The Island Warlords by firellon

[raw]
made by firellon for Ludum Dare 54 (JAM)

Screenshot 2023-10-03 034043.png

Welcome, warlords, to the Tiny Archipelago!

Here people do not have a lot of land to begin with, so every little bit of dirt matters! A couple of warring factions, conveniently named The Red and The Blue, have raised arms against one another and are trying to conquer each other’s territory!

Do you have what it takes to assess your tactical resources, compose your squads and lead them personally into battle, where the incoming water makes it even harder to find a spot to cross the swords?

Or shall you fall, perhaps, for the challenge is too overwhelming?

Screenshot 2023-10-03 034234.png

General

This game is a mixture of tactical turn-based strategy, squad manager and a squad-driven battle royale. There are three game modes to consider:

– Tactical Map

– Squad Management

– Battle

Tactical Map

The islands map is a grid split into square cells where your and enemy squads are placed. Every turn you can move all of your squads for a given distance (usually up to 2 cells per turn), or spend a movement point on rearranging the squad (moving the units inside and/or assigning a new squad leader)

– Left mouse button to select both player and enemy squads alike

– When a player squad is selected, highlighted white areas are available to move onto with a left mouse button

– When a squad is selected, press view/manage squad button to enter the Squad Management mode

– When a squad is moved onto an enemy squad, the battle commences (pay attention to the squad directions and unit placement within the squad

– Press End Turn button at the bottom to enable your squads to move again (after the enemy’s turn)

– Right mouse button to cancel selection

Screenshot 2023-10-03 034257.png

Squad Management

In Squad Management mode, player can see the full complement of a selected squad as well as the order of the units in it, forming a 5x5 grid.

– See the squad direction arrow

– Drag & Drop units from place to place

– Click on a unit to get it’s info

– Press Set as Leader button to make sure you personally control that unit in battle! (only one unit can be the leader at a time)

– Squads that have no action points left and enemy squads can not be managed

Battle

In Battle, your goal is to survive and vanquish all enemy units while evading the incoming water (which will hurt you if it reaches your units)

WASD/Arrows to move around

Left arrow button to attack (various unit types use different forms of attack)

Right arrow button to use the special ability (again, different for different unit types)

Available Character classes

  • The Knight - tough, fast, attacks at close range and can protect himself from all damage by raising up the shield
  • The Archer - quick, precise, long-range shooter who can dash to swiftly cover short distances and evade enemies
  • The Wizard - slow medium-range artillery shooter capable of shielding himself from ranged damage, magic and mundane alike

Screenshot 2023-10-03 034352.png

Team Nebulate.me

@kutase - Programming and Battle design

@firellon - Programming, Level design and Art (we also used some free assets for the background tiles)

Tools used:

  • Unity
  • Aseprite
  • Photoshop

Music taken from royalty-free sources, thanks a lot to the valiant authors of those pieces!

Ratings

Overall 450th 3.685⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 419th 3.611⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 337th 3.63⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 781th 3.315⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 234th 4.154⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 540th 3.56⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 41🗳️ 27🗨️

Feedback

Devedse
03. Oct 2023 · 08:42 UTC
Really liked that there's actually skill based mechanics when you're playing with for example the bow guy vs the sword guy. You'd have to dodge to actually be able to hit the man.
LDJam user 268300
03. Oct 2023 · 08:44 UTC
Very nice game, I especially liked the graphics and mood. The combat worked well and was fun.

Good job!
Valothebest
03. Oct 2023 · 08:44 UTC
Very impressive game for a Jam, congrats. Don't feel the theme so much but the game is really fun.
Gerald T. McCoy
03. Oct 2023 · 08:44 UTC
pretty solid wee game :D i will say the ai acted a bit jank after the first section, when i died and the two archers were left to fight the melee dudes the archer stopped firing when in the water and the game didn't advance after that point, the melee guys stopped moving towards to the archer so finished in a perma standoff.

that aside the gameplay is good, each class feels really fun (caster for the win) and the graphics are visually appealing :D
George-sh
03. Oct 2023 · 08:48 UTC
Was a bit difficult but thought the combat part was really fun. especially when you had group vs group.
Can see myself playing this for longer. Especially if characters level up and are persistent between the levels.
vlad-r
03. Oct 2023 · 08:52 UTC
Loved playing the game. It took a bit to get the hang of it, you guys really managed to pack quite a lot in it in such a short timeframe.
The music is on point, helps a ton with the mood. Graphics are really good also.
Ekke
03. Oct 2023 · 10:16 UTC
Very good looking game. I liked the animations and fights. The closing fightspace didn't matter as much, fights very usually over before the area could shrink too significantly. The AP system of the overworld seemed a bit undercooked, probably some features could not be implemented in time. But the combat was fun, a really good rhythm of blocking and attacking.
Pierre-Marie
03. Oct 2023 · 19:32 UTC
I really like the concept, managing several teams with a more dynamic combat phase. And the graphics are superb, well done!
(I did, however, find myself soft-locked when one of my wizards found himself in 1-on-1 against another wizard in the center of the last safe zone.)
![wizard.png](///raw/16b/c4/z/5f617.png)
🎤 firellon
04. Oct 2023 · 15:47 UTC
@pierre-marie thanks for the feedback!

We'll look into preventing this kind of situation from happening :sweat_smile:

Update: fixed now, should not be locking up with wizard vs wizard battle (or any other mirror matchups for that matter)
Snikur
04. Oct 2023 · 19:08 UTC
Looks amazing, loved the art.
Skel3ton
05. Oct 2023 · 20:48 UTC
nice game and fun fight. what more could you wish for... maybe less difficulty in the finale :) nice music
TheParticularPixel
07. Oct 2023 · 06:42 UTC
cool game, i really like the art! the battles were fun and challenging. the different classes added a nice bit of variety. i never got to the point where the shrinking play space really made much difference though, since the battles went so quick. i would have liked to see the enemy units move around on their turn too. overall i had fun playing. nice work!
Chocolive
07. Oct 2023 · 07:26 UTC
The idea is very cool but hard to understand at first. Perhaps more context or tutorial would be a good idea. Nice entry guys !
Pious
08. Oct 2023 · 05:59 UTC
Really impressed you were able to get a whole skill based tactics game in LD! Really nicely done, the squads thing is really cool, I felt like the second level's turn based thing was a bit slow paced. The last level was a real challenge and really made me think.

Nice entry!
deadjolly
13. Oct 2023 · 02:35 UTC
This was almost like an Advanced Wars and Total War game combined. Really cool idea! Love that the turn-based armies fight in real-time battles. You could/should definitely turn this into a bigger project. I will say, the wizards felt overpowered in the 3rd level. All my squads would get mass fireballed instantly. You could add more mechanics like new spells, healing, gear upgrades, veterancy, etc. Very impressive!
Flightless
18. Oct 2023 · 22:01 UTC
It was very skill based - especially the archer - for this type of game, which is refreshing. Impressive complexity for a game jam submission!