Conquest Of The Mayans by PTSnoop

[raw]
made by PTSnoop for LD25 (JAM)
In the Gregorian Calendar, the date is the 21st December 2012. In the Mayan Long Count, the date is 13.0.0.0.0, and it is time for the Mayan Hordes to emerge from their slumber and bring an end to civilization as we know it.

And it's up to you to lead the Mayan Hordes, beset upon all sides by modern diseases, the Resistance, shoddy stonemasonry, and the occasional meteorite.

-

Yes, maybe I was a little too enamored of the End Of The World theme. But I've been meaning to make a globe-view end-of-the-world game (a la Pandemic, Fate Of The World, Defcon et al) for a while now, and I thought, why not. At least this way you get to extend your villanous schemes across whole continents.

Starts off nice and easy, unless the random number generator hates you. But don't get too complacent, the fun really begins once you've got a few more pyramids built.

This game was put together in 48 hours, but it was the *wrong* 48 hours (Sunday-Monday), so it's a Jam entry. And my sound card's been playing up, so you'll have to make do with a Silent Edition (sorry).

And yeah, I apologise for the lack of post-apocalyptic goats.

Enjoy.

--- Instructions ---

Okay, so a few people have asked for a more detailed description of what you're meant to be doing.

You are the leader of the Mayan Horde. Your aim is to subjugate the people of Earth, and to build six pyramids across the world.

At the bottom of the screen, you'll see some statistics. These tell you how much Logistics points you have, and how serious the various threats to your Mayan Horde are.

Over time, different events will happen - these events will generally be an outbreak of disease among your forces, an act of the Resistance against you, or a threat to your Mayan stonemasonry. You can choose either to Take Action, which will cost you one Logistics point, or to do nothing. If you have no Logistics points, then the Take Action button will do nothing.

Most of the time ,taking action will stop things from getting any worse, while doing nothing has a chance that things will escalate.

As disease spreads / Resistance increases / stonemasonry gets more shoddy, the number of events happening increases. At the start of the game, you'll probably have enough Logistics points to take care of everything (I never did get that difficulty curve quite how I'd like it). As the game goes on, you'll have to start making tougher and tougher choices about where your energy is best spent.

Every so often, you'll have a chance to build new pyramids. Each pyramid increases the range of your dominion, and also gain you a few more Logistics points, but also increases the number of Events you'll have to cope with, so choose carefully.

Left click selects, right click rotates the camera. The time controls at the top are Pause / 1x / 3x / 10x speed.

Ratings

Coolness 64% 3
Overall(Jam) 2.85 205
Audio(Jam) 1.33 266
Fun(Jam) 2.31 263
Graphics(Jam) 3.15 172
Humor(Jam) 2.26 209
Innovation(Jam) 3.38 72
Mood(Jam) 2.70 201
Theme(Jam) 2.69 255

Feedback

zompi
17. Dec 2012 · 20:16 UTC
I'm not quite sure what to do, just pressing on tha white beams and pressing action. The game freezed by the way.
But the idea is interesting and graphics are made well.
Dark Acre Jack
17. Dec 2012 · 20:22 UTC
Very cool. Kind of like a stripped-down XCOM without all the messy tactical alien shit. Would be nice if the events were confined to continental land-masses, a surprising number of rebellions occurring in the midst of oceans.
mrspeaker
17. Dec 2012 · 20:27 UTC
I agree with zompi - can we have some more explicit instructions! (I also agree with "interesting idea"!
Volpes
17. Dec 2012 · 20:34 UTC
Very nice gameplay, but very hard to play with a mouse pad. Moving the globe with the keyboard would have been nice.
And this is the first unity game I have seen in this compo, that supported Linux. Thanks for that!
DavidErosa
17. Dec 2012 · 20:36 UTC
At first I was taking action all the time, but the I thought... "what the hell, I'm suposed to be the villain..." so started to ignore everything... Until I lost :D
kogyblack
17. Dec 2012 · 20:40 UTC
It's a good idea...
You should add a skybox of the universe (instead of bricks), that should fit better. Also, you could add more options to actions... I just kept hitting white beams and taking action, since refusing seemed to be worse...
And the game freezed when I hit a beam (away from the pyramid) and a meteor destroyed my pyramid..
Sam Driver
17. Dec 2012 · 20:42 UTC
The effect of acting on particular events isn't too clear, but their flavour has a pleasant darkly comic feel.
quill18
17. Dec 2012 · 20:44 UTC
I like the art style!
Smaxx
17. Dec 2012 · 23:03 UTC
Nice idea, the style of the "chocolate earth" is interesting, yet it fits. But as others said, I'd change the environment to not show the brown squares/bricks. Either show stars or - might be interesting, too - the interior of a Mayan temple.
JoeCool17
17. Dec 2012 · 23:05 UTC
It seems more like a mad dash to fix the problems than a RtS I think you wanted it to be. Also, the gui telling me that something happened wouldn't go away after my pyramid was destroyed. Bug?
It could use a pyramid-making mechanic that involves the players more- like give them a preset cost to build another, requiring, let's say, 4 Logisitics pts.
It's too tall- I can't see all of the game on my screen

Overall, I love the concept! You should make a post-compo version!
Kharza
17. Dec 2012 · 23:13 UTC
This is really deeper than it looks first glance, a real balancing act. Also it might have just been coincidence, but any action taken to save a pyramid always failed.
cdata
19. Dec 2012 · 05:00 UTC
Oi, I am really bad at building pyramids :(

I really like the premise of this game. I wish that it was a little easier to control rotation of the planet (or at least that it was easier to tell when there were actionable events on the other side of the globe that I couldn't see). Also, it would be cool if the consequences of taking action vs. not taking action on various events were visible on the planet somehow.

I think the potential for added game content with AI opponents is really big here. You should keep working on it :) I would like to see more!
oldtopman
19. Dec 2012 · 05:06 UTC
The game's text doesn't load, (possibly) among other things. http://i.imgur.com/BWyYY.png

No rating from me, but it looks pretty good!

Linux Xavier 3.2.29 #2 SMP Mon Sep 17 14:19:22 CDT 2012 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 640 Processor AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

Slackware 14.0(64), upgraded from 13.37(64).
pighead10
19. Dec 2012 · 16:26 UTC
I lost for apparently no reason - it said there were people taking over my temple, and I crushed them then lost. Also, I wasn't given an opportunity for a new temple in the entire game.
Floko
20. Dec 2012 · 04:16 UTC
ahah, funny x) the cows look cute
AtkinsSJ
20. Dec 2012 · 16:52 UTC
The interface feels nice - having to spin the Earth around so as to try not to miss things adds a nice sense of panic. :)

However, it is a bit light on choices. Basically, click 'Take action' for everything if you have enough logistics points, otherwise panic. Not sure what to add to it though.

Also, I saw that there are other building options (the mason training camp) so perhaps there is some depth but it's hidden behind the random number generator, and the difficulty. :)
Norgg
21. Dec 2012 · 14:50 UTC
Really difficult game. I managed to get a second pyramid up on my third or so attempt, but then got totally swamped by many, many more rebellion events than I could possibly deal with. Not sure if I was meant to ignore those and concentrate on the really vital stuff (like keeping enough logistics saved to rescue my pyramids), but it was pretty much impossible to click through everything in time. It's be nice if there was some icon to indicate the type of event so you could focus your actions a bit better.
Norgg
21. Dec 2012 · 14:51 UTC
Argh, but I forgot should add that I do like the idea and enjoyed it!
Udrian
24. Dec 2012 · 09:52 UTC
Interesting idea, could be more fun if the gameplay is expanded upon!
bitwise-constructs
06. Jan 2013 · 04:31 UTC
Interesting idea and I like the graphics, but the gameplay is a little unintuitive.