Tecta

edmar-filho 2021-04-28 04:32

This is such an interesting entry, I'm glad I tried it. Please put a screenshot and a short description in here so more people give it a try.

I can definetely see this was trying to accomplish way too much for the scope of the 3 day jam, and it shows in the lack of instructions or clarity on how the mechanics work, but you got me curious so I tried to figure it out and the more I discovered the more surprised I was. You have a civ-style game, with what could be considered as a "card draw" mechanic with a hand of buildings each turn, then those building have to fit next to each other like a puzzle game, cities get influenced and convert to different factions, and they even have randomized little names and all? In a game jam? As I'm writing this I'm still amazed. This was like trying to solve a mystery, and the more I find the deeper it gets. Wait, what?

The metrics as I write this are all 0's but I'm really hoping this is not an abandoned project, game jams are not only for flashy cool polished games, they're also for the crazy stuff, this was a really fun entry to try with very interesting ideas.

bamallama 2021-04-28 14:52

This is such a neat idea, definitely agree with the comments above that you need screenshots and a description. I also agree with the idea that this seems like it was a lot to tackle in the 3-day jam.

I felt fairly lost at the start of the game, as I played it became a touch more clear, but I still don't feel like I entirely understand how buildings are supposed to be placed. I honestly think this could be fixed with a more interactive tutorial.

My only other complaint is that the UI is reeeeally small on my Macbook Pro, I had to squint to read everything.

techsec 2021-04-29 22:45

@edmar-filho wow that some real nice appraisal. Sorry we were all so busy after the weekend (and tired) so we didn't have much time to check. We thought we put a description but guess not XD. I think we are going to review games now

@bamallama Yah for sure we need an interactive tutorial or something just issues with timing and all that. Going forward we will had it for sure.

Thanks both of you guys!

mattincho 2021-04-30 00:36

Very interesting concept. The screenshots help, but also... people is lazzy some times, so would be awesome that you could add a WebGL export (If you do it, include it, don't forget to write it down on your changelog).

Keep it up! Great work!

sirred 2021-04-30 00:52

I think just a simple edit of the page to clearly show the controls of the game would be useful as they are only stated in the long paragraph that is giving more of a background of what the game is. Parts that seemed a little unclear were how the buildings connected initially, but I figured it out as I went along and had a good time trying to figure out how to build to the next resource to take advantage of. Good job.

plepletier 2021-04-30 01:54

I really dont understand how the game works. tried twice but found it difficult to understand.

silkypantsdan 2021-04-30 01:55

Very interesting idea, though it was a bit difficult to control and seems to be very dependent on luck? (Though maybe I missed something somewhere)

It seemed when ever I hovered over the top or bottom building blocks the game would scroll, which was a bit disorienting. It would also be a good addition to add a quit button - either as a menu option or hitting escape

I'm really interested to see where you were going with this idea, and I hope you continue to work on it and flesh out a demo a bit more!

cal 2021-04-30 15:44

Very interesting mechanic and the story set a good mood for the game. I've not seen an entry like this so well done :)

dom-de-re 2021-05-01 09:07

Nice to see an entry in this genre, and the mood is built up really well, good work!

kripakov 2021-05-01 16:24

Cool entry! Meditative music, very relaxing game =) Maybe there is a little lack of animations or some kind of visual response to your actions, you don't immediately understand what exactly your actions affect. Beautiful art =)

studio-gomp 2021-05-01 18:22

I like the music and the concept a lot! But, I would have liked it a ton better if getting food didn't seem to depend entirely on luck. I died a few times to lack of food and I didn't really feel like there was something I could've done. Maybe I was just being stupid.

phil-lesnar 2021-05-01 18:45

Very Zen game. I enjoyed the puzzle aspects and appreciated the flavor text put into everything.

boxedmeatrevolution 2021-05-01 23:02

I think was one of my favourite concepts for a game I've seen yet. I think there were a few things that made it hard to figure out though. It wasn't obvious to me until my 3rd playthrough how happiness was working. I would just observe my happiness jumping up and down seemingly at random. Tied to this, I didn't realize that the colour shading on the buildings meant anything. I think having more noticeable animations related to this would help a lot.

Also, eventually I was able to just take all the food on the map, and then I slowly starved to death. It would be nice if you could just expand endlessly deeper.

The little lore details you put onto everything were really cool. I liked being able to click on the buildings and see a little history.

dobrila 2021-05-03 16:56

very interesting idea with cool mechanics, loved the mood ! it was very relaxing to play ! great job !

timon 2021-05-03 17:23

Lost myself playing this for quite a long time! The music is lovely and it was fun trying to figure out a good way to grab all the resource bonuses :D

tarfield 2021-05-03 20:42

Once I realized how the connections were formed, it made a lot more sense. I think you gain resources when placing the right buildings next to the resources? It was a bit unclear what things did, for instance what the "Lore"-resource did.

Pros: - Cool gameplay idea - Huge scope to tackle for a jam - Very nice soundtrack

Cons: - Hard to understand how to play the game without trial and error - Graphics didn't match what things did - it was hard to distinguish the different buildings and the sea turtle being science research threw me off before I realized that's what it was.

The overall gameplay and the mood/soundtrack were the best components of this game for me!

virtualvoid 2021-05-03 20:43

Music is absoloutely lovely, but I found it hard to fully grasp the game mechanics with the different variables without much visual explanation (lore, religion, science). When I lost I didn't quite realize what I could've done differently to have survived

magna 2021-05-04 05:51

A relaxing experience, as some people said it would be better if you put more screenshots of the game so more people can play it

waltsontanaka 2021-05-07 14:19

Cool idea! Pretty much a tabletop board game, but with a lot of automation to account for all variables, which is nice. I believe it would benefit greatly for a more in-depth look at the rules, and even a tutorial, so we could learn more about the rules with examples and how each type of building interacts in the game. Also, on the top left, the factions names could be colored as they will be present on the board, so we can identify a little better how they are distributed on the board. I like the idea of different arts for the residential area, could be applied to other buildings, but (and this is a personal preference) I would for for a cleaner art style. The music is nice, but I don't think it's very fitting for the game, for the setting I would think something a little more "futuristic". The sound effects could have a some variety (perhaps depending on the kind of building), and use a little more of working (and maybe also some ambience). Overall a very interesting project!