FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD50 → Post Solis

Post Solis

By nikolay-zapolnov, evgeniya-zapolnova, n1k-o, Bhaa_Su, cloudinksk, ksimaster and Tim_Melnikov

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1753.9654
Fun4253.6154
Innovation2063.8055
Theme6223.7155
Graphics3724.0257
Audio2813.7654
Humor7892.7747
Mood3823.7754

Comments

drewg8 2022-04-05 14:44

There's a ton going on in this game and a lot of content too. The art and the gameplay are really well done and interesting. The game itself is pretty difficult to get the hang of and very punishing though. I think the sunlight mechanic is really cool, but the destruction of buildings makes it really hard. Maybe having a sunbeam that rotated around the map and buildings that could only be active when the beam was on them would be more forgiving? I was also impressed by how much writing was in the game. Good job to all!

angrybeard 2022-04-06 09:37

Massive amount of features for the little time and polished graphics!

monikadu 2022-04-06 10:06

Nice mechanics, nice arts, lot of content as for jam game. Enjoied playing

anaxie-studio 2022-04-06 12:35

Game looks neat! I appreciate the nice guides, although it was a lot to read. I like the variety of things you can find and the little notes. It felt like there were plenty of things to do and manage. The graphics are nice, although the trees seem a little small in comparison to everything else, Speed options are nice too. You guys got a lot done in little time, good job!

bastienre4 2022-04-06 14:06

Insane amount of content for a jam. Good entry. Congrats to the team.

clemonades 2022-04-06 14:12

Congrats to everyone involved. This was a lot to pull off in such a short amount of time. Tons of polish and addicting gameplay, great job! :D

yamzho 2022-04-06 14:18

That is a loooooooooot of work there ! Well done to the whole team, the game is really cool !

benjamin-halko 2022-04-06 17:43

Cool Graphics!

wilko 2022-04-06 17:54

As others have said there's so much here and the journal and help is really appreciated, great game. I had one issue where when I tried to speed up the game my framerate dropped to a slideshow which hindered by ability to progress quickly.

emaigualmc2-art 2022-04-06 18:09

I really liked the 3d graphics and the design of ships and buildings, it seems to me a very complete and fun game. The UI is very well done, very intuitive, the only thing that seemed strange to me or at least that would take time to get used to is the curvature of the world, when it moves around the map it makes me dizzy a little xD. Anyway, it's an incredible entry, congratulations!!

lukein 2022-04-06 18:33

This game is a gem, but omg the constant clicking to pass through menus and stuff only to build a tower needed to, again, click and click and click, only to scout or collect... Guess what, before you know it you'll need not one, but two more tower to go and collect again. How many menus do you think you'll have to get through?

The UI may have been a little overwhelming, or "in your face", with so much options layed down, but on the other hand the game could even not be needing a help menu if the tooltips were accessible/readable on screen at all time with a simple mouse over. I mean, people are dumb, but not *that* dumb. The need of the help menu only exists here because of the inconvenience of the information, not its complexity.

While you rather did that for menus, you didn't for ressources. Did it really need eight different ressources from the get go ? Really?

I don't know why I'm so salty about it. But what the hell, so much frustration with this one.

nikolay-zapolnov 2022-04-06 18:49

@Wilko Thanks for the comment! Was it a Windows or WebGL build? I have noticed that WebGL has some performance problems, we will try to fix it in the post-jam version.

@emaigualmc2-art Sorry for the dizziness. Cylindrical world also caused a lot of trouble when I was writing the drone movement code.

nikolay-zapolnov 2022-04-06 19:08

@lukein Thanks for the comment! We didn't plan UI in advance and it is the result of "the flow", we just a bit polished it before submitting. And when you have copywriter on the team, you get a lot of texts :)

The resources were calculated in Excel on day one based on brainstorm, and we didn't have time to recalculate the balance. Actually in the current build some resources are not used by the factories because of a bug. We will prepare post-jam version with fixed economics.

I really appreciate your comment! We will work on the balance and think more on the UI, and try to improve it.

furano 2022-04-06 19:08

I'm really impressed by what you achieved in such a short time ! However it might be beneficial to add a little bit more feedbacks to spice things up a bit.

okamit 2022-04-06 21:58

A LOT of content, a bit hard to get the hang of at first, but it is that type of game as well!

I need to get back to it later and play it more, with more time to spare, but congrats to the team.

Great work!

henrik-ganard 2022-04-07 08:10

WOW. To make this in souch a short time is nothing but impressive. This kind of deep gameplay does not really work well for me during the testing phase beacuse it takes to long to read up on and the play, but I have saved the link and will give it a deeper dive after LD-ratings is over. I played long enough to get the picture and as I said in the beginning. I am really impreseed with this game. Nicly done.

glitchman 2022-04-07 09:35

Your team has put an enormous amount of work into this game! Well done! :stars:

The only thing I want to blame is the absence of FTUE (first-time user experience). I had to put in a lot of effort to understand how to play your game.

nikolay-zapolnov 2022-04-07 09:38

@glitchman Indeed, we didn't have time to create a tutorial. So we put some kind of help/manual into the game. I understand it's not the best solution, but hopefully it helps :)

castoor 2022-04-07 11:12

Huge content for a Jam game ! If i can suggest some things for the development part, you told about cylindrical world but you can solve this really easly with shader. Make the world like a plane and forget cylindric space but in shader make a small deformation at the edge of the camera and the trick is done ! Shader like subway runner will do it well. ;) I love strategic games, i'm a big stracraft player. I think if you had some shortcut to construct structures and access to the menu that will improve the user experience (i love to optimize my control ;) ). Big GG to all of the crew for this awesome strategic survival game ! :D

mantsje 2022-04-07 19:10

How, HOW!? How did you build this in such a short time. It is so extensive and a fresh take on base building where you have to demolish your own base all the time. just, wow

roboolet 2022-04-08 21:19

Incredible game. I don't have any big critiques besides the graphics being a little subpar, but i do have a couple little issues that require some attention

- Whenever i can't access a resource node (lack of batteries, collector drones, etc) having to constantly unclick and click on the resource node again get the UI to update was a little annoying - Show what resources you still need to craft certain buildings. Whenever i couldn't build something i had to look at every resource to figure which was the one i needed - When scanning ruins you would get a fullscreen popup of what was found, but this interrupted my playing pretty often. Maybe something like the notifications in Rome: Total War? - After quite a bit of playing i accidentally destroyed my only remaining drone hangar, softlocking me.

I like the core gameplay a lot, and would absolutely pay for a more fleshed out release. I'm looking forward to it if that ever happens :smile:

alex-mulkerrin 2022-04-09 14:14

This is a super cool game concept and impressively executed for just a game jam :D I appreciated the in depth tutorial text about everything in the game and the care that went into making a fully featured interface. The concept is great and the building things with drones from a massive mothership put me in mind of the Frames from the Perimeter rts games.

Impressed that you are already working on postjam improvements and looking forward to seeing what this idea might become!

milq 2022-04-09 14:35

What a great game and what a great team you have made! Perhaps at the beginning with so many instructions I got a bit confused, perhaps I would like a tutorial or something more guided. But considering that it is a Jam, it is normal. Seriously, awesome game!

udo 2022-04-09 23:48

Wow what a massive game! Nice job, especially on the artwork and the music! Gameplay-wise it's a bit daunting at first. It's good that the game has documentation, but I really think these text should have been included where they're needed (for example, on the construct-a-building screen, explain what each building is for right there when you click on it. Issuing direct orders for resource collection feels a bit like busywork at times, would there be a downside to drones just doing these on auto?

It's a very ambitious design, good job to everyone involved!

666savior 2022-04-10 00:05

Solid entry, pretty polished. Wasn't entirely sure what i was setting out to do, and couldn't seem to find any blueprints despite searching nearly every ruin. I also wish i had a better indication for why i could not build a structure in a certain location. Was also not aware i could click rocks and forests until pretty far in my playthrough. Good job overall.

nikolay-zapolnov 2022-04-10 00:18

@udo @666Savior Thanks for a feedback! Everything has been noted :)

Indeed we want to implement "collect all" button. And we definitely need a tutorial, we'll look into it.

oadt 2022-04-10 07:54

That is extremly much content! There are even story logs! When I saw all the text at the beginning I was afraid I would not be able to get the hang of the game, but following the quick start guide you quickly understand the mechanics.

I died because I lost my drone hangar while at the same time I didn't have enough resources to build a new one, probably that would have been avoided with the extra transport drones of communication towers? Hopefully I can also try the post-jam version later.

One thing you could improve is displaying the collection radius of communication towers, but otherwise super cool entry!

honest-dan 2022-04-10 08:03

A lot of content, and very ambitious! I gave a lot of feedback on stream, but to summarise: The theme spawned the idea, but it didn't quite feel like we were delaying the inevitable when playing. Perhaps the sun region could get smaller and smaller over time? Left clicking again outside of the UI when the build menu is already up feels like it should close the UI. I was a bit unsure if drones would continue to salvage materials from a place until it was empty or if I had to micro manage them.

Really liked the idea of an RTS builder where you have to rebuild again - it was a refreshing twist on the genre. Means you don't have to forget about early build order and keeps you on your toes.

gabriel-dias-oliveira-de-almeida 2022-04-10 18:51

I don't have any complains, the game is amazingly done and it's great, I hope you guys keep working on them because it looks perfect and commercial!

Congratulations to the whole team!

nikolay-zapolnov 2022-04-10 18:52

@gabriel-dias-oliveira-de-almeida Thanks a lot for your kind words!

nsadie 2022-04-11 19:44

Wow, there really is a lot going on in this game, I feel like I need more time to get a hang of all the mechanics! Excellent graphics, nice UI and fun gameplay!

100th-coin 2022-04-12 17:08

Wow, this game is really polished! The 3D models look great, and the provided tips are much appreciated. There's a LOT of content in this game, which really shows what can be achieved when a large team works together to their full potential. Incredible work.

haayaargh 2022-04-12 21:26

Hello! I played your submission on my [HaaYaargh](https://www.twitch.tv/haayaargh) stream the other day and oh boy.

I don't know if I played badly or if the game is murderously difficult, but I couldn't finish it on stream. After some time I started getting the hang of it and I found it is a very compelling game, with a lot of buildings, lots of content, and a fast tempo. Interesting premise of the rotating world and the night that consumes all. The building's models looked neat.

There are some questionable decisions there, like having to click collect so many times and not being able to choose which resource to focus on. Some particles are too big, and buildings lack radiuses. Combining lore trivia with a fast-paced game made me skip most of the text so I don't get distracted from my goal that was slipping away. But that's what feedback is for. But in general, this one is one of the best strategy/RTS games I found this year on LD.

Well done! :space_invader: :night_with_stars:

joror 2022-04-13 19:22

Very big concept! The darkness consumes ~ I bit tricky to get the hang of for sure. Nice graphics and controls, well done.

cdunham 2022-04-15 09:14

Great game! Love the worldbuilding and exploring around you can do. Tricky trying to keep the right materials and follow the light along. Full of helpful tips and text to help the player along. Seems pretty polished too, nice work!

infecsean 2022-04-15 16:54

The amount of content is amazing, took some time to get the hang of it but it is pretty fun! Overall, good job.

psytron 2022-04-18 18:53

Woah! I didn't know we accepted final steam game submissions. This looks and feels really slick. Impressive jam, you even have tutorial section haha. I small building animation and progress bar would have been a nice level of polish to make the states been build highlight and places states feel less raw but super minor feedback. Overall nice work Drunk Fly team!

cubanfrog 2022-04-19 13:28

An astoundingly complex and polished game for a jam project. It looks great, has real depth to its mechanics, and plays like the biggest hitters in the same league. The UI is phenomenal, as it's very clean and helps digest the vast amounts of information and resources you need to use. A neat concept developed and honed beyond what I thought was possible for a jam game.

kmyho 2022-04-19 13:29

love this game !

archimagus 2022-04-19 17:44

Really great game here. Tons of content. I am rating on the jam version, I'll play the post jam after this. But, the controls could use a bit of work. I don't like that movement gets locked out when the selection circle is up. Hotkeys would be great, I just want to hit B to get the build menu, among others. It was often difficult to tell at a glance why I couldn't build something and what resources I needed to focus on trying to get more of. On that, it's really easy to hard lock yourself by not having enough resources to get yourself back up and running. Maybe that's due to the crappy theme of this jam. I got to a point where I ran out of solar stations, and then I couldn't collect anything, so I couldn't build a new station, so I just died. It would be nice if the ship provided a minimal amount of power to run a single collection drone or something. Anyway, I really like this entry great job.

potkirland 2022-04-19 20:38

wow how is this a jam game. really great. i love rts games and this is such a good execution. especially love how you used a curved ground! would love to see it wrap around. great idea overall really looking forward for the steam version! i also think you used the theme very well that was great :thumbsup: