Hello and welcome to my Ludum Dare 49 submission: Nimrod's Folly.

My take on the "unstable" theme is to have the player build the Tower of Babel, a mythical tower lead by ancient King Nimrod that strove to ascend to the heavens! However, it was not meant to be, and by divine intervention, the tower was smote down. Your goal is to build the tower as high as possible before the inevitable collapse.

Request to Players

In the spirit of the game, after you're done playing, and if you plan on leaving a comment, it would be fun if you speak a second language to add a sentence in that language (in keeping with the story of the Tower of Babel, where after its fall, the world's languages were born so that a similar feat may never be attempted again).

And if you want, add an emoji representing your country! 🇨🇦

I'd also love to know your high score.

Thank you for taking the time to play my game. I hope you enjoy. All feedback welcome.

Gameplay

Nimrod's Folly operates on a turn based radial symmetry system. Build pieces on top of one another, but be aware, pieces take several turns to build. Even though you can, you shouldn't stack on a piece before it's complete, as it will pop any piece on top as it grows! Advance the turn (Z) if you want to let pieces grow before adding new ones. Additionally if your pieces spawn intersecting they will likely explode. Make sure to leave a little gap!

Adherents will flock to your tower as it grows. Every meter will bring another onlooker to bask in your glory.

If a piece is red, that means it is waiting to settle. This may take a few seconds, and you cannot advance the turn or place a piece until it is done. If pieces are taking a very long time to settle, it may be because they're caught on some rubble. Clear all the bricks with Ctrl + Shift + F.

Disasters

As you get higher, you'll invite the wrath of the heavens.

Lightning — After 50 meters, thunder and lightning will assail your tower every 20 turns. At 125 and 200 meters, the clouds come in pairs and triplets!

Earthquakes — After 100 meters, you'll begin getting earthquakes every 50 turns. Be sure to re-enforce against them!

Controls

Camera * WASD — Move the camera in the direction it's facing * Right Click — Orbit the camera * Space — Move the camera up * X — Move the camera down * Hold Shift — Move the camera faster

Game Control * B — Enter the piece selection area. Click on a piece to choose it, and press B again to return to the game. * Z — Do nothing and advance the turn. * G — Restart the level

Piece Placement * Click — Place a piece * Scroll — Change the degree of symmetry * Q/E — Rotate pieces 45 degrees * Hold Ctrl + Q/E/Mouse — Rotate piece using Q/E and mouse left and right for more accuracy * R — Reset rotation

Cleanup * F — Mark a piece for deletion. It will be deleted next turn. Press again to toggle off the mark. * Hold Shift + F — Destroy any little bricks under the cursor * Ctrl + Shift + F — Destroy all little bricks

Disasters * Numpad 1 — Trigger an earthquake * Numpad 2 — Spawn a storm cloud. It will take a turn + ~5 seconds to get to your tower + another to strike. * Numpad 3 — Little push on the piece under the mouse * Numpad 4 — Big push on the piece under the mouse

Tools

• Unity
• Blender
• Photoshop
• GarageBand

Credit

Credit to Poliigon for the textures and Jorge Morón for the font.

Thoughts

I wanted to do a component where users could add data to a Firebase store and it would display their messages as the tower crumbles, but alas the comments section will have to do.

This was my first time baking normal maps and texture painting in Blender. Once you get the trick of it, it's not terrible, but it's finicky, even after you know what you're doing.

I wish I could have added more brick types, but my workflow, especially with the prefab setup, was a bit too slow. Lesson for next time to automate more.