Sky 1513 by vedmich
Here is our first game on the Ludum Dare!
Control the floating island with two buttons only!
Press left or right to rotate island.
Collect shards and grow your island bigger and more beautiful!
Each shard of the same type will upgrade the hex it hit.
Each shard of different type will destroy the hex it hit or create the new hex in case when hex it hit is protected by the Barrier.
Barrier grow every time you completely surround it with hexes.
Every time the Barrier grows, Tower Tree is upgraded!
But beware of ultra destroying Meteors!
Have fun! :)
Control the floating island with two buttons only!
Press left or right to rotate island.
Collect shards and grow your island bigger and more beautiful!
Each shard of the same type will upgrade the hex it hit.
Each shard of different type will destroy the hex it hit or create the new hex in case when hex it hit is protected by the Barrier.
Barrier grow every time you completely surround it with hexes.
Every time the Barrier grows, Tower Tree is upgraded!
But beware of ultra destroying Meteors!
Have fun! :)
| Web | http://sky1513.herokuapp.com |
| Windows | https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xl1ibvajqck3dli/AABQvQ6AqRegv8_NzLBVkQyla?dl=0 |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=63025 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 50% | 3 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.60 | 261 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.20 | 479 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 4.56 | 40 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.88 | 70 |
| Mood(Jam) | 3.56 | 254 |
| Theme(Jam) | 4.32 | 38 |
Oxiten, Happanda, Vedmich
:)
The tutorial could use a lot of work, though.
Running on 64-bit Windows 10
Great twist on classic mechanics, if this concept exists elsewhere I havent seen it.
My criticisms:
-I wasnt sure right off between the green and yellow tiles, mixed them up quite a bit but that might be my visual acuity or a color constancy problem psychologically.
-Wish the rocks fell slightly faster at least to start with because there is no tutorial
-I am still not sure about the falling comets because at timers theres no way to avoid them you just have to decide which piece of upgraded land (if you have any) takes damage/gets destroyed. This is kinda cool because its like this unavoidable thing but the player still has choice... but the consequences are all negative. Maybe thats okay though, I havent decided where I fall on that yet (pun intended!)
Nice work. Seriously.
The game presented some nice puzzle-style gameplay, with strategic choices, but one aspect of the design really rubbed me the wrong way; The meteors. I really like the idea of a shard that damages what it hits, and even one that nukes a whole ring if it hits the Barrier, but having it destroy a whole hex regardless of level breaks so much of the existing gameplay. It makes players helpless, and takes away a meaningful choice they could be making: "Do I have a position where it'll hit a Level 2 Hex that wouldn't be destroyed?" It also negates clever play to build up as many level 2+ Hexes as possible. Basically, if Meteors destroy rather than damage the Hex it hits, players are absolutely helpless; their only choice is how to lose, which is REALLY frustrating in a puzzle-type game.
It also might be worthwhile to let you shift the island one hex Right or Left in addition to rotation (Say, hold the left or right button to shift it while held or something); there were always Shards 1 tile too far away for a given size (might be an off-by-one error in the source?), and it would also potentially enable players more flexibility in positioning their island, and less frustrating time spent waiting for just the right Shard in just the right spot.
Critique aside, it's a really beautiful game, with some gameplay I've never seen before. You could expand on this; it seems like a pretty good fit for Mobile, etc.
Thanks for putting this together!
We have some issues obviously (like bad transparency for shards landing and meteors), so we will polish the game further.
We'll keep you updated here and provide you with new versions as work progress :)