Tank Knight: LD48 Tactics

jonathan-turner 2021-04-27 00:56

Hi Kyle,

Thanks for participating in the jam!

I played through a few boards and while there were a few issues, mechanically this seems like a nice base to a tactics setup. You have turn based, tile based movement setup, units with different abilities and stats, win conditions for boards etc.

These kinds of games can be tough for jams compared to smaller arcade style games because you often have to invest time in systems work layered upon systems work for the complexity and richness to shine through.

There were a few things I was surprised by that I didn't expect, for example you can move on the same tile as an enemy and also that the attack ablility is an AOE for adjacent tiles. I was able to use these two facts to kill quite a few rats.

Re: the theme I assume that the intention is that were going deeper and deeper into this castle? I am not quite sure if I picked this up correctly. I think I was in a sewer at some point, and then by some water, and then maybe some lava? I am not sure.

Lastly, after getting so many abilities the UI starts to trail off the screen, so something to look at there.

Nice job, looks like it must have been a ton of work especially solo!

clericshields 2021-04-27 01:00

that was fun, i enjoyed it. A nice base top build off of.

kylethecoder 2021-04-27 02:03

@jonathan-turner - you got it, re: the theme. Going deeper into the castle is the idea. I never got to the point where I had enough abilities that they ran off the screen. :smile: You're spot on about the complexity - but I thought I could handle it. It's sort of my style of game, though I've never implemented something so tactics before (I do top-down almost exclusively). And yes, SuperNova might actually be the strongest ability.

@clericshields - thanks! Now that I have some time to spend on graphics, I may do just that (build on top of it).

ceejap 2021-04-27 02:25

Nice turn based game! I like the change of scenery all the time, it keeps every level nice and fresh. The upgrades are also a great addition that gets you to keep playing. The controls take a little bit of getting used to, but overall this is a really enjoyable game. Great work!

the-fazzo 2021-04-27 02:28

Its a goog idea. the only problem is that the enemy stops moving after a few rounds. But really enjoyable!

teenythanos 2021-04-27 02:29

I really wanted to play this game more with the audio, but some of the mixing was piercing on your WebGL. I played some without it and had a lot of fun!! I think a little polish on the music could go a long way.

t-c 2021-04-27 02:30

Most things encountered someone already mentioned issues with, so I won't repeat. But I really like the all-button, one unit tactics idea. Was quite fun!

sugarsugarsugar 2021-04-27 02:35

Nice job with this game! Glad there's a fun turn based game here!

thewhiterice 2021-04-27 02:36

It was fun. I loved how it changed scenery, and the enemies. Although, I wish I had somesort of introduction, to every new ability I got.

thecommonthug 2021-04-27 02:36

Spicy ass soundtrack my dude. 5/5 audio.

natethegreat 2021-04-27 02:38

Fun little tactical turn based game! It got a bit slow to wait for all of the enemies to move individually some times when there were a ton but overall I enjoyed it!

nuclearchair 2021-04-27 02:38

I love tactics games and while simple, this one feels like it could be good with a little effort.

aditya-kumar 2021-04-27 02:38

Great to see another turn-based tactics/dungeon crawler this jam! We had similar ideas, great minds think alike! I really like the interface of having buttons on the bottom that indicate what you can do and when everything recharges. It makes it really easy to understand my options. One thing we encountered while playtesting our game is you have to give players a lot of information if you want them to be able to strategize. but as I played through a level I got a feel for how enemies move. I'm still not sure what some of my abilities did though... Overall I loved the base idea though, it's a lot lighter and faster paced than what we ended up with and I think that works in your favor

ohmikron 2021-04-27 02:40

A great little game with lots of really intricate parts. The upgrades were impressive! A little difficult to tell when it was my "turn" as some enemies would only move once every couple of turns for me and others would move after each move.

yetrecalllaw 2021-04-27 02:53

A nice tactical game. There are a surprising number of abilities you can pick up as you go -- a few too many it turns out. I had to quit the game because I got too many abilities and couldn't end my turn :(. A strong start to be sure. I can imagine adding in light RPG elements and having different builds. I enjoyed using ice storm and then sprinting into a group of frozen enemies. Some more mobility options would be perfect.

joshuc 2021-04-27 12:33

I like the tactics game, you managed to get a lot of the mechanics down which was very impressive in this tough time frame. I feel like lots of other comments has covered most of the feedback, but there's one thing that I didn't see mentioned, which was that enemies could step on the same tile. I thought that this was a little confusing, because sometimes you could end up with just a stack of enemies, which removes some of the tactics of "who should I attack first" etc. Other than this, a nice little game!