Waves Industrial

zappablamma 2020-10-05 20:18

Good bones to the game - there are many parts of this game that are well executed (like the way the minerals get pushed around by the conveyor belts, and placing different parts). The built-in tutorial was good to point out the controls, but I think it would have been improved if there was more direction given to it - for example, I wasn't sure what the different objects in the left pane did, and I couldn't get them to work properly - if these were given names or a basic demo was shown on screen (maybe a small working set up that the user could see?) that would have made it easier to figure out what to do. I ended up getting a bit confused and ended with a score of zero but I enjoyed it while I was playing. I also really liked the rain effect :)

wolfier 2020-10-05 20:27

@zappablamma I try to avoid making too in depth tutorials because they tend to annoy people (or at least me) and prefer a more show don't tell style. I'll see what modifications I can make.

The reason the left pane doesn't have names is because i was running out of room for text, otherwise i would of added it.

oliver-richmeier 2020-10-05 20:59

Very good core gameplay, I love games like Factorio so I had a lot of fun with this. I was able to figure out how all the structures worked by looking at the title screen, but I think there should have been a little more in-game to explain it, even just giving them names would make their uses more apparent. The theme wasn't very prominent either, but on its own, the gameplay is quite satisfying. Really enjoyed this one!

wolfier 2020-10-05 21:03

@oliver-richmeier Ya the theme kinda got sidelined by time, so none of my theme stuff really made it in.

rschoellgen 2020-10-06 08:36

Nice work, I love resource and crafting games.

At first I didn't know the control pop ups where tutorials. I thought they were apart of the map. Once I figured that out I was able to start building and collecting resources. I had to do some guesswork to figure out the machines. Great work putting this together.

tom-a 2020-10-07 06:39

Love the character, art style and the fact you got all this done in a few days. The sounds add a lot to the game too. And the strategy element is great. Very impressive work IMO!

blind-lemon-games 2020-10-07 06:51

ambitious and as a previous commentor said, good bones in here. the art style works. nice soundscape. great implementation of those convayers

alpharock6 2020-10-07 08:28

+1 to everyone talking about this having a really solid frame! Feels quite well done for a jam game, and like you have systems in place that are just waiting to be expanded upon :)

Having been spoiled by 500+ hours of Factorio, I found myself accidentally using hotkeys that were in my muscle memory, which definitely shows that I was getting immersed!

wolfier 2020-10-07 08:33

@alpharock6 That's the plan, I'll have to go over Factorio's hotkeys so I can implement them at some point in the future

desertmaw 2020-10-07 10:50

Just a little tip for the webpage, try to use less agressive colors for the background. Maby try something like this? Unbenannt.PNG

For the gameplay. I like how you implemented conveyor belts, make sure to hide this game from "Let's Game It Out" :D

Maby give more feedback to why you can't place items (like you need more of x ... )

oillen 2020-10-07 12:18

It's a factorio lite, all the most important things work quite well - your conveiors are fascinating like the 'original' ones.

alexey-erzyukov 2020-10-07 20:39

interesting idea, but I could not figure it out completely :(

seth-tal 2020-10-07 21:58

As others have stated, this is an incredibly solid foundation to build on. I ended up playing through the game multiple times! The only issues I have are related to first time user experience, and controls. * There were some UI bugs. For example, if I switched over to my resource inventory while having a machine selected to be placed, the preview sprite for the machine would layer on or bellow the resource I select. * There is no way to tell what a machine actually does without randomly experimenting and figuring things out. This is a bad way to start the game especially since the resources the player starts with are limited. I understand in depth tutorials take time, but at the bare minimum especially in a game like this you must explain what the machines do. Some make sense, like the quarry, but some are drawn too abstractly to easily discern what their function is without experimentation. This is like the most ideal example of a game that kind of requires a tutorial, even if its an annoying one. Showing what controls do is not a tutorial. * not sure if this was intended or not but if I have a resource selected to be placed down and I double click above a conveyor belt it will place the resource and delete the conveyer bellow it.

There were some other bugs but they were minor and didn't really impact my experience with the game at all. Also as a side note, upon reflecting on what I mentioned above about tutorials. I take back parts of it, as this game really isn't complex enough *yet* to need a dedicated tutorial. Instead what it needed was simply explanations. Neither your jam page, nor itch page provide an explanation of what each machine does which made experimentation a guessing game rather than a fun experience. Don't take my criticism too negatively though, I'd consider this one of the best jam entries I have played so far. I hope you rank very highly in the jam for innovation and fun. Fantastic work on this one!

wolfier 2020-10-07 22:02

@seth-tal @alexey-erzyukov Don't forget I have a post ludum dare version that (hopefully) explains what each machine does by giving them names. I will add what each machine does to my ludum dare page.

seth-tal 2020-10-07 22:15

@seth-tal Oh fantastic! I'll be sure to check that version out soon, and I'll leave some feedback for that as well

archock34 2020-10-08 01:34

Very good game I loved the idea, the smooth movement of the character and the idea in general, very good game!

lcstark 2020-10-08 09:34

Damn, I've just stopped playing Factorio after several hundred hours of addiction, and now you give me this? :(

In all seriousness, really well done for a short jam game. My only problem with it was that it was so similar to Factorio I've constantly found myself irritated because "R" doesn't rotate and "Q" doesn't cancel selection. This isn't really a serious issue, though, I'm sure if the game was expanded on and I'd play more of it, I'd get used to its control scheme.

I've also played the post-jam version. The folding left/right menu were a great addition. In the jam version I found myself stuck in the right-hand menu because I accidentally switched to it and didn't know how to get back. The post-jam version not only shows you the hotkey you need to press, but also displays a clearly visible switching animation instead of a slight glow you can miss when you don't know what you're doing.

x-pilot 2020-10-09 12:29

Reminded me of a nice version of factorio! Love it!

justcamh 2020-10-09 15:56

Hey, I played your game on stream! Here's the vod if you wanna rewatch; https://www.twitch.tv/videos/765076622

Thanks for submitting your game!

bajtix 2020-10-10 07:26

Great! It's like factorio but simplified. The graphic style is also pretty nice, I like it. I think that it is a lot nicer than the dirty one present in factorio. I'd love to see the full version of this game! Good job!

thevideogamester 2020-10-10 08:10

Love the way the rain looks. Big fan of the automation genre. Obviously limited by the nature of it being a Ludum title but its got good bones. Always interested in seeing this stuff get taken further post-jam.

budaniel 2020-10-10 21:43

This was a big surprise - I wasn't expecting a Factorio-like here. It took me quite a while to get a feel for what I was doing, but once I did I had a nice little operation going. My biggest criticism is making the two item selection menus independant. By that I mean, when I'm trying to place a conveyor belt, automatically de-select the coal or copper ore so I'm not accidentally placing both each time.

wolfier 2020-10-11 17:50

@budaniel I'm surprised I didn't think to do that when I was making this. Heck, I didn't even think to do that for my post ludum dare version.

arad-hamidsamiee 2020-10-17 17:11

This was so much fuuun. Loved the sprites, loved the mechanics, this can turn into a whole game. great job, I wasn't expecting the rain tho :thunder_cloud_rain:

likirus 2020-10-26 14:47

So why did Factorio need like 4 years to release their game when you can do half of the mechanics in 3 days? ^^ ;)