FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD44 → Lifestock

Lifestock

By esben-jensen

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4502.8123
Fun4622.4723
Innovation1463.3823
Theme2923.2123
Graphics4792.2323
Audio3831.8522
Humor3722.0422
Mood4452.4022

Comments

sodaro 2019-04-29 10:11

I like the visuals and the theme interpretation of "Lifestock"! One complaint is that I didn't know how to score points, I lost and gained points without really knowing why! Anyways, it was a neat game!

leary93 2019-04-29 10:40

It's missing a couplet of things like menu, small tutorial (though it becomes clear quite fast) and some more audio, but besides that it's a cute small adaptation on the Game of Life and could keep you busy quite a while

kuviman 2019-04-29 13:17

Game of Life? Cool I guess, bit it's really hard to figure out what you need to do to increase your profit.

memel06 2019-04-29 14:14

I was really confused at the start, there was no clue to what to do to play

after a bit I got it by myself and the concept under is really nice!

With a better positioning of UI, some graphic love and a bit of clearness it can be the perfect game to play in dead times, very mobile friendly too.

badram 2019-04-29 23:43

cool puzle game, I got a score of 1668. the first time I sold, my volume was up and the beeps were quite startling. very smart interpretation of the theme.

deglis 2019-04-29 23:45

I love this one. An interactive/farming version of Conway's Game of Life is such an awesome idea. I was confused at first, but once I got it, the game was fascinating. The only thing I think the game needs is some sort of win state. The game just sorta goes on and on, and it's very difficult to lose unless it's on purpose or you don't know what you're doing. Maybe 'get 100 profit' or 'maintain this amount of life' or something.

cogcomp 2019-05-03 18:19

Imaginative idea to make a game (with a plot!) out of Conway's game of life. Takes a while to figure out the system :-)

cristihkj 2019-05-16 15:41

The game is nice and has potential! Good job! :)

jk5000 2019-05-16 18:23

I am really sorry, but I do not understand this game, and I have tried to read the instructions.

esben-jensen 2019-05-17 10:20

@jk5000 don't be sorry. You're right it is rather confusing. It is one of those things that I myself think would need a lot of work, if I had more time. If I should review my own game I would probably describe it as an interesting idea, but with a rather messy and confusing implementation. Thanks for all the kind feedback you all have given me, I will definately try LD again next time. :-)

philarmon 2019-05-17 18:36

I was thinking about a similar game for the "mutation" theme. Nice one!

corqi 2019-05-17 18:40

Fun little game! But there's one rule to remember: never buy predators :D. Pred.png

esben-jensen 2019-05-17 19:21

@corqi lol yeah, they never really got balanced :D

michaelsonbritt 2019-05-19 15:23

Hey, our game is also about Conway's Game of Life!! It's called The Tree of Bounty. And testers say it's just as unpredictable, hehe. I really like the idea of cellular automata for this year's theme, but achieving a sense of balance, fun, and intuition is pretty tough. Interesting angle with the predators. Maybe the game could be about trying to outsmart them and buying cells? Is there a way to buy cells in this game, or only to sell them?

esben-jensen 2019-05-20 06:56

@michaelsonbritt you can only sell. Since GoL tends to have negative growth over time, the player can keep the colony growing by selling of some strategically. It's really hard to balance though and the idea with the predators proved to be too hard to balance. My idea was that since they eat the other cells, but are worth a lot more, there could be an interesting tradeof keeping a few of them. But as you can see in the screenshot above they grow too fast.

As you mention it's really hard keeping a good balance. Avoiding cells growing exponentially or dying out completely is hard.

I'll check out your game for sure. :)