Tiny Empires by Jack Maxwell
:star: CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO PLAY [MAKE SURE YOU PLAY IN FULL SCREEN] :star:
:joystick: *CONTROLS * :joystick:
Move the mouse and click.
Use arrow keys to move the camera
THE GAME
Create your own empire from scratch! Manage resources! Trade! Protect you empire from the barbarians looking to take your loot! Be careful about just ending your turn, as the more tiles means the more pirates, also make sure you don't stockpile money as this will result in more pirates seeking your booty. This is my first ever Ludum Dare and I am really happy with the result. I do plan to update the game, but after LD as to not interfere with voting.
*ABOUT ME *
I everything in this game from scratch except for 1 button in the UI and the fonts. All the art, sounds, and coding was done by me and me alone. I was planning to submit for the compo but I took the extra time to fix bugs and add features.
PLANNED UPDATES
~~Bug Fixes :)~~
MORE TILES! (WATER TILES, ETC)
Gameplay balancing (Troops, costs, turns, Iron having any purpose at all)
Weather events that modify tile outputs
Rare catastrophic weather events that can destroy buildings
~~Easier cost display~~ (done in post LD V.)
Enemies establish settlements
Random Dungeons spawn that must be captured and yield great loot.
:okhand: TIPS :okhand:
Clicking the Bottom bar buttons will open AND CLOSE the popup.
Clicking the Question Mark next to the bottom bar buttons will give info on the building to the left and the cost of it
:beetle: *Known Bugs: * :ant:
THE DAMN ASPECT RATIO!! Go full screen it may work
Clicking on UI clicks through the UI too
UI layering/overlapping
Enemies don't spawn in correct numbers
:wrench: GENERAL MECHANICS :wrench:
Random Tile Placement Algorithm
Troop Spawning Algorithm (Castle)
Troop Movement System
Troop fighting system
Bank Money Reward Algorithm
:tools: Tools :tools:
Unity 3D
Photoshop CS6
Audacity
Blender
| HTML5 (web) | https://jacktenseven.itch.io/tiny-empires |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/tiny-empires |
Ratings
| Overall | 510th | 3.5⭐ | 79🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 547th | 3.344⭐ | 79🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 672th | 3.058⭐ | 79🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 980th | 2.822⭐ | 78🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 786th | 3.097⭐ | 79🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 661th | 2.466⭐ | 75🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 866th | 2.254⭐ | 67🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 705th | 3.114⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 86🗳️ | 88🗨️ |
Anyway, I liked it. I think you should draw the cost information onto the building button, instead of a different info popup, because I couldn't remember the costs of the building, and had to constantly switch between the info popups, and the shop popup (because I had tons of livestock to sell).
Also, you can move troops multiple times, but doing so will advance the round. I think you should instead not let the troops to be moved two times, and leave the turn ending to the player.
Hey thanks for the feedback! I'm really happy with the wind sound, it was my first time EVER doing SFX, and for the camera, yeah I added inertia to it but I don't think it was quite the right move.
@tthe
Yes! I had the game board right next to me while I made it. Yes the costs was a thing a considered. I ended up graying out the button if you couldn't afford it. I wanted to avoid cluttering the UI but also displaying enough info. Yes, the troop moving twice is intentional but I have made changes which I will release on itch after Ludum Dare is over that let you do as much as you want (Building, moving ect) until you end your turn yourself. I will take into consideration Not letting troops be moved twice in 1 turn.
Check out my game if you would like!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/virus-detected
Good job!
Great job!
Did I win yet? The more I have, the better it gets.
I think you have won hahaha.
Um bom conceito que tem potencial de crescimento. Parabéns pelo projeto.
@gruhh Thanks! I'll be working hard to reach that potential.
@empiray Wow Thanks!
@srabatata Thanks!
@james-dunlap yes the castle spawning bug is known and I will be working it out tonight, I'll do some testing to try and get UI to fit better. Thanks for the feedback!
Beside this fact, I really enjoyed it, I just don't really see how the more I have the worse it gets.
Maybe you should clarify this point.
The programing part is well done, the interface is very clear, animations are smooth, it's all well done!
It lacks some increasing difficulty, once you have the first villages set, you are unstoppable. It's an impressive work for a one-man-team!
Keep it up!
We had the same problem, first the mechanics, then the balance and content, if there is time, it's always the same :p
I had a bug too: when I want to move my troops, they do nothing instead, and I can't open the "move troops" menu anymore! Excepted that, it was fun to play with!
Thanks! Yes I will be working on that.
@lukuluk
Thank! I agree, yes I am aware of that bug, it is because your troops, data wise are no longer there, but physically are still there.
- making prices go up and down (supply/demand model)
- upgrading buildings
- forcing player to actually move units around (other units didn't really spawn or endanger me at all)
Thanks for the feedback! I have considered supply demand in the shop and probably will implement it, upgrading buildings is a great idea, and instead of forcing the player to move troops I plan to spawn objectives that the player needs to move troops to and capture.
Overall, a good start on a cool concept. It'd be cool to see some more stuff going on, like variance in the market, more buildings and units, that sort of thing.
other than that its a neat little game and i enjoyed the concept
https://youtu.be/zU9vU-FQwMQ
@west Did you notice the bugs are gone? I learned you can update the game to fix bugs!
@solidtiger Thanks! I agree, I will in post LD V.
@king-kujito Thanks!
@mess110 Fixed! Thanks for telling me!
I watched your video, when I uploaded the new version that fixed bugs I disabled the tutorial! Sorry! It tells the player what each tile gives. Also you never clicked on the shop button! You can buy and sell resources there!!!
Yes sorry didn't see that, thanks for your review though, the live reaction was really helpful. I will be doing balancing to make the beginning easier and the rest harder, as you've seen many others have gotten past the initial difficulty and then were fine.
To make the UI scale with resolution instead of having stuff move around, select the canvas and choose UI Scale Mode: Scale With Screen Size. This should make it work in smaller resolutions.
These sort of changes are allowed even now because they are bug-fixes and not gameplay features.
As for the game itself:
* Building stuff is fun, and having more stuff to defend with slow-moving soldiers is a nice interpretation of the theme
* The enemies weren't actually very threatening and I became quite wealthy by building a few buildings and then spamming 'end turn'.
* Nothing costs Iron?
* Some colored icons for the resources and resource costs would be more readable.
* Being able to buy and sell resources at the same prices means that all resources are equivalent (except some are twice as good as the others)
* Opening the shop should hide the building-info popup
* Placing a building on a tile that has units should not count as clicking on the units
* The wind sound gets old pretty quickly
Thanks for the feedback! I'll go in a try to get the screen size to work. 960 by 660, I'll try that. Yes the enemies are very dumb, in post LD I'll be making them build things and set up bases. Yes iron has no purpose, originally it was going to be used to upgrade your soldiers but I ran out of time. Yes the shop needs work and I agree with the icons, I've already added that in post LD version, I'll fix the popups in post LD. As for the wind sound, I agree, I can't make music so far a atmospheric sound I did that, in post LD version there will be different weather conditions which will change that sound, I will also get music made. I'll fix the unit clicking in post LD, thanks.
Also, clicking on an UI button selects the troop/house behind it if there are any which is annoying.
Moving troops sometimes bugs out and I can't select anything. And then there's the Fps problem and out of memory when going too faar :DD
Wow haha! Yeah I'll have to fix that UI thing post LD, I'm not sure about troop bugs but I'll look into it. Yeah the fps thing is crazy I need to limit the particles and clean up stuff after a while. Maybe also limit the play area since it is infinite
Some buttons (like end turn) have a pixel font, but the rest of the text is not pixelated. To be coherent you should keep the same stile in fonts. Also, when I click end turn with the shop open, I think the shop should close.
I didn't understand what I needed the iron for? Also, I think to add difficulty the buying price of the resources should be higher than the selling price, like in a real market.
Still it was interesting and well made. Congratulations :)
Anyway, here's my tiny empire:
Now, here are the things I think you may improve:
- At first, the game is difficult (maybe a bit too difficult) because you get attacked by a horde of pirates and you don't have a castle or enough resources to build it. Afterwards, however, it gets too easy, as a single castle easily overpowers pirates, and pirates don't arrive in waves anymore.
- The game needs to make more pressure on players before they change turns. After some point, I could simply click "end turn" as crazy to get resources, with no consequence, as I'm well defended.
- The game needs an objective. Be it to achieve certain score or empire size, or to survive pirate waves for certain amount of turns, or to see how many turns can you survive. Right now, it's more a sandbox than a game.
That's it. Good luck!
I thought I did fix aspect ratio, did you go into full screen? Because for now it should work properly if you are in full screen.
Yes the sound is really quiet, I didn't want to ear rape people when they open the game and the sound quality isn't that good so making it quiet hides background noise.
I used a textmesh pro font for most of the stuff, but some of the fonts I used a text font pack I had because it took less time to set up that font when I was crunching.
Iron doesn't quite have a purpose. From a functionality perspective it doesn't do anything, I planned to have it used to upgrade soldiers but I wasn't able to implement this due to time, now from a design perspective it acts as a learning tool, players feel smarter and like they have a greater understanding of the game when they realize that iron isn't useful, this can lead to the player placing buildings that don't gain resources (castle and bank) on iron tiles.
Thanks!
Yes those are my ideas.
The difficult curve is undesirable, I will address this issue in the post LD V. I plan to make the enemies spawn later in the game after the player understands the game and has a small empire, the enemies will also build settlements so they will be much more powerful.
Again spamming end turn is an unfortunate result of the difficulty curve.
Yes the game does need an objective, poor time management resulted in a failure to create an objective, I plan to limit the board size and randomly spawn Dungeons which can be captured to give loot, capturing 4 of them will end the game.
I also found some bugs:
-clicking on a button would click on the tile below building something or opening the soldiers menu.
-some times i could not move the soldiers
-parts of the user interface were outside of my window
It was fun to play nevertheless
I agree. The game doesn't really get much more difficult, it should but it is too slight of an increase that it is unnoticeable when contrasted with the players growth in power.
Thanks for the bug report Ill get on it!
Some things need to have a reoccurring cost. I can build one castle, and just keep moving new sets of troops across the board to sit on any city. The castle keeps making them so, why bother building more than 5?
Sell towns,banks, cities, etc... Get back a fraction of the price you paid, but hey hey, you shouldn't have built there. I accidentally confused castles with cities one too many times, lost out on some good real estate.
Troop lost. 4 vs 3 enemies always wins hands down. But, I never have to replenish the first set of troops that were made. At the end of a 4 vs 3 battle, the 4 is now down to 3. This way I can't have have a slow growing wall of troops moving outward as I build.
I have a lot more (because I really love this game)... but I'm not going to just flood you with "You know what you should do!?"
Great job on this game.
And I got a bug : if I active the move of troups, but they can't go anywhere, I can't disable the move, nor do something else than build or go next turn (and stay blocked).
Thanks for the kind words and suggestions :), these are all things I think are great ideas and do plan to introduce.
@levreveur
Yea the game desperately needs balancing. Yes I need to add a cancel move option. Thanks!
I would have loved to have more UI feedback about buildings and so on instead of having to write it down :P
But I had a ton of fun anyways. Congratulations!
Yeah game is inspired by Catan, yes the bank is my addition among many other subtle ones. Not sure what you mean in your comment. But I suggest building a village and a bank first so you can earn coins and get resources
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it :). Yes in the post LD V. ill be adding a UI solution to this problem. Thanks for your review!