LudumData

Node Colony by gmaanicus

[raw]
made by gmaanicus for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

map&glory.gif

move&glory.gif

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Node Colony is a game where you control a desperate colony on the verge of an attack from the SWARM. Take control of nearby nodes to claim their resources. Watch out for the swarms, as they infect everything they touch.

READ THIS

  • Click on nodes to select them, RIGHT CLICK on others to link them together. ( Note: The Colony node, the one you start with, can link up to 3 nodes, while all others can only link 1 )

  • Claim nodes by linking them together. Neutralize enemy nodes by keeping a unit on them while not being attacked.

  • Making units requires 1 population each. Gain more population by taking other nodes and staying alive for a cycle (cycles are 120s).

  • Move units by selecting them and right clicking where you want them to move. They will attack if you right-click on an enemy or if they collide with each other.

  • If the special button becomes available ( When the observer node is selected ), you can right-click on another node to have it scout (reveal) that node.

Controls

  • WASD & Arrow Keys: Move screen

  • Scroll-wheel: Zoom in/out screen

  • Left/Right Mouse-buttons: Move and command units and structures.

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Unfortunately, there is no win or lose state. I ran out of time to implement everything. I would have loved to put that, a tutorial, and many other things in the game. Please feel free to decide when you've played enough.

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Developer's Note

The game is in a very playable state, but I ran out of time to develop it. It isn't quite where I wanted it to be, so things like resources, scouts, and other nodes are pretty much useless in the game. Nonetheless, I'm still very proud of its current state. Please enjoy!

Bug Fixes:

  • Enemy Movement completely fixed. They should no longer build up on infected nodes and become impossible to defeat

  • Friendly Node Claiming fixed. You can now properly neutralize and claim enemy nodes in all circumstances

  • Graphical bugs fixed. Mostly line renderer start and end colors not updating when nodes were neutralized or claimed from enemies

Youtube https://gmanicus.itch.io/node-colony-ld46
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/node-colony

Ratings

Overall 1909th 3.188⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1794th 3.042⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 537th 3.646⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 2377th 2.771⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1917th 3.021⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 1444th 2.667⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1408th 3.295⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 15🗳️ 22🗨️

Feedback

Almighty Games
22. Apr 2020 · 02:45 UTC
The graphics are obviously not the focus of this game, as all I really see are icons and lines. The color scheme is appropriate. Unfortunately, the game is a little deeper than my little mind can understand, so I didn't seem to get very far... (or maybe I did) I don't know. At least you were able to finish a game and get your entry in on time. I wish you the best and look forward to your next game.
🎤 gmaanicus
22. Apr 2020 · 02:58 UTC
@almighty-games Thanks for playing! It seemed like there were some concepts that I wasn't able to communicate with a lack of a tutorial. Some seemed to pick it up right away, probably because they were familiar with the mechanics and games somewhat like it, but I understand that others would be extremely confused, especially those that do not play many RTS games. There are some concepts in that genre that are really difficult to communicate without a proper tutorial.

Again, I appreciate you trying, and thanks for leaving a review. :smile:
Wolfier
22. Apr 2020 · 03:30 UTC
Definitely tense, You should add some group movement so you don't have to move every unit individually.
I don't know what marauders do if anything, they never seem to fire. You should also give some feedback when the player tries to build with a station that has more then one node.
🎤 gmaanicus
22. Apr 2020 · 05:33 UTC
@wolfier Hey, thanks for playing! The Marauder is a bit stronger in both health and damage, but also takes longer to fire. If they never did, that's probably because of the semi-buggy attack system. Enemies will sometimes spam attacks, therefore killing your units before they had a chance to fire. That shouldn't happen, and I will continue to look for the root cause.

Definitely on my TODO list. Thanks for the feedback!
PerpetuumMobile
22. Apr 2020 · 06:34 UTC
This idea is really interesting. This is one of the games I'd like to see to get continued after the jam ends.
RobotsAndMuffins
22. Apr 2020 · 06:41 UTC
I agree. Interesting idea. I think I had some issue when I played (no enemies appeared), but concept is robust.
🎤 gmaanicus
22. Apr 2020 · 06:50 UTC
@perpetuummobile @robotsandmuffins

Thanks! I definitely will be continuing this. I had planned on so much more that just didn't make it in time! :cry:

Apologies for the enemy movement bug (which is why you didn't see them). Things are a bit complicated on my end, and I'm trying to find the root cause of the issue.
erebus
22. Apr 2020 · 10:34 UTC
Really cool idea! Amazing how far you got it! Thanks for bringing it by the stream!
Rhoka
23. Apr 2020 · 03:03 UTC
Cool idea! I can see this easily being fleshed out into more of a Creeper World type game. I think I encountered a bug where I took over an enemy node but I didn't get it and it kept spawning enemies even though it was part of my network. Also, just some little text pop ups explaining what each unit does would go a long way to decreasing the entry difficulty. Otherwise, great work!
🎤 gmaanicus
23. Apr 2020 · 06:57 UTC
@erebus @rhoka Thanks so much for playing! Taking a look, Creeper World seems to be somewhat similar to what I would like to turn this game into.

Thanks for pointing out the bug! I'll put out a patch very shortly here with a few other fixes as well.
Artur Hawkwing
24. Apr 2020 · 02:54 UTC
This is a really cool idea. It was a bit tough at first, but the tutorial you posted here definitely helped. This would be a great game to see p post-LD for
No Grapes Games
24. Apr 2020 · 03:31 UTC
Good job making a RTS game, It took a bit of experimentation to figure out though. Once I felt things out it was fun!

Nice entry!
🎤 gmaanicus
24. Apr 2020 · 03:37 UTC
@artur-hawkwing @no-grapes-games Thanks so much for checking it out!

Yeah! In hindsight, going for an RTS game is a *lot* more complicated than I thought. I'm glad you guys enjoyed what I was able to build before time ran out!

I'll definitely be fleshing this out a lot more, and I may even make a Steam release if I can give it enough content.
Artur Hawkwing
24. Apr 2020 · 04:04 UTC
@gmaanicus Awesome, it would be cool to see this on Steam :)
Lamossus
24. Apr 2020 · 06:46 UTC
The game was really confusing at first and I probably don't fully understand its mechanics even now. The nodes that can produce units seemed to be very rare, so it was hard to send units in time for enemy attack. Also selecting multiple units at once would be a nice addition.
But good job on making an RTS for a game jam! It was probably really hard, and the result for a 72 hour game is very impressive! Are you going to continue development of this game post LD? I can see it becoming a really good game with some more work done on it.
🎤 gmaanicus
24. Apr 2020 · 07:29 UTC
@lamossus Thanks for playing! Yeah, the "map" is randomly generated. Sometimes those nodes can be rather sparse.

Thanks for the suggestion. That'll definitely make it in the post-LD version. I plan on working on this over the next while, or however long it takes to get it where I want it. I'd hope to make it good enough for a proper release by the end of May. We'll see!
Teto
25. Apr 2020 · 17:44 UTC
I liked the concept and the style of graphics was simple but effective and it didn't feel too static. Colours fit well and I appreciate that you probably didn't get time to finish everything you wanted to, like a tutorial, but it did seem quite confusing to play at first so maybe just adding a more despcriptive and in depth set of instructions in the description would be nice! Good job!
ursagames
25. Apr 2020 · 21:42 UTC
Hello! Your game was played during my stream!

If you want to know the timestamp of when your game was played you can see it in this spreadsheet:
https://tinyurl.com/yau8hjzn

And then look in my latest videos and find your game being play (after the current stream ends)
https://www.twitch.tv/ursagames/videos
🎤 gmaanicus
25. Apr 2020 · 22:32 UTC
Thanks @teto @ursagames!
johnnysix
28. Apr 2020 · 23:35 UTC
An interesting concept , I wasn't good enough to get some units. If you develop beyond the compo, I'd say throw in some units initially, and maybe beef up the size of the icons on the nodes.