FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD56 → Fifty Six LilyPads

Fifty Six LilyPads

By dhim

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1413.5880
Fun1443.4380
Innovation1393.4680
Theme1813.5480
Graphics1653.5380
Audio1343.3379
Humor1942.7970
Mood2203.1179

Comments

bombadrill 2024-10-06 23:24

Interesting mechanics, good job pal

gnats 2024-10-06 23:36

Fun, short, and to the point! As you said, I was playing against Jar Jar, but the high score mechanic encourages some challenge I suppose. I really like the idea of racing to block the opponent and secure territory rather than just racing to collect as many flies as possible. Reminds me of Blokus (a similar board game). Good job!

custodi 2024-10-06 23:48

Nice core mechanic based on graph, sometimes game can generated too hard puzzles (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

dhim 2024-10-07 00:03

@bombadrill thank you

@gnats, I have ideas to make the AI better, blocking your path and disconnecting islands (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biconnected_component), but I did not had the time to implement them. Maybe in a post jam version. The two players is really fun.

@custodi got the idea for generating the board from a keynote from the author of Townscaper, I did not expect it to generate so many circular paths.

epifai 2024-10-07 00:29

Nice one! I'm a big fan of competitive board games. So far I've tried it against the AI, but I have a feeling that this is not the main idea of ​​the game. I'll call my friend later. Let's see how it plays by some masterminds)

epifai 2024-10-07 00:29

I can`t find how to delete comments...

epifai 2024-10-07 00:29

So I`ll take this opportunity to wish luck for everyone

epifai 2024-10-07 00:29

Sorry, site scums me, and sent one message 4 times

dhim 2024-10-07 00:45

@epifai you had me laugh with your multiple messages. Yes the AI in its current form is mostly there so people can try the game before finding a friend :)

claudeliu 2024-10-07 01:00

WELL DONE GAME! I love playing strategy game!

nazariglez 2024-10-07 13:27

Nice game! Playing against the NPC is fun, but it seems like it's be even better with 2 players. I have a minor issue with the gameplay, when the blue player (or the other player) runs out of moves, the game should end. Overall, I really enjoyed it. gj!

sheepolution 2024-10-07 13:48

Cute game! There's more strategy involved than I first expected. What I thought was gonna be an easy win, turned out to be a disasterous loss for me. The music is nice on its own, but does not match the vibe of the game. The frogs look cute.

dhim 2024-10-07 13:50

@nazariglez, It does not end on purpose because there are maybe some more points for you to get (and you have to be strategic). I could make it end, then the strategy would probably be to try to end the game as soon as possible if you have more points than the adversary rather than maximizing the overall score.

dhim 2024-10-07 14:21

@sheepolution, Agree with the music not fitting, I composed it on saturday evening after making the grid system but before having an idea of what the theme of my game would be. While debugging latter on with ellipse the idea of lilypad and then frog came. I did not had the time to go back and compose something fitting. I enjoyed the upbeat of it enough to keep it though

sviborg 2024-10-07 15:36

Great game! Combines strategy and fun! 🐸 Dynamic board makes each game unique, and cute frogs add charm! 💚 Music, although cheerful, is not quite suitable, but it does not spoil the overall impression. Great job! 👍

manabreak 2024-10-07 15:39

Wow, I really like the idea! Solid execution, and there's lots of room for strategizing. Amazing job!

nightmaresdev 2024-10-07 15:40

I love this game. While it might look simple, in a strategic way this can get quiet intense. Placements are important and blocking of your opponent is very fun to do!

Pros: - Great and Clear Gameplay - Simple and Understanding graphics - Versus mode >.<

Cons: - The music might not be to fitting to the game - AI is very weak, need others to play against for proper hardcore battle :3

dhim 2024-10-07 15:46

@sviborg, @manabreak thank you @nightmaresdev : - yes I made the music before having the idea of making it around a pond. - My whole point of making the game was to design an AI, but it took me too long to get to the point of having a MVP. I'll definitely work on the AI in the future.

rillep 2024-10-07 15:46

I enjoyed it alot. The AI was not the best, but good enough for a few games.

tuism 2024-10-07 16:13

I haven't played Hey That's My Fish, so I can't speak directly to a comparison, but I do know it is a well loved game among many people. The game looks pretty cool, and yeah the AI is dumb as a brick, but a ruthless AI is also not that fun to play against.

- The music is definitely more Fate Stay Night than Cute Frog Boardgame lol - The game design is interesting, I guess the boardgame doesn't have a setup that's like *this*, with (what looks like) randomly connected nodes? - I can't really figure out the rules of where you are or aren't allowed to jump, like you can't "turn"? But also there aren't really straight lines? It's like half clear. - This kind of game design annoys me in one way - counting up the amount of potential score between choices. Like these tiles are worth X and those are worth Y, is it worth me cutting those off for these, etc, which leads to a lot of counting. Not really an issue with the game design since it's basically what Hey That's My Fish is too. Just a gripe I have with these kinds of completely open game.

seth-l 2024-10-07 16:20

This is great! Loved the music, and the art was really cute. Only comments I really have are on the endgame - I fully isolated Jar Jar's frogs, and once there were no more lilypads there wasn't any indication that the game was over. Must be a bug, because I played it again and got a high score screen when there were no more available moves. Great work!

bad-fetus 2024-10-07 17:27

Fun game! Reminded me a lot of Hex-a-gone from Fall Guys, though I guess That's My Fish (which I hadn't heard of) is even closer to that.

As others have pointed out, I'm not sure the music fits the gameplay but is a competent work otherwise.

I do wish the AI was more competent, and a "clean it up" for me option would have been good after all rival frogs are stuck to avoid clicking on tens of tiles, but those are fairly minor and likely too much to expect for a 2-day project.

Great work, had fun with it!

dhim 2024-10-07 18:04

@tuism : - the underlying grid is quad based and they thus each have a "North/South and an East/West" directions, so if you enter from one side you have to exit by the opposite one. However the grid is not straight so you end up curving Screen Shot 2024-10-05 at 18.00.10.png - When I played That's my fish, I first I was aiming for the biggest score, but then realize than making islands inaccessible to other player was usually better in the end. My goal was for the AI to be able to do that, using some graph theory. I have the general algorithm, it was just to risky to implement in the last minute. @seth-l: Possibly a bug, end game verification was one of the last commits... maybe you could still move. I didn't implement an automatic clean up (@bad-fetus), it would have been the same mechanism as the AI (basically, what move brings you the more points)

Thank you all for the reviews!

drludos 2024-10-07 18:55

Woaw, very interesting game, I love it!

For now, I only played against the AI, but I'll try it with real people too. I love the theme, the mechanics is interesting, and I was quickly hooked to the game trying to get the highest score. Along the way, I think I maybe found a bug: once I scored 57, the end screen told me that my score was "NaN" (not a number):

56LilyPad_scorebug.png

It happened twice, on the first try I didn't watch the score closely but it was at 50 while I still had 3 or 4 moves to make. On the second try I did watch it closely and it was 57. I didn't happen to me on my first tries, when my score was lower (around 40 something).

Kudos for this great entry!

dhim 2024-10-07 19:09

@drludos last minute addition are always buggy :D I have opened an Issue, I'll fix that post-compo : https://github.com/dhmmasson/lilyFrogs/issues/51 Did you win or lose, where you replaying or reloading the game ?

Thank you for review, do try with a friend it's way more enjoyable

drludos 2024-10-07 19:13

@dhim: I was winning the game both times this happen. It was my 3rd and 4th play in a row IIRC.

gdman 2024-10-07 19:18

Nice concept, games on graphs feels special. AI is understandable hard to create in limited time, but it does its job to showcase game. I think destroying every leaf is too strong move, would like some more stronger leaves that survive 2 or 3 move through them. Other suggestion might be roaming insect changing cell every turn in some determined direction.

dhim 2024-10-07 19:23

Nice ideas @gdman, In my notes I had to have something to do with the point/reward. You could use the points during the game to gain special short term advantages (jump, skip, duplicate) but that would reduce your score. Between Levels the points would also help you get stronger (long term benefits, so maybe adding a range to frogs, number of starting frogs). Lilypad mechanics would have been nice as well.

Different insects with properties would have been great as well (I should have gone with FIREFLY or butterfly instead of these ugly regular flies! I made them to realist)

sid37 2024-10-07 19:42

I got a score NaN))) (it seems to happen in the singleplayer game on the second playthrough), but that doesn't spoil that the game is a very cute and puzzles are very enjoyable!

kyllua 2024-10-08 02:42

As a fan of highly strategic board games, I really enjoy this game. It offers deep strategy and a lot of room for tactical decision-making. Additionally, the AI you prepared for solo players is very well designed.

takhomasac 2024-10-08 03:27

really cool concept! i appreciate the instructions and layout of the web version. nice work!

olddog 2024-10-08 03:55

this game design are awesome,I wond how you generate the roads,its really need think a lot to win this game if battle with real man

oldzombie14 2024-10-08 05:39

the design is so creative and cute!

frontiersend 2024-10-08 05:41

Had a great time with this one, good job!

buzzydev 2024-10-08 08:56

A very strange, funny, simple, but interesting game. Similar to simple type of games like tic-tac-toe or board games. Defeintely like. Good game.

diabolical-sloth 2024-10-08 09:34

cute little board game style strategy game, I like the theme, it ties in with the mechanics nicely

dhim 2024-10-08 12:13

- @sid37 - Thank you, Yeah a minor bug in the max function... I have fixed it. - @kyllua - Thank you, the strategy really shine when playing with a friend - @takhomasac - Thank you, the website is done using Quarto. I use it for my website - @olddog - I place random points on the board, generate a voronoi diagram, relax it (cause no one likes a stressed out diagram), subdivide it to obtain quads, place a lilypad in the center of each quad, connect quads that share a border, remove edge lilypad and some more until just 56 (for ludum dare 56) lilypads remain - @oldzombie14 - Thank You for the kind words - @frontiersend - Thank you, I glad you liked it. - @buzzydev - Thanks - @diabolical-sloth - Thank you, the theme Idea came late though

bastilo 2024-10-08 12:28

Nice little game!

dhim 2024-10-08 12:34

@bastilo Thank you!

ellaris 2024-10-08 13:04

Pretty cool, I liked the art and the potential for strategy, unfortunately the AI didn't shine allowing me to block it off very fast. It seemed to like to group up it's pieces and put them on little islands, which should probably not be a thing. The far jump was weird, I once saw the AI do it and was surprised, it could be a good idea to show the path they have chosen, and maybe to allow for more planing and make it more clear, allow for selecting the pads and showing the possible jumps from that place.

dhim 2024-10-08 14:14

Hi @ellaris: You should be able to see which pads are possible when selecting a frog (lighter lilypad with a halo from your color)

On your other point, indeed the AI is bad: - the Ai randomly selects a frog and hops to the highest value lilypad accessible - it should use a biconnected component graph algorithm to determine how to split the graph in islands it can control (then systematically traverse them), or block you on low-value islands.

For now the game is best played against a friend

thomas-bringer 2024-10-08 14:23

Very very cool strategy game! I feel like it's hard to find innovative board games, but you did it brilliantly, game design 5/5.

Don't have much to criticize, loved the game, keep it up :thumbsup:

ellaris 2024-10-08 14:31

@dhim Yes I could see the possible moves, I meant to plan ahead to see where I can go from a lilypad I can land on, or the ones the enemy has access to. :cry:

dhim 2024-10-08 14:37

@thomas-bringer thank you for the kind words!

ladybenko 2024-10-08 16:26

Cool mechanics, the AI is not very challenging but I think it would be really interesting to play against a human player :)

karamelika22 2024-10-08 16:59

Very cute frogs (I like this kind of games) here you need to rack your brain.Nice game)

kirass 2024-10-08 17:31

Cool game! I liked it.

harmadillo 2024-10-08 17:34

Nice game. Looks like it could have strategic depth playing against other people. I like the cute graphics.

bighatlogan 2024-10-08 17:53

Very nice game, I like the gameplay and art!

dhim 2024-10-08 18:29

- @ladybenko, @harmadillo : Yes do play with a friend or family it's way more interesting - karamelika22, @bighatlogan, @harmadillo : I am really proud of these frogs, but the fly haunts me, should have drawn a butterfly or firefly - @kirass, glad you liked it

THank you for taking some time to review my game

ziobob 2024-10-08 19:39

I made 49 points against 42! *ribbit*

dhim 2024-10-08 19:43

@ellaris Ah, yes, I could have done that as well, on hover of the target lilypad. It was on as a debug in the early build (before the frogs went into existence)

yancharkin 2024-10-08 21:53

Nice!

dhim 2024-10-08 22:03

- @ziobob Great score, thank you for playing ! - @yancharkin Nice of you to take time to play my game, thank you!

rezistor 2024-10-09 07:04

Pretty graphics and game design with depth potential! I found 100% win strategy =o use 2 frogs to cut opponent frogos movement options and collect rest of the fly with last one =D

googoobachoo 2024-10-09 08:36

Couldn' tell that the AI was not smart. Tension built anyway when I thought the AI might jump to a pad before I could. When it didn't, felt good to outsmart the AI however good it is :) The player has to put much thought into the initial placement of frogs. Great game, well done!

loig 2024-10-09 10:55

I liked the original board game. Your version is also good. And the frogs are really cute. Nice work!

dhim 2024-10-09 11:15

- @rezistor nice strategy indeed, I'll create an AI version that will do that soon, Watch / Star the repository if you want to see that in the future - @googoobachoo indeed initial placement is key - @loig having played the original on an regular Hex Board, what do think of the irregular, square board ?

Thank you three for playing and rating my game!

2024-10-09 11:55

Not bad dhim! Good job!

dhim 2024-10-09 11:59

@hamachi thank you for playing!

loig 2024-10-09 12:41

@dhim it is difficult to tell the difference as I played against the AI (which, indeed, is quite bad at the game). I would need to try against a human being, but I am not sure I will be able to do so.

frostblooded 2024-10-09 12:49

Cool game. I especially loved the art and the sounds you have recorded. Very cute! :) Good job making this cool game!

robowarrior1982 2024-10-09 12:53

Really good, i like this conquest strategy game and how i can cut the path of second player to elaborate strategy. I only played with IA but with another player this can be more better. Good job !

reecemungus 2024-10-09 13:19

I really enjoyed this game, I like how you have to devise a strategy to both trap your opponent and get as many flies for yourself as you can.

Unfortunately I was unable to play with a friend, which I bet would've been super fun! I still had a great time playing against the AI, though it couldn't beat me!

I think the art and audio for this game is really cute and really fits the vibe, you (and your daughters!) did a really great job with that!

Thanks for submitting this game, I had a lot of fun playing it!

dhim 2024-10-09 13:55

- @frostblooded, @reecemungus thank you. I am really please with the frog design! I think it will stay with me for the future :) And it was super fun to have my daughter croak, one is very you (1,5 year old, but she was mimicking the older one) - @robowarrior1982, @reecemungus, Do find a friend if you can, You can star the repository, I'll probably release a Better AI once the LD is over.

Thank you all for the kind words

chuckiee 2024-10-09 14:55

Looks simple but got my butt kicked :smile: Very nice entry with depth behind it! Sad that there is no gfx in title screen but game had very nice graphics, well done!

dhim 2024-10-09 15:36

You are so right about the title screen @chuckiee! I should have at least added the frogs.

I did the menu early on as I wanted to have levels and stuff like that (overscoping!). Then, I disabled it to quicken my tests. I just put it back on before submitting and it got no love... A real shame indeed. I'll put that in my notes for future Game Jam !

I should have done A Game-Over/Victory screen with Gfx as well.

tygrak 2024-10-09 17:31

I love frogs! Frogs are objectively the best tiny creatures. The gameplay was simple but fun -- I freaking destroyed the AI haha.

dhim 2024-10-09 17:46

@tygrak thank you! frogs are cute

budster16 2024-10-09 19:45

I like the board game feel a lot and while I feel it would be a great board game, the randomization of the video game adds a lot to it and really adds to the board game feel a lot!

nickhellquist 2024-10-09 21:54

Cool game, nice art, and an interesting premise :)

lightningst 2024-10-09 22:13

Cool strategy game!

kanity 2024-10-09 23:47

These frogs are ADORABLE >v< And I felt like the concept was quite unique. I played one round and got Highscore 53, probably not too high... Got all the frogs on the blue team cut off and collected a lot with pink but there were still a lot of lily pads left. I felt like sometimes choosing&moving wasn't as smooth as I would expect, but not sure how to explain it in detail. Overall it felt relaxing, audio contributed to that feeling too ^v^

shreemp 2024-10-10 09:28

I haven't tried yet with 2 players but the single player was fun when you can mess with the ai even in the planning phase by placing a frog that cuts one of their frogs off into a small little pocket hehe it makes even the beginning phases more deadly mwahahaha

dhim 2024-10-10 10:52

- @shreemp the planning phase is indeed critical, and that one place where I should have implemented something better than pure random().. - Getting close to lotuses - Avoid clumping your frogs - Count the number of possible move from each spots.. - @Kanity : thank you for the comments, I am guessing that the brutal jump to the target position is a bit jarring, I wanted to use some animation, but that was not fitting the existing drawing code (frogs belong to a quad, they don't have their own position...). - @nickhellquist , @lightningst : Thank you for playing - @budster16 Did you feel that the map were different enough ?

jellyfishhunter 2024-10-10 15:37

Interesting mechanics that force you to put some thought into every move. I can perfectly see myself playing this game with a friend on a regular basis, trying to outsmart each other.

frastarlaw 2024-10-10 19:23

Very nice game to play together :smiley:

aentro 2024-10-11 08:12

I enjoy it. But I think it's to easy to play with Ai. Since it maybe unrealizable to make a Ai that can defeat human, so maybe you can give the Ai more frogs.

samuel-fine 2024-10-12 16:11

Building a two-player (or one-player WITH AI) board-game-style game with rule restrictions in 48 hours is no small feat. The frogs were too cute, I felt bad defeating my opponent! Maybe next time all frogs can be winners. (jk obviously all frogs are always winners :frog:)

enderswype 2024-10-14 16:36

really impressive having an AI to play against, even if it's not making the best moves sometimes, and the possibility to play PvP is really cool

lllarso 2024-10-16 14:42

A lot of comments. When I think that I already read something, I'll be very short in my feedback.

- I really liked the design of the board. For me it was all the time clear where I could go and what my steps would lead to. The visual feedback helped also a lot. Blinking frogs and highlighting the areas was very good. - The UI is very simple, but fits to the game. The frogs look good. - I also think that the music did not fit. But apart from that the frog sounds were also a little bit too much for me after a while of playing. You used different sound effects, which is a good thing, but maybe it was too loud or just too much, I can't really tell. - The AI was not that strong, but what I really liked is, that you have a Multiplayer mode, which works well. Very cool!

Greetings from our Turn-Based-Strategy-Team to you. 48hours for this product...you've got my respect! ;)

weirdbitgames 2024-10-21 16:33

I LOVE the cute frog art! (It's what drew me in to play your game <3). The cute sound effects are adorable too! It's nice to find a game that puzzles the mind and makes you think tactically. A really cool entry btw!

bradur 2024-10-22 10:54

It's admirable that you took on a completely new board game during a compo! I can't tell if it's compelling between two people but I can say it was a little too easy against the computer. Although I can't even imagine how much work it would be to create a proper AI opponent.

I liked the little sounds the frogs make and the art is very cute.

zimny11 2024-10-23 19:28

That is really impressive for a compo entry! Especially that you implemented an AI opponent! Game mechanic are super easy to understand and fun to play. Nice sound effects and soundtrack too. I love board games, so this was a blast. I started to think about maybe some other creatures expect frogs or some other game mechanics, but I guess that would destroyed simplicity and ability to pick this game up really fast. Amazing job!

kr4ft3r 2024-10-27 11:49

I tried your game now, it's a great idea and graphics are pretty, but it leaves a lot to be desired on feedback part, very important for overall experience. By feedback I mean two things, 1) due to no movement animation it was hard to say what was the move made by AI; maybe not important for gameplay, but players like to know 2) at the end I get my score but have no clue who won the game; again, maybe not important for this game, but since there is AI the players expect to know a winner. Such lack of info creates annoyance.

Those who like to rate in a fair way have to think about all other games and how justifiable it is to give a rating higher than average, considering there are games out there that will do at least twice a better job in some categories. So it is quite possible that one person may enjoy the game but is still compelled to not give higher than average rating due to fairness to other games. Also, the sad truth is your game, despite being compo, will still compete with jam games due to some people not taking the compo/jam category into much consideration.

kr4ft3r 2024-10-27 11:49

PS I meant to write the above as a response to your thread not here, sorry.

dhim 2024-10-27 13:29

Thank you for the comment @kr4ft3r ! I completely agree with the necessity for pawn animation! I wanted the frog to hop from lilypad to lilypad! I had spotted a library to do so, but I had not implemented the frog position efficiently to add animation in the last hour of the dev... But yes, it's truly missing!

Good second comment: You win! I'll add that to my checklist of stuff to check when I am releasing. I tend to have the shortest game loop to efficiently test the game while coding, and forget that people only play once and need an ending! Next edition, nice end screen with a leaderboard!

I do agree with the rating process, and I am not sore to raters, I am disappointed not to have reached a top100 in some categories, but indeed, there are so many excellent entries above me!