Artifact Control by cdunham

[raw]
made by cdunham for Ludum Dare 51 (JAM)

ArtifactControl4.png Capture the artifact! The artifact causes a random effect to happen every 10 seconds.

Use mana to summon units to go take control of the artifact. ArtifactControl6.png

Artifact effects: Increase enemy/player attack or speed, give player/enemy mana, randomize all unit positions ArtifactControl1.png

Controls:

Typical RTS controls, if you're familiar

  • WASD to pan camera

  • Shift to pan faster

  • Left click to select unit, drag to select multiple

  • Select the summoning circle in your base to access your spells

  • Right click to give commands to units ArtifactControl5.png

Ratings

Overall 858th 3.239⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 720th 3.239⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 748th 3.136⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1050th 3.023⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Audio 454th 3.37⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 903th 3.071⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 20🗳️ 22🗨️

Feedback

Chilleh
04. Oct 2022 · 09:50 UTC
Absolutely love the background music, it reminds me of crash bandicoot!!! Overall a very nice game (I very much enjoyed being able to capture the artifact >:) ). I kind of feel bad sending the poor little rats to their death at parts haha.
🎤 cdunham
04. Oct 2022 · 22:47 UTC
@chilleh Thanks for playing, dude! The rats are my favorite lol glad you liked it, I'll give your game a try when I have some time.
LDJam user 4886
06. Oct 2022 · 09:47 UTC
I found it really difficult to find a strategy with changing conditions, my creatures were always smashed by enemies :'( But I tried!

Well done!
🎤 cdunham
11. Oct 2022 · 05:09 UTC
@notnasiul Thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed it!
LDJam user 267116
11. Oct 2022 · 06:20 UTC
Nice spooky aesthetic, I feel like that's underserved by RTS games. The changing field buffs were cool as well. Nice job!
khaotom
11. Oct 2022 · 06:20 UTC
Not really a huge fan of rts these days, but I enjoyed this super fast and stripped down version! The artifact effects made a big difference to how I played. My winning strategies tended to be to keep building and hoarding units until the artifact was in my favor, then attack the circle. I needed a good mix, with a few ranged and hoards of rats to frontline.

I also liked seeing all the details in the bases, like the stairs down in the enemy base. Could there be a whole dungeon down there? Fun to imagine.
LDJam user 300360
11. Oct 2022 · 06:23 UTC
Nice little game ^^ It is a bit hard to understand what's going on sometimes, or the perks of each unit (I spammed rats to overwelm the opponent :p ) but it was interesting. Nice BGM ^^
rsninjadev
11. Oct 2022 · 06:33 UTC
Very nice, loved the art and sound. It was fun once I figured out to play, controls shown in game would be a nice feature to add. When choosing troop I felt like my decision was uniformed, always summoning the most expensive one, I think it would be cool if there was some sort of information on which troops my troops would be more or less effective at fighting so I could counter the enemy summons better, other than that, great work!
BayLock
11. Oct 2022 · 06:46 UTC
Amazing game. Really catchy graphics. Some work can be done from the gameplay side and can be a made a bit more complex. I think the 10 second rule did redistricted a lot of possibilities. Please do check out my submission as well.
LDJam user 306215
11. Oct 2022 · 06:54 UTC
Definitely a nice base for a n RTS game, some good controls a clear goal and some very clear unit differentiation. Though the gameplay is a little lacking. Which to be fair makes sense for a jam.

I personally just didn't quite see what I could do to impact the outcome of a fight besides dump more units into it? There didn't seem to be too much of a, I guess rock paper scissors setup. It was just rats die fast, zombies die slower and beholders are the best. Or if there was a rock paper scissor setup I didn't really see it in the gameplay.

Besides that though the controls were nice and like I said the goal was clear. The music was a nice background and the art was cool. It's just that gameplay unfortunately.

What I'd suggest is maybe leaning more onto a rock paper scissors setup like I was alluding to before. Ex. rats beat beholders because they can dodge and zombies lose to beholders because they're too slow or something else etc.. That way there's more variety in the strategy of the game. Where one unit can be countered and so you have to spread your units around based off what the enemy is choosing.


Overall though a really nice base for an RTS game with an interesting unit setup and some nice controls.
Sheol
11. Oct 2022 · 09:52 UTC
A bit of a short game but I can see that with some more polish it can have great potential! I think it's nice that there's also some challenge with the random debuffs/buffs given by the artifact. I'm not really a huge RTS player but still I enjoyed this! Great job!!
jk5000
11. Oct 2022 · 13:07 UTC
I tried to play the game, but to honest I really not understand much what was happening. But it look and sound like an interesting idea.
asfdfdfd
11. Oct 2022 · 19:57 UTC
Nice RTS implementation. I've beat em to dust!
LePoulet
14. Oct 2022 · 05:39 UTC
It took me 3 tries to achieve victory. The game is cool, i had fun.
🎤 cdunham
15. Oct 2022 · 05:57 UTC
@animawish @khaotom @rinkuji @baylock @rsninjadev @eroaxe @sheol @jk5000 @asfdfdfd @lepoulet Thanks for playing, everyone!
nardandas
16. Oct 2022 · 01:41 UTC
It took me a second to kind of figure out the map and UI, but once I did, gameplay wasn't bad! I felt the combat was a bit lacking. I didn't mind the types of units available, but I wanted more control over their actions. Something like the typical attack -> attack move -> stand ground type of thing. I felt a bit less like I was commanding my units and more like I was trying to corral them into the artifact zone! Overall really cool to see RTS-type games in ludum dare, we need more of them!