Liberate Liberatia!

Great game and clever take on the theme! My one suggestion would be to make the important text (success/fail and chance to succeed) bold or colored to stand out.

Hard game! It was really fun, but I could not figure out how to win. There probably is a strategy that I was missing!

Cool idea and nice execution. Balance of game could be probably improved, I won the game several times by spamming the buttons responsible for recruiting people and after all people joined resistance I killed all overlords.

@bobbytables Thanks! And definitely! As it turned out, that was a bit difficult "out of the box". So as a workaround, I introduced the "SCAI" word in the text as a shorthand for "what follows this word is important/game mechanics text". But thanks for the suggestion!

@demandooda Thanks for playing! And I agree, depending on how unlucky you are, the overlord might go undisturbed for several rounds, which increases the effect of their countermeasures. You can counter that by performing actions with a high probability (i.e. kill-actions), until you disrupt the overlords.

@assoonasimpossible Agreed, although it also depends a lot on how lucky/unlucky you are in the beginning. Often, spamming the recruitment actions alone will fail a couple of times in a row, giving the enemy a chance to regroup and strike harder when they counterattack. In the initial testing, the overlords always used their bonuses optimally (which made the game really hard) - what you describe could defininitely be a side-effect of having them choose a random overlord for staging their counter-attacks. So I agree, additional fine-tuning is always useful in RNG-heavy games such as mine. Thank you for your comments and suggestion!

That was a cute little game! I found my strategy of eliminate their guys then convert them to my side -- it seemed to work pretty well with limited casualties. Then once I owned the population I started assassinating them.

Nice feel to the game! I got a General Chaos (Sega Genesis) sort of feel from it :)

One little comment -- I didn't pick up that I was the brown color right away, typically the player plays the more unique color so I assumed any of my purple actions would damage me. It took a couple turns to figure it out, but it was a fun game nonetheless! Keep up the good work!! :)

@cnoble I tried to establish a color theme, keying purple to the overlords through their purple portrait background, and the gold/brown with the headline for the player missions, but it might indeed have been a bit too subtle :) Thank you for your comments! :-)

Good idea and a great concept. But I really hate reading soo please,pleaseee make the text shorter soo I can enjoj the gameplay for real

@ramkey Heh, in that case you probably picked the wrong game to play :-) In this game, the gameplay is just the frame for the story about how the player liberates the country.

That being said, I did try to make sure that the gameplay could be enjoyed without having to read the mission texts:

The state of the game world can be seen directly from the graphics.

The only text necessary to read, is the current round bonus, and how efficient the enemy is at the moment (which are the two last sentences in the text-area).

Similarly, the total percent chance of success is written at the very end of the tooltip when hovering, so that you can see it at a glance.

Were there any other information you felt you needed from a gameplay point of view, which you felt was "buried" in the story text?

Unfortunately I was never able to win the game. I had the feeling that the RNG is broken: I had a chance of 30% of success for recruiting neutral citizens, but I had to choose this like 10 times until I succeeded. I had the impression that the enemy side won way more often than I did, which made the game feel unfair. Maybe I had just bad luck.

I find the idea of the game very interesting and it's refreshing to see a game that is not about electric power but political power.

@smbe19 Thank you for your comment!
The game uses a number between 1 and 100, which is compared with the total percentage chance of success (and where a 100 is always successful, no matter the odds). This number is generated using the standard Java random number generator, so you probably had exceptionally bad luck :-/

The opponent's exact chance of success is also spelled out in the after turn report. You can usually use one of the kill actions for a slightly larger success chance, which can weaken the opponent, and hence decrease his chance of success (and the penalty subtracted from your own)

I wonder if I should perhaps have written the "roll" itself in the text, in addition to the chance itself. Would that have decreased the frustration? It would however completely disrupt the narrative, which is why I did not include it.

The issue I have here is that there was a whole lot of text on the screen, which I think was trying to explain the game, but the text didn't really sit with me or something and I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I think this game might have been a little too complex or abstract or something for a setting like this, where someone is just going through a bunch of these games.

I think something that would have helped would be less "block of text" type descriptions, and more in the form of contextual tooltips and such. For instance, knowing what my percentage is for accomplishing a mission would have helped.

Nice idea, it was fun to take power over the country.
You could have use some colors on texts to gain more readability.
The time was short but using some icons instead of some texts could also have simplified the informations.

An interesting strategy game, and I think it can be expanded with a lot more mission types.

I beat the game on my first try though, so I guess I was lucky. I found it easiest to spam kill renegade, kill renegade/citizen, hire resistance. Once you have a good number of resistance, hiring becomes alot easier and faster. Near the end just discover weakness and kill them. I didn't find it necessary to do any reading on the counterplays once I figured out what the buttons were for. I just spammed the buttons until I had enough resistance.

@doomshmuck There were indeed contextual tool tips - each action icon had the percentage chance of success in the tooltip popup, including the modifiers affecting it? As for LD not being the right setting for creating complex games, I'd have to disagree :) I've played games this LD that took several hours to play to completion.

@michaeltwg Thanks for the comments! I agree, color-coded text would have been useful. I tried to make sure that all necessary information was directly part of the icons (for instance, the colored population icons), so that the text only contained the "story". Was there any information you felt was missing in the graphical overview?

@jusw85 Thank you for your comments! I agree, a greater variety of missions could easily be implemented. Undercutting the supporters of the overlords is indeed a viable strategy, since gaining an advantage in supporters both increase your own chances, and reduce that of the overlords.

Very good entry, love the gameplay. Population takeover is simplistically presented but is detailed enough to produce images inside my head of what is going on and how it would look like if we zoomed in to those people and their fates.
In one ending I ended up with one unit of renegades and one unit of rebels with no citizens between them.
The project looks complex, gj on completing it.

The game concept is nice

I totally love your game idea! Everything seems so well polished and well thought-out. Until I noticed what the sounds mean (success and fail sounds for your and the opponents actions), I had a hard time to read the texts again and again. Although the sounds are sufficient, I think some highlighting in the texts could bring more clarity to the actions. Sadly, I didn't manage to overcome all three overlords. :( Very good complex game!

@kr4ft3r Thank you for your comments! And that was a pretty close call.

@bombjack Thank you!

@skosnowich Thank you for your comments! And yes, I agree, highlighting would have improved the clarity of the feedback.

Nice game! I thought that your idea was very creative. Perhaps you could add more tactics, strategies, or mechanics to make the game more engaging. Instead of using a RNG, perhaps you could have the player complete a task (such as quickly press a random key combination) to influence the outcome of some moves?

@theaspiringhacker Thank you for your comments! The game could definitely be expanded with more mechanics, if I find the time to make a post-LD version. As for quick-time events, I feel that they would feel a bit out of place in a turn-based strategy game, but thank you for the suggestion.

A functional passive (die roll based) interactive simulation this. The problem is that due to the clear cut random nature of the exercise it is not very interesting to play. Choosing an actions is always based on three points of information: the amount of enemy agents, the action with a bonus this turn and whether the overlord operations are disturbed or not. More on this later, now to the UI.

I like it! There color coding of the two sides in the buttons and icons works well. The audio cues for successful missions are a very nice idea indeed. In fact after a while I stopped reading the wall of text altogether and just listened to the mission sound effects. This might not be what you intended of course.

If you want people to read all of your writing then each event needs to have more gravitas. Currently you need to find multiple weaknesses per overlord in order to assassinate them so reading the success texts, even when different, becomes a bore. If a few weaknesses were enough and the text contained some important information too, not just flavor, it would be much more interesting to read through.

You already got some good pointers on the GUI concerning the wall of text so I won't reiterate.

Back to the simulation. To make it less passive you could add in a map. All operations would be taken in a specific area on the map. The population of that area would affect the success chance of the operation the most, the areas next to it a bit and the rest not at all.

You could do a lot more with separate areas too. For instance, overlord information could tell you that one of them has a summer cottage in a specific area. If you manage to build an underground rebel group there, suddenly you chance of assassinating the overload in summertime rises up a lot.

More information to base your choices on is my main point here. Trying to figure out which action fits the current situation the best and which actions you would like to do in the future is what strategy is all about.

The resistance fights more with information than weapons. Surgical operations go terribly wrong if taken in the wrong place at the wrong time. Accurate, up to date information is key! Basing some more actions on information gathering would be pertinent.

Good work nonetheless. There are a lot of places you could take this.

Wow, nice game! This was the take on the theme I also had in mind, but wasn't able to get my head around it to make it work.

As others have suggested, the bolded text or something would be really nice. It's kinda easy to get lost in all the text.

The music is nice, but it got repetitive after a while.

So, definitely big points for innovation, and mood.

Sim games are some of the most difficult to cram into the LD timeframe, so it's understandable that there are some issues - namely in difficulty balance.. but it could just be that I'm terrible :P

I'd really recommend refining this more post-jam. It's a great idea that's deserving of a longer dev period. I'd certainly support it receiving continued updates :)

Great work!

@huvaakoodia Thank you very much for your comprehensive feedback!
My intent with the UI was, that the player should be able to play either by the audio-visual cues, by the text, or both, so it was indeed intended.

Your comments on the gameplay are spot on. My original design had some of those elements, i.e. the reason for three different overlords is that originally I intended them to control different areas, and have different criteria for defeat. The weakness-missions would then unlock specific situational missions, which would be available in specific situations, and boost the chance of assassination success. This instead of giving a flat bonus to a "defeat overlord" action.

I did not have the time to implement the entire design though, which is why the missions are more "generic" in the final version. I agree that increased complexity and factors/actions for the player to control, would make the decisions-making process more interesting.

I'll definitely keep your suggestions in mind, if I make a post-LD version!

This game have a nice idea ! The graphics was pretty but, could be better, I liked the sounds. It was a nice story. Good entry !

This is really too much text, written too small. That and the high pitch music make my head ache.

Victory is mine! Time to stop this music.

I like the interpretation of the Power theme.

The graphics are very basic, I like the programmer art but there were no animations and as I said, the text is really small. I did not read all of it, just enough to beat the game.

The gameplay feels like a dice game, I tried three times until I won the game, I was quickly able to figure out what to click in which order to have the best chances of killing everybody.

Overall a solid entry, keep up the good work!

@gonutz And the music could be fixed how? By shifting the octave?
Any other specific pointers on the music? I focused on making a simple core melody, with some variations. Then I used the same core as basis for the win and lose music, in order to keep a similar musical theme throughout the game.

@belga54 Thank you for your comments! I'm not an artist, but hopefully I'll become better as I practice more.

@pavel-kouril Thank you for your comments! And yeah, it was a bit challenging to fit the "rebellion" theme into the LD timeframe.

@rootpew Thank you for your comments! I guess that is the disadvantage of having the game play be driven by RNG. It makes it challenging to balance, as sometimes you might get a stroke of luck (or bad luck), and then the game will feel too easy (or hard) :-)

It is always a good thing to go for consistency in your art so you are right to make the music simliar in tone. It is just that for me the music has so many high notes and they are so loud, even when the lower notes kick in, that it gives me a headache. Just an overall different song would be nicer in my opinion.

Then this is just my personal opinion, somebody else will react differently to the music, so do not get too upset about my comment here :-)

An interesting take on the theme that was fairly well executed! While the audio/visuals left something to be desired, the challenge of this game required me to alter my strategies several times before success, making this a very nice, thought invoking game! I would only suggest that RNG be made slightly less of a factor, as the success of my strategies was almost entirely based on chance, making victory a little less achievable than (I think) it should be. Challenge isn't a problem, but the mechanism for that challenge should be somewhat easier for the player to control. Anyway, overall I thought you did an excellent job!

An interesting take on the theme that was fairly well executed! While the audio/visuals left something to be desired, the challenge of this game required me to alter my strategies several times before success, making this a very nice, thought invoking game! I would only suggest that RNG be made slightly less of a factor, as the success of my strategies was almost entirely based on chance, making victory a little less achievable than (I think) it should be. Challenge isn't a problem, but the mechanism for that challenge should be somewhat easier for the player to control. Anyway, overall I thought you did an excellent job!

I really enjoyed the overall idea of the game. The mechanics with having the differently aligned people and their effect on killing a leader was very interesting, and made a nice sort of pacing to the game (get rid of renegades, grow your followers, try to kill a leader). This concept makes the strategy aspect very engaging with some neat decisions. However, like the person above, I thought the RNG ended up making things a bit frustrating and almost too artificially difficult. The suggested operations helped with this, but made me feel like I should only really be doing what it told me would have a higher chance of success because everything else had a pretty low success rate.

With that being said though, I still enjoyed the game! The strategy was a nice change of pace from the often fast pace of a lot of the other entries I've been playing!

I loved this game and the graphics were good. I like the uniqueness of it and its much better than I could ever do. The strategy was different and I liked that. Overall it was good. Keep it up!

@drachmor Thank you for your comments! And I agree, adding some features offering additional control to the player would be a good way to improve the game.

@carsen-d Thank you for your comments! That is exactly the "incremental" effect I was going for, I'm glad it worked! And I agree, the RNG is perhaps a bit too prominent, partly because the opponents and the player uses the same base percentages, so the "raw" chance of success is kept somewhat low. Even something as simple as having two "bonus" suggested actions to choose from instead of just one, might have made the choice a bit more interesting for the player.

@galaxstudios Odd, I'm not sure what happened to your comment, but it seems to be almost completely identical to the comment above yours.

I really liked the overall idea of the game. nice job.

@somnium On my screen it says: I loved this game and the graphics were good. I like the uniqueness of it and its much better than I could ever do. The strategy was different and I liked that. Overall it was good. Keep it up!

Cool concept. This game would really benefit from a more visual way to explain what's going on. The walls of text kind of turned me off.

Great game! The graphics look nice, the music is amazing, the story is great, and the actions deserve good thinking before you can take action! A great strategy game overall!

I would suggest for a post-game, to add actual missions, like a minigame, that you have to complete! The randomness factor would determine the minigames difficulty, and the randomness factor will be your actuall skill over the game!

Overall, a great game that deserves more votes! Well done! :smile:

@ddsfloko @galaxstudios thank you for your comments!

@minimumentropy Thank you for your comments! I supplemented the text with both graphics and audio feedback, so that it would not be strictly necessary to read (all) the text.

@jason200101 Thank you for your comments! And a good suggestion, breaking up the "ordinary" events with an occasional "special mission" might enhance the experience, especially if the events tied into the strategic layer.

Huzzah! My cell of ~~terrorists~~ brave rebels has successfully overthrown the ~~government~~ evil overlords. The ~~7% of the population remaining~~ brave citizens who supported my cause will surely lead the city to ~~doom~~ a new golden age! Let us rejoice in this victory, which we achieved ~~on our second attempt because everyone died the first time~~ in a single glorious battle that was decided by ~~the random number generator~~ my cunning strategy! The three brutal overlords were eliminated ~~after dozens of failed assassinations~~ quickly and efficiently after we ascertained their weaknesses. Now, we can walk into a new golden age!

...

What's this I'm hearing about a movement forming to resist my rule? This cannot stand! I want them all executed immediately!

Excellent game you've thought up!

It's very original, never played anything like it. And you've took the theme in the direction almost no one has done this LD.
Graphics might be simple, but very effective.
I find the music tense, ever so slightly ominous and thus fitting to the game.
At some point the confirmation sounds made sense to me, and even helped to determine the outcome of my actions without verifying elsewhere. Clever!
It's a bit difficult for me, even when the chances are calculated. Though I tried to use the advantages that arrise, those weren't guarantees for succes. That might be a good thing, else the game would become boring.

Oh, your poetry-skills are better than mine. But it's nice to meet a kindred soul.
You write a mean game and haiku!

I don't think I should ever be allowed to lead a glorious revolution. From the point of view of the people, the real tyrant was always me :( I agree with @estebe - this is a truly unique entry. I felt like the failure / success sounds were flipped, and that the failure sound should have actually been success, since it played a higher note. Aside from that, this was really cool. Adding the percentages was a nice touch, and doesn't make the game easy in any way at all. There's definitely some strategy needed here, if only I could figure out how to take those generals out. For the good of my people!

@piscythe Thank you for your ~~entertaining comments~~ glorious historical recollection! It clearly displays that ~~perspective is everything~~ truth is absolute!

For your efforts, you are hereby awarded the ~~purely symbolic~~ deeply prestigious *"Made Somnium Laugh"* award! I wish you the best of luck in your future ~~brutal rule~~ realization of your destiny!

@estebe I'm glad that you got that vibe from the music, that was exactly what I intended! I also wasn't completely sure that keying success/failure to sound feedback would work, but it seems that it was useful to many, yourself included.

With additional time, I would definitely have tuned the specific chances a bit, the game ended up a bit more difficult than I intended for a LD game.

Thank you very much for your kind comments!

>Making the game: Fun
>Getting kind comments: Priceless!
>Thank you for playing!

@joebeard Interesting observation about the failure/success "signal"! I thought a bit about it, since assigning meaning to a single note will always be somewhat subjective. In the end, I decided to use the high note as positive, since a scale ending on a high note will usually be perceived as less somber than when it ends on a low note.

Similarly, the note is also relative to the player. A high note means "good for the player", so for the player-action it means success, and for the opponent it means failure.

Thank you for your input, this is very useful to know!

@somnium Oh! I must have misunderstood what was happening. I got the impression that the sombre note indicated victory which seemed backwards. When I heard a high note, the game was telling me that unfortunately, my mission had failed. In any case, I was an absolutely terrible commander in chief. Out of interest, when is the best time to attempt assassination? Is the chance always low except when you are already close to victory, or is there some way to perform an assassination attempt with a high success chance even if you have fewer followers than your opponents?

@joebeard The base chance of a successful assassination is very low. Having a lot of followers (and reducing the amount of followers the opponent has) is one way to boost your chances, but discovering the secrets of the three overlords is the most efficient way. Each secret you discover, gives you a permanent bonus to assassination attempts on that overlord.