This Town (ABEFTTOU) by ThatSnail

[raw]
made by ThatSnail for LD23 (COMPO)
Aaah it's almost time isn't it oh no.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
The game runs on the XNA framework, so the game is in the form of a self-extracting installer. The game can be "uninstalled" by going into All Programs and Features in Windows and uninstalling Engine.exe.

Also, for people with bad graphics cards, the postcompo version is compiled in Reach mode for that. I'd do it for the compo one too but I don't have the commit for that anymore :(

Quick Summary:
Catch up to your enemy by building energy harvesters that speed you up after you cross them. Research items to do nice things with them. Whoever catches up to the other first shoots them and wins.

That's all you really need to know. go go go go go go

Linear RTS. Shoot your enemy before he shoots you. Speed yourself up by building harvesters. Slow your enemy down by researching dead babies, detonators, and the elusive nuke.

Left Click is only control. You cannot walk backwards.

Some things to try:
-Drop dead babies to slow down your enemy.
-Better yet, throw dead babies in the air to take down enemy harvesters.
-The detonator destroys harvesters within a small radius (including your own). Useful to drop harvesters on the enemy this way, hint hint.
-Nuke destroys all enemy harvesters etc.

Good LD this time enjoy everyone etc.

EDIT: Why didn't /anyone/ tell me the game wasn't working on their machines?

I uploaded the working one post-deadline. There's no changes except that it's actually packaged correctly so now it'll run on machines that don't already have XNA installed. Hopefully that's alright? :<

EDIT 2: Well, it works now. But there's a pretty game-breaking bug where the enemy would freeze if he hit a generator.

I've uploaded the fixed version but for the sake of honesty the old one is still up. For the compo I'd recommend you judge based on that one.

Ratings

Coolness 36% 809
Overall 2.44 754
Audio 2.41 460
Fun 2.28 713
Graphics 3.06 343
Humor 2.41 340
Innovation 3.11 349
Mood 2.44 590
Theme 3.50 184

Feedback

mattchu
23. Apr 2012 路 23:08 UTC
Seemed a bit difficult to win, regardless of where I placed the towers. The one time I got a dead baby, it seemed to throw itself at me.
MadGnomeGamer
23. Apr 2012 路 23:43 UTC
Hey ThatSnail! We meet again! (I'm really SkullSoft, but I changed my name after finding out that some other software company had it.) Going to play your game now.
MadGnomeGamer
23. Apr 2012 路 23:52 UTC
Sorry....I can't get it to work. It pops up the (.exe has stopped working...)
馃帳 ThatSnail
24. Apr 2012 路 00:26 UTC
Augh it wasn't packaged right, why didn't anyone tell me?!

Fixed version is up. I promise there are no changes except the packaging.

Sorry guys.
馃帳 ThatSnail
24. Apr 2012 路 00:55 UTC
...aand the working version now has a bug that pretty much breaks the game.

There's a postjam update that fixes it but I recommend you rate the game based on the un-updated one.
mneubrand
24. Apr 2012 路 02:04 UTC
Cool concept. Really tough game tough. I tried at least 20 times and couldn't shoot the damn other guy once. I really like the hand-drawn graphical style of it too.
TyrusPeace
24. Apr 2012 路 02:06 UTC
I couldn't figure out a way to catch consistently up with my enemy as both energy and research seemed to slow me down. The doodly style was neat and I can see this working with some bug fixes. Keep trying :)!
MadGnomeGamer
24. Apr 2012 路 02:33 UTC
What's this Windows XNA setup?
MadGnomeGamer
24. Apr 2012 路 02:37 UTC
CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After waiting for XNA to be installed it said my graphics card wasn't good enough!
馃帳 ThatSnail
24. Apr 2012 路 02:38 UTC
Augh. Same happened to my friend. Sorry.
Also XNA is just the Windows framework used with C# to make games. I'd have a standalone but there's no other way to package XNA games which is sort of retarded.

Sorry again :<
VDOgamez
24. Apr 2012 路 03:00 UTC
I don't like how it tries to install itself, but the game is really neat. I like the way the actions are balanced between "retain speed" and "lose speed but gain more in the future". It's a simple concept, but it's pretty interesting.
Jungorend
24. Apr 2012 路 03:42 UTC
I didn't like how it seems like the computer doesn't need to stop to place harvesters, felt a bit unfair. Something rewarding speeding through the green harvesters though.
馃帳 ThatSnail
24. Apr 2012 路 23:57 UTC
VDOgamez:
Yeah, sorry. Only way to package XNA. Included a little disclaimer in the description.

Jungorend:
The computer's harvesters are twice as strong as yours too, but that's to compensate for the fact that you can use items. The original plan was for the AI to have the same abilities as you but that got canned due to time.

Thanks both of you for playing and giving feedback!

Also for everyone who couldn't play due to graphics card problems, the postcompo version is now built in Reach mode which fixes that. It should work now.
Kitch
25. Apr 2012 路 03:14 UTC
Just for reference... XNA games do not need to be packaged. You can zip up the files in your bin/release folder after a build. This is more convenient for people that already have it installed.
robcozzens
25. Apr 2012 路 03:39 UTC
I would have played it if there was a Web or OSX version.
brus46
25. Apr 2012 路 18:24 UTC
I think the game it's really funny, cool graphics and perfect music for the theme.
I didn't like the "dead baby" research.. that's not funny at all actually.
Shadow
25. Apr 2012 路 23:10 UTC
Good game! It was confusing at first, but then I got the hang of it. First time I've seen something like this. As an advice though, people tend to prefer games that doesn't require installation. Even having to download something is -for most of them- already a PITA. You will also reach a broader audience if you make -for example- a web based game. (html5, flash, unity, whatever).
Anyway, lovely entry. Liked it a lot (except for the dead babies thing... I mean... it was .. like... disturbing).
invaderJim
27. Apr 2012 路 01:41 UTC
Love the graphic style. And I can't argue with throwing dead babies.
Jesper Oskarsson
27. Apr 2012 路 21:03 UTC
I found this really fun to play when I figured out how to play. I figure you need to do as much as possible in the beginning because later the speed is to great to be able to afford slowing down.

It felt a bit too random though, I couldn't really figure out a way to play to win. I managed to win twice, once by just mashing out energy and getting lucky with the timing and the other one I got a lot of nukes.

The game has potential though! Good work!
Raptor85
30. Apr 2012 路 22:45 UTC
cant test as it requires xna, doesn't run under WINE
Gareth Jenkins
07. May 2012 路 06:44 UTC
Love the style & audio -- couldn't figure out what to do properly though. Nice use of theme as well.
pokefan
12. May 2012 路 17:14 UTC
Can't run it.
Don't have program and it won't install it