ASHES TO ASHES by AkirAssasin

[raw]
made by AkirAssasin for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-wfUbj1g

ASHES TO ASHES

(itch.io) A minimalistic minesweeper-inspired city builder.

GAMEPLAY

  • Click at an unoccupied spot to place the next object.
  • Click an existing object to move it elsewhere, but at what cost?
  • Fill the board with populated objects (no yellow crosses) to win.
  • Press R to restart.

EXPLANATION

Try to avoid reading this before playing for some sense of discovery!

  • Towers (pink) reveal objects at a distance.
  • Fires (red) spread to adjacent objects.
  • Pyramids (magenta) set adjacent objects on Fire.
  • Monuments (lead) and Stones (brown) are immune to Fire.
  • Castles (yellow) are always populated.
  • Any object adjacent to a populated object will also be populated.
  • Houses (white), Pyramids, Monuments and Towers have to be populated.
  • Trees (khaki), Stones and Fires don't need to be populated.
  • Taking objects cause a Fire to be the next object you place.

TOOLS USED

ASSETS USED

Ratings

Overall 232th 3.795⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Fun 273th 3.638⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 129th 3.872⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Theme 305th 3.679⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Humor 758th 2.265⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Mood 214th 3.808⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Given 9🗳️ 12🗨️

Feedback

Khod
06. Oct 2019 · 13:14 UTC
Waooo !
Great game. I really enjoy to discover the effect of each tile.
diaonic
07. Oct 2019 · 01:11 UTC
Very well done, I tried figuring out on my own first and struggle abit. After going back and reading the directions it made alot of sense. This would be a great mobile game, very impressed!
bobotast
07. Oct 2019 · 01:24 UTC
Really like this game, but I can't quite figure out how to play (well). Burned some of my houses down, don't know what to do with all this fire.
🎤 AkirAssasin
07. Oct 2019 · 03:17 UTC
Thank you, @khod @diaonic @bobotast ~

I didn't have the time to add actual instructions and descriptions of the objects into the game, unfortunately!
bobotast
07. Oct 2019 · 03:57 UTC
@akirassasin ooookay, I'm starting to really get it. I filled up 82% of the map! Populated all the pyramids on the map.
Pavel Ivanov
07. Oct 2019 · 04:07 UTC
OMG, web builds are soo good for game jams, they should literally be mandatory!
AppoxGames
07. Oct 2019 · 04:14 UTC
Felt good, but i couldnt figure out how to complete the level. Eitherway goodjob! The SFX of placing was satisfying :D
tmullet
07. Oct 2019 · 04:14 UTC
This game is fantastic. Like others I had to go to the instructions to really get what is going on, but after that I got into it. Music sets an eerie mood, and that newish retro feel lands perfectly.
khaotom
07. Oct 2019 · 06:05 UTC
Excellent, interesting idea and very satisfying to complete the map. Well done!
justinooncx
07. Oct 2019 · 06:15 UTC
An interesting puzzle game! I started out not reading the instructions, ironically as you instructed, and set the whole place ablaze trying to figure out what was going on. Gotta say, without the help of your instructions, it's hard to connect the dots...

Once I got in the groove of things, though, I started to experiment and figure out how the game works... and I managed to complete the game after about 20 mins. IT's a reasonably challenging puzzle, BUT there are exploits that make it way too easy...

1) Fire spreading only moves the fire, not make a copy. While this was probably a conscious design decision, it didn't take me long to figure out that I could GUIDE the flames away by sacrificing some houses or whatnot. I figured out which flames would move where, too, with enough testing, and could reliably move them without setting the rest of the town on fire.

2) There is no penalty for burning houses. Again, probably by design, since accidents are bound to happen, and you can always rebuild once everything is razed to the ground, but this meant I could freely burn houses until I got the structure I wanted.

Basically, I set up a stone/monument farm. I set one flame aside to trash buildings I don't want, moving it up and down by placing burnable buildings above or below it, then when I got a monument or stone, I used that to expand my town or reach pyramids. Theoretically, I can play through the whole game this way and have nothing but monuments and stones with a single castle connecting them all!

Bugs aside, the idea is certainly very interesting! I can see what you're trying to go for, and there were many moments where I found myself pondering over what the next best placement would be... Good job!
🎤 AkirAssasin
07. Oct 2019 · 06:31 UTC
@pavel-ivanov @appoxgames @tmullet @khaotom @justinooncx thank you all!

Agreed, I think a scoring​ system based on keeping buildings alive might make the game more strategic.
TomekS
08. Oct 2019 · 02:16 UTC
Nicely polished and entertaining, takes me back to Amstrad Cpc 64 back in the days :)
GuitarBro
08. Oct 2019 · 02:25 UTC
I like the idea, but the rules were a bit too much for me to discover on my own. It's a pretty unique style of game for sure.
chelC
08. Oct 2019 · 02:30 UTC
what do i do with the fire...? I just sort of put it on the outside to deal with later, "I'll just put this with the rest of the fire," but I don't think that was the right strategy...
mactinite
08. Oct 2019 · 02:33 UTC
Tried once blind, and was completely lost, but once I came back and read the descriptions everything made sense. This is a really good puzzle game. Could be super addicting. Played one board out all the way! ![Annotation 2019-10-07 193151.png](///raw/65/z/28987.png)
redmountainman1
08. Oct 2019 · 02:39 UTC
This is great. I appreciate the spoiler alert. Experimenting with the tiles was really entertaining.
Madbarron
08. Oct 2019 · 02:45 UTC
The more I play, the better it gets! Great game!

![ashesPNG.PNG](///raw/b4e/12/z/2899e.png)
🎤 AkirAssasin
08. Oct 2019 · 14:25 UTC
@tomeks @guitarbro @chelc @mactinite @redmountainman1 @madbarron thank you all for playing!
clemonades
08. Oct 2019 · 14:52 UTC
Great job! Cute graphics and game play that is simple to understand but difficult to master. Really liked this one...also, I can burn everything if I want muahahaha ;)
ropedog
09. Oct 2019 · 00:49 UTC
Really neat puzzle game! I'll admit that it did take me awhile to fully understand (and remember) what each piece did, but once I got the hang of it I was much more engaged. I think a small tutorial or even a legend would be very beneficial, but I know it's tough to squeeze that into a game jam. Great job overall - really enjoyed this one.
Majadroid
09. Oct 2019 · 19:20 UTC
Great job. Interesting puzzle mechanism, very satisfying music.
Roka Josh
13. Oct 2019 · 11:13 UTC
Very cool puzzle game, after getting my head around it I started to really enjoyed it. Great job!
Sean S. LeBlanc
14. Oct 2019 · 22:39 UTC
Interesting puzzle, though not particularly intuitive. Having the arches more clearly indicate that they're immune to fire would be helpful.