adrien-dittrick 2020-04-22 09:41
Hey there, your link says HTML5 (web), could you maybe upload a browser version so I could play it? :)
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD46 → Replica Null
By toxoid49b
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 4.00 | 3 | ||
| Fun | 3.00 | 3 | ||
| Innovation | 3.50 | 3 | ||
| Theme | 3.50 | 3 | ||
| Graphics | 3.00 | 3 | ||
| Audio | 3.00 | 3 | ||
| Humor | 3.00 | 3 | ||
| Mood | 3.50 | 3 |
Hey there, your link says HTML5 (web), could you maybe upload a browser version so I could play it? :)
The web build of the game had some serious issues so I removed it. I thought I had updated the links but I guess not, sorry about that. Still trying to get Unity to build a working version for web but the older version of Unity I use is having a lot of problems.
I really enjoyed this game. the concept is innovative and simple. the tone feels dark and authentic. the physicality is understated but ties the whole experience together. reminds me of old crypticsea or wolfire games.
as you observed, the core loop needs the most work here to feel tight and challenging. however, after some thought, I feel like you would benefit more from going in a different direction: keeping the slower pace, and treating this like a farming/maintenance game--mostly slow growth and world exploration interrupted by short moments of tension and fear. the tone you have feels like something I would like to live in. great work!
since you made a point of noting this was your first jam game. will drop some TMI and unwanted advice. your scope was more or less OK. the closest jam game this reminds me of is that old mojang one--catacomb snatch (although I think they had a larger group). you executed well on what I perceive as the mechanical concept/visual tone and you should not be disappointed! in addition, you achieved style cohesion across your visual elements, which many jammers mess up. what is missing here is not more content or mechanics. try and avoid the trap that many jammers fall into of not sprinting towards a playable loop that feels good from day one. you see a lot of games here that look nice but ultimately feel unfinished because the love put into the actual start to finish player experience was rushed at the last minute. this trick works for audio as well: if you get placeholder assets in at the beginning, they will be a forcing function throughout the jam to make incremental improvements. if you don't, it's easier for you to push them off until the jam is over and you run out of time.
@acgaudette Thank you very much for the detailed feedback! Great to hear you found some enjoyment with the game. I agree with pretty much everything you said, although I think should clarify some of my statements more.
In terms of scope, I think the core idea I was aiming for was probably fine, however, I feel as though I overcomplicated the core design to the point where the scope was too large. For example, the game actually has the ability to generate maps procedurally using a tile system, however, I was unable to implement an algorithm to generate sensible road layouts, so a static generation algorithm was used. I also planned on adding multiple types of "enemies" as time progressed, but had to cut them due to time. The environment was also supposed to be more dynamic, for example, when the server load got high, the environment would begin to visibly degrade and become unstable. This was also cut due to time.
In terms of gameplay style, the original idea actually was to have things progress far slower, creating something more like a survival and exploration type experience. However, I felt that due to the lack of machines and enemy variety, the game would have been quite boring if things progressed slowly. Due to this, I made the difficulty ramp up much faster than I had initially planned.
I definitely agree on focusing on a solid, playable loop right at the start. I initially focused more on creating assets and boilerplate object interaction code than the gameplay mechanics, and I think the game suffered because of it. The final idea for the game actually manifested about halfway through the jam, hence the lack of polish on the core loop.
I have a lot of ideas on where I could take this game, and I do plan on addressing many of the issues in a post-jam version. Procedural worlds, more entities, more machines, multiplayer, a modding API, and more are all on the roadmap.
Thank you again for your feedback, it was very informative and certainly not unwanted :]