Ranch of the Gods by Vodish

[raw]
made by Vodish for LD 43 (JAM)

Screenshot 2018-12-04 at 02.22.11.png

Story

The gods are furious and demand tribute! Appease the gods by sacrificing animals from your ranch! But gods are greedy, and will always want you to bring more offerings to them, will you be able to sustain their demands? Show them your loyalty and earn divine favor!

Don’t you dare disappoint them, their anger is legendary!

Gameplay

Go to the temples and see what sacrifices the gods desire from lowly peasants. Fulfill your obligations and bring them animals from your ranch.

If a god’s happiness drops too low, they’ll get angry and hinder your progress! However, if you earn enough favor, they’ll bless you with divine boons!

Animals reproduce as long as they have a mate to reproduce with, so make sure not to sacrifice the last two of a kind, or fear the gods’ wrath!

Controls

  • Movement : WASD
  • Lift / Drop : E
  • Sacrifice animal : E next to an altar (the god need to want the animal)

Screenshot 2018-12-04 at 02.19.12.png

Changelog

  • Fix the double-cow bug

Ratings

Overall 379th 3.582⭐ 94🧑‍⚖️
Fun 434th 3.356⭐ 92🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 654th 2.983⭐ 91🧑‍⚖️
Theme 125th 4.089⭐ 92🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 393th 3.742⭐ 93🧑‍⚖️
Audio 167th 3.705⭐ 90🧑‍⚖️
Humor 151th 3.663⭐ 88🧑‍⚖️
Mood 383th 3.478⭐ 91🧑‍⚖️
Given 88🗳️ 87🗨️

Feedback

woofdog99
04. Dec 2018 · 02:09 UTC
Good graphics, hilarious audio. all the works of a great game
Meenners
04. Dec 2018 · 02:59 UTC
The historical references are one with the original scripts of history. I appreciate your take and interpretation of such historical events! Great job!
Arwith
04. Dec 2018 · 03:05 UTC
Awesome!!
Luis Guariglia
04. Dec 2018 · 03:25 UTC
wooow i love the art so far and the sound are awesome :v:
TheoG
04. Dec 2018 · 03:27 UTC
Thank you very much for your feedback! :)
🎤 Vodish
04. Dec 2018 · 03:27 UTC
Thanks all for your feed back! We hope that you enjoyed playing :)
NateTheGreat
04. Dec 2018 · 03:31 UTC
Cool game! I only found one bug. It seems to happen occasionally when I pick up the wrong animal and try to make a sacrifice. When I try to put the animal down it makes a duplicate of the animal and then keeps the animal in my hands. After that I cant seem to put it down or pick anything else up. When I refreshed I could avoid this bug and it was quite fun. Sound effects were particularly impressive!
AlpineM
04. Dec 2018 · 03:33 UTC
The sound effects are amazing!
🎤 Vodish
04. Dec 2018 · 03:34 UTC
@natethegreat Thanks for the feedback! It's a bug coming from apparently when you pick up a mating animal, we're tried to find it, but after all the work while sleep deprived, we can't find much. It will be fixed as soon as possible after some due sleep!
MyAlias
04. Dec 2018 · 03:44 UTC
The sound effects are hilarious haha.
Subsage
04. Dec 2018 · 03:46 UTC
Nice soothing low poly visuals and audio. It's adorable :D
HayArt
04. Dec 2018 · 03:49 UTC
The idea follows the theme well, I liked the mechanics, but there are some bug that made the gameplay difficult, a photo below shows, sometimes the animals get stuck in the head preventing me from proceeding and collect other animals, I missed a quick tutorial, despite of being very intuitive, something else was in some matches some animals cease to exist and the need to collect them to be bigger, preventing me from proceeding with the game, but the idea is pretty cool, I liked the low poly graphic and the sounds![bug1.png](///raw/57f/c1/z/1e732.png)
GoogleFrog
04. Dec 2018 · 03:50 UTC
If I get too friendly with Zeus a cloud appears and steals my breeding pairs!

It would be nice to have the controls visible in a corner of the UI. On my first run I went in, picked up some animals and moved them around. I couldn't sacrifice an animal (it was the wrong type) but I thought there might be another button to sacrifice. With the controls visible I wouldn't have had to exit out to check.

Sometimes the RNG depopulates a species. Otherwise, great.
🎤 Vodish
04. Dec 2018 · 03:55 UTC
Thanks for the reviews! We didn’t keep enough time for the balancing phase, we’re going to continue ipdating the game in the day, I’m going to add an in-game tutorial to the list of things to add.
I’m happy to know that you enjoyed our game and hope you had a great game jam :)
Raitozan
04. Dec 2018 · 04:31 UTC
Hey ! Great job for this LD :) I really appreciate the bonuses and maluses of the differents gods, good idea and totally within the theme
shieldgenerator7
04. Dec 2018 · 06:56 UTC
High Score: 886
funny game, i like how he picks up the cows
movement speed was a bit too slow, a run button would have been nice
i like how each god dos something different when they get mad
Fede
04. Dec 2018 · 11:35 UTC
Funny game! You can pick up cows!
Robin49
04. Dec 2018 · 14:40 UTC
Very nice game, you are right in the theme, I really like the concept. The atmosphere is awesome.
CaptainCorgistan
04. Dec 2018 · 15:10 UTC
What a fun game! Nice looking animals make me laugh a lot!
Oceanosaurus
04. Dec 2018 · 15:20 UTC
I've been cracking up to the sounds of this game during the whole gameplay, they're just hilarious :smile: loved them! I'm now probably the favorite peasant of the gods and also a huge cow slaughterer! Beautifully presented, funny and entertaining. Music is relaxing too! A really solid entry, love this type of LD games, congrats!
Sabeurre
04. Dec 2018 · 15:48 UTC
Really nice one ! I enjoyed the sounds effects :smile: It has simple graphics overall, but I think that is makes the game even more cute. I really love how the cow looks :smile:

The gameplay is pretty much straightforward too, but it's efficient. I can't really see any bad points that have not been reported here. Good job !
Pedro Miranda
04. Dec 2018 · 16:48 UTC
The game is so funny xD I loved the graphics and the sound is on point, congratz for the entry
Naya Rangel
04. Dec 2018 · 16:52 UTC
Awesome job on sound effects! Had a good time playing it! Congrats!
Ece
04. Dec 2018 · 18:28 UTC
The game is really fun haha :) graphics, concept, gameplay are so cute.
jk5000
04. Dec 2018 · 20:11 UTC
This game made me so happy. Thank you.
Tamas Turi
04. Dec 2018 · 21:25 UTC
Really funny game, i liked it! :) good job!
David DePauw
04. Dec 2018 · 21:30 UTC
Very relaxing and fun to play!
jdelaay025johnd1788
04. Dec 2018 · 22:40 UTC
I love your sound. It's not annoying or abrasive. The lack of drums makes it so I can let this stay on loop and not be annoyed. Great Choice. I love the animal sounds as well. Great variation on those. Give your player character some cooler animations and you could put this on sale somewhere. Just a little time-waster game. Well done!!
Dino_jr
04. Dec 2018 · 22:45 UTC
This game is so funny, I laugh out loud with the sounds and the animals xD Nice work, congrats!
ursagames
05. Dec 2018 · 00:04 UTC
Your game was played on my stream ( twitch.tv/ursagames ) for the first day of Ludum Dare streams - you can find the timestamp of your game here: https://goo.gl/N2rkr8
Twenty5Clocks
05. Dec 2018 · 01:01 UTC
I liked it. I really like the animations when you are carrying the animals. Controls are easy to pick up. Overall a good game.
irock
05. Dec 2018 · 01:43 UTC
I wish I understood the lose condition. The game becomes so frantic when your meters are low, you don't have time to pay attention to what's happening aside from what animals you need to grab. Do you lose when your meters are depleted, or is it when you only have one animal of a type?

I'm not sure if I can please the gods or if I'm doomed to fail every time. Am I just trying to get a high score?

The idea of having to keep two of each kind so they can reproduce is cool. As I mentioned though, it's impossible to even pay attention to it when you're scrambling to grab animals before your meters are depleted.

I'm not sure the music fit, but I understand you had to make something quick and simple for the jam. Something a bit more silly would have paired better with the game.

It might be fun to implement some small skill-based elements that allow the player to do things faster, like being able to throw the animals.
🎤 Vodish
05. Dec 2018 · 09:32 UTC
Thanks for your review @irock !

The game ends when all the gods are completely unhappy (three depleted meters), you will lose when you only have one animal of a type too, it's only a question of time before a god wants this animal.

You also don't have a victory condition, the goal is to have a high score right now. We plan to continue the game, so in the future there will probably be a win condition.

We will try to add more UI, to make it easier to know what's going on around when you don't have time to check on your animals.

We sadly didn't have time to create another music and had to go for something simple, it will probably be improved in later versions of the game too.

And lastly, the throwing part was one of the things that were planned and also didn't have time to implement (the list of things planned that we didn't have time to implement is long!).

We will continue to improve the game, and we hope if you play again our game one day when we did, you'll enjoy it more :)
staxx6
05. Dec 2018 · 13:17 UTC
Get my 👍
pcmaster
05. Dec 2018 · 13:47 UTC
I love it :D I love how they panic when you hold them upside down over your head! We totally planned that for our game but didn't make it :) Good job! The sounds are TERRIFIC! :)
der_finski
05. Dec 2018 · 14:18 UTC
The animals staring at me make me...uncomfortable XD jokes aside, nice game
Donitz
05. Dec 2018 · 21:34 UTC
Dude... did that guy just lift a cow with his bare hands? I think he can take the gods.
🎤 Vodish
06. Dec 2018 · 06:12 UTC
@donitz Future DLC, you beat the gods and demand sacrifices from them! :zap:
Gri-Bel
06. Dec 2018 · 10:12 UTC
Amazing game with cool graphics!)
chrismcmath
06. Dec 2018 · 14:20 UTC
I like how you turned something potentially dark into a light hearted romp.

Would it be possible to see the altars from the pen? There's already a lot to think about so having to remember which animal is which symbol each round is a little overwhelming.
JanWalsh
06. Dec 2018 · 14:26 UTC
@chrismcmath Hey Chris! Thanks!

About seeing the altars, it's kinda the point. You have to move between the altars and the pen, and part of the challenge is to remember what you need to bring back to sacrifice. :)
RenegadePunisher
06. Dec 2018 · 16:50 UTC
Good game that fits well with the theme.
I had an issue where all alters wanted a sheep and there were no more sheep.
Derek Volker
06. Dec 2018 · 17:10 UTC
I find interesting that while both graphics and audio are simple, together they created an effective combination for the game.

That said, the gameplay is kinda repetitive in its cycle, but is cool to observe the different actions took by the gods while you disappoint one or another.

Nice entry.
🎤 Vodish
06. Dec 2018 · 20:11 UTC
@renegadepunisher As said in the description (I know, sometimes reading descriptions is boring), you need two of the same animals so they can reproduce, if you only have one cow left for example, you won't have more cow anymore, as long as you have two they will reproduce. Aphrodite controls how much they do, if she's happy they mate more, if she's angry they don't.

For the post-jam version of the game, we're going to add some tutorial, more UI to know what's going on and more!
RenegadePunisher
06. Dec 2018 · 20:23 UTC
Fair enough. I did miss that in the text. My bad.
julianeder33
06. Dec 2018 · 21:26 UTC
Funy Game! I especialy liked the sound efects and the artstyle. Impressive amout of assets.
sodaraptor
07. Dec 2018 · 01:59 UTC
Solid entry. Felt just a little cut-and-dry as far as the whole theme goes, but the sound and simple polygon art style gave it some charm that I appreciate. The decision to swap out the god's animal requests was a nice touch that made it more challenging and varied. Great job overall!
Kirke
07. Dec 2018 · 16:36 UTC
Wow! Your game is funny, has sweet low poly graphics, follow with LD theme and even has great audio! Really perfect! I especially like this "angel song" during sacrificing animals! Moreover, these animals looks so funny when player holds them. Enjoyable game, congratulations! :D
publicidadeba
07. Dec 2018 · 17:15 UTC
I can see there was tons of love in this, but it did not work for me :( The gameplay felt like there was too much of "busy work" and the sfx was not pleasing. It's a pitty, because I liked the graphics and I had high hopes for your entry. But maybe, Im the only who thinks like this.
🎤 Vodish
07. Dec 2018 · 17:52 UTC
@publicidadeba Thanks for your review. Don't worry, it's not wrong to not like what people like :)

I can understand the "busy work" part for the gameplay. For the sfx, was it the style that you didn't like or you had any problem?

We value every comments, positive and negative as they will allow us to improve for future games.
publicidadeba
07. Dec 2018 · 17:58 UTC
I felt the SFX was a bit crowded and there was some spikes here and there.
Pennycook
09. Dec 2018 · 02:23 UTC
Great job! The sacrifice system was very intuitive, and I felt that the difficulty curve was just right.

My only suggestion is to make it more obvious in the UI when a divide boon is active and what it's doing. The first time I saw Zeus' cloud delivering cows to Poseidon I got very confused about what was going on! :laughing:
TheoG
09. Dec 2018 · 10:37 UTC
@pennycook Thank you for the comment and suggestions. :)

We will definitely work again on the UI to give more feedback to the player about what’s going on. Adding a tutorial at the very beginning should also avoid these kinds of in-game confusions :D
Nekonyo
09. Dec 2018 · 17:48 UTC
Good effects and reactions for the sacrifices 😄
DeXP
09. Dec 2018 · 18:03 UTC
I like the picture, animals are superb! Sounds are pretty nice too. The idea of helper cloud is cool!
Emperor Eagle
09. Dec 2018 · 21:45 UTC
Interesting game with cool graphics.
kloscunha
10. Dec 2018 · 12:56 UTC
I loved how you just straight up LIFT AN OX and carry it to the altar. I would've liked to see some lightning crashing down when the lightning god is angry.
wdebowicz
10. Dec 2018 · 23:55 UTC
That was funny! The low poly art is awesome, so are the sounds. Gameplay is very simple, but I guess that was the point. For sure I will remember this entry!
Riyroo
11. Dec 2018 · 10:25 UTC
Thought this was super fun! Entertaining and addicting! It was funny and cute and I loved the theme. I thought the 'fish out of water' animation was cute, even though I realized I've literally just picked up a fish from its home. The cloud was great but I didn't realize I needed to keep some animals around for breeding!
🎤 Vodish
11. Dec 2018 · 14:18 UTC
Thanks to everybody for your reviews! Every positive AND negative reviews are important to us to improve the game and other future games :)
gamefive
11. Dec 2018 · 15:30 UTC
fun fun fun
bbaf
11. Dec 2018 · 17:12 UTC
Nice graphics. SFX and voice overs of animals just a masterpiece.
Additional "plus" for weather feedback (rain, lightning) when gods are unhappy. It's a very cool for player's immersion.

Good luck with voting and future development!

![Screenshot (262).png](///raw/6ca/c/z/1f976.png)
Ivan Garcia Filho
12. Dec 2018 · 02:09 UTC
Nice!, i would just add a HUD over the bar of each GOD to always keep the user aware of which animal the gods want as sacrifice, maybe add colliders to the animals and improve the grab mechanics to force the user thrwoing animals out of his path until reaching the right sacrifice
MrWikt
12. Dec 2018 · 21:37 UTC
I love the graphics, good job!
LuCecyl
13. Dec 2018 · 01:02 UTC
Hilarious game! Nice job! Had a lot of fun playing!
YYZ
13. Dec 2018 · 23:49 UTC
Very cute little game with lovely animations (upside down animals as they are lifted made me lol). It is a very simple idea but very well executed with polished graphics.

It would have been nice personally if there was some kind of goal to the game aside from just trying to get a high score. Maybe as an example, have a happy ending to the story when you reach a certain score? It could just be simple text and a camera shot of the guy being happy, but this would really go a long way to give the game a sense of accomplishment for goal-seekers like myself as I tend to prefer having something to work toward to aside from endless repetition. (Edit: It appears you may have plans for that, so good job!)

Nevertheless, the weather effects and 'debuffs' help to occasionally spice the gameplay. I wish I could see more of them or trigger them more often as I didn't get to play long enough to get to see all the debuffs. Their impact wasn't very visible in the game either and I had to read the text description of your game to see what they did. Perhaps having a popup when they are triggered, and some simple text like "-50% birth rate for 10s" would again go a long way to describe what is happening and eliminate confusion. I initially thought the weather didn't actually do anything and it was wasted because the buffs/debuffs are actually a pretty cool concept!

Otherwise, maybe the buffs/debuffs should have a greater visible impact - such as improving the character's speed, or temporarily appeasing the gods. Those are effects that I am able to feel without the need for text explanation, which would be pretty obvious to the player too.

With all that said, it is a great game so keep it up! :)

Oh and nice job having music to set the mood too.
🎤 Vodish
14. Dec 2018 · 12:53 UTC
Thanks for the reviews!

@yyz Thanks for the in-depths review, we're planning to expand the game, and use this as a base for the game. So there might be a win condition, we're still thinking about ideas of what we could create from this jam.

We will also improve all the interface part to make it easier to understand, as it's impossible to really know what's happening right now without the description.
YYZ
14. Dec 2018 · 14:54 UTC
@vodish Great to hear that you are taking this idea further! Good job on the game so far and glad to see that you have plans to improve it :) All the best to you and your team!
UnidayStudio
22. Dec 2018 · 01:36 UTC
Hi! For some reason this character reminds me Trump. (lol). I loved the low poly art. My feedback is: when the animal changed, it's hard to see this.Maybe adding an UI element to show the change... but Great game, congratulations!