Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD42 → Ant Factory
By pavel-smejkal and Romana Kapustova
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 132 | 3.87 | 31 | |
| Fun | 228 | 3.64 | 30 | |
| Innovation | 107 | 3.82 | 30 | |
| Theme | 262 | 3.89 | 30 | |
| Graphics | 601 | 3.44 | 30 | |
| Humor | 658 | 2.45 | 26 | |
| Mood | 835 | 2.83 | 26 |
Your game made a lot of fun, it's hard to balance which resources are needed (and that's good). But sometimes it feels like the ants not deliver items correctly and trash it. Unfortunately there are just three level, so it was a fast playthrough. Really nice work!
@max-s Thanks a lot! The overall balance of the levels was one of the most difficult tasks for us (and they could still be better of course).
The ants disappear if you delete the building where they are headed. Or it may look like they thrashed the goods but they actually delivered it and the item begins producing immediately. Then it looks like the goods just disappeared. Or you encountered a bug which is of course totally possible :D
Good job finishing the game btw :)
I went into this game completely confused, but after staring back and forth at the ingredients list and actually understanding how to play, I sank about an hour or so into this game. *Only three levels,* I told myself. That last one gets quite tricky, though, since you're forced to have the six ants making the stone items constantly. I really loved the puzzle element overall, and the easy-to-access list and quick pause button made it a lot of fun to ponder over how to set up the buildings and where to relegate extra supplies that are building up.
The game very cleverly works in the theme because not only do you have to make sure you're not running out of space in the main sort of storage area, but also you have to make sure that you don't run out of space on the grid itself. And having to also create a path the ants can walk on doesn't make it easier either. :joy: But I really like how this is all interconnected: don't run out of main storage space, don't run out of space to host your factories, don't run out of money...etc. Not to mention some of the items that will create an excess of stuff you don't really need so you have to make other items just to clear up space but also earn money back. :stuck_out_tongue:
The three levels you present do increase pretty drastically in difficulty, especially between the second and third level, but they overall do provide progressively harder challenges. And I just really like the concept overall. It works with ants. While the gameplay itself is solid, some touchups to the aesthetics (such as the plain blue background) and adding some appropriate audio would elevate the gameplay experience even further.
I guess one thing I found myself wondering was...what was the point of being able to move the map around when the size of the map is the same size as the screen you work with? I actually didn't use those keys at all during my playthrough, but going back to check, it looks like the map definitely has an edge that is the exact length of the screen you play it in. I dunno, arrow keys and WASD (or its European keyboard equivalent) would have been nice to move the map around if it had been bigger than the game screen. I suppose that's the case when trying to play windowed, but moving the map around gets pretty buggy in such a resolution (it gets stuck in a certain direction and I can't move it back).
But yeah aside from that, I had a great experience with the gameplay as a whole. Although it kind of has a steep learning curve, it gets pretty addicting to try and beat it, not to mention the great integration of the theme. :clap:
@random-storykeeper Thank you for your thorough review :) The map moving mechanic was implemented just in case someone plays in a weird resolution. In such a case the UI could potentially cover the map and the game would not be playable.
We wanted to make a sound, but the time was running short so we rather focused on the game.
The levels were indeed quite difficult to balance and the last one remained as a challenge, good job finishing it! :)
Amazing game ! The concept is simple yet really sucks you in ! Level 3 scared me (shame on me) so I stopped at level 2 but I could already see the idea being expended onto a full game
As for the cons, it is definitely confusing at first but that is a recurring flaw of Ludum Dare games that have a lot to show in a short amount of time. The game could also help a bit of background music :)
I totally get you when you say balancing the game was hard ! That was also our main concern when developing our game, it's really hard to gauge the difficulty when you've been playing it for 3 days ...
Anyway, gratz for the submission !
This game fits the theme perfectly, I failed the third level a few times from lack of space. It really forces you to sell all the plants to afford making the higher tier plant, and to help you focus on removing the items that take room. The pathfinding for the ants is really efficient in this. I had a lot of fun with this one~ It's one of those games I wished had more levels after completing it, as I was engrossed in the gameplay.
Very nice ! This game is very well balanced in my opinion wich make the experience both challenging and rewarding ! The only missing thing is audio :cry:
Nice game! It's really good strategic game concept and it's fun to play. The only thing that I would add is tutorial to help better understand the rules of the agme. Anyway good job!
An awesome game - great job creating the mechanics and having the crafting tree balanced all in 72h. Had to retry the last level a couple of times, but finishing it was so rewarding :) (nitpick: wish there was a "restart" button in the menu if you haven't failed yet - sometimes you just see that it won't work). I also really liked the money mechanic, it added more depth (especially to the last level). Overall your game is definitely one of the best (and most thought through) submissions I've seen.
Also thanks a lot for making a linux version available, I had to pass on many games because of no HTML5/linux support (which is also weird since many people used Unity anyway - why not export to more platforms and/or web).
ladybugs disapprove
10/10, made me want to play factorio again
Pretty interesting game, good job you all! :) I must say that it took me a pretty long time to figure out that I have to put paths in order for the ants to get to the buildings, so it was not really as clear as I'd hoped :)
cool what you got done in that short time!
Great game! Very cool and interesting! :D
I love you game :) it's very challenging and easily understandable. Really good entry !
Very fun game. Clear graphics. The H key and pause mode are a must! I found level 2 got overwhelmed very quickly, but I probably need to play more to get passed it.
Well done!
Cool game :thumbsup: Really nice game design here !
This is an excellent game, great job! I love strategy games and resource management, and you nailed this. The whole gameplay that the stuff you produce also produces 'waste' that you have to get rid of is genius. Normally with strategy games the solution is straight forward, but you managed to make it into a puzzle game, which is awesome. I managed to beat the second level after a couple of tries, and I'm sure I can beat the third level with some tinkering. This is also one of the best implementations of the theme that I've played so far.
This is exactly the type of game that I love, and the implementation is great, so congrats!
Really enjoyed this game. I was a little confused at the start but then I checked the description and found out about pressing the "H" button to see what the buildings do.