Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD55 → Bugs VS Bugs
By aweskybear
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 334 | 2.72 | 24 | |
| Fun | 331 | 2.56 | 24 | |
| Innovation | 285 | 2.88 | 24 | |
| Theme | 280 | 3.04 | 25 | |
| Graphics | 331 | 2.45 | 25 | |
| Humor | 268 | 2.22 | 22 | |
| Mood | 297 | 2.71 | 25 |
After three attempts there is no spawning of any sommoned creatures. I attempted to mimmick your screenshots, but 'my' bugs don't appear. I like the music allthough you opted out of the compo for it :D . An in-game instruction or tutorial would be helpfull. I like the mood and unfortunately I can't seem to get in some kind of real game flow.
Interesting take you have! It took me quite some time to understand I need to press Space bar to summon creatures, the button in the bottom didn't work. Good job, with a bit more polishing it can be an addictive game, good luck!
@mdotedot , @freakyzelga, thank you guys, for playing the game!
I now realized the confusion - **button on bottom is Only for un-summoning** / maybe I had to add one for summoning as well :D. **Only SPACE summons after 3 (click) crosshairs**. I will have to explain why that is a bit later: I wanted to add 3 additional (button) actions in total but had time for just this one.
I've updated the description to be as clear as possible and to avoid confusion (description, video, screenshots). Thank you, guys!
I can see a lot of neat strategy opportunities in this game. I was spawning a ton of bugs in the flanks in the hopes that they would smash into the enemy ranks in a delayed wave. Then the red bugs spawned on top of my flanks and I had to adjust accordingly. Nice work.
I didn't immediately realise that summoning bugs was reducing the health, so I spawned a LOT of bugs right at the start. I also couldn't find the way to unsummon them? It seems like if each bug does as much damage as an enemy bug, then effectively you have a finite pool of health and so a finite number of enemies you can kill before you necessarily game over.
On my second attempt somehow I managed to go below 0 health just fine, and so I insulated the planet in a coat of bugs so thick that not even sunlight could get through. I think that means I won :wink:
Screenshot 2024-04-16 at 18.42.26.png
@storeyware that is exactly 1 of my ideas for intended tactics!: ) - employing Hit'n'run / or decoy and buy time. Unfortunately, a planned visual (HP bar onto damaged bugs) did not get in those 2 days. This would (hopefully) drive players to summon-unsummon - thus "healing up" those partially damaged (due to fighting) bugs!
@joeshanahan it's about the same thing that I comment in the above lines: (it is not obvious) but un-summoning can "save" damaged bugs .. no damage/HP is displayed now. You have 5 hits and they happen on 0.5s. With this strategy I lasted just a bit above 5 minutes when playing today.
And yes, there are bugs around Earth HP going below 0. :D
I am planning a serious post-jam ver: - HP bars - additional actions (like shockwave) to deflect bugs, maybe some additional healing mechanism - a few improvements to controla - one very important - the bugs which are touching but NOT facing a given bug should not deal damage to it; the combination of these should improve the game, I believe
Thank you all for your thoughts and feedback. : )) Share when *any*! And have fun.
@storeyware that is exactly 1 of my ideas for intended tactics!: ) - employing Hit'n'run / or decoy and buy time. Unfortunately, a planned visual (HP bar onto damaged bugs) did not get in those 2 days. This would (hopefully) drive players to summon-unsummon - this "healing up" those partially damaged (due to fighting) bugs!
@joeshanahan it's about the same thing that I comment I'm above lines: (it is not obvious) but un-summoning can "save" damaged bugs .. no damage is displayed now. You have 5 hits and they happen on 0.5s. With this strategy I lasted just a bit above 5 minutes.
And yes, there are bugs around Earth HP going below 0. :D
I am planning a serious post-jam ver: - HP bars - additional actions (like shockwave) to deflect bugs, maybe some additional healing mechanism - a few improvements to controla - one very important - the bugs which are touching but NOT facing a given bug should not deal damage to it; the combination of these should improve the game, I believe
Thank you all for your thoughts and feedback. : )) Share when *any*! And have fun.
I made a video compilation and this game is part of it! Hope it's useful for you! https://youtu.be/NJKVSQgn7-E?si=pIClVOYC3hTwkT0Y
@JoeShanahan LMAO.. you just found the bug of the century xD Amazing video. Thank you very much for your work.
Your video is golden (feedback) to me : )))
**BUG FIX update**: Dear players, fixed issues: 1) Infinite bug spawning 2) Negative HP
**Please also note you need to play in Chrome/Chromium-based to avoid issues with controls (sorry about this)**
More fixes and postjam ver later.
I really liked the mechanic of taking health away from yourself to summon someone, and then giving it back to get your health back. It can be developed very cool. On the downside - the pace of the game is painfully slow, and it's not convenient to call back bugs
I like meditative mood while playing. I also find the great, cosmic scale of the lvl very satisfying. I wish there were a possibility to restore hp, not only return survived bugs. And I also like unique mechanics, they have lots of potential. Well done! Screenshot_2.png
Thank you, guys! @hammerer , @rita-pressanykey
Hopefully when I get time I will be addressing all in a PostJam release /;sure there will be more actions on the bottom, like shockwave and HP restoration; the pace and convenience of calling back will be sth I also think about but surele the *slow* pace is part of the idea : )) ; bug speedup possibility or time-scale is a possibility though
GL
This is interesting and such a nice Color Choice! Thank you for answering to our Post! I will play your Game some more and then rate it :)
it get's a little tedious I think. I wish there were more kinds of bogs/more complicated summons you could do. It's a good game, just doesn't quite feel finished.
what a strange atmosphere present in the game...the minimalist graphics and the impression of immensity and helplessness...but I have difficulty understanding what I could do to preserve the earth
First of all, congrats on your first compo! ^^ This one was a doozy.
Before I get into it, the whole design of the game is quite nice. I like the almost pen-and-paper like aesthetic, and the soothing music, even though it seemed to play only once and then stop. x) I also don't really understand why you have to spawn 3 clusters of bugs instead of allowing me to only spawn one, but that's okay. The unsummon circle also didn't seem to follow my mouse correctly at the bigger zoom levels until I hovered over the planet.
Now, while the game is quite relaxing and simple, I feel that the compo time limit may have been a bit of a problem... I had so many bugs (heh) while playing that I just have to share my experience:
My strategy was to just spawn as many bugs as possible every turn, and send them all together to each cluster of enemies one at a time. I usually managed to beat the enemies in seconds, which meant I'd have to wait quite a while until the minute passed so that more enemies would spawn. Maybe spawning enemies after each round has been totally killed would have been better.
After a while, innevitably I ran out of bugs. There was nothing I could do besides wait for the enemies to slowly get to my planet and start attacking it. However, as soon as a single hit of damage was done to my earth, suddenly I jumped from 0 to 700 health! That breathed new life into the game since now I was completely OP! xD I was spawning so many bugs that the game was even lagging!
Captura de tela 2024-04-20 230130.png
Then, at about 8:00, I spawned all my bugs in the center to protect my earth, and the collision glitched out and the earth flew off the map! I couldn't find where earth was, and all the enemies started going up towards infinity.
Captura de tela 2024-04-20 230811.png
So now, with no planet, I had no way to finish the game! ;w; After killing all my remaining bugs, my final stats were 18:30 minutes survived, and 2183 kill points.
Even though I had so many bugs, this actually made the game more fun for me, it kinda turned into an incremental game! Just watching my bugs absolutely annihilate the other bugs was very satisfying.
Anyway, I'm sure this game didn't turn out how you wanted, but in the end this is still very unique and charming! I managed to find my own fun, and that's pretty neat! x)
bugs.png
Thank you for playing, guys! @meru @tamara188 @piero-pbes-studio @fupi
@meru Glad you like colors.. tried to be uninvasive as possible
@tamara188 That's correct, game is far from finished: 2 days was harder than I anticipated, still I feel I got quite a bit for the time I really got : )) There will be more bugs and possible actions ones I do the PostJam!
@piero-pbes-studio Atmosphere! : ))) But yes, it's difficult to preserve the Earth.. currently Hit'n'run (Unsummon) before a bug dies is one way. I will need to provide more options for the player.
@fupi Thanks, buddy, for the awesome review!!! It's gold! I will address separately : ))
Bugs! 10/10
Great work! It's impressive to see strategy games developed in such a short amount of time. As a fan of this genre, I really appreciate your efforts in keeping it alive.
I encountered some difficulties accessing the game webpage on Netlify, but fortunately, I found a link to the Github Pages version which worked for me. It might be helpful to provide a fallback link for your game.
**BUG FIX update (2)**: Dear players, I again fixed some... bugs :D ... due to obviously having too many of them XD :smile: : 1) HP explosion (as per @fupi), unsummoning HP incorrect, a few other nasty edge cases :S 2) music now will loop too
Well, I may need to think a second time when creating such interconnected controls and gaemplay next time :D
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@klemen yes... hopefully less now XD
@mremmele Thank you very much for the kind words! It's really a little bit more ambitious than could fit in 2 or 3 days, it seems. Good point about the GH link : )), thank you.
@fupi Great many thanks, you again manage to open my eyes for quite a few thingies : )))
**On the aesthetic**... glad you like it. : ) It's really all I *can* draw... on the phone via a ink pen tool .. or sth XD
**Some fixes**: I just "removed" the.. thing that made the game more fun to you - the mega health explosion glitch XD, sorry. But you really got me thinking - let's next add stuff that *could* increase that HP somehow. One of the things that make this game fun is actually seeing the guys marching to the next targets. : )) I have to do sth more with it!
**The compo** time limit... correct - but even with JAM my brain still would have been in jammed mode XD, so not sure if the 3rd day would be too helpful. I promise a post jam version, which I will be starting to work next (*when time* ; ((( - got some planning ready). I just hope it doesn't take forever to do.. without bugs. But will try to do it in phases - first the few cool things that would improve a lot, then anything else.
For the **too-much-waiting-between-waves**.. I am thinking of a time-scale of some sort : }
LOL - **the Earth flew off into infinity** - :smile: that's what happens when you are using a physics engine and don't set limits on some.. speeds XD . Yep, seems you spawned too much stuff on one spot that went into a catapulting effect, awesome. You won, I guess so :D
Thanks, @fupi, and stay tuned, a serious update is planned / as a separate link-to-play ofcourse. : )))
In summary: it's quite a bit of emergent gameplay, easy to code, easier to code with many bugs :D :D :D. THANKS! :bow:
@aweskybear thank you for the thorough response!! I did still have a lot of fun playing, mind you! xP
I think the unsummon button is not working on Firefox? So with a bit of care I managed to summon only the bugs I needed in the direction the next wave was comming from. Would have loved to be able to increase speed/time, but it was intriguing enough to play for a while! Nice!
@notnasiul Yep, only Chrome works correctly now for some things. Glad you enjoyed it, it's really only a part of the experience I wanted to create... Post jam game coming after some time. : ))
Good job for a Compo, a lot of work done in so little time! :clap:
I don't know if the game should do this but it's a good game. Good job!
bugs.png
@deformhead Thanks, man! I agree, 2 days was a real challenge and am pretty satisfied with the initial result (brain almost exploded the 2nd day xD so it couldn't be betterxD)
@baluj Probably not :D if you are talking about the bugs-dragging-the-planet XD
**My Dear players... I have updated the game to drastically improve the gameplay** ! Thank you very much for trying the game initially, your feedback has been precious : ))
@fupi @deformhead @baluj @notnasiul @klemen @piero-pbes-studio @meru @hammerer @tamara188 @rita-pressanykey @joeshanahan @freakyzelga @mdotedot
Screenshot 2024-04-28 130244.png
postjam--2.png
**New gameplay video**: https://aweskybear.github.io/ld-55-Bugs-vs-Bugs/video/postcompo-1.webm
**PostCompo game link**: https://postjam-ld-55-bugs-vs-bugs-aweskybear.netlify.app/
Definitely taking a break after these updates. **But looking to your feedback forward on**. :)) Thanks!
This was on my to-play list for a while, finally got around to play it!
By the video it seems more features were added in post-jam version, but unfortunately that link doesn't seem to be working for me, it's not loading ._.
I did play your compo version and the idea is quite nice. I feel like the concept reminds me of some games I played before, but unfortunately can't remember the titles right now.
I knew I had to press Space to summon because I read the description on LD page, and I suspect you were hoping to give a hint in-game with the rectangular shape around the word Summon, however I wouldn't realize myself I had to press space, w/o checking the description. Judging by the video you attached, it is still the case in the updated version. So, maybe writing a little "Press space" on in-game screen would be helpful!
The visuals are very simple, however that's not a critique as you clearly concentrated your efforts on other aspects and actually the simplicity of design works quite well imo, creating a unique look for the game as well.
I feel like that's not really my type of game, but objectively it's a very good effort for a Compo, great job! <3
@kanity Detailed feedback, thanks! I know it's not your cup of tea but it's a bit sad you couldn't try to postcompo version (does that work if you refresh the page several times or hit CTRL + SHIFT + R?.. that'd be useful to me).
Thank you for appreciating the effort! And the idea about showing little text hints is great - I just have not had the time to do it and had focused on the gameplay itself / thus only videos showing keystrokes (that's actually done via ScreenToGif's feature to show the pressed keys in a rendered video/GIF). : )
@aweskybear well I tried reloading the page, didn't seem to help. then I closed it and opened the link again, and the game actually loaded! then I closed that and opened the link again and it was just the gray screen again. I tried doing that a few more time and kept getting gray screen, then black screen 3_3
@kanity Thank you, that actually gave me a few ideas and will be fixing it. : )
@aweskybear good luck! ^^
This reminds me of a movie called "The Wandering Earth". The first time I played, out of curiosity, I used up all my health points at once. Haha. The little bug is a bit cute.
@yellow I was hoping for more like "Independence day" :cry: xDDD but "The wondering Earth" is also a good one..
Congratulations for having your first compo game! Interesting dev stack; I was wondering what this was created with when I saw that it was running on netlify. Not sure if I can say anything that hasn't been said above, but I love the zoom and how far away it can go, it feels really great. And it's great to hear that you will be working on this after LD, I think that with some extra love and UI that explains the game better, this could be a very interesting entry. Well done :)
Thanks a lot, @dzejpi ! Dev stack reasoning is not just because that's what I know best but the rapidness - takes seconds to compile / reload automatically / see changes and really helps to put out stuff quickly (also direct console debugging via browser dev tools). I really am quite short on available time (not even during the compo time), so "working on it after LD" :D may be a bit more impossible than I'd like, but anything I do, I take as an experiment and while time + fun is there, why not : ))
Thanks!
@aweskybear I see! If you mean hot reload, then yeah, that's definitely something that saves a massive amount of time. I can only hope that it will find its way into Godot as well some day. :)
@dzejpi A quick tip around "hot reloading" (not sure how Godot builds/provides updates to your builds) but hot reloading can be setup to run manually via a node script for your browser build - literally in 2 minutes (given that Godot continuously outputs to your disk some html / web assets): 1) install Node (allows you use `npm`, 2) then install any of the million+ packages globally `-g` [choosing one] that allows you serve a directory (via a watch, where it'd refresh per change), like this: https://www.npmjs.com/package/reload?activeTab=readme or `live-server` or [put any other of the possibly 50+ solutions there] and then 4) run it via a CLI on the output folder and open your game url
Ofcourse, that might not be of use if Godot's build process for the web is more complicated, where it actually takes much more time to bundle for the it, if you meant that :D ('ve never worked with it). Just my 2 cents
Ah thank you very much for this tip, @aweskybear, will check out and try later! That said, when it comes to Godot, I usually just build it locally. It takes just few seconds, I don't usually work on HTML5 builds directly, I just export it to HTML5 some time before the deadline and see if there aren't some issues. I am sure I will regret this one day, but so far, no trouble, unlike with Game Maker back in days. :)