Snowlord by minjutin

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

I RECOMMEND PLAYING SNOWLORD ON BROWSER IN ITCH.IO


You are trying to build a snowcastle empire on your backyard, but why do you have to buy land from the annoying neighborhood bully? Shouldn't it be free to use? That's fine tho, you can always dig some tunnels.

​FREE TIP: A number on a tile tells you how many snow is left in the tiles around it, kinda like in minesweeper.

Game made by one (1) person (Me, @Minjutin)

snowlord_gameplay.png

Ratings

Overall 323th 3.82⭐ 105🧑‍⚖️
Fun 314th 3.743⭐ 105🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 201th 3.842⭐ 103🧑‍⚖️
Theme 529th 3.699⭐ 105🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 554th 3.636⭐ 105🧑‍⚖️
Humor 105th 3.945⭐ 102🧑‍⚖️
Mood 426th 3.692⭐ 101🧑‍⚖️
Given 153🗳️ 220🗨️

Feedback

akitl
03. Oct 2023 · 07:46 UTC
good revisit to the Minesweeper ! good job !!
DeltaMain
03. Oct 2023 · 07:50 UTC
Cute puzzle game with such an interesting story! All the graphics and animation were gorgeous! On the second try I snowballed the hell out of bully. That was fun!
Mekyi
03. Oct 2023 · 08:12 UTC
Liked the art, idea and story. It was really fun to play this!
jrf
03. Oct 2023 · 10:36 UTC
I like the humorous style and backstory! Had a bit of a hard time figuring out the mechanics. Adding some sound effects would have brought this to another level for me.
Rezistor
03. Oct 2023 · 10:48 UTC
Super fun idea! Love those characters >:c When bully start to go my way I was like o__o' didn't get why tunnels fails when tere is a big nubers left like 7 or 5.
🎤 minjutin
03. Oct 2023 · 11:00 UTC
@rezistor Thank you for playing the game! Yesss the bully is a big meanie :c

About the numbers, I had a super hard time thinking how to explain their functionality properly :') But basically, the number tells you how much snow is left in total in the tiles next to them.
LDJam user 43351
03. Oct 2023 · 13:43 UTC
I had a lot of fun with this game! I love minesweeper so this is a real hit for me, I was hoping there would be more than one boss, but this was a perfect length for a game jam. Good job!!
Daniel G
03. Oct 2023 · 15:24 UTC
Good idea, and i had fun when i played it, keep working. Great job!!!
NonDev
03. Oct 2023 · 15:30 UTC
The theme is really cute! I must admit I struggled a bit with grasping the numbers too but that might just be my brain being slow.
Archaeognathus
03. Oct 2023 · 15:43 UTC
I'm terrible at minesweeper, but this was a lot of fun! Took me a bit to figure it out. On my first run I almost made it with random clicking, when I started "understanding" it actually made me worse.
Bossfight at the end made me laugh my ass off... that was not what I expected!
agentparsec
03. Oct 2023 · 15:45 UTC
I beat it on the second try, once I had a better grasp of the mechanics and wasn't being surprised by the boss fight at the end ^^
lalordmikey
03. Oct 2023 · 17:05 UTC
Had fun playing it. Although there is an slight exploit where I didn’t even look at the numbers. I just clicked on tiles I hadn’t click on before then bought a fort clicked on the new tiles that the fort allowed me to click on then repeated.
rolferm
03. Oct 2023 · 18:54 UTC
I am not sure how the digging really worked, but I wish there were more bosses!
INCD021
03. Oct 2023 · 19:06 UTC
Very nice. I did have some issues figuring out when the bully got upset. Felt more like if I clicked a few time fast, rather than the number of show on adjacent tiles.
Fun enough for me to try it multiple times as I HAD to try to win :smile:
I would like to be able to restart as the Bully fight was long, and you can see very early if you have any chance of winning.
Very well done :thumbsup:

![Screenshot from 2023-10-03 21-02-59.png](///raw/5c7/2/z/5f5f4.png)
Ayxs
03. Oct 2023 · 21:00 UTC
Really cool entry! The digging was a bit confusing at first, but quite logical afterwards. I guess it's sometimes really unclear which blocks actually contain snow, especially since not all the blocks (and numbers) are shown.

I like the sound effects. I do wish however that the fight scene was a bit faster (especially when you only have one or two towers).
TheLastSlowpoke
03. Oct 2023 · 21:27 UTC
Hahah, amazing! I love the silly story! And the frowns! To be honest, all the aspects of the game are great :snowflake: Oh, for example, the color coding of numbers for quality of life.

![snowlord_small.png](///raw/46a/b5/z/5f6ac.png)
(definitely my first try, do not doubt that I grasped the concept immediately)

Sorry for being so excited, but I really liked the game, and I played a lot of them today :sweat_smile:
LDJam user 4312
03. Oct 2023 · 21:30 UTC
Really nice game and I didn't see that big showdown coming. Really cute artstyle and cute little story. Love it!
LDJam user 375016
03. Oct 2023 · 22:26 UTC
Love the idea and the graphics!
Nat1Wizard
04. Oct 2023 · 01:34 UTC
Super fun idea and a good execution overall! I wasn't sure what the "end state" was at first, but then the bully started attacking! I loved it overall!
LDJam user 280509
04. Oct 2023 · 05:44 UTC
Cool game! A genius machinist is building automatic snow fortress to defend the freedom of backyard from unreasonable neighbor hrímthurs.
Vera Babchenko
04. Oct 2023 · 08:13 UTC
A simple drawing, but the idea of the game is cool! The music is also good, it creates an atmosphere when the enemy is coming towards us!
iliusha
04. Oct 2023 · 08:17 UTC
vry very good,i loved it so much ,the siple artstyle and the idea that the bully is like a bost,literally one of the best games i saw in this jam
Thibaud
04. Oct 2023 · 08:25 UTC
Nice game!
VerttiXPertti
04. Oct 2023 · 08:41 UTC
Took me a few tries but I ended up really loving the gameplay. Great job!
Anper
04. Oct 2023 · 08:51 UTC
Very funny and pretty draw intro! And narrative is fun and match the theme!
But game mechanics is too difficult and non-intuitive for me, I cannot understand how to dig without fail
Frib
04. Oct 2023 · 10:48 UTC
Awesome game! Really liked this concept, could also be expanded to a more tower defense like game where the fort placement matters once the bully starts attacking. Very enjoyable :D

Good job!
pinkemma
04. Oct 2023 · 10:54 UTC
This could be great as a tower defense like game, build moats to slow the bully down!

Fun theme and execution. Much enjoyed!
nyxkn
04. Oct 2023 · 13:25 UTC
Game seemed pretty cute. Very well presented and a good tutorial. Gameplay seems interesting but felt a bit random. I would have assumed the tunnels would collapse when I'd approach the yellow/red numbers, but actually it would randomly collapse even at green. So that was a bit confusing and it felt like your choices were all a bit pointless since anything could happen anyway.

Overall a well crafted game, but might need some gameplay improvements to feel satisfying.
XueFeng
04. Oct 2023 · 13:38 UTC
nice gameplay I love it soooo much!
LDJam user 262766
04. Oct 2023 · 14:19 UTC
Cool concept but art was to simple for me. And this is really good job for you as solo developer congrats!
Coro_yy
04. Oct 2023 · 16:27 UTC
Now that was unexpected fun! I liked the little backstory and the handdrawn graphics. Maybe I missed it in the tutorial but to me it wasn't clear at first what I need the castles for. Still won on my first attempt, so I guess I did something right. Good game!
kezzyhko
04. Oct 2023 · 18:21 UTC
It was very interesting to play! It was short though, but it's understendable since you made by yourself. Good balance - it's not too easy and not too hard to win.
Decentsauce
04. Oct 2023 · 18:24 UTC
I managed to beat the bully! Wow I was really amazed that the game started out with a cutscene and has a really nice tutorial! Very strong start. I felt it was bit difficult to deduce how much snow I could take from a spot so what I ended up doing was take 1 from every space and that made it very easy to win the game. Great job on this solo entry. :)
Soul Grinder
04. Oct 2023 · 18:25 UTC
Fun puzzle/strategy game, I liked the intro sequence too. Nice work!
Knildropi
04. Oct 2023 · 18:28 UTC
Great game! Veeery impressive concidering you were solo for this project!
r0bin
04. Oct 2023 · 18:29 UTC
Fun game! I enjoyed the music and the story. It also took some trial and error, but I eventually defeated him :)"
Luksor
04. Oct 2023 · 18:45 UTC
I like it. Took me a couple tries to win. I like that the game transforms into a tower defense when the bully gets angry. Bonus points for the cutscenes and a nice tutorial.
Amygeddon
04. Oct 2023 · 18:51 UTC
I enjoyed playing, but it seemed like I didn't understand the dig mechanic. It seemed like tunnels would collapse at random. Could be a mine sweeper situation.
The tense music when the bully charges you is just hilarious. I loved it.
n.feofentov
04. Oct 2023 · 19:21 UTC
Fun puzzle/city builder/tower defense mix. Didn't quite get why tunnels collapses. If it depends on how many times I dig the same tile, it would be nice to have some indication or probabilities. But narrative and art style is great. Nice job!
LDJam user 237588
04. Oct 2023 · 19:26 UTC
Funny game, nice twist on minesweeper!
airwaffle
04. Oct 2023 · 21:34 UTC
Hmm, am I stupid or doesn't it mostly just become "making sure to click squares" no more then once, basically? I don't complain though, was really fun giving that bully all those snowballs! Great production!
Diego Escalante
05. Oct 2023 · 01:12 UTC
I am now the new lord of the backyard! Admittedly, I was a little confused at first. But the presentation kept me trying the game again and again until I won. It felt very satisfying to amass a large number of forts. Really creative concept and fun game. Great work!
TerminalGoat
05. Oct 2023 · 09:12 UTC
What a cute little game, easily to become one of the best game i've ever played on this jam so far. The blending between tower defense and minesweeper mechanics makes this game turn out pretty unique. Gotta love the detailed tutorial, the story and the artwork..., the music also fits well. Can just say that everything in this game is all super enjoyable, incredibly outstanding for just a solo project. Beat it after 3 attps lol.
LDJam user 377500
05. Oct 2023 · 13:25 UTC
i love the illustrations and the story of this game. the random element and the minesweeper-like mechanic make this game really fun to play.
Jean Verissimo
05. Oct 2023 · 13:33 UTC
Cool game, I really loved the use of the theme and the graphics
TTKayttis
05. Oct 2023 · 17:08 UTC
Good game overall. It took me while to really understand how the snow works, your comparison to minesweeper threw me off little since i though diagonal squares were counted also. Great art!
Strato
05. Oct 2023 · 19:40 UTC
this was pretty neat, a unique concept and the showdown at the end was a cool surprise. I would have liked to see more types of castles for an added layer of strategy to defeating the guy. I couldn't quite figure out when exactly the snow would collapse so I just dug one or two from each space and that gave me more than enough castles to defeat him easily. the art was especially charming.
chusmimax
05. Oct 2023 · 22:39 UTC
Neat concept, really fun. But oh boy is it a pain to play with a broken mouse that sometimes clicks twice.
crotonyl_alcohol
06. Oct 2023 · 06:52 UTC
Nice concept! Though I failed to see when the tunnel is gonna fall. Besides that, it's easy to know what to do.
Neowedge
06. Oct 2023 · 08:09 UTC
I love the "South Park" like aesthetics of the game. It was really fun to try it until you get rid of the psychotic neighbor. Great entry, congrats!
Nilan
06. Oct 2023 · 08:19 UTC
It took me a little while to figure out how to play the game, but once I got the hang of it, it became really interesting.
The game has a joyful theme and graphics, and the gameplay also requires a lot of strategy, I have played many times.
Good job!
Shulyn
06. Oct 2023 · 16:32 UTC
Interessting concept i like it a lot, animation are simple but fluid. Music check, sound check, story check :)
Shmi
06. Oct 2023 · 19:43 UTC
Really enjoyed playing this game, the music and sound effects are perfect for the game and I just had to keep retrying until I beat the bully!
SpicyMarcus
06. Oct 2023 · 19:56 UTC
Took a while to figure out how play but once I did it became a really fun game, great job!
OldDog
07. Oct 2023 · 07:45 UTC
great game idea ,but not very undetstand how to dig not anger the enemy ,maybe you should simplity the miners number system
Elmephisto
07. Oct 2023 · 09:20 UTC
Great game, took me a while to get the hang of it but it offered a nice challenge, with a cute atmosphere, well done
telo.philippe
07. Oct 2023 · 10:34 UTC
A really great game! The graphics were very cute, and once I grasped the mechanics it was very fun to play!
acarc
07. Oct 2023 · 19:56 UTC
Good game! Interesting spin on minesweeper type game.

I thought the losing scenario was cool as well, didn't go straight to a 'lost game' but instead turns the game into a bit of a tower defence.
yifengqing
08. Oct 2023 · 03:02 UTC
Very good game, gave me a very comfortable experience. There are some minor suggestions for improvements, limiting the range of emplacements can provide better strategy, and adding more types of emplacements can provide better playability. Of course, the implementation so far is pretty good.
DSFAN
08. Oct 2023 · 09:26 UTC
Nice game! Took me 3 tries to win and was interesting to play. Loved the boss music and bully art, very funny. Very good tutorial also, good job
LDJam user 260720
08. Oct 2023 · 15:18 UTC
Funny puzzle game! Good job!
Bigstrongddoge
08. Oct 2023 · 17:23 UTC
Good tutorial. Simple to understand mechanics. I liked the humor. It would be cool, if there were new bullies, new backyards or something. I want to play more! :laughing:
kokil
09. Oct 2023 · 04:40 UTC
Very nice game, it brings me a delightful experience!
Tommy
09. Oct 2023 · 22:08 UTC
Really, really impressive and innovative idea! Nothing more to say, other than I loved the south-park-looking (and a little creepy) faces of the kids in the game. One of the best game around, in my opinion.
BalimaarTheBassFish
10. Oct 2023 · 13:59 UTC
Brilliant concept and use of theme! Loved the animation and story too. All in all a wonderful entry!
Savolae
10. Oct 2023 · 21:13 UTC
Being kind of a "reverse minesweeper" really twisted my brain, managed to get enough built to beat the bully after some thinking though :laughing:. Really nice to see an interesting concept that is also well executed.
LDJam user 301711
11. Oct 2023 · 01:09 UTC
Great idea. I really like the art and the music is great for this experience. Great work!
rsaamar
11. Oct 2023 · 20:39 UTC
It's an interesting concept for sure. The game itself is neat! The only issue you have is onboarding the player, but that's understandable given a game jam. It would be interesting if there was a way to make this game where the onboarding was minimalist and intuitive.
LDJam user 0
13. Oct 2023 · 07:01 UTC
I love the story and graphics. Well done!
Fupi
14. Oct 2023 · 18:13 UTC
Really cute idea and visuals! I have to say, even after creating a strategy and winning, I still feel like I don't understand how to play the game. When comparing the game with minesweeper, makes the game look a lot more complicated than it actually was. There were many numbers on the tiles, but that number never actually mattered to me, the only thing that matters is not clicking the tiles "too much" (however many times that is) so that the bully doesn't get angry, so my strategy was just to build as far as possible to unlock as many tiles as possible so I can dig as many different snow tiles as possible. After building far enough, it's only a matter of time before I dig too much and go into the tower defense mode, which you can win by only having built 5 castles. The way to getting there is pretty fun, don't get me wrong! I just ended up feeling like I cheesed the game and didn't play it correctly, because my strategy felt so brain-dead compared to how it explained itself. I think the game design could be streamlined to remove unnecessary details, or changed so that people play the game the way you envisioned without feeling like they cheated lol. All that said, I really enjoyed the game, felt pretty satisfying when I beat it, and like I was actually making progress with each playthrough. The funny comic-esque visuals and storytelling were really cute too. Congrats on the entry!

![Captura de tela 2023-10-14 151325.png](///raw/ded/62/z/60441.png)
🎤 minjutin
14. Oct 2023 · 18:46 UTC
@fupi Hi, firstly thank you for your long feedback and omg I love the picture so much!!! Seriously so cute, gotta print it and hang it on my wall

I must confess that in my original design I didn't have numbers at all but the gameplay was leaning more towards just having to remember what you have dug. However, after some playtesting I decided that the minesweeper-like system could bring the game an additional layer, even though it still relies on luck. So you don't have to feel bad about not playing correctly, you actually played it just like it was meant to be played. More like, congratz for figuring it out ~
ScaryTreeGames
17. Oct 2023 · 19:27 UTC
A great puzzle game that is fun to play while drinking delicious hot tea :)
Routard
18. Oct 2023 · 15:03 UTC
Get away punk, It’s me now the lord of the backyard, it’s the future old man !
Great game, simplistic gameplay, it takes a few times tho to understand how you trigger the bad response because sometimes it happens at 5 and others at 1 but at least you can fast acheive the minimum required to destroy this bully ! Great game gg
cassowary
18. Oct 2023 · 15:18 UTC
It's a cool idea and I did manage to win after a few tries! It took me a bit to understand how the numbers work and I'm still not totally sure how you're supposed to deduce whether a snow tile is about to collapse (in minesweeper, you can sort of logic it out based on your knowledge of where the mines are... here I'm not so sure.)

Graphics are very cute, and I really like the premise!
sinclairstrange
19. Oct 2023 · 17:26 UTC
Oh I loved this! It took a little while to actually understand but then it clicked, hey it's like Minesweeper crossed with a tower defense and I was hooked. Really lovely little game, loved the humour and the graphics. Fantastic work, highly enjoyed!
mcbombadev
20. Oct 2023 · 01:08 UTC
It took me a bit to understand the rules, but mostly got it after playing the tutorial a couple times. The only thing I'm still not sure about is whether it's a chance based thing or if you can actually determine exactly where an error will occur like in minesweeper. It seemed like since a single square could have multiple snow left, it was still a bit of a guessing game. Admittedly, I ended up just clicking the higher count green areas, which were usually safe :)

I like that you tried experimenting with the gameplay though. Game jams are great for trying new ideas, after all!

I think my favorite part was the battle at the end when you realize what you're building all those forts for, haha.
Danial Jumagaliyev
20. Oct 2023 · 21:13 UTC
From the building of the forts, to them actually fighting against the big baddie, I really enjoyed the innovative gameplay with the step up in minesweeper!