BIO-EX-DEUS

remco 2018-08-14 20:02

Hi Joror! First this: *I hear no audio of any kind* ... is this deliberate?

This one reminds me a lot of the one you submitted for LD#38 ('Angelic Design'), except I think I like this one better. A lot of things, from the game-design, to the balance, to the clarity of the UI (it's immediately clear what's happening), feel _streamlined_ and balanced. The theme feels more fitting to this concept as well.

I thought at first that the best move was just to build up the terrain first, then place the pops, and then just 'manually fast forward', but fortunately the more interesting strategy to plan ahead a bit and mix up the 'left side' and 'right side' commands a bit seems to be better. (I could not get more than 4 stars with the first strategy, but got 5 stars (610 points) otherwise.)

A thing I noticed, is that the intro-text gives you the impression that it's a tutorial, but the full game has already started. Not that bad, since experimentation is the heart of this game, but you might want to reword that slightly.

So, in conclusion; while it may lack (audio? and) elaborate graphics, once you get trying to find a way to get those 5 stars, it opens up into a really neat little tightly designed experience. That takes a few games, and is enough to amuse anyone. I'm not sure the re playability is there once you get those 5 stars... I did, and I might play it some more, but the challenge is gone now that I've got a decent strat going for me. However, if you make this into a campaign, with some special challenges and a bit of a story (like with your last game), it could make a _really_ nice (board?)game.

_I know you sometimes do; so please don't forget to rate some games! :-D_

cristihkj 2018-08-23 14:06

Nice game! Really cool and interesting! :D

radical-dog 2018-08-23 14:26

Very interesting creation. I really liked seeing the different groups interact. Could be made more "gamey" by having scenarios with goals, but it's a nice toy as-is.

benjamin123 2018-08-23 14:35

Good Game, I think a little more explanation would help. Also, I felt like there was not enough "Acts of God."

wrenpirate 2018-08-23 15:19

I'm not familiar with this kind of game or simulator, so more explicit instructions would help me a lot. For example, I figured out how to raise grasslands to something brown and then to a mountain. Was brown a desert? How do I get hills? Why do the dwarves want to live in mountains or hills despite not doing well in mountains because they are warm-blooded? To deploy "A Great...", do I need to click there and then choose something great to do? This is a very elaborate world. I heard the audio; I liked how moody but unintrusive it was.

wan 2018-08-23 15:26

Very original! It was an interesting toy to play with. I agree with @radical-dog in that it lacks some direction, and giving goals or a scenario would make the game more engaging.

Anyway this was easier to pick up than I thought, and I had fun trying to build a world where all my species could live in peace. I like how annoying the humans are :P

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marcovalekaz 2018-08-23 15:41

Interesting concept! I really liked it! I can definitelly see this as an idle game on mobile! nice!

thibaultar 2018-08-24 11:50

Little long to understand but once it's done, it's fun to play :)

Maybe a little tutorial would be great ahah

Great work !! ;)

chrissx2 2018-08-26 11:30

Dang, add more stuff and some gfx and this could turn into fantastic full fledged game!

sibi 2018-08-26 12:27

Wow I really like this one. Was hoping for some more scenarios or sandbox mode. I would love to see the civilisations unfold on a larger area or timescale. Also some iconography would help a lot in remembering the different traits of the species. Such a cool concept and watching them fight over the lands is awesome! Great job :)

mcarrera 2018-08-26 12:47

No doubt this was one of the games I liked more for this LD. I have to say that the idea is pretty awesome and I really like the concept. You add some features and some objectives and for sure im playing that daily. Awesome!

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mosaic 2018-08-26 14:30

I like this game very much. The Art is a Little simplistic, but thats okay for that Kind of game. Maybe add some events like natural flood or earthquake or meteor. Well done!

luckyfeathers 2018-08-26 15:32

This was awesome! If you continue working on this I'm sure it can become a great game some day. I really thought the concept was intriguing, and considering this was a solo project I'm really impressed. However, I'd like a reward system. Nobody cares about a high score. I also don't like that you only have 15 terraforming abilities. Why not make it so that terraforming costs glory points, and the glory thing becomes a currency rather than a high score. The last 10-15 eras I just press next era because there's nothing for me to do.

joror 2018-08-26 16:06

@radical-dog Yeah, this mode was basically because of time constrains (only had one day)

@wrenpirate Better description & tutorial would have helped for sure.

@wan Cool to see your world, and yeah, would have liked to make scenarios, but settled on a score mechanism (only had a day)

@sibi I skimped a lot on the graphics side of things, usually put in more of that. Longer eras and multiple levels / scenarios can be cool.

@mcarrera Cool! I def would have wanted more scenarios. I see in your screenshot that you didn't use the 'A great..' powers, any reason for that?

@luckyfeathers Indeed a reward system, with scenarios, or a bit of a story would normally be what I want here. The constrains of Terraforming is indeed a bit restrictive, your idea to make it cost glory is nice. Always want people to be able to do things :)

nam-nguyen 2018-08-26 22:34

Great idea with neat implementation. This to me is like a sandbox sim, and the system is very complex despite its simple graphics. I think the visual feedback with the arrows is great, it helps players understand what is going on especially the killing. Some visual feedback for dragons attacking animals on nearby tiles would be a nice touch, I see the red arrow but nothing seems to happen. Also I think the Era counter should be more noticeable to players, the fact that changing the terrain takes an era was not obvious to me so I finished the terrain manipulation before putting animals to that in the 15th Era. This is apparently not the best strategy and I did this during my first 4 runs. The scoring at the end is a very nice feature, it basically tells me that I could do better if I haven't, but I think there is a lack of feedback to what could have been done better. It makes total sense in a sim game that players set their own goals but the moment you have the evaluation there, there is a goal and players should know how to achieve that.

Some suggestions: - Visual feedback on when something is killed, so it's more visible to players. - De-select the creation when I select another creature on the map, because if not, the info about that creature is override by the info of the creature selected in the creation box. Of course I could deselect that myself, but I think its more convenient if you do that for players, plus its not always obvious that I need to deselect in the creations box to see info of creatures on the map (at first I thought it was a bug)

Last but not least, my highest score xD.

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chadrbanks 2018-08-27 00:37

I love me some sims. Can there be an unlimited time mode or something longer?

rahim-pxr 2018-08-27 16:36

Nice game, Love how everything is balanced! Good luck, Don't forget to take a look at ours if you don't mind and see what it's like when we just focused on graphics in this game jam! Game Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/spacelab-42a

bbapps 2018-08-30 01:45

This was really fun, I loved learning about all the different creations and how you had to find a way for them to work together.

andrei9 2018-09-03 13:08

I liked the Graphics, and the Gameplay was fun, Nice Game. :thumbsup: