FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD43 → Dark Villagers

Dark Villagers

By praleks, mavne, skigfx, awix and DimaUknow

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall3513.61164
Fun4023.39164
Innovation4193.27164
Theme1624.02164
Graphics1924.11165
Audio2903.46159
Humor5842.70149
Mood2123.71164

Comments

plusminus 2018-12-04 09:01

ld43Screen.png

looks like I won. nice entry!

budark 2018-12-04 10:31

lovely game. I like the graphics and the UI very clear. Good one

mortus 2018-12-04 15:45

I really like the idea, and graphics are really cool! The game could use some polishing, though. It was hard to get into, because of the lack of ingame tutorial and no sound, but cool graphics convinced me that it must be a great game. And it turned out it is! Quite strategic and very thematic. However, it looks like it's not completely bug free. At some point I couldn't recruit more cultists despite the fact that I didn't have any on the map. Do they not free the houses I've built after they're killed or sacrificed? That means I'll never be able to keep up with the farmers, after my demons get killed, because I can't recruit more cultists. Either that, or I've misunderstood something completely. Great job overall!

koemeterion 2018-12-04 15:45

fancy graphics and fun idea. It was a bit hectic at the beginning to figure out what is what and what is happening. A slower start would be better I guess. Still very good game!

oxygenium 2018-12-05 12:00

21 wave was a inquisition armageddon! I had everything and they destroyed this all on the pieces in the seconds!

Nice addictive game but a mini tutorial would be useful on the beginning ;D. And I think a separating the cultists from the recruits will be a good idea because it is a little hard to choose them :D.

spidamoo 2018-12-05 13:04

It has a very nice look and feel. One thing that is missing is some kind of in-game explanation, like a tutorial or hints on things you select.

meskaline 2018-12-06 14:11

Cool gameplay and lovely graphics. The game has a good polish. Nice and challenging, good job!

ragtagradical 2018-12-06 14:16

Really nice entry! Took me a few rounds to get the hang of it. Lasted until wave 29, but by then I was just desperately trying to recruit people for the sacrificial altar

katamary 2018-12-06 14:18

Good game! But it'll be better when add automatic sacrificing and building monsters. Good luck!

nicrodk 2018-12-06 14:24

Cute game, the graphics are nice and the game is not too easy fairly challenging even until you really get into it and understand how it works. Nice job

fahrenheit459 2018-12-06 14:27

Such a good game ! All is here and it's such a pleasure to organize these poor little cultists ! Nice job guys !

pilchard 2018-12-06 15:05

Impressive work! It's easy to see how this could be developed into a fully-fledged strategy game, with deeper resource management, some mechanic by which you spread the cult to other villages, customisation of monsters, etc. - all things I'm sure you've considered. I love the variety of monster types and enemies from neighbouring villages you've created, it really made every wave interesting and fun. The art style and audio are well matched and it all oozes evil.

xarras 2018-12-06 15:13

My favourite game so far! Good grapgics cool gameplay, simple management. Maybe difficulty ramps up too quickly and you have to retry a few times at the beginning but that's alright :D very good game!

naboki 2018-12-06 16:04

Excellent idea! A good strategic game with cool graphics. More information in UI will improve the game in my opinion.

raveroth 2018-12-06 16:11

Nice graphics!

catbutt 2018-12-06 16:20

nice one!

efrag 2018-12-06 16:26

Totally my type of game and graphics! I had fun playing it, and i'll definitely check for updates on this one. Nicely done :)

nekonyo 2018-12-06 16:35

The idea it is good and everything is worked right: music, graphics, etc. My main concern is mechanics. I mean, I only could reach 17th wave and I wasn't able to go very far. Even so I spent my efforts on food with two farms (+40 food) and I was able to hold until that wave running very slowly of food and recruiting everyone. Also some minor bugs or mispelling as it says daemons, spent is in past when every verb is in present or when you build buildings. The prizes aren't updated. So it doesn't cost what it says. šŸ˜…

Despite that, the game is fantastic overall.

carbonara 2018-12-06 16:48

The graphics are gorgeous and the gameplay works pretty well. Maybe a tutorial will give more hints to the player for a better start? Nice job!

poweranze 2018-12-06 17:21

Some great art and I found the frantic gameplay very engaging. The difficulty seems to ramp up very fast and it is made even harder because of the lack of in game explanation.

minelsaygisever 2018-12-06 18:12

very nice idea, amazing art work. good job guys ^^

dorukh 2018-12-06 19:19

interesting game, it looks very nice. Remind me of older heroes of might and magic games. Music fits well too well done! :)

myalias 2018-12-06 19:38

Interesting gameplay. The mood and the music fit well.

wegpast 2018-12-06 20:14

Really cool game but a bit hard x) Moreover the UI is so small I couldn't know wich building I could build and what was it purpose... Awesome graphics !

jharler 2018-12-06 20:43

Beautiful looking and sounding game. Excellent job nailing the aesthetics and mood. I was a bit confused on what exactly I was supposed to do, so I would recommend an in-game tutorial of some sorts.

arkiruthis 2018-12-06 20:51

Excellent art and sound. A bit bewildered by the options when the game started. Could you guys do a Youtube video with a short playthrough? Looks like a lot of work went into this. :thumbsup: (and thanks for reviewing my game :grinning:

ori 2018-12-06 21:07

Interesting idea. Audio is great. Good job!

kszaku 2018-12-06 21:38

Cool game, it could be called "Satanic Cult Tycoon". Sprites looked adorable, and atmosphere was thick. I really liked that one.

anna-karpova 2018-12-07 07:15

nice gamešŸ‘

vivien-fargette 2018-12-07 08:48

Hard to understand at first, I think a tutorial would help a lot. Once you have understand how it works, the game is really interesting and challenging, you have to manage your population well. Really good work :)

vlad-ilisan 2018-12-07 09:21

Good game.

sickybricky 2018-12-07 09:25

I was surprised how great this game is. At first I had no idea what to do, but it's pretty self explanatory after a few minutes. I saw that I can make buildings at the end but didn't have any cultists to make them work in the buildings so I got stuck :D awesome pixel art and animations. Great thought out gameplay. The sound is a bit lacking. 5/5 overall!

fahrenheit459 2018-12-07 10:16

I think it became way too easy since last maj :s I'm just constant clicking right now to pop cultist

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Be brave ! I know it's such a mess to balance RTS ! :) And anyway, this game is just on the top !

radow 2018-12-07 10:31

Really nice graphics and overall nice difficulty. Clicking on sectaries after recruiting them out of a bunch of travelers is kind of fiddely, and it would be nice to know if demons just become straight up better or if they have different attributes (some being faster, others more sturdy, etc).

fede 2018-12-07 10:36

Great concept and nice way of applying the theme! Nice job!

kothead 2018-12-07 10:40

Awesome game! Simple but very entertaining

designernap 2018-12-07 10:52

This took me a while to understand but after a few attempts I got into it :) nice work!

chrismcmath 2018-12-07 11:16

Lack of any onboarding meant I struggled to figure out what was happening/what I was meant to do but the mood and pixel art in particular are wonderful.

blodyavenger 2018-12-07 11:56

I haven't played many Jam games so far but this is for sure one of the best I've seen! Gameplay, visuals & audio makes the mood that 100% matches the theme! I really love the management part of the game because it's never boring, something is always happening.

The last wave for me! I guess I should invest more time into it :thinking: last-wave.png

5/5:crown: - WELL DONE! :thumbsup:

lucien-catonnet 2018-12-07 12:42

An interesting game with a kind of mechanics. I put a rating) Please rating and me, thanks in advance)

linheha 2018-12-07 12:58

An interesting game with a kind of mechanics. I put a rating) Please rating and me, thanks in advance)

beardmage 2018-12-07 13:21

Great game ! Probably the one I spent the most time playing :) As @fahrenheit459 said above, the game becomes quite easy after some time.

The hardest part is to have a good start, then you only have to summon/sacrifice cultists to win. Maybe add an option to destroy/upgrade buildings ? That would be sick ! Also, adding a few stats to each monster would be great to know what they are doing.

Had a good time anyway, congrats ! :)

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rolly 2018-12-07 13:39

An interesting game with a kind of mechanics. I put a rating) Please rating and me, thanks in advance)

net3ton 2018-12-07 14:16

Wow, it looks amazing! Interesting tower defence-like mechanic with resource management

pantoufle 2018-12-07 14:42

I love the art and music! The gameplay overall is fun and balanced.

I like how you made the blood from sacrificial altar overflow to the right of the screen. And how this blood scares out peasants and they don't come bother me anymore (it happened around wave 52 for me).

LD43 Dark Villagers.png

Great entry! Congratulations!

falak 2018-12-07 15:02

You are my second favorite. I :heart: love :heart: that game! Good Luck!

kromeboy 2018-12-07 15:07

Solid mechanic and nice art

ninjacatz 2018-12-07 15:26

I played this game the longest) It feels like the game is perfect, really. Great job!

dob 2018-12-07 15:45

Really great art, spooky music, and fun concept. It took me a while to figure out what I was doing and to hit a good balance of defensive creatures and buildings. In the web version I played, the text was really small - maybe I should have used full screen.

icehottet 2018-12-07 16:19

Great concept really liked it!

captain-tyx 2018-12-07 16:20

Nice game with good graphics and sound ambiance. A little bit complicated to understand but still fun !

skynix 2018-12-07 16:21

Excellent graphics and cool gameplay concept (and realization too:D)!

viktris 2018-12-07 16:28

Great game, only thing I really missed are tootlips on hover. that would have wrapped up the game nicely! good job!!

banjoduarte 2018-12-07 16:46

Hey sweet game! Enjoyed the mechanics of constructing buildings, recruiting dudes and sacrificing to get monsters! Really nice! Would have liked to see some health bars or something but that's not a big deal. Good job~!

sargonius 2018-12-07 16:57

really nice game. Gameplay, art and sound are good. Wave 14-15 is way to hard for me :-(

beelzeboss 2018-12-07 17:32

Very clear but detailed graphics. Feels very complete for a jam game. Had a lot of fun :) Great Job!

juan-hust-novella 2018-12-07 17:39

concept is nice, i like the art and the audio is ok. it was too hard to survive

falak 2018-12-07 18:21

An interesting game with a kind of mechanics. I put a rating) Please rating and me, thanks in advance)

praleks 2018-12-07 18:30

falak, we do rate, as you see there Ratings given: 147.5

f4kethis 2018-12-07 20:32

I loved this, please keep working on it! It would make a great phone or tablet game.

My only gripe is that there is no tutorial and you didn't get many sound effects in place. But it was really fun. Has great looking pixel art, I love the use of theme and it has a good amount of strategic depth.

hechi 2018-12-07 20:38

This game has impressed me. It's very well balanced and generally well executed. Great job!

mrleeperry 2018-12-07 21:25

Great stuff! Really well presented, great critters :D

vlad-dae 2018-12-07 22:09

Cool game! Art and atmosphere on a great level :thumbsup:

So sad, that you have undone it.

great-bobleny 2018-12-07 22:28

Good atmosphere and art. The whole theme is well done. I would have liked an easy mode.

mohrro 2018-12-07 22:42

Awesome graphics, music and concept. Well done!

konomizure 2018-12-07 22:53

Really nice graphics and atmosphere! Nice and simple idea on the theme!

cassio-eduardo 2018-12-08 01:28

The idea is nice and it has some good graphics and atmosphere, but the game could give more feedback to the player, like creature health, wave timer, etc. It would be nice to have a way to heal the creatures.

Good job.

cloud-huai 2018-12-08 04:25

Really fun to play! I can't stop playing llllol..It fits perfectly with the theme!

dusho 2018-12-08 09:37

amazing game. really fun. the art, music and sound fits perfectly. it took me some time to figure out the controls and stuff but couldn't stop playing after that. well done!

pieter 2018-12-08 10:35

Returning the favor ;) had to use the Tutorial after a inital total fail, but after that it was a fun game to play!

royur 2018-12-08 13:29

hail satan! nicely done. Always love tiny people RTS. isn't too hard? wish there is restart button. Overall good game.

shendev 2018-12-08 17:42

Really cool and well made game, was really hard for me but I loved it. Best RTS I've seen so far, congratulations :)

verysoftwares 2018-12-08 17:47

Quite a complex interface you've managed to make. I didn't always understand what I was doing, but it was fun.

gaming-night 2018-12-08 19:55

nice game ! you mafe a lot of cool animations here :)

iluvatar 2018-12-08 20:23

Wow, this was really something. As a huge Lovecraft fan, I really enjoyed this. Loved the animations and gamplay idea. PS: it took me like 7 waves when I realized that I can build buildings! Haha! Great entry guys, I really loved it. I hope you will be one of the winners :)

mavne 2018-12-08 21:35

Thanks for feedback!

We're working on: - New animations - Tutorial - User friendly GUI - Balance fix

Stay tuned!

jevgeni-orehhov 2018-12-08 23:09

It was really cool to see a strategy game here. Great piece of work. Fits theme perfectly. I was struggling in the beginning to understand how to play but then i saw the video and things became much easier. Who reads the manuals anyway :)

cr0wns 2018-12-09 01:26

Lot of fun! Was just a bit difficult to figure out how to get it going, but once you did it became super enjoyable.

vlandemart 2018-12-09 09:38

I really like your art. Few problems I've had with the game - balance is very rough at the start, after a while clicking on each individual cultist/recruit starts to annoy Overall - good game. I think it may have good future if you choose to develop it after jam.

kovakomes 2018-12-09 09:50

Awesome game! Units were hard to click on sometimes, when the UI overlaps them. Game could benefit from showing when units/buildings take damage as well. Anyway, would love to play this again after the updates. Great job!

rohezal 2018-12-09 10:54

This is a very complex you have build in very short time. It is a hard trade between resources and "military" units. Well done. The sound tracks fits quite nice too. But I think it is more of an tower defense than a classical rts.

This game is quite challenging. After several tried I made it to Wave 13.

gerardb 2018-12-09 12:03

Wooow, great stuff! I loved it. Art is great, setting is really cool, I like the idea and the game is really fun (a bit challenging at the beginning though).

Congratulations and looking forward to your next jam game!

firebug 2018-12-09 17:06

The tutorial video was quite useful, because I couldn't manage to figure out how it works on my own. Great job on packing such a complex game into the game jam time limit! Quite challenging too, I never managed to last very long. But fun!

rhewid 2018-12-09 21:28

Interesting concept, nice pixelart. I enjoyed it, sure it could use some polishing but sacrifices must be made during a ludum dare. :D

naali 2018-12-10 00:55

I didn't get as far as most but I had a good time. I wonder if being able to micro manage units with distinct abilities for different units would be an interesting addition.

kloscunha 2018-12-10 13:02

The visuals are great, and I like how the villagers attack teh cult and how travellers come to get into the cult. Some nice visual narrative here. I'd like to see the instructions made a liiiitle bit clearer, other than that, great job.

daniel-abeleira 2018-12-10 20:46

Good game idea and graphics. Nice work!

wdebowicz 2018-12-10 23:36

This is definitely the most addictive entry I played this LD. I spent 2 hours, ended up on max 37 wave. Love the game, music and mood!

mavne 2018-12-11 10:30

We have an update! Changlelog:

- New animations for Swordsman; - New animations for Monk; - New animations for Knight; - New animations for Flesh golem; - New animations for Lord of Darkness; - New animations for Furious peasant; - Economy balance fix; - Creatures stats balance fix; - Wave composition and timing fix; - Bug fix.

Go ahead for new records!

hi-im-greg 2018-12-11 22:06

Really enjoyed this, the design of all the creatures was fantastic, the atmosphere was creepy, just a great experience overall. Could easily see this expanded into a bigger game.

rolle 2018-12-12 11:16

Wow, very cool game! I like it! Only thing I miss are bit better instructions but all-in-all a really solid entry and game!

team-on 2018-12-12 17:19

IMO this one is the best LD43 game. Its really fun to play and looks like game, not prototype

lucecyl 2018-12-13 00:51

Loved your game! Great use of the theme! Nice Job!

fnissalot 2018-12-13 09:25

Nice strategy defense game! Well done!

spacemonkey 2018-12-13 13:08

A fun game! I had what seemed like a bug, when my stone production was at +10 but I actually never received any stone. But that's just some big to fix. I obviously love the art and the general mood of the game. These games are not easy to make during a jam. Great job ;-)

arvejeitor 2018-12-14 12:08

Very nice and interesting game. I really liked the idea!

skigfx 2018-12-14 16:32

Thank you all for your reviews. All our team will play your games and avaluate them. Unfortunately, our poor level of English doesn't allow us to give you detailed comments.

@Budark Thank you for your review

@mortus Thank you for your review. Unfortunately, a tutorial takes too much time. We simply didn’t have enough time to implement it. As a result we revised population, we even had to add gold coins as resource.

@koemeterion Thanks for playing. Yes, we consider implementation of training levels in the beginning of the game in a post-ludum version

@Oxygenium As in the real life! šŸ˜„Thank you for great advice, we have done so. Changes are already available for testing.

@spidamoo Thanks. Yes, we know, tutorials are our weak point.

@meskaline Thanks a lot. We added animations, which we couldn’t do in the beginning because of the lack of time. The game has changed for the better, you can give it a second chance.

@ragtagradical Yes, this game mechanic wasn’t very good. We made some changes, and we hope that you would love it now.

@katamary We wanted a player to feel every life he’s taking :D To be serious, it was important to make players remember about this jam’s topic

@Nicrodk Thank you. To vary gameplay we want to add some randomization in a post-ludum version

@Fahrenheit459 Thanks. We ourselves love games with micro-control of small units

@Pilchard Thanks for your detailed comment. It is really nice to see that somebody likes our work so much that they came up with ideas, which we would love to implement. Unfortunately, we simply have no time left to propagate our cult to neighbour villages. Maybe we will add this mechanic to a final release.

skigfx 2018-12-14 16:32

@Xarras Thanks. We are very pleased to read such reviews. We are still in process of mastering this game. We really want to complete it to its final release.

@Naboki Thanks for review. Yes, our illustrator is currently working on different versions of UI

@Raveroth That’s all? Haha, we all have done titanic work. What a pity that there’s only artist’s work is so easy to estimate at true worth. Anyway, thank you for your review.

@catbutt Thanks, pal

@eFrag Despite the fact that we were creating this game for a jam, reading your comment we just want to write: ā€œThis game was created for people like you!ā€ Thanks a lot for your review.

@Nekonyo Thank you. We have a balance specialist. Therefore, we sent all your complaints to him. If he doesn’t cope, he won’t have his share of cookies. Sacrifices must be made!

@Carbonara Thank you. We are working on a detailed tutorial and intuitive UI, a post-ludum version must be more intelligible

@PowerAnze We will improve the dynamics of game’s difficulty growth in a post-ludum version of the game. Thank you for your opinion.

@minelsaygisever Thank you very much

@Dorukh Haha. It’s a very pleasant comparison, thank you

@MyAlias It’s very nice to see reviews which pay compliments not only to our graphics. Thank you very much for your opinion

@WegPast Thanks. Wait for post-ludum version. Lots of things will be more usable and simpler

skigfx 2018-12-14 16:32

@jharler Thanks for recommendation. We are already working on this.

@arkiruthis Thank you very much. Yes. The main members of a team had been working for 14 hours a day all 3 days of Ludum. It is very nice to see, that this work is valuable for you

@ori_ Thanks. We are very pleased that you like music

@Kszaku Thank you. We added all missing animations. Now you can enjoy pixels at its full potential

@Anna-Karpova Nice comment šŸ˜„ Thank you

@vivien-fargette Thanks. Yes, to enjoy this game a player should sacrifice time :D

@vlad-ilisan Thank you for your review

@sickybricky Thanks a lot. We are really glad to read reviews like this. Come to visit us more, we are preparing a post-ludum version

@Fahrenheit459 Haha, it seems that we have to add a crusade in our game specially for you

@radow Yes, we have ideas about upgrades for demons. Everything will be in a post-ludum version. Stay tuned šŸ˜‰

@Fede Thanks. We were worried that this is a too banal idea to play with topic. At least we tried to make a game interesting and captivative

@kothead Simple? Many people complain that nothing makes sense :D Thanks for your review

@designernap Thanks a lot. Keep in touch, once this jam-project will be a finished game

skigfx 2018-12-14 16:32

@chrismcmath Haha, yes, we went too far with a genre choice. Everybody in a team now wants to make a platformer for the next Ludum

@Blodyavenger Thank you for your time. This is really motivating to receive appreciation in exchange for our effort

@lucien-catonnet Of course. Thank you for your review

@Linheha Of course. Thanks for your review

@Rolly Of course. Thank you for your opinion

@Beardmage Thanks. Yes, we are thinking over core-gameplay, when a player can meet challenges during the whole game. Although, to be honest, this is a very demanding task

@net3ton Thanks. Yes, we were trying to create RTS, but there was a lack of time. As a result, we had to improvise with a genre

@pantoufle Thank you. Haha, yes, we will sacrifice the guilty one on a sacrificial altar!

@falak So who was the first? Thanks a lot. This is a very nice comment. Seriously, share your favorite projects. Sometimes it is really challenging to find a great game

@kromeboy Thanks

@NinjaCatz Haha, thanks. We wish we could feel the same

@dob Yes, there are bags. We will definitely fix them. Thank you for your comment

@Icehottet Thank you

skigfx 2018-12-14 16:33

@captain-tyx Thanks. You are not the only one who faced difficulties. It seems we need to implement a tutorial

@skynix Thanks pal

@VikTris Thanks. Yes, there is a problem. We will fix it

@banjoduarte Thanks. Yes, health bars are the priority #1

@Sargonius Thanks. You can try again, we have made some minor changes in combat mechanics

@Beelzeboss Thanks. We are really glad to see reviews like this

@Novella Yes, unfortunately, the game appeared to be a bit more challenging than we expected

@falak Thanks. Yes, sure, we will look at your project

@f4kethis We are 100% finishing this game. Thanks for review

@hechi Thanks. It is so nice to impress someone

@MrLeePerry Thanks. We all love to controle little units

@vlad-dae We are definitely are finishing this. Post-ludum version will be a great game

@great-bobleny Adding difficulty settings is a great idea! Thanks, we noted it down

@Mohrro Thanks, we are pleased

skigfx 2018-12-14 16:33

@konomizure Thank you. Yes we decided not to bother with this

@cassio-eduardo Yes, in a post-ludum version there will be intuitive UI for sure

@cloud-huai Wow. Thanks. Stay tuned

@dusho Thanks. It’s nice

@Pieter Thanks. Yes, the tutorial. Everybody is asking for a tutorial. It seems we have no choice :D

@royur Was this hard? Oooh, yes! We had been working for 12-16 hours every day during a jam. Thank you for your opinion

@ShenDev Thanks. You’ll see much more

@verysoftwares Yes, we are remaking the interface. Sorry, we were limited in time

@gaming-night Thanks. Yes, the animations turned out to be great

@Iluvatar Thanks a lot. It would be really cool to get into top-100

@jevgeni-orehhov Nobody reads manuals, but everybody asks to create it šŸ˜„So, of course, we will. It’s a pity that we didn’t do it in time

@Cr0wnS Thanks. Yes, yes, we are working on a tutorial

@vlandemart Thanks. We are trying to fix the balance. Also we are going to think control out

@Kovakomes Thank you. Yes, we will fix the problems with overlaps. We will add health-bars as well. Stay in touch

skigfx 2018-12-14 16:33

@rohezal Oh, yes, tasks which are beyond our strength is our weak point. But we believe that we have succeeded. Even if not 100%. Thanks for your review

@GerardB Thanks. First we’re going to deal with this one

@FireBug Thanks for playing. We will definitely make the game simple and intelligible

@rhewid Haha, this is 100% true. We had to eat up our SFX designer, therefore, there is no sound in the game

@naali Yes, we are thinking about upgrades and additional mechanics

@kloscunha That’s simple – the less blood, the fewer regrets šŸ˜„

@daniel-abeleira Thanks pal

@wdebowicz Insane! How did you manage?

@hi-im-greg Hi Greg. Thank you. This is very nice to get reviews like this

@Rolle Thanks. Yes, yes, there will be instructions

@team-on Thanks. Yes, we will make a great effort to create a good game in the end

yyz 2018-12-14 16:59

From watching a few seconds of the video it initially looks like an amazing game with awesome graphics, but the in-game instructions and help wasn't very useful in helping me to understand the game. The lack of tooltips and explanatory text to what the buttons and structures only furthered my confusion. I kept trying to recruit more fighters, but only managed to recruit one and the next thing I knew, the attackers charged at my altar, killing everyone and I lost. No matter what I did I just kept getting slaughtered.

When I figured I could click on the rock to build structures, I had no idea what the 4 options are, or what they do, so it became more of a trial and error in figuring out what they did instead of building with intention and purposeful decision. Again, tooltips would've helped here, as well as description of what the different resources do when we hover over them as we have 4 resources to manage. I am spending gold but I don't know how to increase the +2 gold gain because I don't know which building or option lets me do that. It also wasn't very obvious initially that the rocks were clickable too as they seemed like part of the background.

The UI icons are also terribly small which not only hurts the readability of the icon, but also makes it harder to click on them. Combine that with the lack of visual feedback of when a button is clicked and it becomes hard to tell when I successfully pressed the button.

After a while, I unfortunately had to move on as I wasn't able to understand how to play the game. I understand that instructions are provided on the game description page, but not many players may be patient enough to read long text descriptions before playing and it is not easy to relate to instructions outside the game. For example, what is a Dark Church, what are sectarians, and nomads? Which ones are those? Which ones am I hiring when I click on the in-game button? The instructions use a lot of vague terminology that I don't get introduced to in the game. A better way to structure the help would be to have a page on the units, then a page on buildings for which you can show an icon of a building, a text to what it's called, and another short text to what it does. For example, *icon of Church* "Chuch, +2 gold/s" I guess? These are just my suggestions.

I had a friend outside of Ludum Dare also try this game and who also mentioned that the game looks like it had the potential to be a top game or at least be really fun but seems wasted by the bad UX. Nevertheless, it's a nice looking game and the dark atmosphere definitely shows in the art.

mavne 2018-12-14 21:12

@yyz

Your feedback full of smart advices and contains deep analysis of our game. This information is worth its weight in gold.

Thanks a lot.

rohezal 2018-12-15 22:51

How to create more villagers? Click on the black church, it generates a new villager to become a cultist for 25 gold. Needed more than 2 days to figure it out.

skigfx 2018-12-15 23:24

@rohezal yes, interfaces is our weakness for now, we will rework it in post-ludum version of the game. Thank you for your advice.

jusw85 2018-12-17 14:53

Great entry! I liked the pixel art, and the music really fits the mood. I really enjoyed the gameplay as well, and played a couple of times, but I think it's too hard for me, wasn't able to get past wave 20. As mentioned in the previous comments, some interface improvement could help e.g. cost and type of building, current building hp, etc. Also, I wasn't sure what each monster did, did they have any specialties e.g. maybe some monsters are stronger against some types of enemies. I can only assume that the more expensive monsters are stronger, but I wasn't sure by how much. I tried getting expensive monsters only, cheap monsters only, mix of both, but still always get destroyed at wave 15+ =(

zuzupd 2018-12-17 21:14

This is a really great game. You have read it many times here: a great atmosphere, nice graphics, simply just great.

My only complaint is that the possibility to build the house seems to be a little unintuitive, it took me two games before I realized how could I do it. But that may also be a problem in me. :smiley:

rohezal 2018-12-18 11:38

Last comment, your game is realy entertaining. I play it quite often, since I want to beat it. Is there a last wave? Came to wave 22 or 23 at most.

haharo 2018-12-18 21:09

Very nice concept, thanks for the submit, I really liked (it kinda looks like my entry but mine is smaller)

shieldgenerator7 2018-12-19 19:45

my guys didnt do anything and got utterly slaughered by the first wave of enemies. Nobody responded to any of my inputs. this game left me confused and dismayed

mavne 2018-12-19 20:13

@shieldgenerator7 Thanks for feedback. Which config (hardware + browser) do you use?

shieldgenerator7 2018-12-19 20:19

@mavne im using Windows 10 and was playing in Google Chrome

rohezal 2018-12-19 22:49

@mavne Trying to beat this game over a week. And you keep making it harder and harder. Please release an easy version. The current version is way to hard.

avi 2018-12-21 03:12

Hey! looks cool -- a tutorial would be very helpful!

unidaystudio 2018-12-22 01:16

I liked your art a lot and the sound really increased the mood. But I'd like to suggest you to add a small tutorial during the gameplay. I felt kinda lost trying to figure out how to play when I started. But great game!

honey 2018-12-22 19:29

Needs a restart button, I managed to summon a lot of powerful demons but then a run out of food (I didn't build anything) so it took a while until I lost the game... Very nice entry, well thought, looking good, nice sound and music, plays well! :)

rohezal 2018-12-23 22:57

@awix @praleks @mavne @skigfx Your game is too hard :sob:

Can you create an easy mode?

ethan-kennerly 2018-12-24 21:23

When I saw the cute pixel art in the tiny macabre village and heard the haunting melody, I felt spooked! If you continue to develop this, when I read the instructions, and then started, I forgot most of the instructions and didn't recognize which upgrade or unit was the one I needed to activated to survive the wave.

praleks 2018-12-25 01:56

@rohezal Not really sure why you wanna this. It's survival game for now, maybe in post ludum version will have modes and missions

mavne 2018-12-25 11:08

@rohezal Thanks for comment. What wave was your maximum?

rohezal 2018-12-25 23:03

@praleks @mavne It was wave 21 or 23. I realy like the game, I played it for sure more than 20 times (most likely more than 30 times). It is like a new version of a tower defense. I would love to decide which monster stands in the first line. Is there a last wave, so you win? I prefer games you can win. And that are not to hard (sorry I am a wimp). Please create a "normal" mode and make the current mode the hard mode.

ryjcio 2018-12-26 03:13

I'm not the type of player, who likes strategy games, but this one hooked me in for very long!

skigfx 2018-12-27 17:42

@rohezal we've decided to create a full version of a game and we are changing gameplay a bit. Therefore in the final version it will be easier to play and balance would be better, so we are sure it will suit any player

skigfx 2018-12-27 17:43

@ryjcio oh, thanks a lot, nice to hear that!

kettu 2018-12-28 15:02

The art and the music create a really good atmosphere! What this game probably needs (like others have pointed out, too) is a tutorial, but I kind of got the handle on it after a couple of massacres of my cultists. :) Maybe turn down the difficulty a notch in the first waves? Nice work! Hope you had fun making it!

rohezal 2019-01-03 10:06

@skigfx that is nice to hear. please tell me when it is ready to play :)