The N.I.D. Project by Somnium
*EDIT - I have created a post-compo version of the game, as well as written a post-mortem. See below for links*
As the war became more desperate, the High Command authorized the deployment of a highly unconventional weapon,
in order to turn the tides.
You are this weapon, a cloud of sentient nanites, merging with human minds, as you drift from host to host.
Your purpose: To infiltrate a secure military facility, in order to extract valuable intelligence from key personnel inside.
The included .zip-file contains a runnable jar-file, as well as a cmd-file which starts it (in case your .jar-extension has been hijacked by another program).
I've had a few friends verify that the jar-file also works on Linux, so I've added the link as a Linux-patform link as well. Let me know if it does not work for you on Linux!
This game requires Java in order to run. It was developed using the excellent LibGDX framework, and the graphics were drawn in Aseprite.
This is my first Ludum Dare, so I'd appreciate any feedback that you might have!
*Added information:*
I have also made a post-compo version of my game, including enhancements taken from my TODO-list as well as the from the comments below.
Improvements include: Smoother movement, the ability to probe the minds of your hosts (discovering their secrets, and finding ways to manipulate their actions), additional visual and sound feedback, individual host mental traits, more statistics upon mission completion, and more.
You can download the post-compo version here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21601438/ld32/LD32_Somnium_The_NID_Project_postcompo.zip
I have also written a post-mortem for the game, which can be found here:
http://ludumdare.com/compo/2015/05/05/the-n-i-d-project-a-post-mortem/
As the war became more desperate, the High Command authorized the deployment of a highly unconventional weapon,
in order to turn the tides.
You are this weapon, a cloud of sentient nanites, merging with human minds, as you drift from host to host.
Your purpose: To infiltrate a secure military facility, in order to extract valuable intelligence from key personnel inside.
The included .zip-file contains a runnable jar-file, as well as a cmd-file which starts it (in case your .jar-extension has been hijacked by another program).
I've had a few friends verify that the jar-file also works on Linux, so I've added the link as a Linux-patform link as well. Let me know if it does not work for you on Linux!
This game requires Java in order to run. It was developed using the excellent LibGDX framework, and the graphics were drawn in Aseprite.
This is my first Ludum Dare, so I'd appreciate any feedback that you might have!
*Added information:*
I have also made a post-compo version of my game, including enhancements taken from my TODO-list as well as the from the comments below.
Improvements include: Smoother movement, the ability to probe the minds of your hosts (discovering their secrets, and finding ways to manipulate their actions), additional visual and sound feedback, individual host mental traits, more statistics upon mission completion, and more.
You can download the post-compo version here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21601438/ld32/LD32_Somnium_The_NID_Project_postcompo.zip
I have also written a post-mortem for the game, which can be found here:
http://ludumdare.com/compo/2015/05/05/the-n-i-d-project-a-post-mortem/
Ratings
| Coolness | 100% | 1 |
| Overall | 3.12 | 599 |
| Fun | 2.80 | 770 |
| Graphics | 2.38 | 929 |
| Humor | 2.49 | 676 |
| Innovation | 3.67 | 198 |
| Mood | 2.88 | 596 |
| Theme | 3.76 | 225 |
As for the pacing and "jerky" movements, the "mood" I was going for, was that of an unseen presence hiding among the personnel, jumping from host to host with eerie timing. So I felt I needed to make it easy to discern the movement patterns, and to easily time the transferrals.
I especially enjoyed my concept in the sense, that I was able to continuously draw new ideas from it during development. This to a degree where I had to be very picky about which of the ideas I chose to implement, in order to be able complete the game on time.
Still, I might have been a bit too ambitious, since I ended up working until right before the deadline... :-)
As for influencing the host, I agree. My original design had three levels of mind integration, where the third would allow you to influence your host in various ways, depending on what you had learned about him. But I did not have sufficient time to implement that feature.
- smooth menu experience
- quite tense, even without any music ... or maybe lack of music increases the tension?
- small nitpick: would maybe be nice to have 'transfer to new host' (better) visible on the map, instead of just ungreying the 'transfer' button
At first I didn't understand that you had to go deeper into their minds. Also the movement could have been smoothed a little more. Sometimes it was tricky to transfer to a new host because he was passing by so quickly.
I like the idea of the mental stress level, but unfortunately it was not really relevant, since you could easily get around without it ever getting critical.
I could see this principal working if it got a little more polish :)
Still a solid Compo entry especially for a first timer.
Note: the left status bar panel was covering the game, which is not all that practical from user experience perspective.
All in all, a very enjoyable game.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21601438/ld32/LD32_Somnium_The_NID_Project_postcompo.zip