The Nuclear Age by foxor
1970s retrofuturistic puzzle game.
| HTML5 (web) | http://isaacjames.com/LD39/ |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/the-nuclear-age |
Ratings
| Overall | 134th | 3.667⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 342th | 3.143⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 102th | 3.667⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 34th | 4.19⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 274th | 3.429⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 112th | 3.524⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 367th | 2.167⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 149th | 3.4⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 21🗳️ | 14🗨️ |
:star: I liked the retro-futuristic aesthetic, and thought the puzzle was very unique.
:bug: I'm not sure if it was a bug or not, but on level 6 (I believe) if you place a power plant next to a city next to a power plant it doesn't seem to transmit power, but if a power line is added between either plant and the city then the city conducts power. This might be by design but I couldn't figure out the rule.
:point_right: You might consider telegraphing the countdown a bit better (maybe put the power number on each placed power plant).
Overall good job, thank you for making this!
1. If you have 3 powerplants, the first one will provide 3 power, the second one 2 power, the third one 1 power;
2. The power is provided to nearby cells and cells connected by grid;
The puzzle rules were a bit tricky to figure out. The first few levels did an okay job of explaining them...but it wasn't perfect, especially with the way the power plants give decreasing levels of power. Maybe one or two more tutorial levels, or add in some text to make sure the point gets across?
A 'restart' button for each level would be good, and maybe even a level select menu. I realize those are a low priority in a game jam, though. ;)
I really could not get level 5, though. You have to connect each plant to the 6 building, to add up to 6, but each other building also has to be connected to at least one plant. Therefore, at the end, all the buildings will be in a connected network of components. Since you have 3 plants and 2 wires, there are 5 tiles you can place. But there's no way to connect all the buildings together with 5 tiles! If any one of the buildings were just 1 tile closer to the others, you could do it, but...
Oh by the way, I figured out that if you click madly over the board, weird stuff seems to happen. Actually, I think the only thing that's happening is that you fail the level and then restart it without seeing the "You failed!" message, but it's still a bit odd. ;)
Anyway, good job creating something playable!

I totally agree with @tmpxyz.
The gameplay is interesting but it is too unintuitive to lack a tutorial. I could not figure out what the broken grid does for example, and it took me some time to understand that the power goes down with each plant and that the power is only transmitted when the plant is installed. It didn't need a lot of explaining, maybe just more instructions instead of a tutorial.
Did not exactly understand how power was distributed, I'm afraid some tutorial is required.
Liked your music and "green screen" art style.