Proto Deus by cliva
Read with comical seriousness:
Embark on a dangerous mission as a drone operator, controlling a tank and an army of tiny T-drones to escape enemy territory. In this RTS and third-person shooter hybrid, you'll need quick reflexes and strategic thinking to navigate through abandoned industrial zones and hostile forces.
Gameplay Overview:
Tank & Drones: Control a powerful tank while commanding a swarm of tiny T-drones. Use your mouse to highlight and direct drones to perform specific tasks: attacking enemies, gathering resources, or supporting your tank's combat efforts.
Resource Gathering & Upgrades: Collect scattered resources across the field to upgrade your arsenal. Choose between three levels of tank upgrades – machine gun, rocket launcher, or cannon – each offering a unique combat experience.
Objective: Fight your way through hostile industrial landscapes, overcoming every obstacle and enemy on your path.
Storyline:
As a new drone operator, you're entrusted with the last hope of an abandoned factory outpost. Stay in contact with your senior combatant, who communicates mission orders through a monitor, revealing the Space Community Federation's storyline and the urgency of your mission. Follow their commands, complete tasks, and make every decision for the benefit of the Federation.
Key Features:
Mouse-Based Drone Control: Use your mouse to easily command the drones, sending them on tactical attacks or resource-gathering missions.
Three Weapon Upgrades: Strategically choose between a machine gun, rockets, or a cannon to suit your combat style and adapt to different enemies.
Engaging Story & Mission Briefings: Dive into a rich sci-fi narrative as you receive missions from the senior combatant of the Space Community Federation.
Abandoned Factory Location: Explore a grim, industrial environment left after past conflicts, providing a unique battlefield for dynamic RTS and shooter gameplay.
Will you lead your tiny creatures to triumph and secure victory for the Federation, or will you fall in the face of rebellion? 🚀
Controls:
A, W, S, D - Player movement
Space - Shoot towards the cursor
LMB (pressed) - Select drones
LMB - Drones attack/gather resources 💥
Authors:
Cliva: 🎵 Music, 🎧 Sound, 💻 Programming
MotoIlyuha: 🎮 Level Designer, 🖌️ 3D Artist
Engine:
Construct 3 🛠️
P.S. ##
Thanks to a lot of feedback from interested players, we have released a POST-JAM version where we fixed a lot of bugs and added a couple of new ones. We love the rules of Ludum Dare, and we would like you to appreciate the first version of the game made by our team in 72 hours, and move on to the post-jam version only if you like the first one. We have no plans to abandon the game and will soon add more content to make the game really feel complete. The link to the post-jam version is a little bit below ↓
May fortune smile upon you,
Proto Deus Team
| Permanent link to the game | https://clivawolf.itch.io/proto-deus |
| POST JAM | https://clivawolf.itch.io/proto-deus-postjam |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/proto-deus |
Ratings
| Overall | 498th | 3.598⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 489th | 3.464⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 569th | 3.273⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 939th | 2.964⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 244th | 4.152⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 246th | 3.691⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 292th | 3.827⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 90🗳️ | 110🗨️ |
Yes, management can indeed seem complicated. I wanted to convey the complexity of operating tracked vehicles, perhaps I overdid it a bit %)
I had to skip many moments since Blender 3D often behaves unpredictably, especially if you’re not a pro at it. For example, I couldn't insert the render of the tiny drones into the game in time.
By the way, here it is:
Yes, the game has a lot of shortcomings and bugs. More bugs have been added in the last hours than useful code %)
The 3D artist participated in the jam for the first time, it was a heavy workload for him, but in my opinion, he managed to convey the vibe of industrial techno punk.
I was confused by the right click ability though, is this supposed to be in the game like that or is it WIP? It doesn't deal any damage as far as I can tell.
There's also text following the mouse, and that's not right either. I don't know if it's possible to fix such things after the jam is over, or if we should leave it as it is. We were thinking of polishing the game a bit, adding to the story, and releasing it as a post-jam or something like that.
yes, this turret didn't make it into the game
In general very enjoyable gameplay and amazing graphics. I would have loved to see the tiny drones rendered into the game because the placeholder graphics seem kinda out of place. I think I managed to glitch the drones (only visually as far as i could tell) to have a permanent beam to a destroyed tank without me being able to remove it, or this is a mechanic i did not understand.
Really enjoyed the general atmosphere though, and had way too much fun just right clicking around the map....
Great job!
There were quite a few small errors in the game, and the frozen lasers are one of them. The tank's collision property that indicates whether it is "attacked" or "gathered" does not change :)
The right-click is also a small error. It was a debug function to sequentially check explosions of different strengths. Many debug functions got scattered throughout the project, and I simply didn't have time to turn them all off in time. But I'm glad that some of them turned out to be fun %)
Also, thank you for reading the lore! The first day was entirely spent on developing the concept, writing the lore, and simulating old character-based output systems on the screen.
Not much was implemented from the original concept. It was intended for the player to be repaired by small drones, unlocking new technologies (different weapons would be available as upgrades), three locations were planned, and various types of enemies (it seems there were about five conceived at first, one of which would be a boss). A plot twist was also thought out, but some factors influenced the fact that a lot was not added to the game. One of those factors was a insufficient experience in rendering game objects in isometric with Blender 3D.
The right click being unintentional is actually hilarious, i love it ^^. I was already wondering why it basically did not interact with anything.... Congrats on finishing a version despite the difficulties though.
Thank you for your feedback! We're aware of all the issues you pointed out and you're right, we didn't have time to polish the game before the gameplay ended. For example, the beautiful right-click explosions were just a way to test if they worked. The programmer forgot to remove that feature, but it's probably for the best :sweat_smile:
We plan to finalize the game a bit, fix bugs, add new ones and post a post-jam version on this page. If you want, we can notify you when it comes out
I'm not sure the source code will be very interesting to those who are not familiar with this engine. The source code will look like in the screenshot (the function for creating a rocket and its behavior).
The engine does not have classes per se. There are "families" that work in a similar way, but it's still a slightly different principle. However, if you're really interested, I can upload the code to GitHub.
- atmosphere
- music, art, effects
- text parts, but not really reading this much during LD
- pew pew look and feel
not so great:
- text near cursor
- drone beam bugs
- drones selection is not super clear
- right mouse debug
- driving
Here is my attempt:
https://youtu.be/2hIGm-Q8KJI
I think to make the tank movement a bit easier you could enable, that you can rotate while standing still.
The gameplay is a lot of fun though :blush:
We fixed some bugs and uploaded the missing textures (except for the tiny bots for now) in the post-jam version, if you're interested:
https://clivawolf.itch.io/proto-deus-postjam
Unfortunately I'm terrible at controlling vehicles like this (since Rock n' Roll Racing or GTA II). Great entry! Good job, guys!
We are waiting for new comments!
I really liked the look of the game. The gritty isometric 2D artwork is something you don't see very often.
The game's presentation seems somewhat obtuse on purpose which gives it some mystique.
I liked the rts part of collecting the critters, but the inertia and control scheme of the tank left me a little frustrated.
Awesome entry!
:heart: Thanks to your concerned feedback we have released a **post-jam** version of our game, where we fixed most of the bugs we found and added new ones (the link to the game can be found in the links section). We don't ask you to change your evaluation based on the new version, but you liked the game and we decided to please you with a slightly improved version. We will be very glad if you comment on the post-jam version, but please don't forget to specify in your comment that you are commenting on the post-jam version.
> P.S. We did not change the tank control on purpose, after all it is a unique mechanic of the game, although it seemed to many players uncomfortable
> May fortune smile upon you, `Proto Deus Team`
In general specs, I had fun. And that is what matters in the end, right?!
Bonus for the ambience of the game. Love it