LudumData

Pyrrhic Victory by Kroute

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

Should you sacrifice your barracks to improve your barricades or the other way around?

There are two ways to win in Pyrrhic Victory: attack and defense.

If you chose to attack you'll have to build a lot of tough troops to annihilate your opponent's Citadel. This means sacrificing your defense.

If you choose to defend your Citadel, you'll have to build tough walls and powerful turrets. This means sacrificing your attack. You need to have less destroyed buildings than your opponent at the end of the counter.

https://youtu.be/qQfudIBPJmA

POST-JAM UPDATED VERSION

I finally had the time to work on a little update

What has changed:

  • Added Difficulty selection.
  • Added AI Behaviour selection. difficultySelection.png
  • Improved AI.
  • Tried to balance the game so you can really win in defense (but gosh! balancing is such a hard process)
  • Added a restart button that you can use in game and at the end.

I made a specific itch.io page for this updated version and also a specific Windows build. Also, rate the original game, I try to always rate back!

Windows https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wqYgB2Gt9k8gzd60SJ0RaFBk5Zww-Gq9
HTML5 (web) https://florian-chassaing.itch.io/pyrric-victory
Windows https://drive.google.com/open?id=1z1CBpRvwWJbt3Dj3JNfbsDdXVEGWUDE5
HTML5 (web) https://florian-chassaing.itch.io/pyrrhic-victory-updated
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/pyrric-victory

Ratings

Overall 143th 3.9⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 228th 3.646⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 236th 3.56⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 617th 3.32⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 207th 4.08⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Mood 173th 3.771⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 30🗳️ 18🗨️

Feedback

Alex Davies
03. Dec 2018 · 19:23 UTC
Nice, clean graphics! It doesn't really feel like that much of a sacrifice though
Keithdae
04. Dec 2018 · 15:10 UTC
Great game! Love the graphics and really enjoyable. Only nitpick is that it feels impossible to win by defending so I could only win with an all-out attack strategy.
royur
04. Dec 2018 · 15:15 UTC
I enjoy it. took me 3 times to win the game.
RektorGladowski
04. Dec 2018 · 15:17 UTC
It is really challenging, I like it! As for the theme, I'm not convinced
🎤 Kroute
04. Dec 2018 · 15:30 UTC
@keithdae ~~Yes you can! But it's really not easy. I win by finding the right balance between improving the turrets and improving the barricades. In addition, I focus on a single turret. Also, you have to keep at least one barrack to be able to destroy one enemy building. But I agree it's hard!~~

EDIT: Yeah well ok I just tried again for a while and... apparently you can't really win in complete defense :-) I might have tweaked the numbers a little too much before publishing! But hey, you know what they say : The best defense is a good offense!
Eric Smith
04. Dec 2018 · 22:16 UTC
Music was great, art was fantastic. Great game! Took me a while off the bat to figure out what to do. Having no credit to upgrade or activate was a real pisser. :) Well done! :clap:
Mitch Cutler
04. Dec 2018 · 22:40 UTC
Way cool. Would definitely play this all the time. Cool music and visuals. Interesting gameplay. Top Notch!
Codesity
05. Dec 2018 · 16:27 UTC
looks amazing! love the idee to sacrifice yourself base to make you stronger. Good Work!
Kasaki
05. Dec 2018 · 16:37 UTC
Great game! I like this game even it's hard for me to pass through. Also, music is great and cool visual and I've played for hours. :clap:
kaeveris
05. Dec 2018 · 21:32 UTC
I really like the idea! It's actually a hard choice to either play defensively or attack. I like the graphics a lot and the menus were done nicely!
honey
05. Dec 2018 · 21:38 UTC
Great music, great visuals, but controls are pretty unclear, together with no restart/replay button means a lot of annoyance. However the core concept despite being very simple is great and the gameplay is solid! Thanks for the experience!
HermesEs
08. Dec 2018 · 18:02 UTC
Simple but great art, it works pretty well. Fun to play and good desing, and the post-jam version it's interesting that you added diferent IA Behaviours.
Well done!
skettyNmeebs
08. Dec 2018 · 19:00 UTC
Wow! This entry was so polished, I could see my reflection in it. I got absolutely dunked on by the AI the first time, but I managed to pretty alright the second time around haha. I dont really have anything to critique. DO you have plans for the future of this game?
chaczyk
08. Dec 2018 · 22:00 UTC
Wow! Makes positive impression, hope I will finally win
🎤 Kroute
09. Dec 2018 · 15:31 UTC
@skettynmeebs Haha thanks for your comment! When I have some time I might make a multiplayer version of the game because I think it would be fun to play against another human. I will also try to create other levels to see if it leads to other game situations. If these experiments lead to something interesting, maybe I'll publish it :-)
SecretPocketCat
09. Dec 2018 · 23:12 UTC
Took me a while, but I got an offensive win. I also tried the updated version and just 1 upgraded defense turret just decimates the attacking units. I won (on normal) by destroying just 1 enemy shield :laughing: My final try was agains a hard defensive AI and an aggresive strat just demolished it. Also, a defensive turret, range of whcich is upgraded enough, will attack the shield blocks.

This shows a lot of promise. I'd like to be able to select an area of units and a starting grace period would be nice. Building it all in advance and then just watching it play out could be interesting. But I digress. The visuals are lovely as is the music. The balancing could use a bit more work, but hey - it's a jam - that's to be expected. Also, the rotation of the turrets is a bit wonky (it rotates around the wrong axis when aiming at a horizontally passing unit). Other than that, it's a great entry.
mambojambo
10. Dec 2018 · 22:01 UTC
I did beat the hard AI 😃Great entry! Really liked the mood of the game.