cogcomp 2023-10-02 18:49
Clever game. Resource management and some action as well! Well done! I would've liked a bit more fire power from the start but I've always been more of an action game guy :wink:
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD54 → Train Trouble
By harmadillo
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 352 | 2.47 | 23 | |
| Fun | 351 | 2.38 | 23 | |
| Innovation | 286 | 3.00 | 23 | |
| Theme | 276 | 3.23 | 23 | |
| Graphics | 347 | 2.14 | 23 | |
| Audio | 276 | 2.37 | 22 | |
| Mood | 334 | 2.26 | 21 |
Clever game. Resource management and some action as well! Well done! I would've liked a bit more fire power from the start but I've always been more of an action game guy :wink:
The game mechanic and the game loop is interesting, you did a well job around this. But I would deeply encourage you to give more feedbacks by adding some visual effect or event a screen shake on your game, this is not that complicated and give so much punch and feeling to the game that it's worth doing (and you don't need to be an artist to do it). Still, I liked the game and you did a great job doing it !
There are so many different modules and screens that went into the game. I was surprised to see an upgrade/repair screen in addition to all the tutorial flow areas. Once I lost my turret I wasn't sure how I could defend from the spaceships so I just charged forward with my train at full speed as best I could.
I feel like you had some interesting systems, but they didn't work very well together. - I felt the best way to fight wasps was to ignore them, spam d and repair your train after. Fighting them can only cause you more damage to the train and killing them didn't seem to give you any benefit, just make them disappear. - The barricades weren't very entertaining, you just had to spam d when you hit one, I'm not sure why the player would want to decelerate. It would be more interesting if hitting the barricades was bad (cargo takes damage 0 lower value, people get killed 0 lower morale value), and shoot the barricades instead of the wasps. But not so that speeding and shooting straight ahead is the optimal strategy. - Leaving the repair/upgrade screen had the back button in the exact same place as end game button on the next screen, which lead to my premature exit. - After the tutorial I didn't see the upgrade button on the wagons (or maybe I wasn't done with the tutorial somehow?), if I skipped the tutorial the button was there. - There were different stations, but I'm not sure if they actually differed in any way. Also it didn't make sense to go to stations in between since you get penalized for leaving people, so just go out and back to central every time. - When in central station, I was able to select central station, which wasn't very productive and shouldn't be allowed.
It's great that you managed to add a music during the compo. The sound settings is also always welcome. A web export is another extra point; it's much-much easier to play it than a desktop build that you have to download and fight your antivirus to run it.
The amount of screens this game has is impressive, but I wish they were a bit more consistent. The buttons placement looks a bit sporadic.
Now to some less positive things.
In addition to what @ellaris said, I would add that the barricades close in so fast you don't even have a chance to decelerate in time (if it would have any sense). So instead of paying attention to the screen the D spam is the true strats.
Also, I don't feel the distance while traveling between the stations. If I choose the further away station, it still takes a few seconds to get there.
Another thing that made me confused is: I took some boxes and people from one station, went to another and I can't seem to find the things I've taken from that other station.
Love the interpretation of the theme! The idea of having to prioritise what you take on the train is a great shout. There are a lot of different parts to the game, and it's impressive to see all of those in a compo entry. Unfortunately it felt like the game lacked some polish, with some typos and inconsistent menus here and there. Would really like to see the game with the systems worked out a bit more!
Nice ressource and action combination. The tutorial was perfect.
In gameplay, best advise for me was to give full speed, since with taking time to shoot, more damage was incoming than with just getting away.
The GUI was very intuitive and self explaining.
I had fun playing it!
Nice compo entry! It's actually the first game with trains I've seen this LD, there should be more of them! :D
The idea is really good, a kind of scrolling shooter with quick levels and resource management between them. The idea of having a hub from which you go to places and have to return stuff back is pretty good, though I think it could use some differentiation between going there and going back - even a simple running train right-to-left instead of left-to-right might work nicely. Having to decide whether to use the limited space to gain more resources or keep the morale up is a great idea, I can only see it becoming more important as the game progresses.
Two small bugs I found: - the "Upgrade" button doesn't seem to work - it takes 100 resources, but it doesn't upgrade anything, as my turret and my cargo wagon are both still shown as "Level 1"; - several times the "Repair" button has shown a negative repair cost and I actually gained resources from repairing the damage, it might be good to clamp the values to 0;
@kaimon I'll have a look at screen shake. probably something to make optional as I know some people don't like it. @candlesan Probably too many screens for the 48 hours. Just going fast worked better than shooting I think.
@ellaris The wasps were a bit ineffective. They were originally too aggressive/dangerous but in the final build they are too slow to keep up with the train. I had plans for better upgrades. Extra turrets, more cargo space and guns on the front(for the barricades). But ran out of time. Same for selecting stations, ideally you should only be able to travel to an adjacent station.
@quasilyte The barricades were supposed to act as a minor annoyance to show you down will fending off the wasps. The travelling part needed more tuning.
@tomrijnbeek Too many screens, too little time was part of my problem. I was going to keep my scope nice and small this time.
@cogcomp I had planned extra cannon upgrades, But those are still only in my head.
@gilborn Going fast does work better than shooting, especially after some speed upgrades.
@lcstark The upgrade might not show up until the next visit to the upgrade screen, or it might be a bigger bug. And negative repair costs does seem wrong :).
interesting concept, maybe it was just me but I didn't really understand how the game worked? none the less not a bad little project!
Good game! There was a lot of variety to gameplay, but I don't think I grasped all the mechanics. For example, I couldn't understand how to change lines (from yellow one to blue).
Also, it seemed strange that you can travel to next station on the line or to the final station at the same amount of time.
Despite that, it's a fun game! Great job!
@woona The station travel was a bit unfinished and the blue line did not get implemented.
I think this is a great idea, but the execution was a bit lacking. The UI especially needed some love, as managing my trains upgrades and repairs was painful... and it took me a while to figure out why I couldn't change my empty new piece to carry cargo (I didn't have enough money). The interaction with enemies and barriers was also just a bit dry, there wasn't much fun factor. Overall, I think there are some great systems here, but it could have been a lot more fun with some time spent on polish. Full game in 48 hours though, so well done! :tada:
Good start keeping going, there were definitely some rough edges but I am shocked by how many different screens you managed to add in, plus the different systems.
I also first thought about making a train game, but went for something else instead, so thanks for making this! 😊 There is a lot to like: Improving your train has that "just one more upgrade" feel. Upgrading and tactical decisions are spiced up with short fast-paced action sequences. A train station map! Unfortunately, there are a lot of bugs: Your inventory says Resource & Resource (instead of money and people). Carts have levels, but clicking on upgrade doesn't change it (but makes the train faster?). You can only buy one additional cart. The cost of repairing is sometimes negative, i.e. I get money. 😄 I would be really curious to play a fixed and more polished version of this, because I like the idea. Keep going! 💜
Ambitious entry! Some issues I encountered:
- I started with the tutorial and didn't understand where to click on the map. I tried to click the blinking dot. It was only later that I realized that was the current station, and I had to click the next one. - I think the most effective way to deal with the enemies is just zooming past them at full speed 😄 - I struggled with the upgrade and repair screen. I clicked the buttons at the bottom, but I was not sure what I was upgrading or repairing. I was missing feedback about the current action and where I had to click to perform it.