A Small Village by MostLikely

[raw]
made by MostLikely for Ludum Dare 52 (COMPO)

game.png

  • No sound or music

Controls: - Click and drag to select villagers - Click to tell them where to go

Objective: - Survive as long as possible - Keep enough flame and fish to survive

* Post Comp end time (5:24EST) * I reduced the amount of enemies to make the game playable

Ratings

Overall 218th 3.278⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Fun 296th 2.756⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 163th 3.337⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Theme 230th 3.367⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 44th 4.156⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Audio 278th 1.984⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Humor 263th 1.941⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Mood 101th 3.625⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Given 15🗳️ 18🗨️

Feedback

publicidadeba
08. Jan 2023 · 21:34 UTC
Super cool, reminded me of Dome Keeper. 21 days, I wish it was bit easier in the start.
FrederoxDev
08. Jan 2023 · 21:34 UTC
Some instructions on how to start would be more useful, I spent the beginning of the game trying to drag the wrong things. Love the art and colour pallete though
🎤 MostLikely
08. Jan 2023 · 21:41 UTC
@publicidadeba

thanks!
me too, I think I made it a little too difficult too fast,
AppoxGames
08. Jan 2023 · 22:00 UTC
Wow, impressive graphics! I enjoyed it. Only feedback i have is that it would have been nice if the selected unit was kept being selected after giving it a move command.

Good job!
Asieke
08. Jan 2023 · 22:01 UTC
Love the graphics and the color palette. Topped out at a survival time of 38.

This game was fun, simple and intuitive with good controls, but I found the difficulty to be a tad too high. The spawning of the thieves seemed a bit to sporadic and unrelenting. And even when focusing only on fishing, the fish consumed while fighting the thieves seemed to always outpace how quickly I could gather, so if I spent any time gathering wood I would lose very shortly after.

I did manage to use a strategy to body block the thieves so I could fight them without having to walk all the way back to the fire, but it only mildly helped as it was only useful when there was only a single thief that spawned near where my villager already was.

All in all a really solid submission, just needs some tweaking with the balance.
LDJam user 313326
08. Jan 2023 · 22:02 UTC
Pretty difficult to learn and survive at the same time. Good art and cool concept!
0xWAVY
08. Jan 2023 · 22:22 UTC
Super cool art style, definitely my favorite aspect of your submission. I would have loved to have some aspect of sound here - soft crackling of the fire or some crickets would really elevate the mood a ton. Either way really cool, great stuff.
🎤 MostLikely
08. Jan 2023 · 22:26 UTC
@0xwavy thanks, I'm pretty new to making art

some ambient forest noises would be perfect
🎤 MostLikely
08. Jan 2023 · 23:00 UTC
@appoxgames thanks!
lfreinoso
08. Jan 2023 · 23:02 UTC
In general, I liked the graphic aspect of the game, the colors and the whole tune. I thought it was dramatic, but it makes sense when the monsters appear.
I got the error "WebGL context lost, please reload the page", it could be a lack of ENGINE update regarding firefox security policies, it worked fine in Chrome. It didn't load any sound. It took me a while to understand the mechanics, but I got it, there's a tree on top, which ran to get wood, but it only works if I go into the forest, it took me a long time to understand how to collect items.
I hope my feedbacks help.

see my game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/space-harvest
🎤 MostLikely
08. Jan 2023 · 23:10 UTC
@lfreinoso great feedback I appreciate it

that lone tree won't give you any wood, my bad, I didn't have time to fix the collision for it :)

it's also very possible (likely) I made a mistake while exporting
Zyper
08. Jan 2023 · 23:25 UTC
This is a visually stunning game with excellent asthetics. The background color of the page even matches the game's background, which is a nice touch ;) The gameplay is engaging and challenging, and I only had one issue with the tree that was mentioned by other commenters.

Overall, it's a really good game!
🎤 MostLikely
08. Jan 2023 · 23:36 UTC
@zyper thanks!
ursagames
09. Jan 2023 · 00:11 UTC
Absolutely love the pixel art and mood you have setup with this! I agree with others that the start of the game is really tough, but I like the mechanics at play! Not sure why those thieves don't just want to share the fire instead of having to steal it :D
NaNixDev
09. Jan 2023 · 00:18 UTC
Very well done. I struggled a bit at the beginning with knowing what to do.
Pulni
09. Jan 2023 · 00:52 UTC
Ooh, looks very nice! The difficulty seemed close to impossible initially, but after a few attempts I managed to get to 100 hours and that felt nice! :)

It does seem a little luck based. In not so few games it just feel like I had bad luck and there was nothing I could've done better, because I died on the stage when I only have 1-2 people.

Another thing - as I was trying to "optimize" my people usage, I thought I can put someone to chop that tree that's between the forest and the lake, with the idea that I can easily keep some people there to quickly switch between those tasks when necessary. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to work.

Now my new idea is to put people slightly below the lake, with hopes that they'll both fish and deal some damage to some baddies! I like that the game gives such things to experiment with. If you're planning to do more with it, I'd say one thing to focus on might be to add more such options for using a single person as 2 things, or giving positions where they can easily switch between tasks. (Disclaimer: I haven't played many games in the genre though.)

Anyway, good job and have a nice day! :)
🎤 MostLikely
09. Jan 2023 · 02:46 UTC
@pulni great feedback

dying to luck is no fun, I should tone down the luck a bit, and make the enemies more consistant


thanks for trying it out
rjerez192
09. Jan 2023 · 03:07 UTC
At first it seems very hard. It takes some tries to get the idea.
The RNG sometimes seems to be very hard on you.

Overall I really like the graphics and I see a lot of potential on the concept.
Horda
09. Jan 2023 · 04:25 UTC
I had a hard time realising that I had to select the unit with rectangle, I was clicking things without understanding what to do.
After that I agree the game is tough, the idea is original, the aesthetic excellent and overall it's very well put together.
Great Game, well done !
Falkreon
09. Jan 2023 · 05:17 UTC
Really standout visuals! The gameplay didn't fully come together - thieves are far too common, meaning you have to scramble to get fish in between thieves, and I could never quite manage it - but the theme does come through. Good work!
Stevie257
09. Jan 2023 · 05:47 UTC
Interesting game. The enemy spawn rate was way too high though
DzejPi
09. Jan 2023 · 06:54 UTC
Amazing artstyle here - it looks so elegant and good! However, it was a little bit too challenging for me. I think this game would benefit greatly from are some simple animation that would show you that you are doing something, because at first, I didn't even know my villager was doing anything until I looked at the numbers below. But I understand that there was probably not enough time for that. Either way, great job here!
nyxkn
09. Jan 2023 · 10:34 UTC
Game is really well drawn and I really wanted to like it, but it's WAY too difficult. It's so incredibly difficult that all the fun is ruined. I never got to building a house. I tried different strategies but there's way too many enemies and they're way too fast at bringing down the fire. Controls are also really clumsy and that makes it that much more frustrating. Less enemies! More fun! Otherwise atmosphere is gorgeous. Shame I couldn't spend more time playing!
Gonzo13
09. Jan 2023 · 11:51 UTC
@mostlikely Amazing game! Pretty graphics! I like this minimalistic color scheme.
Hoeleboele
09. Jan 2023 · 12:28 UTC
Game is very hard but you did a great job on the art and feel of the game very nice just wished it was a bit easier to get into
pauljs
09. Jan 2023 · 13:13 UTC
Nice sweet little game!
Yorsh
09. Jan 2023 · 14:58 UTC
Really nice art style. Gameplay is nice too and works well most of the time. It just felt a bit random on the number of enemies, some games there are no one, and some others there are way too many in the start.
Patsui
09. Jan 2023 · 20:38 UTC
Looks great, gameplay is way too hard and tedious! or maybe I just suck lol
Jujus
09. Jan 2023 · 22:07 UTC
Really really love this art style
Pusheeneiro
10. Jan 2023 · 00:04 UTC
Great art-style and joyful gameplay.
HypernoodleJon
10. Jan 2023 · 03:36 UTC
Lovely pixel art! the setup and mood gave me major "A Dark Room" vibes, which is fantastic. would have been nice to see a second villager sooner since it was difficult to learn and keep up with the game at the start. Really fantastic mood though throughout.
Enad96
10. Jan 2023 · 07:03 UTC
I wish I could repair the fire, but then I would play the game too long. Nice idea!
🎤 MostLikely
10. Jan 2023 · 15:11 UTC
@hypernoodlejon hey, it was inspired by a dark room, good guess. I love that game


I agree, I'll definitely make the 2nd villager arrive sooner & rebalance the enemies in a non-ludum-dare release
🎤 MostLikely
10. Jan 2023 · 15:11 UTC
@enad96 a friend also recommended this, so I'll add it!
Bowen
10. Jan 2023 · 17:34 UTC
Really good, but bad balance, your game needs to add more new things to keep longer gameloop.
aevek
10. Jan 2023 · 21:18 UTC
Really like the visuals and concept. Managed to live 51 hours, but found this really tough. Maybe starting with 2 villagers could help, as there was just so much micromanagement of a single villager that needed to happen for me to even live long enough for the second villager to arrive. I'd love to try out a balance patch of this one, I think there's some cool potential here.
LDJam user 314356
12. Jan 2023 · 00:17 UTC
Neat art and idea, although controls and feedback from actions are pretty bad, so it's a pain to play unfortunately :( Here are some tips on controls:

- Right Mouse Button to give order instead of Left Mouse Button
- Don't deselect unit after giving an order
- No feedback from getting resources look like you did nothing and pretty frustrating. Some small animation of trees / popups with numbers of resources could work. I understand that it's a Compo, but some feedback is needed since everything on the screen don't look like a interactable object

Basically it's a mini-strategy (with survival mechanics), so controls best practices from strategy would be very welcome.

It's very nice that you added a multiple unit selections as a feature (although I didn't make it to 2 villigers)!
AcsiD
12. Jan 2023 · 01:32 UTC
Really hard game. Like the idea and the strategic aspect.
Great Game
🎤 MostLikely
17. Jan 2023 · 01:41 UTC
if anyone is interested, I took your suggestions and updated the game here: https://most-likely.itch.io/a-small-village-post-jam

if you're reviewing the game, please use the link in the main post
grid96
17. Jan 2023 · 17:58 UTC
I really like the minimallistic Color Pellet. Took me a while to find the villager though :D
Very challenging right from the get go, but I was very ambitious to get to the first house
Cat Lab
26. Jan 2023 · 07:45 UTC
Very nice aesthetically, would love some audio to go with it! Occasionally the enemy spawn could be a bit overwhelming and it takes a while to get the hang of how the dragging mechanic works, but overall simple and entertaining!