Rift World by Lenon Kramer
This little Tower Defense game was made by:
. Jessica Barros - Game Art, Game Design;
. Lênon Kramer - Game Design, Programming;
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[OFF-JAM UPDATE] - UX Improvement + Beginner-Friendliness + Bug Fixing
This update was done on the basis of feedbacks from the comments. On the link below there are the options to download both the Jam version and the Updated version. Please rate the game based solely on the Jam version. The updated one is there only for the people who had trouble with the kind-of-steep learning curve but still wanted to enjoy the game.
UX Improvement: - bigger toggle checkboxes - label of rifts (and logical naming) - hp bar of defenders
Beginner-Friendliness: - Ease starting wave (build-up of pacing) - ingame tutorial
Bug Fixing: - Researcher toggle bug fix
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Opt Out: Sound (didn't had time to make sfx and music)
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Link: https://lenon-kramer.itch.io/rift-world
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Backstory:
The interns of a time travel agency tried to prove themselves while the boss was away… and got stranded on a tiny dimension. Their entrance there made the place unstable, and some time rifts started to crack around, through which some monsters are trying to invade and eat the interns. Now it’s in your hands to help them defend themselves and repair the time machine to get back to the agency HQ… before Jack finds out, preferably.
The quadruple twins are strong and able combatants. They may defend the rifts against the monsters. They may also mine the crystal necessary to repair the Time Machine (luckily those are abundant on the Rift World!). Be careful to make them Rest a bit if they get too injured, so they can recover.
The impetuous Alja is the leader of the team, because she is the only one with more than two months of experience on the agency. She will provide valuable help on mining and repairing.
The shy Nick is the genius of the team. He will research the way of getting out of Rift World. Also, he can repair the Rifts if the monsters are close to getting in, and also medics the injured combatants.
If the Rifts don’t get defended the monsters will start ripping them open apart. That will allow them to enter the dimension and then nothing will be able to stop them eating our little interns as a hard-to-digest lunch. Don’t let that happen, by defending and repairing them.
To win you need to repair the Time Machine and get out! Setting Nick to Research will do the job, but it takes time and resources… and sometimes Nick will be needed somewhere else.
Mining is important - the crystal is used for repairing the Rifts and for the Research to get out of that damn place. Do not forsake it.
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/rift-world |
Ratings
| Overall | 575th | 3.053⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 600th | 2.737⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 606th | 2.684⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 606th | 2.895⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 444th | 3.333⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 423th | 2.474⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 596th | 2.789⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 13🗳️ | 22🗨️ |
The game is pretty hard to understand. I read the instructions and backstory but it was still hard to know what to do. The game also started immediately at a quick pace. Even when I did know what to do I was clicking around frantically and didn't know how well I was doing until the You Failed screen.
The graphics look good, although I think the user interface could have been prettier. Also, it could have been a bit easier to use. The clickboxes of the actions are pretty small, while you want to switch actions really quickly.
The theme has been used okay.
To end a bit more positively, I think that if you improve the interface and tutorial a bit, I think this may be a really good game!
A problem in the game was that I really didn't know which rift was which when they looked identical and they were not even in order. The furthest away was number 2 which was a little odd. You could also have shown some hp bars of your defenders, now you just had to rely on the small boxes on the sides on the screen. Almost the whole game depended on those boxes and the rest of the screen wasn't really necessary for the gameplay.
Was it intentional that the researcher was able to cure and research at the same time or was it just a bug?
But all in all a good idea that could have had some last polishing to make the gameplay more fun and easier to play.
About having screenshots on the page, unfortunately I haven't been able to upload images, as the "upload" button doesn't work. I think maybe it's the browser, so later on today I'll try to install a more mainstream one just for that (I use Palemoon).
Also, there aren't health bars for the defenders because I didn't managed to do with the positioning, as they come back and forth (the enemy's health bars are anchored on a general "Rift Canvas" and only get visibility on/off when there are or aren't enemies on the rifts). But I guess I just figured out how to do it. Yes, this is the second jam game I program all by myself on my life, and the first one I got something near playability, as I'm not a full programmer, just a Game Designer who like to try to code. :)
I'll improve the rest of the UI on an "off-jam update" and leave it for the ones who want to try it. Expect something tonight (Brazilian time...).
I'll also try, on that update, to make some form of ingame tutorial to ease the start of first-timers. :D
EDIT: The researcher being able to cure and research at the same time is a bug. Nobody is supposed to multitask here. I'll adress that, also.
Graphics are very very good, there are some glitches in task assigning it seems (check box is checked but Nick is not curing for example, but I got around it just by disabling and enabling it again). Too bad you didn't manage to do the sounds and music. This game would definitely be much better with them. But overall I think you did an impressive work for such short time. Keep it up!!!
But after you get into it it's quite fun, still not so easy to understand everything you can do imo.
With sounds the game would feel much better.
Was still worth trying it out, nice entry :)
I was able to get over 50% research completed before I accidentally got one of my workers killed. I enjoyed it though, I think a little bit more progression during a run such as researching or building various upgrades could be really nice, good job!
I'm glad you enjoyed the game. I adressed some of your feedbacks on an off-jam update I just released - including the glitches on Nick's checkboxes. Still without sounds, sadly, maybe I'll come up with something on the weekend.
I wanted to have some things added, like different resources, weapon and defenses upgrading, and char progression, but that wasn't possible on the Jam. But I built up the code with that in mind so there are variables which weren't useful on the jam (like the weapon and skill ones), but leave the field open for expanding. Do you people who played the game (and that question is for @scornz, @florian-van-strien, and @svarttand also) think that this is worth expanding and maybe bringing up to steam (or other selling platform, whatever)?
Other then that. I think the game would be really fiun to play. I like the multiple things you got to do in order to win.. Mine, defend, etc..
But game is playable and quite interesting. Good luck!