets old pretty quickly
@almost Thanks for the feedback! I'll go in a try to get the screen size to work. 960 by 660, I'll try that. Yes the enemies are very dumb, in post LD I'll be making them build things and set up bases. Yes iron has no purpose, originally it was going to be used to upgrade your soldiers but I ran out of time. Yes the shop needs work and I agree with the icons, I've already added that in post LD version, I'll fix the popups in post LD. As for the wind sound, I agree, I can't make music so far a atmospheric sound I did that, in post LD version there will be different weather conditions which will change that sound, I will also get music made. I'll fix the unit clicking in post LD, thanks.
Yep, I broke it e55d8b547ad9f5b9212b34f5ae3292d6.png Also, clicking on an UI button selects the troop/house behind it if there are any which is annoying. Moving troops sometimes bugs out and I can't select anything. And then there's the Fps problem and out of memory when going too faar :DD
@muffincookie. Wow haha! Yeah I'll have to fix that UI thing post LD, I'm not sure about troop bugs but I'll look into it. Yeah the fps thing is crazy I need to limit the particles and clean up stuff after a while. Maybe also limit the play area since it is infinite
I read that the layout/aspect was already fixed so I thought it was, but in itch.io the screen keeps being cut. Also I had my sound so low that I didn't hear the atmospheric sound, until I went again and cranked the volume up (with the same volume I can hear music on youtube).
Some buttons (like end turn) have a pixel font, but the rest of the text is not pixelated. To be coherent you should keep the same stile in fonts. Also, when I click end turn with the shop open, I think the shop should close.
I didn't understand what I needed the iron for? Also, I think to add difficulty the buying price of the resources should be higher than the selling price, like in a real market.
Still it was interesting and well made. Congratulations :)
racso
2017-12-12 12:19
Cool entry. Of course, it's similar to Catan, so you'll probably need to use another theme if you want to get you game far :) Vainilla Catan doesn't have pirates, castles or banks. Are those your ideas?
Anyway, here's my tiny empire: Empire.png
Now, here are the things I think you may improve: - At first, the game is difficult (maybe a bit too difficult) because you get attacked by a horde of pirates and you don't have a castle or enough resources to build it. Afterwards, however, it gets too easy, as a single castle easily overpowers pirates, and pirates don't arrive in waves anymore. - The game needs to make more pressure on players before they change turns. After some point, I could simply click "end turn" as crazy to get resources, with no consequence, as I'm well defended. - The game needs an objective. Be it to achieve certain score or empire size, or to survive pirate waves for certain amount of turns, or to see how many turns can you survive. Right now, it's more a sandbox than a game.
That's it. Good luck!
@saramartins
I thought I did fix aspect ratio, did you go into full screen? Because for now it should work properly if you are in full screen.
Yes the sound is really quiet, I didn't want to ear rape people when they open the game and the sound quality isn't that good so making it quiet hides background noise.
I used a textmesh pro font for most of the stuff, but some of the fonts I used a text font pack I had because it took less time to set up that font when I was crunching.
Iron doesn't quite have a purpose. From a functionality perspective it doesn't do anything, I planned to have it used to upgrade soldiers but I wasn't able to implement this due to time, now from a design perspective it acts as a learning tool, players feel smarter and like they have a greater understanding of the game when they realize that iron isn't useful, this can lead to the player placing buildings that don't gain resources (castle and bank) on iron tiles.
Thanks!
@racso
Yes those are my ideas.
The difficult curve is undesirable, I will address this issue in the post LD V. I plan to make the enemies spawn later in the game after the player understands the game and has a small empire, the enemies will also build settlements so they will be much more powerful.
Again spamming end turn is an unfortunate result of the difficulty curve.
Yes the game does need an objective, poor time management resulted in a failure to create an objective, I plan to limit the board size and randomly spawn Dungeons which can be captured to give loot, capturing 4 of them will end the game.
racso
2017-12-12 23:19
@jack-maxwell Well, those are some cool additions to the game. Good luck with your fixes and improvements!
Interesting Entry. It was a lot fun to play. Graphics and sound are simple, but nice and the game play was entertaining, but it was missing any challenge. After a few turns you have enough soldiers to defend your buildings and then you can expand endlessly as every additional castle increases your manpower by 4 per turn. I did not see how the theme was used as progress made the game way more easy.
I also found some bugs: -clicking on a button would click on the tile below building something or opening the soldiers menu. -some times i could not move the soldiers -parts of the user interface were outside of my window
It was fun to play nevertheless
@daragongames
I agree. The game doesn't really get much more difficult, it should but it is too slight of an increase that it is unnoticeable when contrasted with the players growth in power.
Thanks for the bug report Ill get on it!
@jack-maxwell I was full screen but maybe it's because of my multiple screens
mrtroy
2017-12-16 19:22
Played the game, went to leave feedback, but it seems every issue I had was addressed in the above comments. So, I'll make a few suggestions (that I don't believe I saw above) if you're possibly looking for more work to do. ;)
Some things need to have a reoccurring cost. I can build one castle, and just keep moving new sets of troops across the board to sit on any city. The castle keeps making them so, why bother building more than 5?
Sell towns,banks, cities, etc... Get back a fraction of the price you paid, but hey hey, you shouldn't have built there. I accidentally confused castles with cities one too many times, lost out on some good real estate.
Troop lost. 4 vs 3 enemies always wins hands down. But, I never have to replenish the first set of troops that were made. At the end of a 4 vs 3 battle, the 4 is now down to 3. This way I can't have have a slow growing wall of troops moving outward as I build.
I have a lot more (because I really love this game)... but I'm not going to just flood you with "You know what you should do!?"
Great job on this game.
lereveur
2017-12-17 01:31
As brightened previously, I didn't feel the more I had, the worse it was. The ennemies are a little weak, faced to the legions I can raise in so short time. ;) And I got a bug : if I active the move of troups, but they can't go anywhere, I can't disable the move, nor do something else than build or go next turn (and stay blocked).
@mrtroy
Thanks for the kind words and suggestions :), these are all things I think are great ideas and do plan to introduce.
@levreveur Yea the game desperately needs balancing. Yes I need to add a cancel move option. Thanks!
When I saw the resources and buildings I recognized systems of Catan. I was curious about the bank, which I hadn't seen in Catan. On the next turn, when I didn't notice new resources, I felt uncertain what a good strategy would be.
gerardb
2017-12-18 21:26
This game is amazing!
I would have loved to have more UI feedback about buildings and so on instead of having to write it down :P
But I had a ton of fun anyways. Congratulations!
@ethan-kennerly
Yeah game is inspired by Catan, yes the bank is my addition among many other subtle ones. Not sure what you mean in your comment. But I suggest building a village and a bank first so you can earn coins and get resources
@gerardb
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it :). Yes in the post LD V. ill be adding a UI solution to this problem. Thanks for your review!
jk5000
2017-12-21 10:40
The game idea is fine, but i would have liked a better introduction, and to be honest it is difficult to see what is happening in the game. The visuals is okay, but in your LD version I hope the visuals also gets a big update. The wind sound is okay, but I would have liked more sounds and some music for the game would have been super great. Overall a fine LD game.