FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD56 → Tiny Wars

Tiny Wars

By ziobob

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2892.9027
Fun2522.9628
Innovation3092.4428
Theme1913.4828
Graphics2992.5928
Humor2792.0226
Mood2942.5426

Comments

dimoseek 2024-10-07 23:18

GAME ARE VERY NICE!

2024-10-08 17:49

The Wars might be Tiny, yet they're still rather challenging!

I managed to win at my first try, and I played the game some more times as well. Each time, the foe's insects cornered me and I barely managed not to let them invade my nest (thanks, bulky beetles <3 ).

When you finally can deploy spiders, at first it seems that you're going to have a smooth win, but then the foe's beetles suddenly slip past them! Rather than calling this a "bug" (surprisingly fitting for this game), I'd call this a feature, since it adds a layer of unexpected difficulty.

Overall the challenge is balanced.

I'd tweak just a couple things:

1) The ants' usefulness lasts too little. It's a better strategy to save resources to build beetles and spiders right after the first 15 seconds of game (or maybe even less).

2) The resource counter being placed in the top left corner forces you to focus your sight there instead of on the field. This can get annoying if you're playing on full-screen mode. I'd suggest placing the resource counter on the bottom center portion of the screen, or maybe beside the spider icon.

I'll give a plus to this game because smashing the enemy's nest with a gajillion spiders in the end is fun! XD

shp 2024-10-08 20:30

Very nice tug of war style game! Simple but effective design, not immediately obvious which strategy works best (ended up swarming the opponent with tiny ants in the end, very funny)

pietmichal 2024-10-08 21:46

I enjoyed the quick gameplay! Consider expanding it with deckbuilding and different bug properties.

kiv 2024-10-08 22:40

Nice minimalistic game!

sudocoffee 2024-10-09 00:00

It was neat experimenting with massing different types of bugs to see how they did (large swarms of ants did surprisingly well). I couldn't tell what increased the rate I gained resources, was that connected to the number of bugs you had out on the field?

ziobob 2024-10-09 09:55

Thank you everyone for playing!

@sudocoffee I had to increase the rate of the gained resources in time because also the enemy had a gain in spawn rate. I think I will put a new unit in the future where bees(?) help you make more resources :smiley:

2024-10-09 11:49

Good job ziobob!

frostblooded 2024-10-09 12:55

Pretty cool game, wish there was more of it. :) It was pretty cool when I realized that I can spawn a bunch of small ants and they are strong together. Later I saw that it says the same thing in the description. :D Nice game design, keep it going! :)

deantwotwo 2024-10-09 18:21

Cool! Really wish to see more of your ideas added in the future!

ziobob 2024-10-09 19:09

Thank you all! I will let you know

2024-10-09 20:42

Very fun project, I can see a lot of potential to build upon! I've played my fair share of rounds and won with many different strategies (though the ant stampede is one of the funniest). Some more variety or build-ups could be key to a more replayable experience but as far as the project goes it's very fun and solid.

Very nice job, and good luck!!

crcdng 2024-10-09 23:03

interesting, would like to see the next version with sound and some more features. for example seeing the overall health and health of the animals would be nice. maybe some insects can jump or dig below. multiple lanes.

rillep 2024-10-10 08:51

I really liked the counter system. On my second play I tried to win by just making ants as an experiment, but then one spider ate them all! So I had to make some beatles to survive.

lucinabox 2024-10-10 11:27

I really enjoyed this game! Awesome game play and mechanics!

thomas-bringer 2024-10-10 12:02

Pretty good, I enjoy auto battlers!

The biggest piece of advice I could give you though is to polish your game: add sound effects, make the combat very impactful with effects, stuff like that. For now the game feels a little bit "empty", looks more like a prototype than a complete game. Also I think some job could be made to make the game clearer to a new player: show the cost of an insect to the player, add a text "Buy" or something to convey the mechanics, etc. My last suggestion is to add a few more graphical assets to make it look less empty and also to keep a constant pixel size for your pixel art games (but that's a personal preference, some like it the way you did).

Anyway, great potential, but yeah game feel/polish is everything in my opinion, I'm sure you can take your game to the next level with a few simple tricks!

lumbra 2024-10-10 12:16

Good job! minimalistic but fun :]

plusminus 2024-10-10 12:24

bot seems to have fewer resources, easy win? on the other hand mine is the opposite :D

chuckeles 2024-10-10 12:26

CleanShot 2024-10-10 at 14.25.54@2x.png

Yay I did it! Cool little game.

nimbushead 2024-10-10 15:00

Cool! The graphics were great, and there was some strategic depth, mostly with timing. I like the use of the keyboard so that I didn't have to worry about precise mouse clicks.

rotob123 2024-10-10 16:43

pretty nice graphics! at the end of game, i just spammed spider to obliterate them! :sweat_smile:

ziobob 2024-10-11 05:34

ahah thank you all for playing and feedbacks! :smile:

captaindreamcast 2024-10-12 17:36

I did it, I conquered the enemy base as well! I went full ant mode near the end, it was quite the sight to behold the full line moving towards victory. Whenever the enemy spawned a spider, the ranks were pushed back significantly, but I still managed to hold out and zerg rush them. Felt super good! I liked the design of the different types, I liked how it focused on the numbers/power tradeoff, but in a way it didn't feel like all would be lost if you save up for one big unit if that makes sense. I felt the pace was nice and fast in the game, the front line moving forward and backward, making this super engaging all the way through. Great job with the design on that! Cool game, very well done!