Seismic Charge by J.Barrows

[raw]
made by J.Barrows for LD29 (COMPO)
There is a monster dwelling beneath the surface, and only high explosives can stop it.
Click on screen to drop an explosive charge into the earth. when the charge explodes it destroys anything in a small radius (indicated by an orange circle) and provides seismic readings in a larger radius (indicated by a blue circle) which reveal the location of silver, gold, diamond, and the current location of the monster (indicated by a red X).
The monster is always on the move, so you will need to use multiple charges to locate and destroy it.
Your charges start off weak, but with every $1000 of treasure you find, you will receive upgrades.

You'll need to download the html version, sorry. My host didn't work as I was expecting.

CURRENT ISSUES [And Future Plans]
* No prompt for game start - You can start playing as soon as the "$0 - LV.1" appears in the top-right corner
[A prompt should display "Click to drop a charge"]
* No Sound
[The explosion should make a noise, but music could detract from the mood of the game. Maybe music that is only be audible in time with the charges]
* No limits makes the game very easy
[Charges should take time to load between launches. Load speed should be upgradeable]
* No clear indication of when a treasure is collected.
[Display the type of treasure and its value when collected. Treasures will be made to look the same]
* No risk to the player
[Charges could cost money, forcing the player to be conservative. Monster could reproduce in time, forcing the player to choose between collecting upgrades to take out many monsters quickly, or targeting the monster immediately to stop it from getting out of control]

Ratings

Coolness 58% 3
Overall 2.70 1007
Fun 2.59 923
Graphics 2.30 1085
Innovation 2.91 660
Mood 2.42 1024
Theme 2.87 867

Feedback

馃帳 J.Barrows
28. Apr 2014 路 01:17 UTC
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, I would love to know what you think no matter what!
Shire
28. Apr 2014 路 10:22 UTC
It's a little hard to differentiate the symbols on the screen
Stuffie
28. Apr 2014 路 14:12 UTC
Hmm. I couldnt get the game to run, it got stuck on the black screen with "$0 - Lvl1" in the corner. Web player version :(.
howieV (binarygirl)
28. Apr 2014 路 14:31 UTC
i was sat with the black screen waiting for something to happen for ages hah.. didnt realize it had started ;p good effort man :)
馃帳 J.Barrows
28. Apr 2014 路 14:32 UTC
Actually, it was probably running fine, but I should have added a prompt to tell you what to do.
You can click to drop a bomb, and the bombs light up the surrounding area
Tipyx
28. Apr 2014 路 14:37 UTC
It could be sooo better with a little of sound :) ! But the concept is very nice ! Maybe a word in the beginning to say "Click to play" :p
Lrnk
28. Apr 2014 路 14:38 UTC
Interesting concept. Would be good if there was some penalty for using charges, as I was able to win by just clicking everywhere loads. Nice and original though!
granut100
29. Apr 2014 路 00:46 UTC
Good game! It was easy to win and there was no sound?
AGDG_REJECT
29. Apr 2014 路 05:36 UTC
A neat little game. Some audio and maybe a bit of juice and it'd a real winner.
BruceDoh
29. Apr 2014 路 05:39 UTC
Good start, but there needs to be a bit more challenge, and something to prevent the player from just spamming clicks all over the screen. I beat it in about 15 seconds by just clicking frantically.
bvanschooten
29. Apr 2014 路 16:38 UTC
A really interesting idea. It needs a losing condition though. I think you could also add more strategy by indicating direction as well as location. The game worked fine on Linux.
hyouko
30. Apr 2014 路 03:18 UTC
It feels like the depth charges should cost me something. Right now there's no risk of failure - I can just spam as many depth charges as I want until I hit the monster, it seems.
arrogant.gamer
01. May 2014 路 00:52 UTC
I'm agreeing with the general sentiment: neat idea, but it needs more polish. Sound for the blasts, a prompt that says "start now!", and a risk of failure should be high on your list.
miwuc
01. May 2014 路 06:56 UTC
Even after reading the instructions, it took me a while to realize that yes, the game had finished loading, and to figure out what was going on. But when I did, I actually really enjoyed playing the game. Even if there's no real challenge, it's very satisfying to play (who doesn't like to collect money and power ups!)
You could add a little bit of challenge by keeping highscores based on the number of bombs dropped and/or the time taken to win.
joe40001
01. May 2014 路 08:04 UTC
I like the premise but it seems too easy, the balance to gameplay needs tweaking. You can spam click and win really fast and the monster doesn't pose any threat that motivates the player to click faster slower or anything else. It's a seed of a fun idea just not quite there yet. Still keep at it, I like the creativity.
馃帳 J.Barrows
01. May 2014 路 15:59 UTC
Thanks for the tips everyone. I'm going to try to get a better build together soon.
My original objective was to have a delay after a click to load a new charge, as well as being able to upgrade separate features including load time and number of charges per load.
I don't really want to have a "Game Over" condition, maybe just increased difficulty as time progresses. The monster could multiply after a certain amount of time
I think that I will also make all the treasures look the same until you collect them.
Wertle
02. May 2014 路 04:34 UTC
The automatic ramp-up actually felt pretty good, I think going in to a menu to upgrade things may have broken up the flow. Maybe time pressure would be nice. Good job :)
BlazingFanfish
02. May 2014 路 07:37 UTC
I'm just clicking randomly and rapidly and suddenly I win. Not sure what happened :v
Teesquared
06. May 2014 路 02:22 UTC
Interesting idea. Not sure what I did to win.
jujule
14. May 2014 路 20:00 UTC
I enjoyed it a lot. I like the radical minimalistic graphics. I agree with most of the idea you have in mind to refine gameplay, mostly to make it harder, but I also think part of the fun was to frantically click around the position where the monster was first spotted. Maybe you shouldn't so much put restrictions on bombing capacities but make the monster faster. Just an idea. Anyways, good job.