Arks of Mercy
=============

A Ludum Dare #17 entry by Noe Falzon (Tenoch)


Be the savior of an endangered nation, as the level of the waters rise ineluctably. Guide your people to the safest mountains, build boats, teleportation towers and mighty shelters before it is too late!

EDIT: tiny post-deadline bugfix. Archives have been updated. If you want to (and you should) judge the pre-deadline version, just assume the game would crash when trying to select a non completed ark =) Thanks to allen and Almost for reporting it!

How to run
----------

Windows: double-click arks_of_mercy.bat, or similar. You can change the window size by editing the .bat files or creating your own.

GNU/Linux: run arks_of_mercy.sh (depending on your file manager, double clicking on it might be enough). You will need the following libraries: Lua 5.1, SDL, SDL_image, SDL_mixer, SDL_gfx, SDL_ttf.

You can modify this file to change the window size (especially if the game doesn't run at the first try). For instance, replace the contents with:

lua main.lua 800 600
or
lua main.lua 1024 768 fullscreen

(or run these commands directly...)

Controls
--------

The game was designed to be used with a gamepad (I have a DualShock clone), but provides keyboard replacements as well.

D-pad/Arrows : move
Left and right shoulders / S and F : rotate camera
Left and right triggers / E and D : zoom in and out
Cross / Spacebar : bring menu, select, action, etc.
Circle / G : cancel

And shortcuts, without which it is still possible to play:
Square / R : place beacon
Triangle / T : place boat

Now of course, all gamepads have different numbering systems and that kind of stuff, and since there is no ingame keymapper, you'll have to modify the file keymap.lua. It should be mostly self explanatory. You can of course modify the default keys as well.

Additional keys, mostly for fun:

1: toggle wireframe
2: toggle land color
3: print FPS rate
4: while held, water raises a lot faster
Escape: quit instantly

Gameplay
--------

The inhabitants of this small world are pretty dumb. They will wander randomly, and only flee the water when it is really close. But they can get trapped on islands and die tragically there when the water comes, which is why you need to guide them.

1. Beacons

Place a beacon above the land by bringing the menu and chosing the weird four-piked item, or alternatively, by pressing "place beacon". The circle around it is its area of influence. Guys in it will be attracted to the beacon.

To remove a beacon, place the cursor close to it and press "beacon" or "action" (shortcuts come in handy when objects are close to each other).

Note that you have a limited number of beacons at the same time on the map. When the limit is reached, the first ones will disapear.

2. Boats

Create a boat on the sea by bringing the menu and chosing the flat round item, or alternatively, by pressing "place boat".

Pressing "action" near the boat will bring its own menu, with three items: load, unload, destroy.
Chose load, move the cursor to a land zone with people, and press "action". The boat will start moving towards the goal, and when it arrives, all the people within the area of influence indicated when aiming will try to board the boat.

There are only 10 places on a boat.

Unloading works the same. Sometimes the boat will not unload, because the terrain is not safe, try again seconds later, or further away.

Delete, well, deletes the boat, including its passengers.

There is also a limited number of boats, but the first ones won't be automatically deleted. Instead, the "boat" item will not show up in the menu.
Sometimes the guys are really dumb and throw themselves to the sea while trying to board the ship. Oh well...


3. Teleportation towers

The third item in the menu, tall pyramid with four legs, is a teleportation tower. Place it on the ground, like a beacon. Note that it takes some time to build. You can cancel its creation by bringing up its menu and chosing the delete item.

Once built, a new item will appear in its menu: linking to another tower. Chose it, move near another tower, and press "action". Note that the towers must be in line of sight. A red line (instead of the lightnings) indicate non line of sight.

Once linked to another tower, a new item appears: calling people. All the people in a close range around the tower will enter it, and reappear outside the linked tower. Use in conjunction with a beacon to attract people as close as possible.

Note that you are limited to 4 towers. Note also that the links are one way. If you can explicitly make to towers point at each other, it is in no way mandatory. You can make a network, or a chain, or anything you like. Remember also that you can change the target by selecting again the link item.

4. Arks

The ultimate shelter. The boats are safe, but they contain only a few people. To save your entire population, you need to build these huge floating cities. Each shelter can hold 100 persons.

You are not limited in the number of shelters you build.
Beware, the construction is not automatic like teleport towers. The construction speed is proportionnal to the number of people close to the ark! Use beacons to attract people really close!

Once built, the ark's menu contains one option: making the close people embark. You cannot destroy an ark, or unload its passengers.

Once the water reaches the ark, it will start floating to safety!

5. Victory?

There is no winning or losing condition. The aim is to save as many people as possible. The game stops when all the people are either dead, or rescued.

During the game, you can check your advance by bringing up the menu. The numbers shown are the people still in need of rescue, and the people rescued. The game always starts at 500.


License
-------

The source code is under GNU GPL v3.
Music and graphics are cc-by-nc-sa.

GNU/Linux notes:
----------------

The game comes with a precompiled binary (evolcore.so) created on a Ubuntu system. If it doesn't work on your particular distribution, compile evolcore.c into a shared library evolcore.so, linked against the libraries mentioned earlier. You can use the provided SConstruct, if you have the scons building system installed.