Dwarf Colony by Skvader_418

[raw]
made by Skvader_418 for Ludum Dare 56 (JAM)

​As the newly appointed ​Lieutenant​-Governor of a new set of colonies, you must rule them in order to see the colony thrive. But be careful, there are always enemies nearby. Everything is explained in game! By skvader_418.

Screenshot_2019.png

Screenshot_2020.png

Ratings

Overall 306th 3.786⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 233th 3.762⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 359th 3.524⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 796th 3.333⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 677th 3.452⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 12🗳️ 26🗨️

Feedback

Chariot
08. Oct 2024 · 16:20 UTC
![dwarf.PNG](///raw/7c2/26/z/67f81.png)

It took me a moment to figure out how to play this game, but now I have my little guys strolling around! Great job! The art style is simple yet surprisingly polished, and I really like the GUI style. Maybe it would be helpful to separate the dwarf spawn from the buildings, as that was a bit confusing at first.
steel465
09. Oct 2024 · 11:58 UTC
Fun game, but the deer start becoming a lag problem
JHax
09. Oct 2024 · 12:08 UTC
Think I ran into a bug with this (on the web version if it's likely to be relevant) - I built a few farms (and a mill) but wasn't getting any wheat. The dwarfs on the farms didn't seem to be moving as well. Otherwise - enjoyed playing this!
🎤 Skvader_418
09. Oct 2024 · 12:13 UTC
@jhax that's strange. Thank you for the bug report! I'm gonna have to investigate. Usually takes them a couple of seconds to start bringing wheat to the mill. Did you have any flour by chance? The mill automatically produces flour from wheat.

Could be the buggy HTML 5 port which I barely tested.
🎤 Skvader_418
09. Oct 2024 · 12:15 UTC
@steel465 Thanks for playing! Admittedly I didn't test the game much due to me losing power on the 3rd day.
AlexTagtal
09. Oct 2024 · 12:39 UTC
Fun and challenging, good job! Would love to be able to see my resources without having the "Info" tab open, as it takes too much space. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but woodcutters selecting where to go randomly meant that placing them next to a forest did not matter, and made their output per second too unreliable.
🎤 Skvader_418
09. Oct 2024 · 12:48 UTC
@alextagtal You would be correct! My fear was that by picking the closest tree it would hamper performance. Thank you for playing!
JHax
09. Oct 2024 · 12:49 UTC
@skvader-418 no flour either I'm afraid! I'll have a go at the Windows build in a bit!
🎤 Skvader_418
09. Oct 2024 · 12:51 UTC
@jhax I've figured out the bug, It was my fault, I'll be uploading the new build in a minute. You can comeback to it in an hour or something.

The bug was that the farmers don't pathfind to mills if the first time they tried to path find failed. And the "Info" tab showed how much flour you had instead of wheat.
🎤 Skvader_418
09. Oct 2024 · 13:11 UTC
@jhax Uploaded a new version. And thanks for playing it! I really appreciate it!
Tritax711
09. Oct 2024 · 13:58 UTC
Impressive what you have achieved alone!

Very good little game.

It is true that having a button to speed up the game would be appreciable from time to time.

But GG to you!
🎤 Skvader_418
09. Oct 2024 · 14:13 UTC
@tritax711 hey thanks for playing! I had a thought about adding that but feared that it would break some aspects of the game, adding it really isn't hard.
sketchbookbug
10. Oct 2024 · 14:56 UTC
Cool game with interesting mechanics and a beautiful download page. I wasn't able to understand the complex mechanics of your game totally, but the stuff I got was so cool! Liked this cool Dwarf Fortress style I haven't seen for long! Great game 👍
DorianSnowball
10. Oct 2024 · 15:37 UTC
Pretty fun to play! UI could need some polish to better switch between buildings. I left the buildings menu open most of the time which restricted the viewable area a lot but that was better than always closing and opening the menu.

Loved the amount of different levels, quite impressive for a game jam!
🎤 Skvader_418
10. Oct 2024 · 18:36 UTC
@sketchbookbug @doriansnowball Thanks to both of you! I really appreciate it!
Wouter52
11. Oct 2024 · 18:07 UTC
I haven't played all levels, but I think I played enough to leave some feedback :-)
This is another solid skvader-special if you ask me. The graphics you create are very unique and can be spotted from a mile away. And yet it is totally different from your other titles. I think that's impressive.

The game can use some background music. But hey, for a 72-hour game this is damn impressive. You even bothered to write-out some scenarios. That gives the game much more character. Also, I think it is great that all levels can be played without first unlocking them. For a LD game I think that is very wise.

Also, the menu is so satisfying :sweat_smile: Great job!!
🎤 Skvader_418
11. Oct 2024 · 18:45 UTC
@wouter52 ey Thanks! Thanks for the art style! I am very glad to have a "skvader" style lol. I guess it is a sub genre of programmer art lmao.
Lost Rabbit Digital
12. Oct 2024 · 20:47 UTC
The experience of a rush of anger as a bunch of tiny little red people pillage my village is delightful, 5/5 would continue.
🎤 Skvader_418
12. Oct 2024 · 23:56 UTC
@lost-rabbit-digital Thank you for actually playing the invasions! Much appreciate it!
LDJam user 221561
13. Oct 2024 · 01:35 UTC
There's a lot in this for one person over 72 hrs and some of the mechanics are great. The strategy of where you're placing your buildings breaks down a little as your lumberjacks march half way across the map instead to find some random trees. Looking at the way the [number of] deer curve around rocks or buildings, I suspect that's where some performance issues might lie, and if those are solveable, your lumberjacks and hunters could start to consider 'nearby' resources so that the player can use the land and building placement to their advantage.
🎤 Skvader_418
13. Oct 2024 · 10:24 UTC
@picttarge Thank you! Yes I was expecting performance to tank which is the reason why I made it so that lumberjacks and other workers pick a random tree instead of the closest due to performance. If I had the technical know how and time (lost electricity the whole 3rd day) I would have definitely implemented multi-threading or other optimizations.
kr4ft3r
13. Oct 2024 · 12:07 UTC
This was genuinely fun, I finished all the missions except the last one, where I was on a good track and it is a good frantic fun, but the inability to get out of food shortage, now matter how tiny it is and how many buildings I destroy has put me off. Impressive achievement for a jam.
radiorat
13. Oct 2024 · 14:40 UTC
Awesome and captivating game!
🎤 Skvader_418
13. Oct 2024 · 15:14 UTC
@kr4ft3r @radiorat Thanks to both of you!

Yeah the food shortages are punishing, mainly because there was 0 testing to this. I keep mentioning it but that power outage on the 3rd day really screwed me over. Good ol' fashioned third world country power lines.
Pachino55
13. Oct 2024 · 15:27 UTC
Took me a second to figure it out, but when I did, I had so much fun
🎤 Skvader_418
13. Oct 2024 · 23:20 UTC
@pachino55 Thank you very much!
LDJam user 250426
15. Oct 2024 · 05:09 UTC
This one took me a while, for some reason I forgot about the gold and food requirement so wasnt focusing on that so much. then when the 520 sec came around i was like o wait.... onoooooo
![dwarfColony.png](///raw/a32/d3/z/68d7e.png)

it's really cool game, just needs some polish and QoL stuff like when you try to buy something it tells you what you're missing, maybe battle log that tells you what buildings were destroyed. Every time one of my buildings got destroyed, I was in a menu and was like uhoh which one was that. And also the invasion message popping up all the time while Im trying to balance my economy and cant read how much gold I had was getting frustrating. Would also be nice to be able to pause or at least give more time before the first wave starts, that part was brutal just getting a decent start, I kept having to restart just to get past the first like 30 sec on the last 2 levels xD

overall it's very solid, well made, and a nice departure from your usual platformer stuff!
🎤 Skvader_418
15. Oct 2024 · 17:52 UTC
@itsboats Ey thanks buddy! Yes it is very rough in the qol department. Mainly due to me venturing into new territory and me losing power on the 3rd day. Thanks for playing and ACTUALY beating it!
Empyreans
19. Oct 2024 · 20:07 UTC
Thank you for bringing your game to stream :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE4dPr6kBHM

~ XpMonster
Geckoo1337
19. Oct 2024 · 20:20 UTC
Maybe one of the most clever games which I played for this 56th LudumDare session. The main gameplay is well done. All panels give me the feeling I am the great architect of this tiny world. Thank you ++
🎤 Skvader_418
20. Oct 2024 · 10:35 UTC
@empyreans ey thanks for posting this! I really appreciate you posting this! Means a lot to me.

@geckoo1337 Thank you! :) Admittedly I could have made the UI light years better but this was my first attempt at an rts/sim game!