Heat Flow by wolderado

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

Heat Flow is a strategy game where you build stacking towers and manage your engine's heat.

The main mechanic of the game is stacking modules and creating towers. Modules can affect each other and your heat levels. Each module has unique synergies with other modules which were inspired by games like Slay the Spire, SNKRX, and more.

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What's changed in Post-Jam Version: - Added Tutorial - Stopping time when you're in build mode - Difficulty adjustments - Module stat adjustments - Bigger heat bar - Guarantee randomness system for module loots - Reduced stacked enemies destroy time - Some bug fixes

Ratings

Overall 98th 4.087⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 397th 3.652⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 98th 3.978⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 466th 3.848⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 166th 4.348⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 154th 3.978⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 178th 4.022⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 22🗳️ 22🗨️

Feedback

Brandsma
05. Apr 2022 · 12:29 UTC
Love strategy games in general, but this one has a unique take. Started playing and just wanted to keep playing it for a bit. Nicely done!
Gastar
05. Apr 2022 · 12:36 UTC
Great game! Especially audio and visual effects. And realy fun to play
ThibHuss
05. Apr 2022 · 12:37 UTC
Super polished feeling, good job!
Lakea
05. Apr 2022 · 12:47 UTC
Very nice game, think my technique was off as couldnt get very far before exploding
Niklas Zhaga
05. Apr 2022 · 12:55 UTC
Very interesting and hard to play, graphics is minimalistic but looks so cool! Great job guys
Chocolat-Endive
05. Apr 2022 · 13:33 UTC
The game feels very polished, nice work on the mechanics and also sound effects/game reactions to the player.
About the controls, I would have liked to have the game sort of paused when I added modules, I lost a few times because I was upgrading and being shot at at the same time. Otherwise the game is fun to play and the concept works well, good job! :)
BloodyEdward
05. Apr 2022 · 14:51 UTC
Brilliant! Everything was on point, my only gripe was the feeling of aimlessness - often times I just stumbled about until I found a module box.
greymouth
07. Apr 2022 · 01:24 UTC
Awesome concept! Love the progression and everything meshes so well!
pkenney
07. Apr 2022 · 01:56 UTC
Really polished look! I loved the concept of designing a board with solid defense yet efficient cooling.

I didn't feel like I was able to fully engage with the strategy because when I open the drawer to read what the components do the game starts pumping really fast and saying "NO DONT READ ANYTHING JUST GO!" and I'm craning my neck stressed out trying to read the text at an angle and enemies run around and shoot me, and I lose. It also takes quite a lot of time to kill an enemy, relative to the value of doing so, so avoiding the enemies entirely also felt right. My best time (3:15) was the run where I just slapped every single thing I picked up onto a random spot on the board with speedclicking, and never killed a single enemy.

So this is a strong entry in terms of the art, and models, and controls, and sounds, but as far as the gameplay systems go, it incentivized me to avoid interacting with them. Which was a shame because I really felt like I wanted to understand more!

I don't mean that to sound overly negative -- there was a ton of cool stuff going on, and with a few tweaks I think this could be something I would sink a lot more time into.
🎤 wolderado
07. Apr 2022 · 13:15 UTC
@pkenney Thats a really valid feedback! Thanks a lot! We're probably going to publish a post jam update today
LDP
08. Apr 2022 · 16:35 UTC
Hey, that was a very nice game, nice art, nice sounds, everything is very polished, it's original.
Every elements are here to make a nice original game.

I had some trouble understanding how to efficiently manage my heat though, as there are tons on elements with different effects that I can put very quickly on my ship. At some point everything was fine, then I added a few other elements and everything exploded.

But I might not be the target for this kind of games, I've always been very bad at strategy/management games.

But in the end, you have a very playable, polished prototype and that's an amazing work for a 2 people team.
gamescodedogs
09. Apr 2022 · 15:35 UTC
I love all graphics FX a lot! The heat and all models with lights are just awesome! Also, I like mechanics of the game.
Maybe tutorial is a bit long. I didn't have the patience to finish reading, as I really wanted to see the heat :).
Thanks for making this game!
tgiant
10. Apr 2022 · 06:46 UTC
This is a great game. I love the mechanics and the FX, sound and gameplay was the perfect mix.
triggthediscovery
10. Apr 2022 · 09:07 UTC
Really like the clean look of this, the models and effects and the smooth way everything moves work great together.
JuhrJuhr
10. Apr 2022 · 17:51 UTC
Really slick gameplay and visuals. Glad you released a post-jam version too :)
oc1d
10. Apr 2022 · 18:00 UTC
Really nice entry! I think I played for around half an hour! Love the parallel projection! It would be super good though to be able to rotate the tower to see the modules. Also it was not really clear to me when the lasers are active and when not. Also it would be good to have some more variety, after a while I was waiting for something to happen. But I reached a nice flow state and really liked the visuals and the sound!