Iter Bellum Deus by Piscythe

[raw]
made by Piscythe for LD30 (COMPO)
In the surprisingly colorful future of whatever millennium, the player is a god aiding a space-faring civilization, the Blue Team. They are, as is the case with everyone else, at war with several other space-faring civilizations, sending fleets of ships along hyperspace lanes. While they are often outnumbered, the well-connected Blue Team will win and conquer if your aid is up to the task.

Coded in Starling using FlashDevelop. Graphics are from Inkscape and put into a TexturePacker Atlas. Music made with lmms and sound with BFXR.

Controls:
Mouse + Hotkeys 1-4

Help:
There are in-game tips, but here are some key points:
You win if you control all planets, and lose if you control none, regardless of ships on the field.
Bigger planets produce more ships and are harder to conquer.
Your powers are as follows, though you will usually not have access to all of them:
(1) Wrath: Destroys all ships and weakens planets in an area. Destroyed planets go neutral.
(2) Boon: Give a planet a boost for 15 seconds, doubling power generation. A boosted planet will remain boosted if it changes control, but a plague will cancel the boost immediately.
(3) Plague: Give a planet a plague for 15 seconds, reducing power generation to 40%. A plague planet will remain boosted if it changes control, but a boost will cancel the plague immediately.
(4) Crusade: Give a group of ships you control a permanent boost, doubling their power and increasing their speed.

Ratings

Coolness 61% 3
Overall 3.77 102
Audio 3.00 375
Fun 3.97 27
Graphics 3.18 494
Humor 2.38 519
Innovation 3.82 125
Mood 3.20 379
Theme 4.09 39

Feedback

Vulture Tamer
25. Aug 2014 · 02:45 UTC
best so far!
PapaCheech
25. Aug 2014 · 03:53 UTC
great. I love me some strategy games, and this one was intense.
cobrajs
25. Aug 2014 · 03:55 UTC
Frustrating at first, but really cool concept once I got the hang of it. Music was a little odd, but odd music is better than no music. Well, most of the time. Nice work!
capsizedmoose
25. Aug 2014 · 03:55 UTC
it's really hard!
StencylTuo
25. Aug 2014 · 04:05 UTC
I gotta say I liked your entry a lot. I almost wish that it had an unlocking system so that it felt I accomplished something after beating a mission. It's definitely the best entry I've played so far, with 4 5/5 ratings, including overall.
ZoneOne2
25. Aug 2014 · 05:11 UTC
Really good. Definitely kept my attention for the longest of all that I've played. Also, my game now works without a controller if you want to give it another shot.
AnIronGolem
25. Aug 2014 · 06:13 UTC
Whoa, spent a good half an hour on this, love it.
dvdking
25. Aug 2014 · 06:33 UTC
Awesome!
I loved that I had to use different tactics in different situations.
It is well balanced. It is not easy, but it is fun to defeat overwhelming enemies.

Although, I didn't quite like sounds and music. But it didn't really affected gameplay quality.
Healthire
25. Aug 2014 · 06:50 UTC
Very nice game. Good difficulty curve and fun mechanics!
Tanner
25. Aug 2014 · 07:29 UTC
Good beat, interesting mechanic for this kind of games
TaylorAnderson
25. Aug 2014 · 21:54 UTC
I really, really liked this. I was not a big fan of the art style, but after playing the first level a few times to get a hang of the game, I was hooked. This is an excellent game.
danidre14
26. Aug 2014 · 05:01 UTC
Seems almost impossible, but I've played better than this. Good job making something like it in a weekends time though! :D
hogtrick
26. Aug 2014 · 08:08 UTC
Awesome game. One of the bests for me so far.
micahcowan
26. Aug 2014 · 21:46 UTC
Very nice!
emmelineprufrock
27. Aug 2014 · 00:09 UTC
Interesting, and surprisingly difficult. Kind of hated the audio, so I'm really glad there was a way to turn it off. Great work overall.
Marcellus
27. Aug 2014 · 05:41 UTC
Very nice strategy game, doesn't leave any room for hesitation.
I wish you had time for more levels, also the level 9 is good bout you really loose or win in like 4 seconds while the level 10 is way too easy. I liked this game a lot and played it until the end.
Snicklodocus
28. Aug 2014 · 22:01 UTC
This game is really good. It seems simple at first but there is a lot of strategy involved. Difficulty curve was well designed. Art and sound are a little plain, but overall great job!
whilefun
29. Aug 2014 · 00:05 UTC
This was a lot of fast paced crazy fun to play. On level 3, the 2nd hot key would work to select the powerup but I couldnt deploy it or switch back to the 1st power up, so I kept losing. Overall very solid entry, good work! :)
KeyMaster
29. Aug 2014 · 17:00 UTC
Pretty nice entry and a good mechanic, although some of the later levels seemed almost impossible or only reliant on using your abilities exactly right. Also, sound effects were good but the music was too dissonant for me :/ Still great entry!
jpverkamp
31. Aug 2014 · 20:31 UTC
Among the best I've seen so far. Gameplay is a lot of fun (I'm a sucker for graph based games), although it scales a bit quickly. The audio is by far the best I've heard, very driving. Another on the list of games that would be a nice quick diversion on mobile.
liquidminduk
02. Sep 2014 · 12:11 UTC
really cool, I felt the white "stars" were a little distracting, maybe making them smaller would balance out the visuals a little
kirbytails7
06. Sep 2014 · 06:31 UTC
Pretty fun, but I've seen some similar games that have more direct interaction and are, I think, more fun for it. Also, the music grew pretty insufferable after a few levels.
Scott Baker
12. Sep 2014 · 16:58 UTC
This was a lot of fun. Took a second to figure it out. It's hard, but fun!