Civilisation Afloat

hierarch 2018-08-12 23:26

Neat game, wish there was a way to change game speed. Also the axis selection is a bit confusing, if there was a button for it it would be a little easier to see what's going on. Otherwise great job!

earnso 2018-08-13 13:35

The implementation could be better but the game plays smoothly, there are a few things missing though but considering the time allotted those are negligible. Anyways, Great work!

gamejmunk 2018-08-13 13:39

Very nice music! Also the innovation is good. But the game is very confusing, maybe a short description, of how you should watch the resources and which building you need to place first? I still can't figure out how to place a generator, i have enough money and resources so it isn't that...

bnmkt 2018-08-13 13:40

it's a great game, i hat some problem with the selection, there were no indication, maybe add an arrow ?

if you have time you could work on the graphics, instead of colors, still very great !

starven 2018-08-13 14:12

@gamejmunk I absolutely agree it can be very confusing, one of the things I wish I had more time for was instructions. I will try to clear it up in the description of the game.

As for generators (much like food production), they require a "Powered Tile". A powered tile is one with a Power Supply placed at the bottom (first building on tile). This is very poorly explained in-game, but I ran out of time for a lot of things unfortunately. Thanks for the response!

melmo 2018-08-14 18:34

Took a bit of experimentation to work out what required what and a couple of tries to find a proper opening build order but once I'd worked it out the whole thing took off and it felt very satisfying to make everything work together. Reckon it'd look really neat with animated blocks for each production building - not expected given the timescale though! Also, as other people have mentioned, music is really good.

niterich 2018-08-14 18:55

Very good game, especially for a first time jammer! I think the core gameplay concept was great, although I felt it was a bit clunky and lacked feedback. I was never really sure if my buildings weren't being built because a) I lacked the resources, b) there wasn't enough infrastructure, or c) the cursor selector wasn't cooperating.

If I can offer some advice for future jams: Add some sound effects and make the game super easy. Some sound effects could help fix the problems I listed, as well as make the game feel more complete overall. As for difficulty: the saying that really stuck with me is "if you think it's just hard enough, it's actually way too hard". Plus, that way players can see all of your work instead of just the first two levels.

Hope that helps, and hope to see you again at the next Ludum Dare!

PS: change camera movement from WASD to middle mouse click to be able to play the game with one hand

starven 2018-08-14 19:46

@niterich Thanks for your feedback, You make some great points and I actually agree with literally everything you have said. I have also had the experience of not realising why I wasn't building something - even as the dev - so I'm definitely aware of the issues in that regard. Judging difficulty is a tough as the developer, especially with little time to test, and I think poor explanation and the absence of a tutorial made the barrier to entry higher than needed (coupled with poor player feedback and UI)

Thanks for your detailed feedback! My first Jam was a lot of fun, and a little bit stressful. Can't wait for the next one.

jimbly 2018-08-15 00:00

Neat game! I made it to a population of around 900 before I accidentally forgot to mine more resources -_-. I think, perhaps, the resource miner shouldn't cost resources, otherwise a little mistake can simply end the game, despite the rest of the city going fine. On the other hand... I probably should stop playing at some point, so thanks!

Some feedback on why clicking was doing nothing (not enough money, not enough resources, no power) would go a *long* way towards making the interface feel better. I often found myself clicking and having nothing happen, or having the help at the bottom poking out right over where I was trying to work - I'd move the view, and the click something else, and it would be in the way again. Maybe the help should be in a fixed location, and just make it clear, via a highlight or something, which tool is selected.

I like the clean, simple aesthetic, and the gameplay was pretty fun to figure out how everything worked, how many of what I needed, etc.

dark-roast-studios 2018-08-16 07:11

Nice idea for using the theme, as others have said, some sound effects to help with feedback would be beneficial, but congrats on delivering a game in 48h!

welcome to Ludum Dare :D

fenderbate 2018-08-16 13:20

Great game, but it took me some time to understand where and why I can put stuff ( there's a lot of text and I'm too lazy to read :c )

starven 2018-08-16 15:16

@fenderbate Hahaha thanks, I don't blame you. I should have spent time on a short in-game tutorial and some better alerts/player feedback as some others have said. Thanks for playing :)

kodiqi 2018-08-17 01:36

Well done on your first jam and getting it all done within the Compo limitations.

I enjoy city builder games so this game is right up my alley, I think this is a good start.

I think there is an issue with every building costing both money AND resources. Specifically, the Resource Miner should probably only cost money because if you drop below 50, then you can't build another one. The Resource Miner is already costing you land, so making it money-only shouldn't unbalance it. Alternatively, if you could destroy your existing buildings for a small amount of resources (less than the initial cost), then players could dig themselves out of the hole, rather than it being game over.

The graphics/music are simple so I won't go into detail on those but I think one easy improvement would be to make the UI bigger.

Thanks for making it HTML5!