Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD41 → Bloom
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 443 | 3.57 | 23 | |
| Fun | 577 | 3.31 | 23 | |
| Innovation | 324 | 3.65 | 22 | |
| Theme | 555 | 3.64 | 23 | |
| Graphics | 628 | 3.40 | 23 | |
| Audio | 403 | 3.31 | 21 | |
| Humor | 419 | 3.14 | 19 | |
| Mood | 562 | 3.31 | 21 |
This is the turn based strategy game I've always wanted. I don't have to fight, i'm just trying to make a cool civilization and get along with my neighboring clans! I love this!
We left you a silly review if you want to check it out: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/modern-fairway-4-spec-ops-in-the-rough/$96351
Very calming gameplay and fitting soundtrack! I like the concept, and this would be a nice game to play kind of half-actively while listening to podcasts or so. A little more consistency in the art style would definitely help the general appearance and the controls feel a little sluggish (maybe partly because of my slow computer), but overall this is a playable and very well done entry! Congrats!
I'll be honest. This game frustrates me.
I love the idea. I like doing everything. It feels fun to me.
But it's... _**sooooo**_... _**slooooooooooow**_...
It takes 5 turns to do an active action (woods/construction). That wouldn't be a bother if turns were quick. The big issue of the game imo is that the other player's turn take foreeeeever, especially when it's advancing. But the worst is it happens pretty soon because for some reasons, they are always ahead of you, already constructing houses on turn 1. Meanwhile, you gotta gather wood to make houses, which takes 5 turns. When you finish these 5 turns, they get their house and start breeding... while you just start building houses yourself. (not mentioning farms since they're needed). As a result, they are ahead of you, and since it's exponential (making a child allows to make children faster), they very quickly manage to have 30 inhabitants while you barely got 5.
And that's where the nightmare begins. Since there are 3 other villages, you gotta wait for each of their actions to end. Scattered around 30+ inhabitants _per village_. The wait is almost painful as you gotta skip some turns while you wait for the breeding/wood chopping/farming to happen. It would have been so nice to be able to skip the other players turn entirely. The worst is that you can't even let the game window aside while waiting, cause the game apparently only runs when you're making it active.
I'm really enjoying the idea and concept, but waiting to play ruins the fun. :(
If you ever make a version where the wait is no longer an issue, please let me know, i'd gladly play it.
The core concept is really the most interesting thing about this game. Having a like/dislike system based on appearance and shared hobbies in a civilization building game sounds great. I love the idea that this also has an effect on the neighboring rulers (somehow). I can imagine how you could use an envoy system, maybe work on breeding a perfectly suitable match for the picky sods to create an alliance. Or have the strength of your alliance be ultimately determined by which nation's diplomat is the best match for them.
As weird as it sounds, the one thing I think could have improved this game, is not giving the other players any units. 90% of the game is having the computer controlled factions spread (densely) out of control. Then eventually as you approach turn 40, the turns take so long as to become indistinguishable from the game freezing. The worst part of that is that their units don't seem to actually effect the gameplay. Not to mention that meanwhile I only have 5 people to move around (I did manage to get a couple together at least), compared to up to 80 of theirs (visible). If I had managed to be moving around 80 units, I probably could have used the break but... oh well.
The audio was another spot where the game did well. The light fanfare music hit the mark for a generally upbeat medieval setting. The sound effects were good as well, if a bit sparse.
The main problem is that the game just isn't fun - especially for a LD game, where most people would only play it for a few minutes. I think I could get a lot more done in a second playthrough now that I understand all the mechanics, but its just drudgery. Who knows, maybe all it needs is a really good tutorial, or a touch of streamlining or optimization, but it's way too slow to want to try another 40 turns from the beginning.
The graphics were okay, although the character art was simultaneously amusing and bizarre =P. There was an fairly high amount of seemingly unintentional humor in the game despite the more serious general presentation. The humor was a nice break, but did make the game feel a bit disjointed in that sense. Most of the comedy was in the various leaders, and their odd, vaguely offensive comments about whatever random innocuous thing they hated (I'll agree murderers aren't the best though). It would have been nice to have had the dialog in boxes, and get little arrows and such. I didn't realize the text was to be clicked on for a bit.
Overall, it's a really interesting idea with some good elements, that because of pacing, the computer action lag, and the time commitment it requires, didn't really come together for me into a fun experience.
The AI was so slow, it almost made the game unplayable for me, but i like the concept and your take on the theme.
The concept was great. I like that you took the 4x game and kinda inverted it in a Make love not war way. The music was very nice and i love the cute graphics. Very fun idea that i would like to see more of :)
Wow, very well done, I am impressed! However the game would have benefitted from a more informative UI (move points for example and movement range) and snappier controls.
I had a good time playing this once I got the hang of it. The computer did sprawl out much faster than I did making me feel a bit behind development wise. I also thing the controls selecting/deselecting could use a little polish, there were times I would keep clicking to see the status of a farm or forestry project. Maybe show the build progress in the ui above the job being performed.
There is so much here you really invested a lot of time and energy and it shows. nice work! I hope you expand on this more after the jam. I have followed you on itch.io
Simple idea and easy to understand. The game was a bit slow though, so I couldn't play it for too long because it felt like not much was happening, but I love the theme behind it and definitely a welcome change from war and killing that the genre is known for. Good job :thumbsup:
If you get a chance, feel free to give you feedback on my game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/breacard