BIO-EX-DEUS by Joror
As a Techno-GOD in training, you gotta squeeze as many bio-beings into a little test-realm~

Tips n tricks
- Use 'A Great...' to do the same Act of God, but more powerful!
- Some Creations are more aggressive than others, placement is key
- Don't feel too bad about smiting or flooding some rebellious critters
| HTML5 (web) | http://yarr.me/ludum-dare/ld42/webgl |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/bio-ex-deus |
Ratings
| Overall | 538th | 3.431⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 486th | 3.339⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 415th | 3.357⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 744th | 3.321⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1088th | 2.5⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 770th | 2.104⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 737th | 2.313⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 943th | 2.648⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 25🗳️ | 24🗨️ |
First this: *I hear no audio of any kind* ... is this deliberate?
This one reminds me a lot of the one you submitted for LD#38 ('Angelic Design'), except I think I like this one better.
A lot of things, from the game-design, to the balance, to the clarity of the UI (it's immediately clear what's happening), feel _streamlined_ and balanced.
The theme feels more fitting to this concept as well.
I thought at first that the best move was just to build up the terrain first,
then place the pops, and then just 'manually fast forward',
but fortunately the more interesting strategy to plan ahead a bit and mix up the 'left side' and 'right side' commands a bit seems to be better.
(I could not get more than 4 stars with the first strategy, but got 5 stars (610 points) otherwise.)
A thing I noticed, is that the intro-text gives you the impression that it's a tutorial, but the full game has already started.
Not that bad, since experimentation is the heart of this game, but you might want to reword that slightly.
So, in conclusion; while it may lack (audio? and) elaborate graphics, once you get trying to find a way to get those 5 stars,
it opens up into a really neat little tightly designed experience.
That takes a few games, and is enough to amuse anyone. I'm not sure the re playability is there once you get those 5 stars...
I did, and I might play it some more, but the challenge is gone now that I've got a decent strat going for me.
However, if you make this into a campaign, with some special challenges and a bit of a story (like with your last game), it could make a _really_ nice (board?)game.
_I know you sometimes do; so please don't forget to rate some games! :-D_
Anyway this was easier to pick up than I thought, and I had fun trying to build a world where all my species could live in peace. I like how annoying the humans are :P

Maybe a little tutorial would be great ahah
Great work !! ;)
Such a cool concept and watching them fight over the lands is awesome! Great job :)

@wrenpirate Better description & tutorial would have helped for sure.
@wan Cool to see your world, and yeah, would have liked to make scenarios, but settled on a score mechanism (only had a day)
@sibi I skimped a lot on the graphics side of things, usually put in more of that. Longer eras and multiple levels / scenarios can be cool.
@mcarrera Cool! I def would have wanted more scenarios. I see in your screenshot that you didn't use the 'A great..' powers, any reason for that?
@luckyfeathers Indeed a reward system, with scenarios, or a bit of a story would normally be what I want here. The constrains of Terraforming is indeed a bit restrictive, your idea to make it cost glory is nice. Always want people to be able to do things :)
Some suggestions:
- Visual feedback on when something is killed, so it's more visible to players.
- De-select the creation when I select another creature on the map, because if not, the info about that creature is override by the info of the creature selected in the creation box. Of course I could deselect that myself, but I think its more convenient if you do that for players, plus its not always obvious that I need to deselect in the creations box to see info of creatures on the map (at first I thought it was a bug)
Last but not least, my highest score xD.

Good luck, Don't forget to take a look at ours if you don't mind and see what it's like when we just focused on graphics in this game jam!
Game Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/spacelab-42a