Small Kingdoms by anarbitrarymustache
A (very) simple, turn-based strategy game that plays on only a 5x3 grid.
Your goal is the destroy/capture your opponents base using your race's hero/avatar. The hero's strength is determined by the size of their kingdom (number of tiles controlled). Didn't have time to really create the AI that I had hoped, so don't expect a challenge. However, there is local multi-player as a consolation. The "+" ability uses your turn to increase all occupied tiles by 1 (has a cooldown that increases with each use).
Thanks for playing! Comments welcome and encouraged.
Combat Rules
- attack value is the combined total of all controlled tiles
- the attack value determines how many dice are rolled, the highest two rolls are used
- the tile "control" (number on flag) determines how many defense die are used, again only top 2 are used
- if an opposing hero is occupying the tile you are attacking, +1 is added to the roll (it's actually the opponents level added to the dice roll, but because I never finished the leveling up system, it's always 1)
- if the attack roll is greater than the def roll, then -1 to the tile control
- if an opposing hero is occupying the tile, -1 to his life and the opponent is "bounced" back (unless his life drops below 1, which he is then killed - waiting to spawn at their base)
- if the tile control drops below 1, then the attacking hero "takes" the tile
- if the attack roll is more than 2 times the defense roll - critical hit! This deals 2 damage to both the tile and opponent hero if applicable. If this takes the tile then you start with a tile control of 2 instead of 1.
- if the attack roll is less than the def roll, then -1 to the attacking hero
- if the attack roll and the def roll are the same, nothing happens - this was a by-product of not knowing exactly how to handle this and it unfortunately stayed blank (this may appear as a bug when it happens, but is just incomplete design)
Ratings
| Overall | 410th | 2.96⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 411th | 2.76⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 426th | 2.64⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 386th | 3.04⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 163th | 3.72⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 321th | 2.667⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 310th | 2.368⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 366th | 2.833⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 17🗳️ | 32🗨️ |
It's a fast strategic thing that I would play with an other human (unfortunatly, AI is too easy...) to see all the possibilities (is there different strategies, or is it a permanent statu quo?...)
@homineludens - random objects on the field was actually the next item on my "nice-to-have" list.
@joyfired - you have no idea how infuriating that "flash" was/is to me. I did look into it briefly, but because it was a non-game-breaking glitch, it ended up way down on my priorities list (it took everything in my power not to waste 2+ hours trying to fix it)
I think I need to play against a human opponent, but this is great work for 48 hours! It's really great to see a strategy game in the mix. The challenge of doing a game like this must be balancing!
Keep up the good work.
What does strength do? A lower strength hero beats a higher strength hero most of the time, but not always. Is there a hidden die roll? Why does the attacking hero *sometimes* beat the defender and conquer the enemy hex, while at other times the defender is simply pushed back and the hex stays untouched? What does the number on the hex do? A hero can *sometimes* conquer a hex with a big number in one swell swoop. (Observations based on the :man: vs :man: mode)
It is really hard to play a game when the rules are so obscure. An explanation would suffice, if these are not bugs, that is.
cheers~
The art is simple but nice^^
I was missing a lack of strategy but this could be easy solved with a few more abilities. Have you thought about an android/ios
port of this? I think with a bit more time this could be an amazing title :grin:
Good job!
Here is a ~~quick~~ rundown of how they work:
* attack value is the combined total of all controlled tiles
* the attack value determines how many dice are rolled, the highest two rolls are used
* the tile "control" (number on flag) determines how many defense die are used, again only top 2 are used
* if an opposing hero is occupying the tile you are attacking, +1 is added to the roll (it's actually the opponents level added to the dice roll, but because I never finished the leveling up system, it's always 1)
* if the attack roll is greater than the def roll, then -1 to the tile control
* if an opposing hero is occupying the tile, -1 to his life and the opponent is "bounced" back (unless his life drops below 1, which he is then killed - waiting to spawn at their base)
* if the tile control drops below 1, then the attacking hero "takes" the tile
* if the attack roll is more than 2 times the defense roll - critical hit! This deals 2 damage to both the tile and opponent hero if applicable. If this takes the tile then you start with a tile control of 2 instead of 1.
* if the attack roll is less than the def roll, then -1 to the attacking hero
* if the attack roll and the def roll are the same, nothing happens - this was a by-product of not knowing exactly how to handle this and it unfortunately stayed blank (this may appear as a bug when it happens, but is just incomplete design)
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/small-kingdoms-1/quick-update-before-bed
Something like this would make a fantastic mobile game, the controls are simple enough but the randomness of the world changes enough I think to keep it interesting.
I'd love to see more if you continue to develop it.
While that is outside the scope for a COMPO entry I suppose, I do think this could well be adapted for more than 2 players (on a suitably larger map, of course) and maybe with special fields to add more depth to the gameplay.
Was fun to play anyhow. (If you do add more muchness in a post-compo version, do contact me~)
Unfortunately the AI is really weak (as you mentioned yourself), I wasn't even able to lose on purpose. I think writing a good AI is not easy, especially on such a limited time budget, but if I had any major complaint, it would be this.
Some more specific things I noticed:
- I played the game twice to the end and afterwards it gets stuck in a weird bug that allows you to use the level up button on the menu screen but not start the game again.
- When the Orc has his turn, you see its level up button, which I found a bit confusing as I thought it was my own. I think it would be better to hide that button on the opponent's turn
Overall I think it's a solid game that could have been really special with some little additional polish, especially the AI.
Anyway, I still enjoyed the graphics and mood.
There is only so much strategy you can do on such a small world but the + box game is some depth!
It feels like you learned a lot from this game so be happy :D
At one moment me and AI were both dead and waiting for respawn, I was clicking all over the place and I really thought the game froze (until i saw the very little icon in down right corner). So maybe you could make it clearer what can be done in such situations.