LudumData

Beacons by Xanjos

[raw]
made by Xanjos for LD32 (COMPO)
5th Ludum Dare Entry (Does this mean I'm a veteran now?) and 2nd for compo.

Probably the most interesting theme (considering how anything can be an "unconventional weapon") so I was a bit stuck for ideas at first but then I suddenly thought, does the weapon have to kill (implying that it's used to harm or kill others)? In the end I decided that I wanted to make a game where player's primary tool does not hurt enemies both directly and indirectly (and also, no shooting or hitting things to make it a bit more unconventional)

I decided to make the game in a 3D isometric view (as I've never made a 3D game before for a game jam plus the last few LD games I've done were in 2D so I figured why not switch it up a little bit) using just the primitives in Unity (as I'm no 3D artist). Eventually this became more me experimenting with RAIN's AI engine as my game slowly started to come together but I think I've ended up with something playable.

I previously had a WebGL build of the game but I decided to remove it because it was too slow and buggy and crash-happy (So Chrome users I recommend that you enable the NPAPI flag to play the WebPlayer version or just download a desktop build)

Desktop builds are available on my game's GameJolt page (I'll probably put post-compo builds here as well if I'm actually bothered to work on it again. Also as usual I don't have a Mac or Linux machine so message me if they don't work).

Instructions

Guide the blue cubes to the yellow goal point (which appears and changes positions randomly every 10 seconds)
Avoid the zombie red cubes
The black sphere hunts down and turn blue cubes into red zombie cubes
Use your beacon to attract cubes/repel the black sphere (Your beacon lasts for 10 seconds before disappearing and you cannot place another one until 5 seconds have passed)

Controls

WASD/Arrow Keys - Move
Left Click/Left CTRL - Place Beacon at your mouse position

Tools Used:

Language:C#
IDE: Visual Studio
Library/Framework:Unity (with RAIN AI plugin)
Sounds:bfxr
Web (Unity WebPlayer) https://jasontuyengames.gitlab.io/assets/demos/LD32/LD32.html
Gamejolt (Web/Desktop) http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/beacons/61604/
Post-Mortem https://xanjos.wordpress.com/2015/04/21/beacons-post-mortem/
Source https://github.com/Xanjos/LD32Entry
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=21201

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 2.87 826
Audio 2.05 775
Fun 2.61 883
Graphics 2.47 881
Innovation 3.17 504
Theme 3.04 798

Feedback

Figglewatts
20. Apr 2015 · 14:49 UTC
This was difficult, but that isn't a bad thing.
ungarischeziegenspielen
20. Apr 2015 · 18:33 UTC
Control is very hard, also the game is very hard, other than that, not a bad game.
haveric
20. Apr 2015 · 23:12 UTC
As others have said, this is quite difficult, but definitely something that could be expanded upon.
Mekuri
21. Apr 2015 · 18:44 UTC
I liked the idea. I don't think it was overly difficulty, but not easy either. I liked the style- I kinda like it when people make something meaning full out of the primitives. You did a nice job - well done!
Team-KwaKwa
21. Apr 2015 · 19:58 UTC
Concept is interesting. It is unfortunately too random and there are no clear goal.
arhpositive
21. Apr 2015 · 20:16 UTC
I think the game has potential, but some adjustments should be made. Beacon radius is too small in my opinion, we can't control and direct blue cubes as well as we could. Also, I wanted to find a way to destroy some of the red cubes, perhaps by exploding our beacons but there weren't any. Gameplay has potential but needs more work.

Keep up the good work!
MightyToast
21. Apr 2015 · 22:00 UTC
Pretty difficult, and the controls were a bit stiff which made it difficult to manuever. I like the concept though and the variety of enemies and obstacles was quite nice!
Tuism
22. Apr 2015 · 09:33 UTC
Interesting idea, but falls flat due to a lack of... Game design? Everything you know must be read in the documentation, the game should really try to give you an idea of how things work in the game itself. Attraction/repulsion is utterly random, and shapes/movement are too abstract to communicate anything. In short: you need some juice that communicates. Your beacon placement's cooldown, for example. How long they last, for example.

The problem isn't in cubes and primitives, it's in the way they behave and communicate.

I don't think mapping up to top right and left to top left etc was a good idea. Isometric movement is really confusing if people have to react using cardinal directions. There would have been nothing wrong with up being up, etc.
🎤 Xanjos
22. Apr 2015 · 10:01 UTC
I'll admit I should have playtested this a bit more to balance the game out (it's probably a bit too slow at the beginning and the npcs' behaviour to the beacon probably didn't work as well as I thought). As for the beacon, the npcs only react to it if they see it within it's range of sight which in retrospect should have been bigger (and also separate from the range of sight for when they see other objects such as the player or other npcs).

Anyway thanks for the advice. I'll try to bear that in mind for anything I make in the future.
asobi tech
22. Apr 2015 · 13:18 UTC
Interesting concept.
The stark graphics style works. But perhaps lacks a bit character.
It all feels a little hectic and random, maybe need narrow corridors to make a maze type game. Or zoom out further so I can see more of the playfield.
Sound is minimal.
Gotta juice it up :D
Luminar
22. Apr 2015 · 18:54 UTC
Nice entry! Scored 80 points. It was quite hard to run away from lots of zombies :D
GarethIW
22. Apr 2015 · 19:49 UTC
Nice idea, I just thought I would get some in and the portal moved !

-CH
Horsed
22. Apr 2015 · 19:54 UTC
For the most time the blue cubes didn't move anywhere I wanted, unfortunately. Some timers would be nice, indicating the life time of beacons and when another one is available. I like the minimalism of your graphics, although it add makes the game very abstract.
HotBoxGames
22. Apr 2015 · 20:33 UTC
Interesting concept, can be quite a challenge! Nice one :)
OrangeSpikyGames
22. Apr 2015 · 21:48 UTC
With some more polish, I could see this being a pretty fun game with some interesting choices to be made.
jesterswilde
22. Apr 2015 · 21:59 UTC
After I acclimated to the world, understood it's rules and customs, I decided that the black sphere was the root of all of my woes. I spent my time trying to put the sphere in a corner, away from my flock. For this I was awarded 100 points and death.
hexdie
23. Apr 2015 · 02:28 UTC
I like the idea of this game and with some work, it could be very cool. At the moment, it's pretty rough around the edges. It's very hard to control much of what is going on in the game. It seemed like the best strategy was to just place a beacon on the yellow spot and hope some blue guys would be attracted to it. There wasn't much strategy or control otherwise. There also wasn't much of a way to make sure my blue guys turned red. I think if you took this idea and gave the player some more control and interesting choices, it'd make for a cool game.
Mr. Jif
23. Apr 2015 · 04:48 UTC
Interesting concept and could be cool with some more work. Some indication of when you can place a beacon would help a ton.
wooltech
23. Apr 2015 · 12:08 UTC
Definitely fits the theme, and I like the shepherding concept, but it's pretty difficult. The plain geometric shapes work well for a game jam game.
goadrich
23. Apr 2015 · 18:16 UTC
This is a great demo of herding mechanics, did you use steering behaviors? I found it really hard to herd with just one of me, I think I only scored randomly and not through any effort of my own. The beacon was a nice touch to distract, the lighting of the yellow goal point was very nice!
smokecastles
23. Apr 2015 · 21:23 UTC
If this is your first game jam using 3D it's definitely nice! I liked the visuals, simple but effective. The moving portals mechanic is clever, I would like to see this turned into a fully-fledged game with smoother controls and maybe a bit more of speed, nice work!
xbcw
24. Apr 2015 · 01:23 UTC
Good balance of challenging but not too challenging.
AlfalfaStudios
24. Apr 2015 · 01:43 UTC
Very cool game. First time a zombie came after me it moved really fast and gave me that panicked feeling! Ayeee!

Great job!
lochmann-apps
25. Apr 2015 · 14:06 UTC
Nice game! I am missing a bit of background music, but hey, it's compo, I guess you simply had no time for that.
🎤 Xanjos
25. Apr 2015 · 18:08 UTC
@lochmann: Thanks. I actually generated a small background music loop using NodeBeat on my iPhone at the last minute but it was a bit of a hassle transferring the recording from my phone to my pc and then converting it from an m4r to something that Unity supports I decided to leave it out in the end as it was nearly submission hour.
Jacob Eriksson
26. Apr 2015 · 21:59 UTC
The game is viewed in a really interesting perspective and has fluent controls. It's rather hard and a bit difficult to get into, but is fun when you've learnt the mechanics. :)
Plustech
27. Apr 2015 · 04:12 UTC
Interesting concept, I wish it was more balanced, it felt really hard from different angles. Is hard enough without the black sphere transforming dudes. You should test a version without the sphere, or maybe without moving the hotspot so much.
Good entry nevertheless, respect!
ruerob
27. Apr 2015 · 14:27 UTC
That is a really difficult game! It has an interesting mechanic, but somehow the blue cubes don't want to go where I want them to! Nice cube artstyle.
java the hutt
28. Apr 2015 · 01:08 UTC
I like the overall idea of the game. The sound when a ball hit the blue cubes was rather jarring. I wish the yellow areas would stay up a little longer.
BeardoGames
28. Apr 2015 · 15:40 UTC
A very interesting and high-concept game! I like how much thought you put into your interpretation of the theme. Super tough and challenging, and really well done!
Omiya Games
29. Apr 2015 · 04:01 UTC
I thought the game's AI made it unfair rather than difficult. The beacon felt incredibly ineffective, and since I don't have the full view of the stage, it's super-difficult to tell where the black sphere is, and how to prevent it from attacking other blue cubes. The beacon itself had a large collider that made it difficult to attract the cubes to the right spot. Lastly, there are too few beacons to place to be able to use them effectively.

I realize this is supposed to be an experiment, and I commend you for that. It tries something very different, but I think it's too complex for its own good.
Ammypendent
30. Apr 2015 · 22:46 UTC
Interesting experiment. Beacon radius could have been increased to make it easier and the black sphere doesn't seem to be repelled much at all.

Good experiment overall!
belowzerogames
01. May 2015 · 01:27 UTC
Pretty cool concept :-) Well done
LandoSystems
02. May 2015 · 01:45 UTC
Interesting mechanic and nice graphical style, but it is a really tough game. Good work!
AsixJin
02. May 2015 · 18:22 UTC
This is very innovative. I'd definitely like to see a more fleshed out version of this game. I think it would work very well with touch controls.
RyanNielson
03. May 2015 · 17:15 UTC
Could use a bit of tweaking with the controls, but overall a good effort! Well done!
Jacic
04. May 2015 · 05:28 UTC
I like it, but the working distance for the beacons is much too small. Good job! :)
paruthidotexe
04. May 2015 · 13:41 UTC
I like the concept and game. Can concentrate more on level design to make it more interesting..
Traumendes_Madchen
04. May 2015 · 14:57 UTC
Hum, the idea itself could be interesting but the game is really too difficult to handle: you don't know what you're supposed to do and how you're supposed to do it, so you're wandering for a while, trying some things here and there. Some kind of tutorial would definitely be appreciated!
CScribes
04. May 2015 · 20:26 UTC
Like others have already stated, it was a little hard to grasp what I was suppose to be doing. Otherwise, I like the general premise and especially the use of the theme!
GameDevExtreme
05. May 2015 · 17:50 UTC
I will tweet you with a video of gameplay and review soon.
lucidsheep
05. May 2015 · 21:08 UTC
Really like the lighting effects and minimalist presentation! As others have said it's pretty hard to do well, since your beacons have a short attraction range and attract both good and bad cubes. Nice work!
UnconventionalFusion
06. May 2015 · 14:31 UTC
Staying on the outskirt of the map while placing the beacon at the center seem the best way to go in the long run. Maybe give a reason to not do that by giving pickup or something interesting? I like the concept. Good job!
local minimum
06. May 2015 · 15:01 UTC
I think the mechanics could make for an interesting game, but it feels a bit unpolished (though definitely playable). I think it would do the game good to have the trigger for when a blue enters the light to be much larger than it is at the moment. It would also be good if the beacons were removable (e.g. by clicking on them). If you make the global light much dimmer and make the range to the target light larger and placed a bit above ground you would get some mean shadows that would kind of remove the need for the particle system you currently use. Just some thoughts. Nice game mechanics though!
w1n5t0n
06. May 2015 · 15:29 UTC
It's difficult but it could be a great game with a bit of polish.
jhell
06. May 2015 · 16:49 UTC
Interesting idea but I feel like the execution was not perfect. Like others have said, timers would have been necessary. It also seemed to me that red ones were attracted from farther away than blue ones. Still, cool take on the theme.
Fabraz
06. May 2015 · 19:07 UTC
Interesting concept and I absolutely think it has potential. Keep working at it!

Here is some (hopefully helpful) critique:
- It is difficult to outrun the reds. Perhaps give the player a limited dash ability to quickly outpace them?

- The constantly respawning yellow spot means that sometimes blues just automatically get counted without me guiding them there.

- If you keep the constantly changing yellow spot, consider implementing a visual timer to indicate how long its going to stay

- Add a physcal gravitation between the player and blues. As in, the closer you get to them, the stronger you push them! Combined with the dash mechanic the player can then quickly push blues into the yellow spot

- Revise the controls. Isometric is cool, but the player is locked in an odd 8-directional rotation. Why not give the player 360 degree freedom of their movement?

- There are weird soundbites that I can hear, despite there being little audio otherwise.

Thought of a good theming for it yet? Or are you staying with the geometric shapes? :)

Any way, good job dude!
MonoS
07. May 2015 · 10:06 UTC
even after a couple of plays i've still had problem using the beacon, i've also wanted to use a pulling beacon instead of an attracting one.
Guiding the blue cubes to the goal was almost impossible and the majority of the points were done by pure luck.

Loved the TicTac protagonist, to bad it's not red cinnamon :(
tripleVisionGames
07. May 2015 · 18:43 UTC
That's a pretty difficult game! I like the way that you can block the red things chasing you but then it means you've basically wasted a beacon.
Druid
08. May 2015 · 15:08 UTC
Difficult but still not frustrating. Pretty balanced! Simple clean graphics too! Really solid entry!
puppetmaster
08. May 2015 · 22:36 UTC
+ for your first 3D game
+ taking a new challenge
- to many difficulty (random portal location, small view area)
Well done! congraz!!
ajopart
09. May 2015 · 20:21 UTC
Not bad at all ! Neat concept, but indeed difficult. Well done.
jk5000
09. May 2015 · 20:58 UTC
A polished version could be really good.
BabaJaga
09. May 2015 · 21:42 UTC
For a moment I thought this is my game, I apperantly use very simillar color scheme :)

Interesting gameplay, once you understand it, not really obvious without text.
orangemoose
09. May 2015 · 22:05 UTC
I like the mechanics, but I think it could have benefited with introducing the mechanics more slowly, through smaller tutorial levels with specific goals. Since this was a compo entry, I'm sure it just came down to a lack of time though. You said this was your first time working on a 3D game, and I think it turned out very well. The art style with the primitives was simple, but effective, and you did a nice job working within the theme.
Gunzil
10. May 2015 · 05:26 UTC
No feedback on when you're allowed to spawn your puck was a killer for me, also the attract / repel radius is way too small. I had a really hard time trying to manipulate any of the pieces in the ways I wanted to.

Rate at which goal changes position is too frequent as well, so even when I did finally set up some attractors around a goal it would move. Since there isn't any way to know if the goal is about to move, it felt random as to when it would leave.

I like the concept, it reminds me of Atom Zombie Smasher, and all the pieces are there, but it needs some tweaks before I'd consider it enjoyable.
FireTwin
10. May 2015 · 09:32 UTC
I enjoyed trying to get away from the zombies and it would have been quite satisfying to kill them somehow with the magnet weapon or at least teleport them away.

The comment above's first two paragraphs sum up the problems I had too. Also I think the controls would feel better if pressing "up" really went up instead of diagonally.

I really like the concept, good job Jason.
ekkiiiii
10. May 2015 · 23:30 UTC
The mechanics worked very well so the game made a lot of fun! I also like that you put some thought to integrating the theme into your game mechanics.
Ludipe
11. May 2015 · 11:21 UTC
It's an interesting concept but there are a couple of details that make it harder to enjoy:

-Movement: I don't think the isometric classic movement fits this game even if it breaks the feeling a bit.
-No indicator of when you're able to use the "weapon".
-Goal changes too often.

But those issues are easy to fix and they should take you just a couple of minutes.

I liked the visuals, they're extremely simple but quite nice, shadowcasting and simple colors do the trick. Well done ^^
Tiago Ling Alexandre
11. May 2015 · 16:10 UTC
Interesting idea, but needs to be more balanced - it gets quickly to the point where there's too many zombies and not enough blue cubes. Maybe there should be a way to eliminate the zombies (indirectly) ?
OddballDave
11. May 2015 · 17:09 UTC
From the description I thought this was going to be easy but it's deceptively hard. Clever idea and a solid entry. Good stuff.
rojo
11. May 2015 · 18:23 UTC
Herding the cubes was definitely a challenge! The core concept / gameplay is pretty good. However, I'd like to see some more feedback on screen regarding when I can place beacons, and when beacons / goal zones are about to disappear. Some music or ambient audio would also go a long way, as would some more interesting graphics. Still, overall nice job!
Joystikman
11. May 2015 · 20:34 UTC
Pretty good idea but also pretty hard game. More details on how the game works would have been cool.
whittgames
11. May 2015 · 20:56 UTC
I misunderstood the instructions at first (only because I didn't read them!), but once I got the idea I had fun. The 'herding' feels pretty good, and makes for very difficult gameplay!
SeriouslyCrunchy
11. May 2015 · 21:45 UTC
Interesting game, the controls do feel a little strange at first but once you get the hang of it its fun.
OnlySlightly
11. May 2015 · 22:01 UTC
I love how with such a minimalist style you were able to communicate so much. You were definitely able to get across a since of anxiety. And the slow build up to the huge swarm was great. Great job!
Evergreen Games
11. May 2015 · 23:56 UTC
This definitely has potential. the idea of indirectly controlling things through the beacons is very cool. at the moment there doesn't seem to be much strategy or skill involved but that might just be me.
Forlorn79
12. May 2015 · 00:29 UTC
Great concept, but just needs more time to flesh out. I don't know if there's a good strategy to win, so more levels to get used to a strategy before it gets hard would help me understand the gameplay. I hope it ends up a success!