yossarian 2023-05-02 15:51
Hello- thanks for submitting- but I had a hard time figuring out what to do. I went looking for gold all over the map and couldn't find it. Maybe I'm missing something!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD53 → Gold Extraction
By obittner, jo-bettaque, ftsell and PatrickBizeps
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1216 | 2.44 | 31 | |
| Fun | 1186 | 2.44 | 31 | |
| Innovation | 986 | 2.84 | 31 | |
| Theme | 1180 | 2.69 | 31 | |
| Graphics | 1069 | 2.23 | 30 | |
| Humor | 1051 | 1.80 | 28 | |
| Mood | 1170 | 2.12 | 30 |
Hello- thanks for submitting- but I had a hard time figuring out what to do. I went looking for gold all over the map and couldn't find it. Maybe I'm missing something!
Hey, thanks @yossarian for checking out our game! We sadly ran out of time a little bit and so it's not quite clear. You can open a build menu and build a mine on one of the ore deposits right when the game starts :)
The nexus (helipad) will gain a small trickle of gold aswell.
Thank you, i have updated the description.
With the tip to purchase the a mine at the beginning I got going for a bit. Good feels with controls, sound, art. Had fun building cannons and collecting gold. I had three big cannons loaded with gold in front of the base but those little guys always slip past the bullet. So they became more like barriers. I tried to build the walls too but they seemed to glitch and not build anywhere. Repair mode maybe is not finished yet, or I missed how to use it after toggle to R?
Thanks for playing our game @jampla-games
The "little guys" are in fact cannonballs from your opponent. You can not block them with your shots (that was originally the plan, but we ran out of time). The idea is more to shoot the enemy weapons.
I just noticed the bug with building the walls as well. I will fix it as soon as I get the time.
I adjusted the description again with your feedback. Thank you.
Similar experience to Jampla and Yoss. It might make sense to add a tutorial, or even just a screen saying "BUILD A MINE". Might also help to give the player some gold to start, I had to sell parts of the floor to have enough to build a mine.
I do like the idea though, it reminds me of a tank battle minigame from Dragon Quest I played years and years ago. Congrats on finishing what you did.
I think having the player with some starting base would help cause when you start you have nothing but a helipad and floor. Having a mine spitting out gold from the start would draw our attention to them. Also having an indication of how much gold we actually have would help as well. There's numbers for costs but nothing for how much you have.
Interesting concept, but the execution falls short.
The main issue being UX and UI. Nothing was obvious to me about this game. I did not read the controls from your description at first just to see how it plays while being dropped in blind. The first thing I did was tried to interact with the holes in the walls, but pressing buttons next to it did nothing. Then I swam into the sea. And this is where I would have stopped playing normally.
After reading the controls and finding out that there is an opponent and that you can zoom out...The game was still confusing as it is not clear what the buttons in the build menu mean or do.
A guiding hand in the form of a tutorial would definitely have made this a more fun experience.
It's hard to figure out what to do, it take me some time to know how the buying things work, it's strange that you have to move your gold to helipad to buy anything. When I started to get hang of this game it just freeze :( But overall cool idea, need some more polishing :)
Hi @vilius
Thank you for playing our game and leaving such extensive feedback.
We are first-timers at LD and got carried away by our ambitions and in the end had barely time to finish our gameplay loop :sweat_smile: Next time we will try to set smaller goals so we have time for balancing and polishing.
I think something that would greatly benefit the game would be more information: info on how much gold you have, how much things cost, etc. But you have the groundwork of a really solid game and a great first try!
The idea is cool but this is an example of overreaching in a jam. Should have tried to cut out features to get a more playable version. Also, the lack of music is notable.
The gameplay is nice when you figure out what to do. If you guys are willing to take a bit more time developing the game you could have a nice thing in your hands.
@sylvic thank you for the feedback.
You're absolutely right, we aimed too high and really struggled in the end with what to cut. But LD hooked us, and next time we will know better.
I found the game a bit difficult to understand, not so much because of the instructions but because there were times when I could place certain objects in certain places and times when I couldn't.
Nevertheless, the intention behind the game was good. Perhaps focusing on fewer things, such as just collecting gold and defending the site, could have made the game more polished and better reflect what you were trying to do for the event.
Despite trying to cover too much ground, I think the intention is good and the game could become interesting if more time is dedicated to organizing the ideas more clearly.
The AI isn't very smart and doesn't really cause any inconvenience. The tactic of building up the base with walls is unattainable for him. Also, the graphics are quite painfully perceived. However, the game itself is quite good and fun. It would be interesting to play it against real people, but I'm sure there will be balance issues.
Managed to get started building a mine and acquiring a bunch of gold. I like the direct use of gold as ammunition. I didn't realise the buttons on the helipad were buttons to click on at first. It felt arbitrary whether I could build and repair stuff or not. Some numbers somewhere would have helped. The goal is also unclear, am I supposed to sell gold for a score, or attack the opponent, or just hang out indefinitely. That splash sound highlights the fact there are no other sounds or music, which makes it a bit jarring.
I had to check the comments to see how the game is supposed to be played. I liked the concept and the interpretation of the theme. The art, the music and the mood of the game are simple but very well implemented! Nice entry!