unbugged 2023-10-03 18:51
This game has a lot of potential. This could be built huge. I got many visions while trying it out. The game would have benefited a lot from audio. But great so far, keep up improving it! :thumbsup_tone2:
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD54 → A Shared Earth
By joror
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 424 | 3.71 | 34 | |
| Fun | 551 | 3.46 | 34 | |
| Innovation | 183 | 3.87 | 34 | |
| Theme | 651 | 3.51 | 34 | |
| Humor | 589 | 2.83 | 30 | |
| Mood | 523 | 3.58 | 32 |
This game has a lot of potential. This could be built huge. I got many visions while trying it out. The game would have benefited a lot from audio. But great so far, keep up improving it! :thumbsup_tone2:
Hi! Time for my by now traditional review...
I like how streamlined you kept it this time. It doesn't seem overwhelming at all and you can play it on your lunchbreak, but the core of what makes strategy fun is still there. Story is also interesting -- may have been done before, but not nearly as much as you'd expect given the rich themes involved.
- When zooming in and out on the menu you can still 'select' countries (well, color them green briefly...) :wink: - (At first:) It isn't _entirely_ clear to me what establish colony and settle fleet is -- and what is gained from separating these actions. (Later:) No, I get it now. Still feels a little bit clunky that you need a colony and _then_ they can't just settle off themselves, but this fits both the story better and has more crunchiness to it (good, because it needs at least a _little_ even if streamlining). - It seems set up so that at least _some_ actions need to be aggressive (or willingness to live through years where the fleets are just dying...), I don't think there's a good path where the err, 'native population' is always pleased that doesn't end up with the first few fleets dead of starvation. - (Later) ... except if you make a mortal enemy of Antarctica .. see screenie :stuck_out_tongue: shared_world_except_antarctica.png - There's a nice spot between India and China where you can capture about 40% of the world by population with a single embassy (and chuck in Pakistan and Nepal for good measure...). - A pox on you Antarctica! Don't destroy my Colony! (How did they do that?) - (Web/PostJam version at least, I'm on Linux Manjaro running an updated version of Firefox) > "Your Rotation has enced, Overseer ... Are you ready?"
-> Well, yes, (I'm ready to face the consequences...) but you won't let me select an option.
Dev-console: Logs seem to be spammed a lot, but if I limit it to errors, I see `'USER ERROR: Unknown event id: EndRotation2'` every time I click the 1st option.
I might do an aggressive play later, but I dislike playing the baddie, so maybe not :sweat_smile:
(You're well aware of this, but I can't help but note:) Don't forget to rate others'! You know how hard it is if you start a week later...
@remco profressional comment!
Thanks for the detailed reply, @remco :pray:! Will check into those bugs!
Such a good game, love this concept, great job my man!!
Wow, what an impressive entry! This game has a lot of potential and the depth added for the jam is great! Keep on making games :smile:
I really like the concept, I need to come back and play it some more! I would've really appreciated getting a preview of what actions do without needing to select them first. The world spinning is nice but in my opinion that could be paused at least while you're selecting placement, I ended up just toggling it off each attempt. Overall feels very ambitious and think with a bit of polish could be really compelling for people that enjoy this sort of resource juggling game. Great job!
It looks like my playthrough was pretty similar to Remco's. Personally I kept spamming embassies at the crossroads of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia for maximum surface area and enough positive opinion to force some colonies, but thinking back you could probably just stack colonies. I also had the same events keep happening in Antarctica, and also had the same issue in the web build where I never got to see my final rating, but I'm sure it was excellent. As a small note I also wish I knew what changes were actually made to the post jam version, if they were all bugs fixes or if any minor tweaks were made. Overall though, the game does look very nice, especially the UI with included tooltips and graphs. The additional earth rendering options were also very nice as turning off the earth rotation almost seems required. Although the gameplay itself was relatively simple, the story and mood you had going made it a really enjoyable and polished experience! Nice job!
What an impressive game for a jam, you nailed so many things!
Gameplay, look and feel, ambiance, sound design, story telling, I am very impressed.
I tried to play nice but... had to change some plan in order to survive ^^ I will definitively play this one again to try different strategies, great entry!
That's amazing how you reach to achieved such a polish and complete game! While having complex mechanics and a fine UI! Really great job for this game jam!
An interesting simulator of an alien migrant. I liked the opportunity to work with the globe. Not all actions are performed correctly. At least that's what it seemed to me.
cool game, keep up the good work
Impressive! There was a LOT of information and text to take in all at once which was pretty overwhelming, but it's a cool idea and you were able to include quite a bit of detail in just a short time.
So, that's how global government control panel looks like.
Incredible work! This is very impressive! With the large amount of information on display I think the UI could benefit from some tool-tips or a bit more tutorialization.
A very impressive and polished work indeed! A loved the story, mood and writing the most, but really, all aspects of the game combined so that it feels like an finished one) I also like how it sticks to the theme! I ended up losing millions of aliens due to starvation (I'm not very good at managing), but enjoyed the gameplay anyway!
Thanks for the game, keep up the good work!
Really nice game. It is impressive how much you managed to make. The sound really gives a good ambiance.
Neat game. I managed to get a good ending on the post-jam version by focusing all my attention on South America. It has a good grouping of countries that can support one or two colonies, to spread out the hostility. I mostly made embassies and colony claims. Screenshot 2023-10-14 142941.png I was only able to do this with a bug. It was still a fun challenge though, as in this state as it seems just barely possible. The embassy balance is pretty fine in this region, too many and people starve, too few and colonies get destroyed.
Anyway, the bug is that Establish Covert Base, Establish Embassy, and Claim Colony can be done without the required resources. The resources are still spent if you have them. Also, Trade Minerals for food and Negotiate Colony only check the resources at the start of the turn. This meant I could do two Trade Minerals with 10 stored minerals and receive 20 food. It is also possible to do Negotiate Colony twice with only 15 minerals banked, although I ended up not using this since Claim Colony is mostly free. With this in mind my strategy was as follows: - Trade my first 10 minerals for 20 food. - Place embassies in countries I will want to claim colonies in, ensuring all my embassies overlap Brazil (there is a spot which covers Ecuador and Brazil). - Claim about five colonies as the first ships start to arrive, because this action is only free when you have zero minerals and settlement generates minerals. - Combine early fleet settlement with Mine Asteroids, to give me at least 10 minerals to turn into 20 food next turn. Otherwise large fleets will starve when they arrive. - Claim colonies here and there when my minerals hit zero, filtering in extra embassies when countries get a bit too hostile. - Make sure I can settle large fleets in one go, as they drain a lot of food in orbit.
I might have found two other bugs, or they might have been intentional. The first is that fleets in orbit seemed to cost food and starve even if they are being settled that turn. This contradicts the Elder text that says fleets will starve unless settled. The other possible bug is that doing two settle actions with two fleets in orbit will only settle one fleet. The second action seems to do nothing. Oh, and the UI seems to break a bit. I sometimes had a country tooltip stuck in the top left of the screen, and things that I didn't mean to place would sometimes end up under the buttons in the top right.
In spite of all this, I still spent a few hours playing around and trying out different approaches. So the game holds up underneath. Using the real earth is a nice touch as it lets people use their geography knowledge.
I tried twice and couldn't figure out how to get to a good spot. I can't make enough money to trade for food to feel my people, so they all die. I thought if I settle them as soon as they arrive then they can feed themselves but that doesn't seem to be the case. A great idea though and it has potential.