LudumData

Paper Druids by rubr

[raw]
made by rubr for Ludum Dare 52 (JAM)

In one world, you are a group of druids defending a grove from trespassers. Nature's wrath shall come upon those who do not belong; from their corpses, the earth shall spring anew.

In another, you're a group of friends on a lonely winter evening, having decided to have some fun with some graph paper and pens.

How long can you defend this grove?

The web version can be finicky, especially when running on MacOS. If that happens, please use the downloadable versions ^^

screenshot2.png

Game Core

You start the game controlling three Druid units. Each unit under your control can move and shoot. Every turn, you can seed Sprouts, which require fertilizer. Luckily for you, a lovely batch of fertilizer is currently invading your front lawn.

Fertilized Sprouts grow into Plants. Plants arranged in specific patterns can be harvested to get different units. The game ends when you have lost all units. Try to get the highest score you can!

Controls - LEFT MOUSE BUTTON for pretty much all actions. - RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON to cancel actions. - Hover over units to read about them.

Made by ovrbi, ruby, BirbMom and Finn Talisker.

Hotfix #1 (11/01): - Fixed a bug where healthbars wouldn't disappear. - Fixed a bug where enemy movement ranges wouldn't appear. - Fixed a bug where the game wouldn't display an end screen if a Sproutling had been summoned. - Fixed some enemy movement issues. - Fixed some description display logic.

Hotfix #2 (12/01): - Fixed a bug where some units wouldn't fade out after having done their actions.

Link https://rubr.itch.io/paper-druids
Link https://rubr.itch.io/paper-druids
Link https://rubr.itch.io/paper-druids
Link https://rubr.itch.io/paper-druids
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/paper-druids

Ratings

Overall 112th 3.95⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 162th 3.8⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 151th 3.711⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 203th 4.025⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 272th 3.9⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 160th 3.711⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 247th 3.7⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 11🗨️

Feedback

LandoSystems
10. Jan 2023 · 03:56 UTC
Really liked this one! The simple art style is very accessible and the user interactions are well thought out. It plays well and allows for some fun strategic thinking. Great work!
Phlip45
10. Jan 2023 · 04:55 UTC
This game reminds me how bad I am at tactics game. I played through like 3 times and got to a late turn, but it was by just doing nothing but wrath and ended with a score of 2, haha. Art style is simple but extremely pleasant to look at. Music and SFX are very fitting to the mood.
LinuxKid21
10. Jan 2023 · 07:55 UTC
Very neat idea. I thought this game presented me with a lot of interesting choices as I played. I'm not sure how you get some of the larger patterns setup without becoming overwhelmed by enemies, but maybe that's just my lack of brains :)

Is there a purpose to friendly fire? I was assuming if I clicked on another of my units while attacking, it would act like it does while moving.
🎤 rubr
11. Jan 2023 · 01:31 UTC
@landosystems Thank you for playing! I'm glad you had fun with it! :]

@phlip45 Haha yeah, in hindsight, we absolutely should have made killing enemies also give you score, not only just harvesting. It seems too big of a change during the voting period, though, so we'll probably only change it around afterwards. I'm glad you still enjoyed it!

@linuxkid21 It's definitely not easy! It usually involves a little bit of baiting to get the enemies away from the edges, where you can push their corpse afterwards to where you need it. As for friendly fire -- not really, I just thought that it would be interesting if you could. It is technically possible to make use of it, Druids 'drop' corpses when they die, and all other player units drop new Sprouts. I can totally see the confusion, though! It's good to hear that you still had fun with the game [:
Quoclon
13. Jan 2023 · 03:24 UTC
The simple art style is pleasent to look at, and doesn't distract or detract from gameplay. I like the UI elements, from the writing, to how moves/attacks are telegraphed. Took me a few turns to get a hang of how planting and harvesting works, but once I got the hang of it... yeah, pretty chill and enjoyable. Super impressive to have a tile-based game, with AI, implemented in a weekend. Solid entry, nice use of theme, well done :)
hadesfury
14. Jan 2023 · 11:43 UTC
Good game, quite challenging :D well done ;)
LDJam user 248799
15. Jan 2023 · 14:56 UTC
So cool ! Love the art and sound !

It takes me multiple run to understand the strategy, but now I have a lot of fun. Very good idea !
deadgoodnik
15. Jan 2023 · 14:59 UTC
Enjoyed this one simple style but well thought out and felt nice to play well done
brainles etertainment
15. Jan 2023 · 15:03 UTC
Doesn't work under Chromium :(. It says:

Error
The following features required to run Godot projects on the Web are missing:
Cross Origin Isolation - Check web server configuration (send correct headers)

Version 90.0.4430.212 (Developer Build) built on Debian 10.9, running on Debian 10.13 (64-bit)
Spargit
15. Jan 2023 · 15:08 UTC
Simple game, but very clean and well done. I understood what was happening most of the time, so massive props to the UI.
J0ye
15. Jan 2023 · 15:16 UTC
It is a rare occasion that I find an ldjam game that o just can not put down. And this did it for me. I like this a lot mostly because it was great in every way. Sound, look, gameplay and the concept where just well made. Good job.
InitialPosition
15. Jan 2023 · 15:16 UTC
A surprising amount of strategy for such a simplistic game. Really makes you think about your unit movement and about which troops to get. Graphics were really nice to look at and the music wasn't distracting at all.

I think it could be nice to see where the enemy troops will move next round so you can plan your strategy even better but I don't know if that would maybe break balancing.
ffrusik
15. Jan 2023 · 15:34 UTC
Incredible game. Really liked it, was playing for 30 minutes straight forward. Everything is amazing, will be great if you keep working on it. I bet the game will be a success!
ffrusik
15. Jan 2023 · 15:52 UTC
Even downloaded a game to play later sometime :)
Yaen
15. Jan 2023 · 15:58 UTC
Ahh this is frustrating because I think it can actually be a brilliant tactics game but it's balanced to be way to inaccessible for new players like me. Little things like not being able to see the attack range of my units before walking with them, strong enemies like cavalry coming in really early, generally too many enemies spawning in, no matter how many units I have on the field, only being able to do one action per round, some enemies having too much health to deal with, most plants (that I saw) only having 1 health, not being able to undo an accidental move or attack action, being able to accidentally kill your own plants and unites and I could go on and on, sadly make it impossible for me to really get to the fun part of trying out the different units. I am just never able to build any complex shapes because I'm constantly overrun. But it could all be fixed by just tweaking these values.

I think then I'd actually enjoy the game greatly as I do like these tactics games and this one has a lot of potential while using the theme innovatively and cleverly. Please do consider rebalancing if you ever do a post-jam version.

Managed to get a score of 12 in my 4th run fyi.
🎤 rubr
18. Jan 2023 · 19:59 UTC
@brainles-etertainment Hey! That error has popped up constantly, and I'm not quite sure what's causing it. However, you might have more luck with the direct link of the game (https://html.itch.zone/html/7148269/0_7_hf2/index.html) or one of the downloadable versions!
LDJam user 250905
20. Jan 2023 · 23:51 UTC
Really fun but *really* hard game (:laughing:)! I typically don't play games with this style of gameplay, so I'm gonna assume that's where my difficulty with it comes from, but I enjoyed what I tried! Pretty much all of my suggestions are to do with tweaking some of the sliders just so it's easier for new players, but here's a few of them anyway! I feel the troops are too weak for the number of enemies on screen (along with the amount of damage the enemies deal), and it ends up being too difficult to build up more troops due to only being able to plant and harvest *one ally* at a time. I wish I'd been able to see what more of the allies were -- I was only able to get up to the "Thistle-slinger" before getting overwhelmed, and sadly I think you may have added too much content for the average Joe to be able to see! :sweat_smile:

Overall, this is a *super* well made game, I just couldn't understand how to play it well enough to grasp everything inside. If you tweak the difficulty curve a little bit, I think this would be improved heartily! :clap:
pkenney
22. Jan 2023 · 04:16 UTC
Wow so good! Turn based games are tough, and they risk having this plodding slow feel. But this game moves along nice and quick if I want to input quickly, but also gives me as much time as I want. The polish of the graphics and the interaction is great, and the predictive indicators and attack-range mouseover previews are absolutely top-notch and help me learn.

The game itself is really tense and well-done. The tension between planting, harvesting, and double-damage to clear enemies is super interesting.

And the music was also very nice and well-matched to the mood and pace of the game.

Very well done all around!
dk5000p
25. Jan 2023 · 21:29 UTC
I enjoyed the simple artwork and the page flipping sound. The game definitely ramps up. Will give it a few more playthroughs. I had fun.