Set Sails by Erik Brunnstrom
Set Sails, My first ever Ludum Dare project!
Set Sails is a transport management game set on a desktop globe. Create a network of boat routes all over the planet and become the richest man around!
Controlls
- Turn the Camera with WASD
- Click on stuff
- Thats it!
Links:
- Windows: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4_o8iohNI4WeFBHNjdSWVROdUU
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/set-sails |
Ratings
| Overall | 177th | 3.731⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 285th | 3.346⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 253th | 3.385⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 35th | 4.269⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 96th | 4.346⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 551th | 2.13⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 66th | 4⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 54🗳️ | 37🗨️ |
Innovation: it's a good management game, but not innovative.
Theme: fits well.
Graphics: very good. The color palette, window landscape and 3d models are great.
Mood: it's the best mood I've played so far in this event. The environmental sound helped the game a lot.
There are two little details:
- There is an error in the tutorial: "buy clicking buy"
- The routes can pass through the ground
I spent more time trying to place routes and fighting with the shop menu to go away and interrupting my placement of things, than playing the game.
Rant aside, the art and audio add greatly. The creativeness of using a globe as opposed to a 2D map is wonderful. I am unsure how to run this ship business though since the docks never really generated much revenue for me so I'd go broke after buying enough to make 2 routes.
I think some way to speed up the game would also help for getting started when you are just trying to fill your coin reserves a bit before spending after rent is due. I still liked the game, but the controls really took away from the experience for me.
I though it was a well crafted and unique looking game. The main gripe I had, was that there was no way to undo what you had done.
I think it is quite innovative. I have played a lot of time managemnt games and there are not that many with this theme. Looking at the globe it does seems like a small world.
I love the graphics. I love how the coins pile up and disapear.
Love it!
Unfortunately, it was a little too hard for me to start off. I'll try again later though.
Agreeing with @aviland: we need an undo tool.
Also on a very low camera angle the table got between camera and ui and sometimes when placing a route and moving to the rightmost arc of the globe the camera zoomed back out as if I was going to the catalog...
The soundscape was quite nice too, but I can see that you opted out of audio so you probable used some preexisting asset. Nevertheless: good choice. It fit the game nicely and contributed greatly to the mood.
The rotation of the globe was a bit slow so it felt slightly awkward trying to maneuver. Restricting the minimum distance between ports would've been good as I accidentally placed down two on top of each other
Some randomly generated names for the ports/cities would've been great.
As well as this some sort of motivation to play because at the moment it feels like a sandbox, empty world you're just left in.
Overall good management sim though.
There are many ways how to improve upon this, like being able to visit multiple ports in one route, an objective, a story, but first and foremost, this game needs an Undo- and Reroute-buttons. **Badly.** Once you have something going you can never change, which will most likely screw you over later on. Or right away, if you happen to misclick. The game's randomization affects how well you'll fare in the beginning quite a lot, which is really emphasized without any ways to correct possible mistakes.
In any case it's a fun game, and a solid entry indeed. Very good job!
This game took me a little while to get the hang of, and I'm sure there are plenty of things I still don't quite fully get. It was loads of fun, but I feel like it could benefit from some added features. Most notably:
* A sell option
* Some way to count your gold (useful when you've got an obscene amount)
* Some sort of monthly profit calculator (maybe takes away some of the fun, though)
* A way to see the direction of the routes.
That last one is iffy. I'm actually not sure if the routes were one way or not, because I've seen points flowing in only one direction, but also in both. Seems a bit inconsistent.
The mood and theme were spot on as well. I love the way you did the coins. Brilliant job.
Even if the side menu is pretty nice, I was a bit unconfortable because it takes a second to display.
I loved some details, like the coins and the ship that moves in the window so I try to find something below the table :D
The gold! GOOOOOLD!!!!! I will steal this for my next entry.
Sadly i did not fully grasp the way the mechanics worked. The boats move people around? when do they pay and howmuch?
Not being able to remove things is also fairly annoying, since I could not anticipate what i was supposed to do and which harbours were going to be added. This greatly reduced the amount of choices i can make as a player, which is one of the key things in management games.
I like the 3d-ui style, but i was a bit annoyed by how the camera zoomed in and out, maybe just a sidebar with 3 buttons and tooltips wouldve been better.
That said, i did have a lot of fun watching the bots move around :)
- i think the tutorial can be enhanced to be simpler & more clear
-- an access to the tutorial during game play would be great. ( as many players skim the tutorial for the first time & don't read it carefully )
- when you build on the bottom of the globe, the paper sheet appears far & small & interferes with the build process
- a faster mode would be great
Great job & keep it up
I was very hard to get into though. I think it could use several UX improvements to make it easier to get into. Also I think fast forward mode faster game speed in general could have helped the game a bit.
Overall a great entry though!
+ Rewarding experience
+ Realy good graphic
+ Nice audio and mood
disadvantages:
- After some point, there is no challenge
- Minor bugs
I like this game :)
What I think could be improved (**warning: I will be nitpicking a lot, your game is good regardless**):
* A better way to understand how all is flowing. I had a very hard time starting the game and restarted a few times whenever I felt I didn't understand correctly how you play. But one thing I never understand is how a port "efficiency" works. Like, I didn't know how many passengers would be there, so it was not always easy to figure out what path to follow etc... Like, sometimes I had ports that almost didn't make travel any passengers and lost because of it.
* Although the coins are pretty cool and that it's nice to see them pile up, I feel they lack weight. Mostly because they jiggle like hell. (though maybe it's because of my settings...?)
* Although the atmospheric sounds are pretty nice, I still think it lacks some kind of music. Something calm and peaceful but present.
* Something to do when things get to easy. At some point, I bought shirt loads of boats and it didn't seem to stop my wealth grow. It lacks some challenge but... yeah, in 72 hours it's hard to come up with something especially when the game is that polished! Not blaming you
There was a bit of trial and error with figuring out how everything works. For a while I didn't understand why one ship wouldnt pick up passengers. Does this only work one way? Do the passengers have a random destination? This wasn't very clear. Other than that having the ability to undo or delete things would be nice. I found a glitch where placing a port seemed to activate two cities and so whenever attempting to build a port and a route to that port the ships failed to pick up any passengers from either connecting port.
The coin sounds were spot on, however, and the graphics were lovely. Some soft or adventurous music would be icing. Excellent job!
"Dear sir or maddam,
I write to inform you that I will be unable to pay rent this month on account of not being able to see how much I owe you behind my giant pile of money.
Signed,
Mr. Filthee Stinken Richman"