Ice, Fire, Сodfish and Sheeps by BloodJohn

[raw]
made by BloodJohn for LD36 (JAM)
Ancient Iceland: survival economy

You're the head of the Viking village.
Catch fish to feed people.
Mow hay to feed sheep in winter.
Kill a few sheep if there is not enough hay or fish.
Sheep provide wool, which need for cloth.

Shear more wool!

Feedback

SimonHutchinson
28. Aug 2016 · 21:48 UTC
Nice survival game.

I think I need some more instructions (on where to click, etc).
SetTheBet
28. Aug 2016 · 21:52 UTC
Really nice art and sfx. The game mechanics is rather hard to understand
Dedioso
28. Aug 2016 · 21:55 UTC
As you said in your Post: The atmossphere is really good. I like the 2 states (outdoor/indoor). But as SimonHutchinson said: I first off didn't knew where to click.
When i got it the game got to easy.
But i think that this is okay. Because the game lives from its atmossphere. Thanks!
Traf d-Lo
28. Aug 2016 · 22:14 UTC
I agree with SetTheBet - looks and sounds nice but needs some explanation. "A farm without sheeps is doomed" after all.
phantomunboxing
28. Aug 2016 · 23:23 UTC
Web version is not working on chrome for me
scriptorum
29. Aug 2016 · 05:07 UTC
I agree with the other comments, great atmosphere, needs better instruction. Really loved the ember effect in the long house. Good job!
jaxonf92
29. Aug 2016 · 06:29 UTC
Its a bit confusing but overall it's very well done
jackyjjc
29. Aug 2016 · 07:18 UTC
The art is lovely, however, I was very confused about the game. After a few play through I kind of get the idea that i need to get enough hey and fish to survive the winter. However, I still don't understand the usage of cloth because they don't really decrease in number? Also the game didn't seem to get harder or easier? Looks like it has potential it just need more polish and explanation. Well done though!
c4m
29. Aug 2016 · 15:50 UTC
Looks pretty, but kinda confusing
Culpo
29. Aug 2016 · 16:27 UTC
A different survival game, I liked
AwesomeDannyRay
29. Aug 2016 · 17:03 UTC
Love the art. I was confused about the gameplay itself, but finally got things to progress. I still don't get the point of certain things like what to eat or get.
oskardevelopment
29. Aug 2016 · 20:06 UTC
I was not able to get better than three winters?

The art is amazing though the information regarding loss of wool, food and sheep is a bit too little making it hard to create a logical playthrough.

Cool idea and nice sound! :)
Ilseroth
29. Aug 2016 · 21:56 UTC
The art, what ther eis of it is pretty good, but the gameplay kinda feels like filler? once you know what the algorithm is you can just tap it out in 2 seconds
Fidrik
29. Aug 2016 · 22:30 UTC
Cool art but there wasn't much game play, really needs some instructions
edgeofcode
30. Aug 2016 · 02:04 UTC
I agree with the other comments - some more instructions would be good. I like the art and the audio.
PeachTreeOath
30. Aug 2016 · 05:37 UTC
I appreciate the youtube vid, helped me get going. I suggest for others to check it out too.
CMangas
30. Aug 2016 · 09:59 UTC
Great grafics, simple gameplay
raspofabs
30. Aug 2016 · 13:00 UTC
feels like I'm being taught a lesson in scaling economics. It's good, but it needs more.
cushycode
30. Aug 2016 · 13:57 UTC
need actual instructions and a little mroe depth to the gameplay would've been nice.
teamBallShui
30. Aug 2016 · 15:43 UTC
There isnt much game play and some instructions could be good. But i like the artwork :)
SamuelSousa
30. Aug 2016 · 18:03 UTC
Stunning art and nice sfx.
I didn't understand very well how I was to survive...
AODQ
30. Aug 2016 · 20:37 UTC
The game is fundamentally broken and confusing. I have no idea how each part affects the other. I believe if you sacrifice all your sheep then fish only take one wool away. So the only way to survive I've found is to just sacrifice all your sheep in the beginning so you can eat all the fish, then just got only fish at that point and wool when you need it.

summer: 2 wool, rest fish. winter: If first day, sacrifice 11 sheep. Put the rest into fish.

With this strategy you will never lose. The art though is nice, but like I said, the game is fundamentally broken.
🎤 BloodJohn
30. Aug 2016 · 21:18 UTC
I agree with you. Now wool is accumulated solely for the score points. There are no penalties for low rate of production - so you can't sit on the same fish. Thank you all for the feedback, I'm working on learning first. As soon as the game becomes clear. I will start to complicate the game loop.
Insality
31. Aug 2016 · 19:23 UTC
Congrats with first Jam LD :)
Great art and sfx (make atmosphere! it's nice :))

I think you are already know what can be better in your games, so we are waiting for update! Make it more perfect !
Good job man
qikcik
01. Sep 2016 · 05:28 UTC
Cool game , very nice graphics , and atmosphere music , It is Fun , Good job :D
Allthebees
01. Sep 2016 · 20:53 UTC
The art is absolutely beautiful and the sound effects really add to the experience. As others have said the game is a bit confusing but still a really lovely art style and feel.
psilon
02. Sep 2016 · 15:30 UTC
Nice pictures and sound. Simple gameplay but it's fun. The goal of the game is not entirely clear at first play.
terryg
02. Sep 2016 · 16:26 UTC
Nice atmosphere, but I didn't really understand the game play. I was able to collect fish and hay, but not sure what to do with sheep. then I made it to winter and got through a winter. It needs a quick tutorial.
LoneSpelunker
02. Sep 2016 · 19:24 UTC
I love the look of this game, and really want to play it. However, when I try to play the game in my browser (Safari 9.1.3 under OSX), I get this error: "An error occured running the Unity content on this page. See your browser's JavaScript console for more info. The error was: NotFoundError: DOM IDBDatabase Exception 8: An operation failed because the requested database object could not be found."

This game looks really interesting, though - reminds me of King of Dragon Pass. Bookmarking for later.
genluck
02. Sep 2016 · 20:42 UTC
Really enjoyed the game, it put me in a very zen-like mood. At this point though, surviving is doing some simple calculations, which is not quite satisfying, perhaps there should be a reward other than score for successful felting. However, as you said, I understand the need to find the core before you add all the polish. Great entry!

@AODQ I noticed there is a way to get more felt each season up to a point, w/o sacrificing all your sheep. Each sheep eats 1 hay per day, People eat 1 fish/meat per day. so it's best to fish almost to the max(24) and then use the rest of your clicks for hay, sacrifice a few sheep each year. Get fat felt, become viking god.
genluck
02. Sep 2016 · 21:19 UTC
Additionally, it would be nice if you could keep food/hay season after season. This would really help so that you don't cap out at 22 sheep each year. Also, unless there will be more to it, such as a kind of trade game or something beyond the farm, the whole, "A farm without sheeps is doomed" thing seems arbitrary, and you could otherwise subsist off of fish alone. A thought for the future, perhaps either, a successfully survived winter, or having excess food at the end of winter, could result in a population increase, adding both mouths to feed, and hands to work. Totally extrapolating at this point, but I'm really into the idea of this game. It would be so cool if the game was about not just surviving nature, but other people as well, perhaps raiders? You could grow your farm to the point where you start investing, such as in guards to defend from attackers, and extra land to make more felts. I could see a Kingdom-esque game coming out of this. I love this game, please keep up the hard work!
Danae123
03. Sep 2016 · 21:05 UTC
Gorgeous graphics. I enjoyed it, played it a few times to get a high score. More mechanics could be introduced to make the gameplay more complex.
Molpe
05. Sep 2016 · 15:02 UTC
Beautiful images, it was hard to figure out what the game wants from me, after that it's got very very easy.

You can see me play it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKVInTUDXVo
Four Quarters
05. Sep 2016 · 16:42 UTC
Bit confusing.
All Vikings starve to death twice, before I found what there is fishing...)
Anyway game is interesting)
ragnta
07. Sep 2016 · 19:07 UTC
I don't understand, but I like the logic. How to make sheep? :)
🎤 BloodJohn
08. Sep 2016 · 07:29 UTC
Lambs appear in winter and spring, they are released to pasture. After each winter the sheep increase by half (x1,5).

I'm wondering how to make extra screens are spring and autumn.
PlasmaErnst
08. Sep 2016 · 14:13 UTC
Like the concept of the game.
I think the game would benefit from being more "readable". Maybe a visual representation of the goods other than numbers. While the art ist nice (though somewhat static), i think the screens could be more structured, so the player knows where to interact.
Keep it up!
Jupiter_Hadley
09. Sep 2016 · 21:59 UTC
Nice graphics! I included it in my compilation video series of Ludum Dare 36, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/MTi5CJCBr-w
🎤 BloodJohn
10. Sep 2016 · 07:47 UTC
Thank you for letsplay!
Very nice it turned out review. Good compilation.