Grablin Battle Festival by HaaYaargh

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

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Tis the season!

Annual Grablin Battle Festival is upon us! Grablin clans from all over the Shroomwood gather in the Sacred Grove to duke it out in glorious combat! What is the prize of this contest? The only prize worth fighting for of course! First taste of this year's famous Grablin Mushroom Soup!

Grablin Battle Festival is a game about grabbing, pushing and throwing your Grablins around the treacherous battle arenas. Pay attention to your fighters and help them out in the time of need. Or drop them behind an unsuspecting enemy. With enough care, you will prevail.

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Controls

  • Left-click - pick up and drag Grablins
  • WASD - move camera
  • Scroll - zoom camera
  • Right-click - hold to drag camera
  • ESC or P - pause menu

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Created by

Together we create Tano Collective - Twitter, Itch

Special thanks to pierwiastekz3

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Attribution & Resources

See the in-game widget.

Ratings

Overall 72th 4.144⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Fun 114th 3.978⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 83th 3.978⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Theme 143th 4.167⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 120th 4.378⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Humor 148th 3.795⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Mood 117th 4.1⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Given 31🗳️ 68🗨️

Feedback

Codeman1010
08. Oct 2024 · 08:14 UTC
Such a cool concept, so much potential to see this project grow.
beats
08. Oct 2024 · 13:29 UTC
The AI were a little scared and wanted to flank but I enjoyed manipulating the soldiers and cheesing the archers by lifting them up. Overall Solid Polished Entry, Thanks for Sharing.
Bananplyte
09. Oct 2024 · 09:41 UTC
This was such a sick game - it's a 5/5 from me - loved it. I would pay for an extended version of this!
Rincs
09. Oct 2024 · 17:06 UTC
I wish I had the soup ; _ ; maybe next year...

That said, fun game! I wish that the units were easier to spot!!
Togis
10. Oct 2024 · 00:46 UTC
This game needs more people to play it! It's a really fun gem and I enjoyed playing it on stream a lot!

Extremely cute graphics, chaos and violence, what else would we need?

The visual difference between each unit type (sword, pike, archer) was sometimes hard for me to see in the chaos, as suggested, I would assign on time of hat per class to make it clearer.

But that's didn't stop me to play the whole game and have a lot of fnn!
Risminator
10. Oct 2024 · 13:42 UTC
Very nice entry! I love that even when the goblins battle by themselves, you still play an active part in positioning, dodjing, etc. There are strategic *and* microcontrol aspects of skill here. The gameplay is so fun.
And the goblins themselves are very cute!
Andreadbx
10. Oct 2024 · 16:54 UTC
Very nice game! It opens for a lot of variation and additions to this gameplay! it felt the best when you manage small groups of units, also lovely art! :D
Bulba
10. Oct 2024 · 20:42 UTC
I like sound design(because i did same in my game).
Damien Black
10. Oct 2024 · 20:51 UTC
Got to wave 6 on my second try. It seems like there is a lot of skill expression in this. It is very polished, great animation, great sound design, all around impressive.

I'll throw out one suggestions, camera zoom in and zoom out should be centered on the mouse. My game has that problem too! I couldn't figure out the math in time, lol.

Great game y'all.
Kseniya
10. Oct 2024 · 21:38 UTC
The theme is there, visually the game looks cute and simple, you did a great job, bravo
jelch
10. Oct 2024 · 21:46 UTC
A lot of interesting ideas! A neat mix of RTS and god game.
hatik
10. Oct 2024 · 21:56 UTC
The graphics are simply amazing, and I also really enjoyed “leading” my army, developing different strategies during battles
NeoAwesomeon
10. Oct 2024 · 22:04 UTC
This is probably one of the best games of the jam. The use of the theme is great, the audio fit well, the art is nice, the mechanics are simple yet still have depth, and there is actual skill needed to beat the game! A fantastic entry for sure. Though to show some fairness, I did have an issue with telling the units apart due to the random nature of their cosmetics. While the variations were a welcome touch and all looked great, perhaps reigning them in so certain units pick from a couple of looks rather than all of them? I couldn't tell who was who past the archers.
But, small nitpick aside, this is a favorite of mine from this jam and I think more people need to give it a shot.
Jeiji
11. Oct 2024 · 00:25 UTC
wow, the game is awesome honestly, the menu is beautiful, it was obviously made by people with experience, the gameplay is not stressful and easy, the first time I lost on the 8th wave, but it was so fast that I played again and everything is just as cool, the game itself is very beautiful, the music, the sounds, the characters, everything is done very well, great job
firellon
11. Oct 2024 · 06:08 UTC
Gives Dungeon Keeper vibes :)
Anchry
11. Oct 2024 · 16:47 UTC
Fun take on a quick and dirty RTS, also great fun to throw goblins around. Good job!
slay a stone
11. Oct 2024 · 18:39 UTC
Small exploit with the archer to grab it, let it loose to shoot once, then grab it again repeat. Enemies cant do a thing :-)

It looks beautiful, sometimes had a feeling that it was better to just nothing, but maybe I just suck.
f1tzy
11. Oct 2024 · 18:43 UTC
Love the throwing, art, music, sound and even concept. Just wish I could group throw. Great work on this.
Mars
11. Oct 2024 · 19:01 UTC
Really good entry, love the whole vibe of the game! Polished, easy to understand, and fun to play.
🎤 HaaYaargh
11. Oct 2024 · 19:55 UTC
@slay-a-stone if we had achievements, one of them would be to micro 10th level just with one archer 😎
LDJam user 276121
12. Oct 2024 · 10:13 UTC
I love to grabl a grablin! Some clearer representations on what your units are trying to do might have made the strategic options a bit more cohesive feeling i.e. "Is this flank actually gonna work?"
Monado
17. Oct 2024 · 03:30 UTC
Really fun game! I love tossing the Grablins in strategic positions and watching them duke it out. Great work!
ironhandMD
17. Oct 2024 · 09:58 UTC
awesome game! I enjoyed playing this one! mechanics is easy to understand, the gameplay is a fun battle/strategy/fantasy feel to it. I like the units develop as they survive and become veteran units, this has good replay value, congratulations! keep it up!
Jack S.
17. Oct 2024 · 17:51 UTC
Great work!
Supersayafynn
19. Oct 2024 · 17:44 UTC
It took me a lot of tries to beat round 8! Great game, so many possible tactics to use. Cool gobl...grablin units!
Lenzgolo
19. Oct 2024 · 18:43 UTC
Fun game, really liked to throw the goblins around xD and not as easy as it loooked at the beginning!
Hawkin
20. Oct 2024 · 10:24 UTC
This was a lot of fun! There was clearly a lot of technical achievement with the combat mechanics. It's the sort of thing that doesn't really take centerstage, because the player is mostly focused on managing troops, but I wanted to point out that I noticed and appreciated it!

I also really liked the "prestige" mechanic for goblins that survived, and it gave me yet another thing to focus on during the battle (how to preserve and best leverage them). My first playthrough, I made it to Round 5 before getting wiped out :(

Combining the micro-managing of an RTS with a battle simulator is unique! It is definitely more fast paced than a traditional RTS. I had trouble keeping track of my units, because of how much they bobbled around and how quickly combat moved. For me, that evoked more reactionary gameplay than preparation. On the second playthrough, the challenge really came down to keeping track of units. I think you could try a few things to make them more visible, like larger health bars or somehow cleaning up the battlefield so that the living ones stand out more.
Empyreans
20. Oct 2024 · 20:46 UTC
Had an amazing time with this game!
Thank you so much for bringing the festival to my stream :)

https://youtu.be/Eyc-pLWUA3c

Grot walkthrough will be also published after I am done with other 50 games :sweat_smile:

~XpMonster
🎤 HaaYaargh
26. Oct 2024 · 23:15 UTC
@empyreans wow, an exclusive video! That's incredible! And thanks for playing our other games too :heart: