alexascher 2019-10-12 22:16
Great game with good idea and design, but it needs some fine tuning for easier start.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD45 → The Land of Milk and Honey
By skosnowich
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 775 | 3.21 | 32 | |
| Fun | 928 | 2.79 | 31 | |
| Innovation | 850 | 2.80 | 32 | |
| Theme | 809 | 2.96 | 32 | |
| Graphics | 865 | 2.93 | 33 | |
| Audio | 551 | 2.92 | 30 | |
| Humor | 402 | 3.03 | 30 | |
| Mood | 633 | 3.25 | 31 |
Great game with good idea and design, but it needs some fine tuning for easier start.
story seems fun, but once u are left off, there doesn't seem much to do... maybe add some quest to deliver some items, maybe add chances to get items or find some artifiact while traveling... traveling in the desert is challanging, but here the player can just go back and forth as much as they want. You could make it so that, you can't travel far without water, and water costs a little bit of money, so that the player is forced to stop travelling randomly and make strategical decisions. Really Fun game with lots of potential, Keep it up!!!
Wow! I love your art style! Those fonts add so much to the game :)
"Impressive game, Very cool concepts. I left wishing that there is more. Had a lot of fun "
Very fun liked the graphics
I really like the atmosphere that the game puts forth, especially as there's not a lot of middle-eastern themed games! Unfortunately, while all the rudiments are there for interesting trade, the game ends up not being so fun. Since there aren't any constraints imposed on your trading, the only real constraint you have is how much time you're willing to put into the game. The very slow scrolling, combined with the fact that half of the screen was always occupied, meant that it was very difficult to see what was in supply and what was in demand at any given place. This, combined with the fact that it was unknown how much I was able to sell even when an item was in demand, meant that it was a chore to play the game.
As I said, I really dig the aesthetic of the game. I hope you continue polishing this up!
Nice game!
I always liked trading games, so I might be biased, but it was fun nonetheless. The rival camels, as well as the dynamic economy were really nice touches (especially the fact that some resources were required so some villages could make other ones).
However, I think that the "balance" could be reworked. The rival merchants were too powerful, they came faster then ninjas and destroyed too many deals I was trying to make. The rivals are also too active, making trades in all directions. So during most of the game, there was only one or two villages with "demands", all the others wanted nothing and were just selling products. Usually the rare village willing to buy something was on the other side of the map, so if you try to go there another merchant will more likely reach the place before you. Most of those deals are also for only one or two items, so not a big reward.
The best strategy is actually to be patient: stay at a village that consumes a resource, and wait there, selling little by little... (until a horde of camels runs through and forces you to move...) And unfortunately, that's not really in the buy/travel/sell mood, but more a patience game.
Also, why don't anyone want to buy my awesomely beautiful definitely-not-overpriced Fine Cloth?
Anyway, the Arabic atmosphere was great and refreshing, and the concept is there and ready to be expanded: great entry!
@adam-saudagar & @chaosed0 & @swynfel Thank you for your detailed feedback.
I invested the first two days to develop the production of the goods and the market system, thus leaving me with very little time to develop the real gameplay. From this stems the problem with the missing balance in the game, making the other merchants too strong. Also, with more time to balance the game, the demand and supply in the different cities would've been better, I hope. The idea was to implement threats, like bandits and desert storms, into the game, to make the travelling itself more challenging.
Should have gone for a simpler "simulation" in the background of the game and focus more on the gameplay itself. :smile:
I'm glad, you enjoyed the Arabic/middle-eastern setting of the game.
@adam-saudagar Making the introduction was very fun and I then thought quests and stuff like that would be nice as well. Maybe next time, I am going for a story-driven game.
@swynfel There are not many people in the desert who can pay for these soft and nice Fine Cloth. Farish village and Great Oasis were actually the only places consuming the Fine Cloth. But the consumption rate was so low, that the ninja camels were probably faster most of the time.
Again, thanks for the feedback y'all.
Very clever design here with a super personal feeling.
Interesting game with fun economy. I like it, great business ))
Awesome concept, incredible execution. It had cute art and intuitive controls. Awesome job!
A really cool idea, I enjoyed it quite a bit!
Good game and rather simple to take in hand. I also like the little pixel art side of old games. It feels like being on Atari
I'd love to check it out, but I won't install a JDK or JRE or whatever it's called these days just to run a game. Please consider building executable releases that bundle their requirements next time.
Really nice how the tutorial guides you through everything! But sometimes I was confused, because I think I did things the tutorial didn't expect me to do yet (maybe because I hadn't pressed "continue" at some point). Maybe forcing the player to act "in sync" with the tutorial in the beginning would help.
Travelling between places felt quite slow, but otherwise, I think you nailed the UI! Having a moveable, zoomable map is nice, and seeing supply and demand when hovering is very convenient.
Overall, great little game! Simple to understand, yet fun and kept me interested for quite some time. Awesome job!
Unfortunately couldnt launch the game, some kind of Java Exception!
@anion-z Can you maybe tell me the details of the exception message? Next time, I definitely have to also include a release with a bundled JRE, so people with less knowledge of Java or without Java can play the game as well, as @lumos already told.
@skosnowich "A JNI error has occured, please check your installation and try again" Then "A Java exception has occured" :(
@anion-z Thank you very much. That's probably because of a wrong Java version or by starting the jar wrongly. Absolutely my fault. Sadly, I don't have enough time to release another version with bundled JRE before the deadline, but thanks for trying and giving me feedback. :)