The Cherished Boulder by accordaquo
A strategy game made in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 55 for the theme 'Summoning.'
Summon Pebbles to cherish your Boulder. You can tell your pebbles what to do by clicking on a new target for them!
The web version works on the itch page linked below!
Thanks for playing!
controls~
Left Mouse Button -- Select Pebble for targeting, Select enemy for Protector to fight, Select resource to be gathered
Right Mouse Button -- Cancel Selection
WASD -- Move Camera
Mouse Scroll Wheel - Zoom Camera
m - Toggle Music and Sound
credits~
accordaquo -- programming/design/art
MonsieurBloo -- art
Kay Karme -- art
funguy -- art
TheBigJut -- music/sound
heyitsJJ -- programming/design




| itch page | https://accordaquo.itch.io/the-cherished-boulder |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/the-cherished-boulder |
Ratings
| Overall | 611th | 3.54⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 756th | 3.28⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 928th | 2.98⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 838th | 3.34⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 685th | 3.58⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 298th | 3.68⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 423th | 3.318⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 801th | 3.354⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 18🗳️ | 28🗨️ |
**UI**
The resolution being slightly higher than 1080 was annoying, I couldn't see the entire UI at once. Also the tooltips for what new units cost ran off the edge of the screen for the later ones. You can symbols above the units heads for what they were carrying, I would have put that next to the corresponding top left stockpile readouts, to make it clearer what was what.
**Balance**
I died and wasn't sure what I could have done differently, I was already spamming protectors. The late game constant drip of enemies seems hard to get around, maybe more of a wave system would allow you to still get some resources in and rebuild a little. The Protector AI also seems to lead to them clumping up, leaving the units on the other side of the map vulnerable, leading to a death spiral.
Critiques aside, I did like the gameplay loop and general vibe of the game.

Also - are there summon types past Enchanters? I'm reading other people's comments and apparently there is something *wrong* with the way the game fullscreens where it doesn't actually show the full game screen by default, so some of the buttons get cut off?