MilCo. by MikoziQ

[raw]
made by MikoziQ for Ludum Dare 48 (COMPO)

Moo moo!

Conquer the Little Valley with your cute cows!

2021-04-26 (13).png

Controls & How To Play

  • WSAD To move camera
  • Press B to return to moo-moos
  • Click + Hold LMB To place connections between milk factory and house, then house to house
  • Click on Cow statue's pedestal to buy a moo-moo!
  • Connect all 30 Houses or go bankrupt!
  • Your connections CANNOT be undone!
  • Manage your economy and take care of Moo-moos!

2021-04-26 (12).png

KNOWN BUGS

  • WEBGL version can't launch at chrome, try safari or Firefox! If not, feel free to download Win version.
  • After pausing the game and returning to menu, starting the game again may block your controls / UI... Can't really tell what the problem is and it's random.

Tools Used

  • Engine: Unity 2021
  • 3D Models (cows, trees) - Modelled in Unity ProBuilder
  • Textures, colors and icons - Corel DRAW X7
  • Audio - Myself truly, recording on Windows Voice Registration tool :rofl:

Ratings

Overall 669th 3.141⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Fun 688th 2.923⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 566th 3.013⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Theme 893th 1.882⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 523th 3.329⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Humor 127th 3.474⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Mood 667th 2.882⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Given 50🗳️ 56🗨️

Feedback

Listonos
26. Apr 2021 · 06:59 UTC
I really enjoy strategy games so I was excited about this one. I would have love to see more depth, right now get cows until you are rolling in money -> find 30 houses -> win. It looks good though and the sound effects are great.
🎤 MikoziQ
26. Apr 2021 · 08:50 UTC
@listonos thanks for playing! This is my first time trying economy/strategy game so I didn't know the depth would grow exponentially as well as getting a proper economy calculation.

Currently, I have following formula

Houses owned X singlehousereward(10) + cows happiness - cows unhappiness - cows owned X singlecowmaintenenace(5) - connectionsLength X 1.

Cows happines is just cows X 0.5, so after 5 cows were getting more than 1 point extra.

Cows unhappiness is only given if we have more houses than cows so (houses connected - cows owned). If its 0 or less, don't give points, otherwise substract.

I wanted to introduce some stages like more expenses or connections of different type.

Of course coming up with working formula the first time is almost impossible :rofl: , but I will try to correct it!
Effarek
26. Apr 2021 · 09:06 UTC
Cows are the key to success, now I know that !
It was really funny, I loved the "moo moo" sound effects !
Listonos
26. Apr 2021 · 09:29 UTC
@mikoziq I did notice cow unhappiness being a thing so the formula wasn't completely lost on me :)
🎤 MikoziQ
26. Apr 2021 · 09:40 UTC
@listonos yes. I think, In the end, happy/unhappy should be one factor only. I also think that I need some factor to grow in a way that it produces constant challenge, but that I will think of later this week (can't change it now ayway, only tweaking the current values of formula is allowed I think)

@effarek thanks for playing! Glad you liked ithe moo moos😅
magus77
26. Apr 2021 · 17:00 UTC
Did you do the MOOO yourself? I really liked that one :) Didn't really get the deeper and deeper theme in this one tho. What i was missing was background music and a timer of some sort when to expect new income. Liked playing it and cows are friends!!
🎤 MikoziQ
26. Apr 2021 · 19:34 UTC
@magus77 Thanks! Considering late arrival to compo, I haven't scoped this one pretty well. Yes I did all the MOO's myself at 2:25 AM (30 minutes before deadline), trying not to wake my girlfriend :rofl:

Also I wanted something out of the box so I completely understand not meeting exactly the theme. Wish I could go with my other plan, but my gut told me to go all the way with moo-moo's. NO REGRETS! :cow:
kuro
27. Apr 2021 · 10:07 UTC
[Disclaimer](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/so-so-phia/done-with-compo-i-might-yet-move-to-jam-if-i-feel-like-it)

**Fun**

I found the gameplay loop quite unchallenging. You connect the first two to three houses, and then wait a few minutes, buying cows. Then you connect all the houses and you're done. (I do understand that designing an economic sim for a game jam is quite hard.)

**Innovation**

I played several games like this over the years. Connecting houses would be a nice addition if there was more challenge.

**Theme**

I don't see any connection to the theme, besides building a road deeper into the forest...?

**Graphics**

This is the strongest aspect of your game. The graphics are simple, but very effective, and even the UI fits nicely. I suspect the cubes are placeholders for a house asset you didn't manage to create, but they fit so well it doesn't hurt the visuals at all. Not cutting off the map, and placing the mountains around instead is a very nice touch.

Game could use some simple movement. Something like "shake a cow once in a while", a bird or a flock here and there, you could make trees wiggle and pretend it's the wind. You get the idea.

**Humor**

Moo! (moo moo moo moo---moo... moo moo ... moo) Moo!

Once you get like a bajillion cows, your farm starts to sound like a buddhistic monastery. The louder moo that plays when you buy a cow made me giggle. It's cute, and you get half-of-a-star for that. (Also I think opting out from the audio category was a right move on your part. I might have done the same now that I think of it.)

**Mood**

The game is pleasant and funny, but nothing too wild going on here. Some simple banjo/bottle music loop with some movement/animations would have improved this category a lot.

**Overall**


The game suffers from the lack of a relevant gameplay loop, but makes up for it with it's visual and feeling. I place it a little bit above average.

---
If you want to see my star ratings, you need to tell me explicitly. I can send it to you on twitter, discord, or I can leave it in the comments. I have no idea how this would affect the ratings from other people, so you decide if and where you want to receive them. If you want them on twitter, tweet a link to your game and tag me, or send me a PM. If you want them on discord, send me a link to your game on discord.

[@dizztalgamedev](https://twitter.com/dizztalgamedev)

Discord: kuro#4651
🎤 MikoziQ
27. Apr 2021 · 10:24 UTC
@kuro Thanks for deep feedback! This is actually extremely accurate to what I would self-review this game as of now, so It's good to see someone looking at this the same way :)

As for the theme. I work professionally in oil/gas drilling industry, so oilrig sim or similar was my first thought of course, but I decided to go outside of the box a bit. Therefore, it's completely understandable that I haven't fit the theme much once I went with my gut feeling, but the moo-moos behind my head gave me no regrets! :sweat_smile:
retrome
27. Apr 2021 · 15:19 UTC
Nice stylish graphics! Plays like clicker game.

Feels pretty slow at beginning and becomes very fast and easy at the end. Connections are not enough responsive sometimes: increasing distance/radius could help.

Good job!
kuro
28. Apr 2021 · 06:35 UTC
I might have overdone it a bit

![milco2.png](///raw/416/z/411e4.png)

The cow mountain should be a formal achievement in this game.

Furthermore, this shit keeps playing inside my head since I played your game, so thank you very much for that :angry: :smile:

[![Bitch I'm a cow](https://img.youtube.com/vi/mXnJqYwebF8/0.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXnJqYwebF8)
SoarenDev
30. Apr 2021 · 23:12 UTC
So cute :o

The thing that bother me in the game is the fact that you can just buy more cows to gain more money without loosing anything in exchange. I mean you can just wait and do nothing else than buying cows, and you will eventually become RICH AS HELL and just connect every house without challenge. Maybe adding something like a time limit so we can't just wait CASH to overflow, or adding a negative effect if you have too many cows without linking houses could make the whole thing more balanced ? o/

![meuh.JPG](///raw/d6b/32/z/41d9c.jpg)

Outside of this, I foudn the art cool and really cute ! I'm impressed that you created the cows with pro builder hahaha.

And the MOO sound effect is SS-tiers !

Anyway, Bravo for your cute submission !
michaelyount
01. May 2021 · 12:56 UTC
This was an interesting game, love the little cows. and MOOOO to you too, lol. Thanks for your work.
LucaVazz
01. May 2021 · 13:12 UTC
Mooooo!

Its a nice base idea, really liked the house connecting mechanic and the beautiful moo sounds. Also a nice idea to integrate the stats UI with the world.
The (un)happiness of the cows didn't seem to have an effect - or I managed to speed run it unintentionally :D Maybe some emotes for the cows would be a nice touch.
Viperux
01. May 2021 · 17:17 UTC
Haha funny game. The best thing is buy tons of moo-moo cow and overwelm the valley with them... I just wished that the button to buy them where a little bit distant from the fence... becouse after 1400 cows i couldn't press it anymore XD Well done :-)
Bastienre4
02. May 2021 · 12:15 UTC
I love the aesthetics. The gameplay lacks a bit of deepth but because I love idle games, I was engaged until the completion of the objective.
Good job :)
JRevel
02. May 2021 · 12:21 UTC
Funny one ! I also got the cow mountain ! ![firefox_dpxeF3kVwc.png](///raw/d1e/33/z/41ff7.png)
Timo Gass
02. May 2021 · 13:02 UTC
Overall I like the game, the humor.. it was just fun to play!
The game idea was cool, but I'm not quite sure where it was about "Deeper and deeper".

Anyways, keep the optic and the humor and improve on the rest :)
Keep on the good work!
Meta-link
02. May 2021 · 13:55 UTC
Fun game ! I really liked the artstyle.
Good job :slight_smile:
mak6
02. May 2021 · 15:05 UTC
First entry I see with a Linux version ! FINALLY ! Thank you very much for that!

Overall I had a nice time playing it, it's relaxing and your "Moo" sound is so real xD.
I could finish the game with only 12 cows, am I a pro gamer or what? All my cows seemed happy or maybe I couldn't really see there unhappiness, if so, I'm truly sorry for them...
I really liked the art style and that the map is closed with mountains. With some more art like this: a delivery truck going from house to house, some birds etc would have make it even cuter.

@kuro I should definitly not have watched this video... Thanks !

And thanks @mikoziq for this entry !
LudumDareDevil
02. May 2021 · 21:54 UTC
Nice game! Love the sound effects. The art style is cool too.
Pincushion
02. May 2021 · 22:06 UTC
Overall this is pretty good. I feel like you have the hard stuff in. It needs more elements. Your instructions include "take care of Moo-moos", and I think that's a good next step.

I like the UI / models. It looks good, and it's easy to see what's there. It didn't take long to understand the mechanics. I had fun learning them.
Vederant
02. May 2021 · 22:15 UTC
A really nice game, had a lot of fun with it! I am not exactly sure how you would lose and there are some bugs present, but overall had a really good experience!
![Milk.png](///raw/18d/c2/z/420bb.png)
TheJohnyFeeD
02. May 2021 · 23:05 UTC
That was a nice little game. But my gripe is that it's was too easy. I'm not sure it's even possible to lose.

But I think with some depth added to gameplay and some polish, this could be a great full game on Steam.

Also, I absolutely loved the voice acting!:DDD ![123.png](///raw/28c/43/z/420db.png)
Rhoka
03. May 2021 · 02:11 UTC
Nice job. Simple but well done art. I too have achieved a cow mountain. Almost got to 2000 cows before they covered the buy button. Gameplay was pretty easy though. I only connected like 3 houses and then bought cows until income was >100 per tick and then it flew through the rest of the game. So balancing the economy of it would be the main point to improve on. I had a decent time with it though!
![MIL Co.png](///raw/d64/31/z/42118.png)
🎤 MikoziQ
03. May 2021 · 07:20 UTC
@retrome @soarendev @michaelyount @lucavazz @viperux @bastienre4 @timo-gass @retrome @mak6 @ludumdaredevil @pincushion @vederant @rhoka @thejohnyfeed

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed the moo-moo-xperience!

I am well aware that economy is completely disbalanced, but in a positive way!

The leftover house bug is, well, my brain problem that forgot at 1AM in the morning, that Arrays starts at index 0 :sweat_smile:

Tons of stuff to improve nontheless. I already have plenty of ideas, but will wait until Play + Rate is over :)

And yes, as I mentioned before, the game went it's own way instead of following strictly the theme. :cow2:

Thanks again! I will try to rate back games I have left to rate soon! And later off to Danger Zone!
PurpledArtFrog
03. May 2021 · 08:15 UTC
Thank you very much for your entry - I hope you had great fun making it :smile:

Mine actually froze a couple of times and at one point two houses spawned on top of eachother... or VERY close to.. so couldn't connect to one of them.

I really liked the graphics and the mooo'ing is pretty fun - the game itself felt a bit static. I think someone else pointed out that a little "mooovement" would have helped out.

Easy to understand mechanic - good job :thumbsup_tone1:

:purple_heart: :dart: :frog:
VeryGenuineCraze
03. May 2021 · 08:59 UTC
Good job! I loved the MOOd of this game. The concept is simple and you added simple mechanics on it.

I think you can push the game further by adding some challenging mechanics :
* The price of the path is also defined by the size of it
* The price of a cow increases when you buy one
* Add some random mechanics wich take away some cows (maybe a flying saucer)

It's the beginning of a MOO era :cow: :cow: :cow: :cow: :cow:
🎤 MikoziQ
03. May 2021 · 10:00 UTC
@purpledartfrog Thanks!

Static game was supposed to be a thing for only houses as I inteded moo moo-s to move around. Of course had time only to select between movement and sounds... Guess what I picked? :cow:

Same with the spawning mechanic. It's a pure luck of space that houses did not touch each other :D

Can you provide me more info on when the game froze??
🎤 MikoziQ
03. May 2021 · 10:02 UTC
@verygenuinecraze Thanks!

The actual economy balance is defined somewhere above, but I'll put it there

```
Currently, I have following formula

housesConnected X singleHouseReward(10) + cowsHappiness - cowsUnhappiness - cowsOwned X singlecowmaintenenace(5) - connectionsLength X 1.

Cows happines is just cows X 0.5, so after 5 cows were getting more than 1 point extra.
```

I actually added super cows and uber cows to the game, but decided not to include them in the shop. A random event would be that cows.. just decided to go their way :cow2:
PurpledArtFrog
03. May 2021 · 10:13 UTC
@mikoziq I know this really wont help you... but in the middle of doing nothing ... as I remember it I had connected 3 houses and had no extra moo moo's ... only thing I suppose was that I had been in the menu and back again two times.
"Uh uh I know this one...... Sounds?" :rofl:
🎤 MikoziQ
03. May 2021 · 15:14 UTC
@purpledartfrog seems like menu bug I mentioned in known issues. Will investigate after jam! Thanks 😊
kuro
04. May 2021 · 07:32 UTC
@mak6 You know what they say; misery loves company. So, you're welcome I guess...
Nick Rafalski
06. May 2021 · 12:49 UTC
This was really cute! The graphics and sound effects are great. The UI projected onto the ground is really cool too. I was enjoying the game quite a bit until I clicked on the "milk factory" after already connecting a bunch of houses. when I did that, it disconnected the milk factory to the first house, and I couldn't seem to reconnect it. Not sure if it was user error, or a bug. Any way, still a great game. I made a similar "economy simulator" for LD44 and it's very difficult to get a good balance in 48 hours. Nice job!
R2D48
07. May 2021 · 15:55 UTC
Moo Moo. Nice Graphics not challenging don't know how to make bankrupt. It's refreshing to have a game centered on Cows
tanis
08. May 2021 · 16:45 UTC
Oh man! After seeing what others have achieved with their mountains of cows I feel like a noob! :)
The graphics is super nice and your moooooo is just awesome :)
It's pretty hard to come up with a balanced RTS in such short time. Nice job
shp
10. May 2021 · 14:33 UTC
Doesn't extract for me with 7zip, please use zip on windows! win8 and newer can archive and extract them natively.
🎤 MikoziQ
11. May 2021 · 13:52 UTC
@shp Hey! My apologies, I'll change to zip when I have a bit of spare time :)
🎤 MikoziQ
11. May 2021 · 20:03 UTC
@shp Try now, I've reuploaded using zip :)
Ntimi
12. May 2021 · 18:44 UTC
I liked the friendly graphics and the constant moooos.
The connection mechanic was nice and simple, that was fun. The only thing i missed (like many others said) was some kind of depth - since money only seemed to go up when I added cows, the road to sucess was clear very quickly. :D
shp
13. May 2021 · 17:09 UTC
@mikoziq thanks! played it now, charming little game, really like the simple visuals :)