LudumData

Annihilation by Schuster

[raw]
made by Schuster for Ludum Dare 50 (COMPO)

Screenshot.png

Introduction

Many of my jam games involve killing humans in various ways. This time, you are trying to save the natural beauty of the planet. However, humans multiply very quickly and tend to build cities and factories on all the land they touch. It is likely only a matter of time before the planet itself succumbs to this human "infection". The small planet idea was inspired by the LD42 submission of Blackthornprod (although my graphics are not nearly as good).

Enjoy!

This game was made in 48 hours for LD50 by Micah Schuster

Goal:

Stop the humans from taking over the planet and destroying all of the greenery. Perhaps annihilation is inevitable.

Controls:

Click mouse anywhere and cast a power. The power will land on the planet no matter where you click.

Left Click: Cast a lightning bolt to smite the puny humans.

Right Click: Cause untold destruction to human cities.

Tools used:

Engine: Unity 2021.2.8f1

Music: Ableton Live 11

Art: Affinity Photo/Designer

SFX: Audacity

Font: Natural Log

Link https://github.com/mdschuster/LD50
Link https://mdschuster.github.io/
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/annihilation

Ratings

Overall 234th 3.571⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 205th 3.571⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 281th 3.357⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 98th 4.071⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 264th 3.548⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 95th 3.75⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 227th 3.405⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 39🗳️ 17🗨️

Feedback

lantto
04. Apr 2022 · 18:20 UTC
This is great! Very fun and satisfying mechanics. Nice graphics and a good twist to the "prevent the exponential spread" concept with a planet as the arena. Would love to see a version with even more powers.
kamikaziuk
04. Apr 2022 · 18:49 UTC
This was a fun little game. I like the overpopulation idea of the theme
JovialKnoll
07. Apr 2022 · 03:28 UTC
Good concept and easy to understand controls. I would have liked for my decisions of where to strike with one or the other attack to feel more impactful. I might have been wrong, but it seemed like people spawned based on buildings, so the lightning attack only hitting people didn't seem to do much.

Like the controls, clean and straightforward graphics. I liked the sound effects.
Catoryu
07. Apr 2022 · 14:58 UTC
Nice concept with not much controls which makes it good but even if it's inevitable, you have too little control over what happens in the game so it finishes very quickly. It doesn't feel like we delay anything at all.
Otherwise, nicely done.
bar0net
07. Apr 2022 · 15:00 UTC
The music is soooo good.

Good take on the theme with very straightforward mechanics. Really fun.
If there was a way to know how good a run was, I would defenitely spend more time trying than I care to admit.

Kudos on your submission!
binroot
07. Apr 2022 · 15:06 UTC
The giant smile on the planet was a great way to indicate the "health bar" without requiring that UI element. Great idea, it made the game feel more polished.
bit66
07. Apr 2022 · 15:08 UTC
Neat game ... Protect the trees!!
It would have been nice to keep some score and display it
Stefan Laimer
07. Apr 2022 · 15:26 UTC
Really nice game! Some sort of timer or even a leaderboard would be absolutely amazing.
Also I basically managed to stabilize by just having one house left and immediately killing everyone who spawns :D

![Unbenannt.PNG](///raw/b24/22/z/4d606.png)
Arihan10
07. Apr 2022 · 15:27 UTC
Great game! The graphics were perfect for the very absurd concept and sound design complemented the rest of the game really well. My only critique would be the lack of a "score" counter- since the annihilation of the Earth is purportedly "inevitable", wanting to beat your high score would make for a good incentive to replay the game. Even though it's possible this might have been a conscious design decision rather than a result of the time constraints, I think the game could really benefit from having a bit more than just the two existing abilities. Maybe you unlock new abilities as time goes on? I suppose that's more than can be expected for a compo game lol.

Overall, good job! I had a lot of fun playing and think it could be something you can release on Steam with just a bit more polish :D
p-r
07. Apr 2022 · 15:50 UTC
It is deceptively hard since you end up burning up trees but it was quite fun nonetheless, also you should add other natural disasters
Nick Rafalski
10. Apr 2022 · 22:30 UTC
This was a lot of fun! The mechanics are simple but really polished and feel really good. I love saving up that meteor and teaching those humans the errors of their way. I really wish there was a score because I feel like I did really well on my last playthrough. Overall, still a great game :)
Likirus
11. Apr 2022 · 10:40 UTC
Why is it so damn satisfying to smite the puny humans?! Maybe it's the amazing squishing sound effects... ^^ I also love the contrast between the well-produced happy sounding music while literally commiting mass murder.
At the same time, your take on the theme is extremely true when looking at the state of the world and when you think about it, it's a very grim outlook, which again contrasts the happy music very well. I only wish I could delay the inevitable in the game (and in the real world for that matter) a little bit longer to keep squishing more humans because it's so satisfying. One of my favorite games of the event so far. Great job!
Lisek Gagatek
11. Apr 2022 · 10:43 UTC
That was actually a fun game, albeit it was a bit stressing to play. I felt pressured to use my abilities as fast as possible, making me spam mouse buttons all the time. Which in itself isn't bad, but you could possibly look into making the abilities go off while you hold buttons (and not click), since you probably don't want to lose precious time by not using abilities immediately as their cooldown ends. A winning screen would also be cool, when you actually destroy all the humans. I know it wouldn't quite fit for the jam theme (since it would not be inevitable if you can win :D), but still it felt quite weird that the houses just reappeared in random spots after I've destroyed everything.

Overall, the concept is a really good foundation and with a bit more work and polish it could fit on Kongregate and simmilar sites imho.
LilianC
11. Apr 2022 · 16:04 UTC
Nice concept, very fun and satisfying ! Art is simple put effective and the music is pretty nice too. I think a difficulty a bit more progressive would make the game more enjoyable, or maybe if cooldowns were a bit shorter. As it stands you're overwhelmed really quickly, which feats the theme well but makes the game a little bit too short without really a possibility to get better
zimny11
11. Apr 2022 · 16:33 UTC
Nice game! I love the art style. The music is fine, and the sound effects are nice and funny. I wish there were more powers to use, but I get it takes time to create them :) Great job with the game!