Advanced Battalion by designernap
Push your troops forward to take out the objective! But be warned, some areas will require sacrifice to move forward. Rank up and become stronger. Be careful who you sacrifice!
Control Pad Recommended
Left stick move
Right Trigger Shoot
Right Shoulder Swap Soldiers
A to Jump

Keyboard -
WASD movement
Space - Jump
Left Mouse - Shoot
E - Swap Soldier
R - Reset Game
C - Credits
ESC - Quit

Uploaded version contains bugs and is rough around the edges but I ran out of time so will leave it in it's current state. There is a "Post Compo" version that contains new areas, fixes and polish that I didn't have time for, but please only judge the entry on the original.
| Windows | https://xopsx.itch.io/advanced-battalion |
| Source code | https://drive.google.com/open?id=1a_eZcrapsBkJ94JErqpL4zXpw8m1llfl |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/advanced-battalion |
Ratings
| Overall | 176th | 3.583⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 227th | 3.317⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 290th | 3.083⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 234th | 3.533⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 72th | 3.942⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 149th | 3.316⭐ | 59🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 148th | 3.424⭐ | 61🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 57🗳️ | 76🗨️ |
I know this is a feature but the need to sacrifice soldier on purple door is very frustrating.
I like the control they are smooth and easy to handle.
And finally the I see that you push effort on art en design who are cool.
the controles are a bit weird since it moves right when i press W. i didn't test if the controller was better though..
i like the game!
I also really like the models! Solid compo entry!
Thank you @tamas-turi !
@kruemelkeksfan Glad you saw the end screen :D Yes, the controls work much better on game pad than keyboard. I need to work on the keyboard mouse support.
@jannick-larsen yeah, by having the isometric 3/4 angle the movement is transposed at a 45 angle... which is a bit odd. But yeah, better on pad. Needs work on the PC keyooard side. Thanks for playing though! :D
@jupiter-hadley Hi Jupi! Thanks for playing!
@velvetlobster Thank you! yeah, the plan was to make it more of a puzzler about getting to different levels, but... ran out of time! ;)
Thank you @boopsgames glad you enjoyed!
The graphical part is really well made, with a good staging (the war ambiance is well constructed) and with a really good level design. The war then, was a good choice to include the sacrifice theme, with expandables soldiers you have to waste in order to advance.
I however had some things who bothered me
- I would have liked to rotate my character faster
- Checkpoints would have been great in order to not doind the whole level each time
- The AI could have simply been improved by rotating in direction of the player
- Its a bit frustrating to not being able to shoot ennemies above.
I think the game is really more than correct for a Game jam game made in 48 hours by one person, I really think with more time and people it could have a lot of potential.
Great job then ! :-)
find it a bit too bad that when you go through the door the other soldiers don't come with you, it makes the whole thing really slow, but other than that it's a really nice entry :D
@tymus Thanks! That intro took me about 20 minutes to make and added SO much to the experience :D
@fylipp Yes, the keyboard controls are very much lacking. It is better on gamepad, but that is no excuse. I will do better for keyboard support next time! :)
@codesity Thanks! I enjoyed making it :)
For this game I'll point the same negative points as others : controls and camera are quite rigid (I should probably test with a controller later though) and the lack of checkpoints makes the compo version a little bit frustrating.
But the overall experience still feels so polished, from the animated menu to the end, and the design suits the theme really well. Well done !
Thank you @blooobird ! I am off to play Devilman Tossbaby now! :D
1. I don't like the WASD control with this isometry view, it's difficult to understand which way's which.
2. It becomes repetitive pretty fast. I understand that's part of the mechanics but maybe something could be done to make it faster.
@wojciech-bruski Thank you :D I am not sure how many people got there, but I am glad someone did!
@scf yes, it works better on pad, but agreed :) tried to address this in the post compo version
@alexey-cherkasov Thank you! I do try :D
1) I accidentally pressed Esc and it killed my progress. I would make it double tap or something
2) I would try to make the AI smarter but it works fine as it is
3) Mabye Sync movement with camera angle - camera faces top left so when walking forward (w) the character would also move to top left corner.
But these are just tiny details. The game feels really alive and I enjoyed playing it very much :) Good Job!
Thank you @vlad-ilisan and @floata-1 !
@zarqus99 yes, agreed. Fixed in the post compo version... but should have seen that sooner :)
@andre-606 yeah, another area that fell short in my entry. Totally agree :)
@s4m4di yep! all on my own :) if it helps, I sleep very little over the weekend, take a day before to rest up and prepare and two days after to recover. I really give it my all! :D
Thank you @liamisunlucky for the kind words. You are completely right about checkpoints and I should have done that in the time I had. It is better on pad yes, and many people have mentioned PC controls are bad for this game. Thank you for the feedback though as this shapes how I will do future compos :)
@teo989 that is really interesting about esc. I had never thought of that before. I play so many games that don't allow you to quit that I focussed on making sure you could, rather than how. This is something I will change. Thank you!
Thanks for the kind words @jcpd and @morriss
I am not heading off to check out all your awesome entries!
reading all this feedback is great btw. Thank you for taking the time to play and leave a comment.
Have a great day! :D
Couldn't figure out how to shoot with the keyboard. Was the goal to just run and jump into purple fences? Enemies didn't seem to shoot at me and if I got by bullets it didn't seem like anything happened.
@madjackmcmad yes! this is a common theme now. I realised this when @teo989 suggested I make esc a "double tap", so for all future jams I will make quitting and credits a "Hold to progress" with a timer bar I think :) YOu have also made me realise I Completely forgot to explain the PC shooting! it is on the mouse! My mistake and I apologise for missing that out. Updating the header above now!
@team-infernus yes. Overwhelming response that "Pc controls are bad" I will make that better in future jams :) Thank you for playing!
@truc-e Thanks for the kind comments! Sound was thrown together in the last couple of hours and for sure needed balancing. Next time!
@masterkrepta Wow! thank you! I hadn't really looked at it through that lens before so that is exciting to hear. I will take that as a huge compliment.
Thanks for playing everyone!
The mood is so cool!
very nice job ;p
I need to revisit the updated version when I have a moment.