King on the Mountain by AndideBob

Become the king on the mountain and build your castle. Place more and more rooms to gain access to new resources, but keep the balance of your tower in mind.
Controls
- Point and Click to select and place rooms
- Hover over a room button to see the description
- Use the mousewheel to zoom in and out
- Hold RMB and drag the mouse to move the camera, or use WASD or the arrow keys


Credits:
A game by @andidebob
With graphics by @toastichron
Music and Sound by Javier Belmer
| Link | https://andidebob.itch.io/king-on-the-mountain |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/king-on-the-mountain |
Ratings
| Given | 18🗳️ | 25🗨️ |
(I found a bug: The blacksmith does not seem to be working.)
Very fun but patient players will have it easier.
My suggestion would be to change +1/5s to +1/added room.
So every room you place after placing one of the +x/y room, gives you additional amounts of the resource.
Maybe even restricted to their type. So any workshop you place gives you something extra when placing a material storage.
This is one way, you could prevent players from waiting until numbers go up.
More hover texts on the top bar, materials, the "requires X"-icons would have been great too.
Graphically it seems a little glitchy here and there, when you can see gaps between connected rooms, but it wasn't in the way of the gameplay.
And finally: an ending state. When you place the monument, the camera should zoom out and tell the player that the game is over, maybe with a dialogue to continue.
BUT the game overall, the unique mechanic and so on were very creative and fun.
I had fun with this game. Thanks a lot for your entry.
middle age theme (maybe you like to share which program you used / vst?? ) and also perfect unstable theme here :) the transition from the intro wind sound to the mainloopsound is flawless. good job on this entry.
@eggland-games - Can't confirm, the blacksmith seems to work fine.
@leorid - Thank you for the feedback, I like your ideas, but the way the balance currently works makes it hard to place even more rooms, so I do think the over time function works best for now. Otherwise there is certainly some work to be done for the UI, and yeah an ending state would be nice, but for now you have the reward of knowing that you managed to build the monument!
@truedat - @javier-belmer can answer that for you!
Thank you for taking the time to play our game, and thank you for your kind words!
I actually used 2 programs for this game:
- Logic Pro for the Music: I tend to use third party libraries for the instruments, with exception of a few sounds that I record myself for the sake of having an acoustic instrument in the mix. I have a habit of tweaking the library instruments for the mix and to differentiate it from the original preset default sound. The piano specifically is often times my weapon of choice, cause it just sounds so good and rounds everything together. I use Addictive Keys. I've had it for years, and it's always added colour to my pieces.
- Ableton Live for the Sounds: it really allows me to experiment and record in a short amount of time. No virtual instruments used, all are recorded and home-brewed, with exception to the Wind (I layer both recordings and a vst).
There's actually a more full and refined version of the whole piece on my SoundCloud (check out the game's itch page for the link)
Thanks again for checking out our game, and congrats on yours too!
But the fact that you have rooms that give resources on a timer isn't the best when there's no pressure to act quickly - it pretty much changes this into an idle game. Maybe it would be better if it gave resources whenever you placed another room, or some number of rooms. This way it would still be a source of resources over time, but one working on the same "timer" as the rest of the game.
It was a bit puzzling and figuring out how to place things to make the generation of resources gather up momentum. While I whole-hardheartedly loved that the game allowed for me to take my time and not rush things... it might have added some excitement if there were winds at times shifting the balance even further so that one might have to quickly - or at least not leisurely - react and build to balance.
I noticed moving the tavern room over my already built castle that it sometimes passed in front of and sometime behind rooms. Nothing important, but the active-to-place room should probably always stay in the foreground.
The music and sounds worked really well with the game. All in all, very well made!
I thought the way you set up the economy was different and very interesting. I did not think there would be resource generators, so when they came in, I would opt for those to save space. In this way, it's a bit like an idle game but you don't get into that idle portion until much later than normal. Because of this, the generators were extremely valuable and it felt great once I had some in place since I wouldn't have to worry about that resource any more.
The tech buildings that unlocked more things were great subgoals to work towards. Without them, I'd have to spend extra time figuring out what building did what and the best way to approach it. These barriers let me focus on sets of rooms at a time.
I'm really glad you didn't make this game super hard. It would've been frustrating to see all these lovely room options but keep failing trying to get to them. I ended up finishing and it was a such a unique experience. Great job, this game makes for amazing gifs.
Btw, this game didn't play well on ultra-widescreen monitor. I couldn't actually see my resources, though I didn't actually need to. I didn't realize it was even a thing until I looked at the screenshots afterwards.
King of the mountain \o/
Really good fun. The progression was really well done -- I was upset there wasn't a people-generating room at first, but later on it actually made for some interesting decisions ("do I build another alchemy lab to get money faster? That would mean I'd need to create more people which will use money in the short term...").
I think I'd like a challenge mode where you don't get the tilt indicator at the top and just have to play it by ear, as that removes most of the challenge from the instability (as long as you check, you _can't_ lose). Maybe also the occasional gust of wind that adds a bit of extra tilt in one direction or another.
But at the end of the day, I won :)
After noticing red bar showing the resulting weight, the game was much easier to complete, personally I think the balance bar could have been made more visible, and there was also an issue with the blacksmith not generating resources for some time, victory screen with the monument would've been a good touch but I understand the time constraints. I think a good idea would be incorporating a gradual unbalancing the closer you are to the left or right, so the player would have to think on their feet.
But solid entry, one of the standouts of the jam so far.
(+) rooms have variations, like the food storage holding hams or a pumpkin and so on
(+) eastereggs ... lol
(+) the balance bar at the top of the screen is almost too much help ... almost :D
(+) multiple layouts for controls, yeah
(+) well made GUI, with tooltips
(+) economy with 5 different resources
(+) and a adjacency system for producing & storage buildings
(+) soundtrack can be muted
(-) it seems there is no winning condition, the monument?
(-) no manual restart, you have to lose or quit the game
(o) the maximum of a resource is 999? come on!

Other jammers here in this section already said everything I can say about your game: economy, balancing, winning condition, etc.
But one thing I must say: for sure I will play it on my spare time, so I hope you will polish it to offer me the best experience I can have.
Keep working on it!
If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1173717245?t=0h57m40s
Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D
💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady
https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin
I finally had the time to come back and rate everything I played so far!
Here is a link to the vod of the review if you wish to see it again: https://www.youtube.be/watch?v=AiVWayIqffU&t=8211s