Netcrawler

potondo 2018-04-23 03:01

I really like this game!

I'm a sucker for internet-themed games, and I'm also a fan of deck-building games, so this game was right up my alley. It took me a while to get the rules, but once I did it was pretty smooth sailing, though I'm pretty bad at this game it seems.

I did find you could sometimes not get a road with a sentry in your opening hand, which is rather unfortunate when it happens. Maybe you could have a mulligan, at least for the opening hand?

Overall a very nice game!

impbox 2018-04-23 09:10

@potondo Thanks for playing! Having no defences on the first hand doesn't matter so much as you can play them immediately as you get your second hand, which actually gives you an advantage since those defences last an extra turn.

damien-remars 2018-04-23 14:22

Good concept, it would deserve a longer game with tutorial & progressive difficulty... GG!

radical-dog 2018-04-23 16:06

Obviously up-front it's hard to explain a deckbuilder, but it's a really nice idea of how to use it.

However, there needs to be a lot of tweaking, and perhaps an "undo" button, to get the balance right. There aren't enough basic weapon cards in the shop IMO, for how quickly your weapons deteriorate - I certainly couldn't reliably put up 2 towers every 3 turns, which is what is needed. I'm not even sure the towers need to deteriorate at all; you could just have the waves get harder so that the old turrets aren't strong enough over time.

I hope you keep working on it!

oldetobeh 2018-04-23 16:53

Hey I really enjoyed this game concept, very cool!

stevenjmiller 2018-04-23 17:59

Amazing game, though I think the difficulty kind of levels off. I stopped at wave 66 with a score of 314, but I think I could've made it much further. The mechanics are engaging and I felt like it was pretty well balanced. I would love to see post-jam version of this! Also, I ran into a bug where a tile ended up off of the board:LDnetbug.png

sean-s-leblanc 2018-04-24 04:29

Oof, this is a really challenging one! Took me quite a few tries to understand what was going on, and even then I only managed to make it to around wave 30.

Having all the instructions written out was helpful, but it's a lot of info to take in all at once. If you were to ever expand on this one, I think it would benefit a lot from some in-game tutorialization which progressively introduced the mechanics (that's quite a bit to ask for a jam entry though, haha).

I also got the above bug btw; it can be reproduced pretty consistently by placing a tile just off the right edge of the board.

Overall, it's a fun entry!

impbox 2018-04-24 10:36

@sean-s-leblanc yes it's a difficult one to explain how to play quickly for people who aren't already familiar with deck-builders. I wish I had more time to work on instructions and progression.

impbox 2018-04-24 10:39

@stevenjmiller thanks for finding that bug! I'll fix that up. Yes I had wanted to add a lot more in terms of progression and increasing difficulty but ran out of time. I had planned to add more enemy types and a preview of the wave coming and show how the number of active links and servers would control the incoming wave so you could adapt your grid before the next wave.

impbox 2018-04-24 10:42

@radical-dog the deteriorating towers thing was necessary in order for the deck-building to be important, so that it becomes necessary to cycle things and continually have useful stuff in your hand. However I'm considering increasing the max age of turrets to 4 or 5 and removing the automatic starting of the next wave, or at least add a post-wave period for you to complete your purchases and prepare for the next wave as currently the next wave starts while there is often still some of the previous wave in play.

radical-dog 2018-04-24 11:12

That's fair. I'd definitely like to see a preparation phase between waves, especially given that you can't upgrade a tile with an enemy on it!

2018-04-24 13:38

Very complex game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 41 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBigr-DBUjI

kayz 2018-04-24 16:10

Seriously a very time consuming game. I don't know how long I've spent in game, but I am in wave 71 with a score of 771 and still going strong - I really need to stop :D. Restore backup is a life saver all the time :). Great game, great combination of themes!

hauo 2018-04-24 19:38

Very fun! Its such a great take on deck-building combined with tower-def, love both and this combo just makes so much sense when you try it out. Will be sinking in more time in this just to try and get a good score! The design/style fits very well, and while it was a bit difficult to read the text for me, it was nothing that got in the way. The tactical balance of when you want to start the new wave/reset your stack is a brilliant! And really makes you have to plan ahead in a game-type that otherwise can be quite random (cards). A great entry to the theme.

gagapete 2018-04-24 21:13

Such a great game. Took some attempts to really understand the gameplay rules but then I couldn't stop until the malicious packages stopped me. I will absolutely replay it when the rating period is over.

sintel 2018-04-24 21:43

Got to wave 64!!

cristiano-m-garcia 2018-04-25 02:34

Good job! Cool game!

I rate your game, if I can give a game in my game, Witch's Escape.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/witchs-escape

farawayvision 2018-04-25 11:18

Awesome game! Love the style and theme of it-- and the gameplay is quite unique as well!

mccordinator 2018-04-25 15:19

I like the card based tower defense concept! Glad you didn't give up on it. Fun stuff :)

If you have time, check out my entry: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/golden-beak-golf

01010111 2018-04-25 22:11

Saw this on itch, first LD game I've played so far and I really love it! It took me half a dozen tries to really get into it, but once I had a thread going I immediately fell in love :D Great job!

radioactiverambo 2018-04-27 10:42

First LD#41 game to get me hooked. Congrats. I love the combination of genres. The gameplay is incredibly fun and addictive (in a good way). Where most games that use card games as their incompatible genre only use it as a form of 'on-screen buttons', this game actually incorporates a distinct gameplay mechanic from the genre into its own and thereby creates a combination that's more than the sum of its parts. The graphics are simple but fit the game well. All in all, a great entry and so far my favourite one in terms of gameplay.

If I had to make one suggestion I'd say that after a few waves (maybe around 25 or so), purchasing new cards no longer adds value. Not sure how to fix it though, because adding more powerful (and thus more expensive) cards, might break the early game.

You mention the game isn't as polished as you'd like. Is audio the only thing that you'd have changed if you had more time or are there other things you'd have added as well?

impbox 2018-04-29 08:05

@RadioactiveRambo i've got a lot of ideas for what I might improve/fix. I wanted to add more of a tutorial and sound and music and some more effects and different types of packets and turrets.

I'm currently reworking it a fair bit to make the difficulty scaling and completely changed the way you get income.