The Verse by simplesmiler

[raw]
made by simplesmiler for LD30 (COMPO)
Explore and colonize the Verse!
There are many worlds to conquer. Some of them are connected by series of mysterious ancient gates, which drastically speed up moving through the space.

But beware, you are not the only one who wants to take over the Verse!

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Controls:
Left and right mouse button will rotate your camera.
When you highlight a world with mouse cursor, you can grab a part of your fleet from there and drop it to other world. Moving through space takes time, but gates between worlds (visualized as lines) will speed up your fleet significantly.

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Post-compo:
I'm working on post-compo version, with better balance and AI.
Read more: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2014/08/25/the-verse-aftereffects-day-1/
Please, don't take post-compo into consideration when ranking the game.

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Backup links:
Windows binary: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6JJfKNsTguMLTA2YWRwVEpSVk0
Platform agnostic [requires love2d]: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6JJfKNsTguMb0pvdFJ2N1NEa0U

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Love:
You can get love2d at: https://love2d.org/
Game is tested against love2d v0.9.1, and may not work with another version. This doesn't apply to the windows binary, because it's shipped with all the necessary stuff.

Ratings

Coolness 93% 2
Overall 3.63 175
Audio 3.27 241
Fun 3.39 284
Graphics 3.50 301
Humor 2.47 463
Innovation 3.26 479
Mood 3.71 83
Theme 3.73 206

Feedback

JosephLittle
25. Aug 2014 · 11:46 UTC
Nice graphics and audio. Interesting take on the resource war type game.

My only problem is that it was a little too much for me to concentrate on. I couldn't quite keep track of what was going on! But that could just be me :P

Fantastic game!
ZirconCode
25. Aug 2014 · 11:59 UTC
Loved the theme interpretation and the strategic elements. Was very easy to figure out yet had good amount of depth and fun.
A333
25. Aug 2014 · 12:02 UTC
I love the style and gameplay, they are both simple and beautiful, with every piece on its place. You've captured the essence of the control games.
hate-marina
25. Aug 2014 · 16:58 UTC
Отличная залипалка :3
hate-marina
25. Aug 2014 · 17:02 UTC
I mean nice time-killer :3
recursor
25. Aug 2014 · 21:11 UTC
Very cool little game. Nice job on the star chart look of the game and the music is nice too. This one goes in my "play more later " folder.
soerensen3
25. Aug 2014 · 22:30 UTC
loved this game! Even if the concept of game is not new the implementation is quite creative and the music really adds to the mood.
In the end it could go a bit faster. I have more than 12000 units in one place figthing against 300 and it is still taking ages to finish them. I would love to see a post compo!
keddelzz
26. Aug 2014 · 01:37 UTC
Remindet me of Eufloria in 3D with kind of constellations. - Interesting concept and fun to play!

cheers ~ keddelzz
Random Abductions
26. Aug 2014 · 01:50 UTC
Nice ambient game, very stressful on the higher difficulty, peaceful on the easier grades. I loved it. The only thing is that it is sometimes too hard to control the amount of units you want to send. But I have no clue how I would have done it. The innovation on this method is very interesting. Loved the minimalistic but pleasing colors and shapes!
Stepwise
26. Aug 2014 · 02:56 UTC
Cool idea, was a little tough for me to figure out what was going on.

Reminds me of some of the old PSN games like Flow. Great mood and feel of the whole game.
LostTrainDude
26. Aug 2014 · 09:36 UTC
I'm getting a little lost in knowing what to do exactly, but the game has a great atmosphere and everything is very smooth.

I'm definitely looking forward to the post-dare version of this :D
LostTrainDude
26. Aug 2014 · 09:37 UTC
*a little lost in trying to understand.
Sorry :D
Oana
26. Aug 2014 · 09:49 UTC
That was fun! Reminds me a bit of Phage Wars and similar games. I conquered everything on Easy, but there didn't seem to be an end state. It took me a while to figure out that you could use the slider thingy to determine what percentage of the ships moved out... I thought you had to do it one by one! But once I figured it out, it got pretty easy and I haven't noticed any bugs, so well done!
RedPanda
26. Aug 2014 · 14:42 UTC
Just great! Can't say more. Jelly :P
ryguydavis
26. Aug 2014 · 14:47 UTC
Wow. Just wow. Gorgeous, smooth, moody, minimal, and yet extremely complex. I see you have updated the AI, which is good. This version was unbelievably hard but still worth the play. Overall very solid.
AtomicVikings
26. Aug 2014 · 14:51 UTC
Really enjoyed this. if only the gameplay could be a little slower. It could be the next mobile device hit! :D
naksrifati
26. Aug 2014 · 16:15 UTC
Like the conecpt) The control are very smooth and comfortable, but the graphics, cant understand whats happening some time, the much info.
MJ.Mantis
27. Aug 2014 · 01:42 UTC
Very immerse. This is one of the best games I'd played this Ludum Dare! However, I have some complaints with the visuals and I would've liked keyboard shortcuts... I find mouse-only a little cumbersome.
Romko Pidstryhach
27. Aug 2014 · 13:46 UTC
This game feels awesome! Nice mood
nintendoeats
27. Aug 2014 · 20:50 UTC
I think that this is a really beautiful and impressive entry (if difficult to keep track of. However I can't play it because my red/green colourblindness makes managing all of that info impossible. I am correct in saying that universe control is indicated by colour right?
🎤 simplesmiler
27. Aug 2014 · 21:21 UTC
@nintendoeats, you are absolutely correct. Shame on me, I din't think this through.
I don't think I'm allowed to modify entry now, but here's a link to a version with adjusted colors:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36132745/14-08/simplesmiler-ld30-compo-colors.zip.
Other than colors there's no changes. Hope this will be better :)

I'm working on post-compo version, and I will definitely add an option for adjusting colors.
🎤 simplesmiler
27. Aug 2014 · 21:23 UTC
Link accidentally got extra dot in the end.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36132745/14-08/simplesmiler-ld30-compo-colors.zip
goffmog
28. Aug 2014 · 10:12 UTC
Very nice! Compelling and with a wonderful mood, gets very hectic.
ViliX
28. Aug 2014 · 10:47 UTC
Interesting moody graphics ;)
RaycoSantana
28. Aug 2014 · 11:12 UTC
I quite liked this one
xandy
28. Aug 2014 · 13:06 UTC
very nice graphics and music matching your game!
AnnaGavaldaKedavra
28. Aug 2014 · 14:13 UTC
I totally control the Verse. Thought i'd be overhelmed at first but i managed to come back stronger. Good game, vry nice visualisation.
spolsh
29. Aug 2014 · 00:12 UTC
Quite intuitive. This minimalistic style is magnificent. I wish such graph vis and 3d was available in terminal!
elefantopia
01. Sep 2014 · 18:15 UTC
Beautiful graphics and controls. It's a compelling game.
plash
05. Sep 2014 · 05:55 UTC
Very, very neat. The music gives this the perfect mood of meditative strategy, and the aesthetic is fantastic. Although this world-to-world colonization system has been done by many (e.g., Eufloria and other Ludum Darians), this puts a nice spin on it.

Extra credit for using SuperCollider! I'd love to be able to make music with it some day.

A few criticisms:

1. The window is too small. This would be more immersive if I could resize the window or go fullscreen. This is a huge factor.

2. The Verse constantly shifting makes it hard to gather and send off precise amounts of a fleet.

Nitpicks:

- I can't press escape at the menu to quit the game, and there is no exit button. Minor.

- There are are multitude of empty lines emitted to stdout. Bothersome and unexpected in a terminal. (This is caused by a strangely placed print("") in your love.update() function.)