Apostle: Vanguard

hello-coder 2018-04-26 00:19

Devs, this project looks fantastic and I'm sad to see it left with no ratings. If you rate other games, it puts this game up higher in the search results. I recommend you do that if you want to qualify for the rankings at the end of the rating period. Also, you're sight won't load for me to download (I'm based in the USA), so I suggest you upload your game's HTML version to https://itch.io/ for people to play it. It's free, simple, and you can even set up a donation/pay link.

martintristan 2018-04-26 02:12

Woah! This looks amazing! A tutorial would be really helpful since I don't have a clue on what I'm doing. Although I made the robot walk and destroy the machine but I don't know how to collect resources. Just like hello.coder said, please play and rate other games so that your game will be rated too!

shess 2018-04-26 15:02

Thank you @Hello.Coder, to be honest we are now a bit caught up in the moment, having shifted all of our schedules just to participate in LD41 :D We'll start playing, rating and commenting games shortly after all this dull irl stuff. Thank you for your suggestion, we'll provide an alternative link to itch.io right away!

shess 2018-04-26 15:06

A tutorial sounds amazing, @MartinTristan, thank you! I hope it's not too late to implement (sounds pretty essential to me, so it shouldn't push the game to the post-jam state, right?)

I am getting to work on it right away~

mastersmith98 2018-04-29 18:55

Hey guys. Interesting conceit for a game, but I couldn't figure out how to do anything unfortunately. Your art was incredible and it looks like you guys put a lot of effort into getting this out. Would love to see a further expanded version.

Great to see that you're still working on stuff @Shess.

shess 2018-04-30 21:07

Just updated the build, mostly tutorial + bugfixes + lesser QoL changes. Please let me know if there is anything confusing still!

roidz 2018-05-01 11:21

This game looks amazing, haves a great atmosphere and deserves a lot more ratings/credit. So to the devs... Start reviewing other games so your EXCELLENT game gets more exposure. I see you got 0 karma for feedback given. The more games you review yourself, the more your game will receive ratings from others. And i beg you to do so because this game DESERVES so much more exposure ! WELL DONE, now start reviewing games ! :)

houruck 2018-05-02 21:05

The art style is gorgeous and the divided screen hybrid game mechanic is a great concept. I had to read the hints to realise I can drag the camera with the middle mouse button, but everything else was intuitive.

nilc 2018-05-05 23:16

Art and atmosphere are really nice, mechanics are interesting but some tutorial needed.

niterich 2018-05-06 22:38

Very nice visuals, music, and overall themeing of the game. I thought your had some really good writing, but there were some times I thought it was trying too hard to sound cool or edgy. Unfortunately, even with the help menu, I had no idea what I should be doing. I'm not sure why you chose to use the right mouse button for most inputs when most applications use the left mouse. Even punching the mutants felt odd since it highlighted the tile they were standing on and not the monster itself. I think if you continue with this, a more direct tutorialization should be on the top of your priority list.

shess 2018-05-06 23:01

Thanks for the feedback, we'll work on more thorough tutorial ^^ I was also thinking of making some of the functions automated so they don't require as much micro-management. Anyway, that was a valuable lesson!

fabian-pohl 2018-05-06 23:33

The art and the mood are outstanding. Good work!

masterkrepta 2018-05-07 00:42

This is a jam Game? Wow! i am so impressed with what I see here. The art, the mood and the music feel on par or surpasses the sci-fi computer games of the 90's. Well done. I was somewhat confused at first, I'm thinking an indicator for the character dialog to help it stand out would help

Playing it on the Itch page itself, I did find it annoying when panning the camera, my mouse kept scrolling the Webpage, but the Stand alone version removes that problem entirely.

shess 2018-05-07 00:48

Thank you for your kind words! Glad to see our sleepless nights paid off :)

pennycook 2018-05-07 00:59

Wow. This is probably the most complete game I've seen in a Ludum Dare. It's also a really solid game idea, and you've combined the two genres really well. Kudos!

I made a complete mess of my first few attempts, but got a little further once I found the "?" menu. The main issue I had was a lack of resources; the best way I could find to build anything early on was to start destroying buildings, and my mission to protect humanity went straight out the window :smile:. My only other suggestion would be to let the user zoom in and out (on both maps) -- that would have helped me to find the Cargo Hold and the enemies firing missiles more quickly.

carraka 2018-05-07 02:13

The graphics are gorgeous, but I couldn't figure out how to play the game, even after reading the tutorial in the question mark at the top right of the screen. I managed to level a few cities and pick up the biomass, but I couldn't figure out how to harvest it even though I had built a biomass harvester. This is probably a good thing for the independent units of biomass, but not so good for me surviving to defend the world, which is obviously more important.

Still, kudos! It's obvious that with just a bit more work on UI to make it less confusing, you have a beautiful game on your hands.

bryceltaylor 2018-05-07 03:15

This game is beautiful. I really liked the concept and most of the execution, but I did find it really hard to control because right clicking in my browser (Chrome on Mac) brought up a context menu almost every time. Basically I had to try to click three or four times for every command, so it was almost unplayable. I really wanted to play it, so I stuck with it longer than may have been reasonable.

I also felt that it could really have used a bit more of a tutorial. I basically played until I died because I didn't realize that I had to actually tell the builder units to go to the structures I had placed and I just wondered why I couldn't do anything. But that took forever to figure out because of the right click issue. It could be in the conversation in the lower right (which I liked, by the way.) Basically I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to do anything in the build section.

Also the Refinery just disappeared with out any kind of explanation in each playthrough.

The music fits really well, and I love the mood the story, art, and sound combine to make. Really well done.

shess 2018-05-07 05:26

Huh, we didn't actually thought of Mac users (being windowfags all our lives); that's great input, @BryceLTaylor, thanks! Maybe it's not too late to implement alternate control schemes.

Refinery disappearance sounds troublesome, we'll look into it!

shess 2018-05-07 05:28

Oh, and tutorial v2.0 is on its way, of course! But until then, huge respect to everyone out there bravely figuring out things on their own!

hellblade 2018-05-07 10:07

Awesome, really love the visuals and goes great idea building up inside while also control the outside.

Like others say, it's a bit hard to learn and could be some nice QoL improvements like zooming but overall you've got heaps done in the limited timeframe!

mic-matrix91 2018-05-07 11:22

Amazing graphics and game mechanics! This game looks very complicated to be made in few days. Excellent work, very interesting!

beefsports 2018-05-07 12:03

I'm really impressed. One of the best looking games I've seen in LD and really well polished.

pixelome 2018-05-07 16:48

First off, gorgeous graphics :sparkles: The main problem for me was the the right mouse button opens the context menu unless I tap it really quickly, which was pretty annoying. Second, the learning curve was pretty steep for a game jam game. Third, I almost always missed the conversation in the bottom righ, it is too out of the way, especially since you are already handling two screens and multiple tasks. I'm not sure if I missed a quest or a mission because of this. Overall this is a very impressive entry :thumbsup: Keep up the good work :trophy:

yashpal 2018-05-07 16:53

**Amazing graphics**

It's Great game. I also have same problem as @bryceltaylor

But it's one of the best polished game.

Great gameplay also well mixed game genres

amigopadilha 2018-05-07 18:16

Great game, awesome gameplay, cool concept! Good job!

conk 2018-05-07 20:32

Incredibly impressive! A little annoying that I couldn't figure how to heal and ended up losing a lot of progress, I'd say gathering resources takes a bit too long :stuck_out_tongue: that is my only gripe though as everything works really well and the overall game has an incredible level of polish. I just quickly had a run to the end of the world map and I'm impressed with how more to the game I may have missed.

Graphics are stunning! The sheer amount of art is incredibly impressive, even more so due to it's very high quality, easy 5 stars :grin: Great job all around, if that wasn't already obvious.