LudumData

Volcano Crisis by LeReveur

[raw]
made by LeReveur for Ludum Dare 50 (JAM)

Cover image

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The island volcano near your village erupts, there is no way to save the village, but you can at least try to save your people!
Problem is : the only boat you have is little, you can only save few people at one time, so until the boat come back, you can try to slow down the lava by building basic barriers with the help of the remaining people to carry and place rocks or whatever can stop this.
The houses can slow down the lava, but all the people must have somewhere to rest and stay secure, and the less houses left, the less people that can stay safe…

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I didn't vote for this theme, because I don't like it. But this still is a good theme on my point of view, as it can lead to a lot of different ideas and gameplays. The theme is good, but I lost a lot of time making some new components on my own engine, needed to do the game I had in mind. And so, the game is a very (very) minimalistic version of what I could have done if I would have not lost all this time - but this is part of LD for me, and at least, I have improved my game engine (and had fun, has always) :smile:

Link http://workshop.xenedon.com/LD50/
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/volcano-crisis

Ratings

Overall 1317th 2.815⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1262th 2.722⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 867th 3.13⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 726th 3.63⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1244th 2.537⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1129th 1.881⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1333th 2.365⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 33🗳️ 30🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 259946
05. Apr 2022 · 04:25 UTC
Honestly one of the most interesting games I've seen so far, great fun!
Weirdybeardyman
05. Apr 2022 · 14:49 UTC
Great concept. On my first attempt I lost 20 Villagers but on my second I realised that I should be placing all the tiles I could each turn. Once I did that I managed to save everyone. It would be nice if the boarding mechanic was more interactive or obvious, but you said you ran out of time, and despite that you managed to make a game which works as a complete piece. Nice job!
TheGameOverGuy
05. Apr 2022 · 18:17 UTC
Interesting! I like the simplicity of the graphics and the concept! Music / sound effects would have been a nice touch!
Christian Zommerfelds
05. Apr 2022 · 18:32 UTC
I saved 75 and 45 died!

The game is a bit too minimalistic in explanation or too abstract. If you didn't have time to build a tutorial maybe write some in-game text explaining what to do :)

Ah thanks to @weirdybeardyman's comment I figured out that you can maximize walls by using them up every round. My recommendation is let the unused wall inventory stack up over time (at least to a larger max than now) and then the player can use at strategic times. Maybe you can add random fire explosions or so.

Nice submission!
NeM
06. Apr 2022 · 02:55 UTC
It remind me a board game where we have to put wall made of wood, or made of stone, but I forgot the name.

I also saved 75 and lost 75 xD .

I cant say I liked it, it's really "minimalistic". No sound, no music, in the category Jam, not Compo, so it's sad you didnt find Sound Designer. Nor Graphic Designer.
guoboism
07. Apr 2022 · 01:55 UTC
Good idea but the lava flood too much to leave it any strategy room when choose where to build blocker, because every where need blocking. It would be very nice to have elemenets like nature hills to make scene more complex.
Also, if I can select which people onboard first can also increase strategy depth(by clicking on building tiles directly?)
Good work!
BangKerpow
08. Apr 2022 · 01:56 UTC
Some audio would be nice but the gameplay is solid and the graphics are effective at supporting the gameplay.
Geckoo1337
11. Apr 2022 · 16:07 UTC
Interesting gameplay for a clean aesthetic - minimalist, but pleasant hexagonal shapes. I like the simplicity of the main gameplay - totally unusual, but clever. You made an addictive project and I guess that with music and sounds it could be better. You made a solid entry. I wish you the best. Thank you ++
Papabirb
13. Apr 2022 · 02:49 UTC
Wish the onboarding was a little mor automatic or had a sound effect to remind me that the boat's back. Was very confused by the minimalist nature the first round and failed to put my stuff in good tiles. Reread the description and just filled up as much as i could, managed to save everyone :)
![chrome_gvRAs2V17C.png](///raw/0af/e1/z/4df35.png)
overall, pretty neat! I like that you have your own game engine and spent the time adding the components you needed to make this game. It might not have been a lot of time to actually make this game, but now your game engine is just that much more flexible!
VonFuzzius
16. Apr 2022 · 20:13 UTC
I don't think the minimalism is too big of a problem here, but honestly there isn't all that much strategy that goes into the game. At the moment, it's only really important to place your walls anywhere, but there could be some mechanics for making it more meaningful where you actually place them.
olafstromberg
16. Apr 2022 · 21:11 UTC
A simple concept and well executed. Not much replayability but fits the theme. Good job. Sound effects and music would be good as well.
Flying Dog Fish
16. Apr 2022 · 22:25 UTC
Yay, I saved everybody. I dig the minimalist graphics.
LDJam user 184264
17. Apr 2022 · 01:54 UTC
I managed to save all 120 people. The idea is something novel and pairs really well with the minimalist style. It took me a minute to figure out the game, but once I made sense of the graphics it was a really elegant interface.

Massive props to you for using your own engine. I've previously tried my hand at making a ray-casting engine (like Wolfenstein 3D) though I haven't finished it enough to use for any projects, so I know it takes a lot behind the scenes to make any engine usable. From the looks of it yours is far more finished than mine. Amazing job there.
aeveis
17. Apr 2022 · 05:17 UTC
I saved 120 people! At first I thought I was making water so I could reach the green tiles by boat, but then realized I could also block the lava with them. I like the little visual effect as the lava went to the next tile. nice job!
Flaterectomy
17. Apr 2022 · 08:49 UTC
Going in blind, it gradually became clear to me what I had to do and how things worked during the first play-through. I lost just 5 people that time, so knowing what to do made the second play-through a pretty simple win and I got everyone out. I had made the assumption that by extracting people, I could build less per turn, so that's where the balance of the game would be. However, just trying to get people off as fast as possible proved the best way to go about it.

While I kinda like the minimalist style, it does mean some of the concepts don't come across that clearly. People? Boat? That sort of thing. The color palette is a little all over the place, I think unifying some color tones could make the game look better.

Overall a cool idea, but I wish there were some more difficult tactical choices for me as a player to make.
Harksa
18. Apr 2022 · 13:36 UTC
I have saw you in a lot of comments while I was testing some games so I decided to play yours to thank you for commenting on people's game :smile:
On my first try, I saved everyone. The game is a bit simple but it's hard to manage game balance in only 2 days, so I think it's okay.
I also think the theme of the game jam is well respected here !
Minimalistic but quite lovely at the same time. Simple graphics can show a lot more than what people think !
You said you created your own engine for that and that's remarquable !
Keep up the good work :smile: !
Sarah
18. Apr 2022 · 22:50 UTC
My first time playing I wasn't sure what was going on and then people we're dying, even though I was placing blocks haha. But then I realized I had to continually load people to save them!

Overall I wish it maybe went faster, I got a little bored part way through, but overall it's a very interesting concept!

Well done!
Filipe Leal
19. Apr 2022 · 03:00 UTC
Good idea! missed some instructions but very easy once you figure it out.
gamebuilder
20. Apr 2022 · 23:36 UTC
An innovative, fun game. Sound and music would add a lot, but I realize you can only do so much given the time constraints. There is plenty of opportunity in this game for strategizing — I like how you can use houses to slow down the lava. I also like the fact that you have some idea of where the lava is heading — yet there is also enough uncertainty to make it challenging.
Koolruz
21. Apr 2022 · 01:01 UTC
I really enjoyed this game! It took me a few turns to figure out exactly how things worked, but once I did, I really liked how you abstracted the concept down to a clean and simple mechanical execution! My one piece of feedback is that it might have been nice to have turns progress a little bit faster near the end of the game, because you naturally had fewer actions you could take at that point, but I was never bored by the pacing - In fact, I ended up replaying the game a second time to get a perfect run, and I was thoroughly engaged throughout :)

![lava.PNG](///raw/dec/c2/z/4e42d.png)
Jezzamon
21. Apr 2022 · 01:34 UTC
I won!!!

![Screen Shot 2022-04-20 at 18.34.08.png](///raw/f5/z/4e42f.png)
Jezzamon
21. Apr 2022 · 01:37 UTC
Glad you had fun! If I was suggesting changes, the two changes would be:

- Add better instructions into the game. You could also have made the instructions more clear on the Ludum Dare page, it was a little hard to figure out exactly what was going on.
- Add some sound effects! Something simple (and not annoying lol) could add a lot to the game, and doesn't take too long to add.
Jezzamon
21. Apr 2022 · 02:05 UTC
Oh yeah, P.S. if you want to make your website use HTTPS, a quick way to do that is to set up cloudflare as a proxy! That's what I did with my website, doesn't require you to tweak how your server works.