holden 2019-04-30 01:36
Really cool idea, sounds, and textures. There's a lot of cool number tweaking and whatnot going on, but things happen rather slowly, and it takes a little while for things to ramp up.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD44 → The Harvest
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 721 | 3.27 | 29 | |
| Fun | 906 | 2.85 | 29 | |
| Innovation | 472 | 3.21 | 28 | |
| Theme | 480 | 3.44 | 29 | |
| Graphics | 495 | 3.63 | 29 | |
| Audio | 450 | 3.18 | 27 | |
| Mood | 652 | 3.20 | 29 |
Really cool idea, sounds, and textures. There's a lot of cool number tweaking and whatnot going on, but things happen rather slowly, and it takes a little while for things to ramp up.
Really cool idea! I love the graphics and sounds (except for getting currency in the start, that kinda hurt my ears lol). The aesthetic is really cool, I love the retro feel, matches the gameplay very well. My only problem is it's unbearably slow, other than that it's really dope, just needs more speed!
The simple pixel style really works for this, and the sounds are really satisfying. I was confused at first, but it's fun once it gets going.
I really liked Eufloria so this game has potential, please add more stuff
I really like the style and some of the mechanics, but I wish there was a threat, like it would load me into a map against an AI and I would have to take over their land while defending mine.
it was a bit confusing but well made :)
had some trouble with the scrolling ... apart from that, I like the idea, I feel a bit of the FTL vibe in it
@torculus @holden Thanks for your comments! You both raise a valid point regarding the slowness. I think this version of the game ended up being a bit trapped in no mans land between too conflicting ideas. Originally I'd actually envisioned it as more of an idle clicker that you could drop in an out of, hence it was quite slow and chill. However it ended up that, particularly as time goes on, you really have to pay attention to it and nothing's automated which is obviously more like an RTS. Ultimately this kind of game needs a lot more testing and balancing than I was able to give it during the jam.
Thanks @wesleyronald, I quite like this idea so I may well develop it further. I've heard of but haven't actually played Eufloria so I'll be sure to check it out. Thanks for the tip!
@jacob-valore Yeah, I originally wanted to implement a very basic threat mechanism for the jam whereby high defence systems would send out their own ships to take over nearby systems. Alas it was one of the features scrapped due to lack of time. If I develop the game further there probably should be AI that can do everything you can. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Thanks @velvetlobster. Yeah, the scrolling is a bit janky, sorry about that. If you weren't already, my pro tip is to play the game fullscreen as it seems be slightly better that way.
Love the incredibly dark theme coupled with simple graphics. Really enjoyed the gameplay, although having systems attack back as you said would have made it even better. That's the nature of the jam though. Hope you take this further!
It fits pretty well the theme, I like the idea that every life is currency !
Super fun game that was very entertaining. The game seemed very simple when you load it up but it turned out to be a pretty complex! Loved the way it fit the theme too! :)
Nicely done, i just missed a bit of UX / UI improvement, like arrows on the corners to show that there's a map to explore, some music or ambience, improve the selection vfx (just oscilating the fadein and fadeout loop isn't enough) and maybe a drag and drop from the bottom menu over the solar systems would be faster and more precise and even faster by reducing the amount of clicks
I like the concept of the game as I'm quite a fan of such RTS style game but I think the difficulty of the game could be a bit higher which may help with the pace of the game! And ya just like others say above the scrolling of the screen have room for improving, may be binding the wasd key like AOC or other game with such features? I think it may be a easier way to tackle this problem. Anyway nice pixel art and audio!
Fun idea, really liked the audio and graphics, it was matched really good! It was easy to understand and entertaining to play, good job!
Interesting concept. I really like how you implemented the visuals to convey the general mood. Really well done, it has a very polished feel to it. After a little try and error, I found out how the game works, without looking at your descriptions (which I usally do, I think a game should be able to explain itself).
That said, I think the game runs a little too slowly. Sending Ships to a system takes a very long time, even the nearest Systems make the user wait longer than necessary without really improving the overall experience. Games like this often have a speed option where you can slow down or accelerate time. I think that would've been a very good addition.
Also, the level scrolling was a tad annoying. I think grabbing and moving the the level screen around would've worked much better. Or at least let me use the arrow keys to move the map around. But this is a minor issue.
All in all, interesting game! Keep up the good work!
@ivan-garcia-filho Thanks so much for your useful UI/UX suggestions - I'll definitely be taking them into consideration if I develop the game further. I really wanted to have some music/ambience in there and did start composing something with a couple of hours to go before the deadline - alas I never finished it.
@al19890604 Thanks! Yeah, the balance definitely isn't right in this version. Agreed that scrolling with keys would have worked much better - I got weirdly blinkered about doing cursor edge scrolling for some reason!
@duke Thanks for playing and for your detailed comment! Glad to hear you could work out how to play the game without reading the reference. I did originally intend to include an ability to change the speed of time but, again, it was a feature cut due to time constraints. I would definitely want to include this if I develop the game further. I agree that grabbing and moving would work much better for the scrolling (as a bonus this would also translate to touch screens) and I think I'd probably include scrolling with keys as an option too.
I think others have mentioned the issues that I had (Speed, UX) but I think something that would've been nice is some ambience of some sort and some form of camera indication for when events happened on the map. Perhaps a small flash to the top/left/right/bottom just to help us figure out where things were coming from.
This seems like an interesting game that, with a few more additions would begin to remind me of Sins of A Solar Empire!
The game is interesting, I like the minimalist side of graphics, the gameplay is a bit simple (and bit slow as many have pointed out), but deeper than I thought at the start, with more possibilities he could be really fun to play!
Now this is a unique concept! I always like seeing games outside of the usual game jam genres. :) Well done!
I will admit that it was suuuuuuper confusing at first. I had no idea what my objective was, or what I was capable of doing. It took quite a bit of trial and error to understand things, and even then experimenting was difficult because it took a veeerrrrrryyy long time for my actions to start showing any sort of results. After I harvested my first planet with accumulated biomass though, things made a lot more sense.
I like the style of this game, too. It's very simple and easy to parse. There's no fluff that would get in the way of seeing everything. Overall I think the minimalist aesthetic and sound choice were excellent for the kind of mood you were trying to convey.