Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD50 → Defending Hope
By steve-dragon, Vansh, Xingzhe Li and Spectralist
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1186 | 3.08 | 38 | |
| Fun | 1067 | 3.00 | 39 | |
| Innovation | 738 | 3.26 | 38 | |
| Theme | 969 | 3.40 | 38 | |
| Graphics | 1270 | 2.12 | 39 | |
| Humor | 1007 | 2.37 | 35 | |
| Mood | 1073 | 3.10 | 36 |
Nice little simulation game. There really isn't too much to do once the game begins, but it's entertaining enough watching how your placements affect the outcome of the sim. Nice creepy audio jam and some decent gunfire sfx. Graphics are simple but get the job done.
Hey, thanks for sharing! I'm playing your game now on stream. See timecode 29:00 https://youtu.be/euv3GH5eSOo
I like the strategy and the interesting take on the theme
This game was pretty cool! I liked the story and the different teams, and it was fun to see how the sim would play out once you put down the soldiers. I think one thing you could've added was something a bit more interactive once the round started but overall nice concept!
@3bt Thank you!
@t4lhorizon Thank you so much for playing! Allowing more interactivity was definitely something we considered, but we ran out of time before we could properly implement something like that. Something to consider for post-jam versions for sure. Appreciate the feedback!
I can say I was engaged well enough to play several times trying to win! Would be nice (and a cool add on) to get some stats on each of the troops beforehand as it seemed to me they were different
I love the core idea of this game, I'm getting some serious Newgrounds, early 2000s flash games vibes from this. I really liked the worldbuilding as well. I would like to hopefully see this developed into a full title, maybe combine some additional elements like waves, towers, etc. My only critique is that the squadron people did not have their own colors once on the map, so I couldn't tell who was who after ten seconds. (aside from Gold, Gold Team Rules!)
Respects were paid to those who fell protecting Hope. F.
@fromage Glad you enjoyed it! We put the stats on a little info button below each troop when you load into the game, but it's something we've realised people tend to miss. Alas, we didn't do enough playtesting with the granular stuff. Something to work in as an update later maybe.
Thank you for checking it out!
Fun sim to watch! The gun sounds caught me off guard, with how intense they were! It was great. F
@zack-hd Thank you so much!
So happy you enjoyed the worldbuilding. Waves and towers sound perfect for a post-jam version, and the squadrons having their own colours is one of those things that was missed during testing but feels so obvious in hindsight.
I'm definitely a Golden Warrior stan.
F to all those who died as you pusued victory.
@raphiell The gun does get very loud, hopefully it added to the crunch once the surprise wore off. Thank you for playing! F
Grate simulation game. Concept of this work well. Was a bit hard to understand who ware the good guys and the bad guys at first. But after a few tries, setting up the units and see if the preform their best? Pretty cool ! Sound was not that balanced and could have received some more love. :) Thumbs up!
nice litte Zombie Game. I like the Idea that there spwan civilians too.
@jonas-l More clarity in the tutorial and how-to-play sections is something that we really wish we had the time to implement, it seems to be a recurring issue that it's a bit tough to get the hang of things. The first thing we'll fix if there's a post-jam version.
Also, the gunshots are definitely a little too loud in hindsight.
Thanks for giving it a try!
@singular Thank you for playing!
Thank you for creating a strategy game, it is quite uncommon genre for a jam
@stupidhobbit Yes! Strategy is so underrepresented (potentially because how monstrous it is to balance). Hope you enjoyed it
A little note on placing the units before pushing start would help a bit on the confusing part, they are sort of greyed out making me think it was under an overlay or disabled. Anyways, once I did that it was interesting to see what you made here. Love the strategy side of it. Could easily melt some time into this!
Funny little zombie strategy! 40 civilians died but luckily they had me as a commander, so no more casulties.
> "Press F to pay your respects" lol
Cool idea for having different types of unit AI that get deployed and its up to you to determine the preferred placement to maximize the output of each group!
Very nice little Strategy game. only real thing bad I can say is the Graphics Great Game Overall
Good Idea ! But why don't had possibility to move soldier or interact ?
At first I placed stuff randomly which led to everyone dying. I didn't think it would be possible to win until I won by chance with some very weird placements.
Once I knew it was possible to win I started trying to understand the parameters of the troups and challenged myself to create a strategy that worked every time.
I didn't manage to find one, but this one worked quite well. Screenshot from 2022-04-06 01-20-35.png
It feels like most is still up to randomness, but the gameplay is surprisingly immersive as you sit back and watch all your troups die one after the other because of you. (Randomness fits the story, but strips the player of control)
The playing field seems like it represents the information that is reported to you rather than your view on the scene, which is an interesting change of perspective and fits the story quite well. It only displays the necessary information and is thereby perfect imo.
It would have been nice to be able to distinguish the different groups from one another after the zombies have arrived. (I kept forgetting which troups I placed where since red and gray look the same once started.)
Overall this is a pretty nice entry. I didn't expect to be playing it for as long as I did, but I really enjoyed my time with it.
Everyone died almost instantly, but it was inevitable anyway, so that's okay. Cool stuff!
@cover-club-media Thank you for playing! More clarity in getting the controls across is definitely something we've realised we needed, hopefully it wasn't too much of a barrier to getting into it.
@mibehu Haha, glad you enjoyed it!
@vorpalsnark Yep. Strategy sim games are so cool, and we wanted to capture that feeling of having to optimise your placements and use trial and error to get to something that works. F to all the failed attempts.
@ashley-watson Thank you for checking it out! We considered more realistic graphics, but we settled on trying to make it more radar mil-sim style graphics. The execution definitely leaves something to be desired.
@theludovyc Definitely something we considered, but implementing and balancing it was proving a little difficult given the time constraints of the jam. If there's ever a post-jam version, one of the items on the wishlist is interactable elements while the simulation is going on.
@reispfannenfresser Thank you for the long analysis! The set-up you use is actually very similar to the one that one of the Technical Developers favours, actually. There's definitely some randomness, which we hoped would fit into the theme, and you're right I think in that no strategy wins 100% of the time, but some tend to do better than others. I'm so glad it could still feel immersive to watch. Hope you enjoyed it!
@agrimes F. Thanks for playing!
Nice game! I like the strategy with placing down the different units to prevent the zombies from getting through.
Well, i didn't read the info of the units first and I died like 4 times, but I kept trying until finally I saw the "read info". Then all made sense and I could beat the zombies.
Cool idea, well executed and fun to watch the outcome of the battle. It feels like your decisions affect the battle deeply, and that what a simulation game should do.
I could not find any criticism besides the text, was too small for me.
I pressed F :(
Nice watching the dots, move, but would have been cool to a little more input during play. Maybe having a single playable character that can add to the fray.
Love the music! Surprised you didn't opt into the Audio category.
@thegamerasd Thank you for trying it out!
@re-lo Glad you enjoyed it! The text and UI definitely needed some more love, but hopefully it wasn't too much of a hindrance. Thank you, officer, for pressing F.
@unmagical That's an interesting idea actually. Not something that initially came up, but I can imagine playing that off as the officer being on the ground and fighting alongside his troops. Really cool.
@hekateras Thank you so much! Alas we really wanted to keep the gunshots because we thought it added to making the experience feel more comprehensive. Since they were from Freesound, we didn't feel comfortable opting in. So happy that you enjoyed it!
Oh, old good zombie invasion!
nice game, could do with a settings menu that has volume settings, also some visuals showing the units shooting the zombies, and a way to speed up time so you dont have to just sit and watch would be nice.
It reminds me of one level of Commandos series where you could place your soldiers with autofire to survive the wave of enemy. I'm happy to see this games of such genre on Ludum Dare! You could think of increasing the font as on some resolutions it looks very small (I manage it with increasing size in browser). Good work.