sick presentation, love the visual style and the sfx. i'd be curious to know what a 'good strategy' is... the mechanics are very elegant and simple but I feel like each turn has a clear optimal move, and maybe I'm missing something

@rylgh: In fact, the startegy part you're addressing was the the part I was struggling with the most during development. At the beginning, either you could build temples ad infinitum and no tide could stop you from growing all over the place or all your attempts to go past two temples would be continuously crushed by incoming waves. So there was some balancing there. The main choices you make in this game are supposed to be how to distribute your build actions, whether or not to build a totem (i.e. convert a high value 3 story temple to a blocking tile) and so forth. I admit there need to be some additional elements to make the gameplay really interesting in terms of strategy. Right now it's just a minimal core of a puzzle game, I guess.

As you say, it's lacking something. The first thing I did was fill the entire area with totems - it seems wrong that the cost to create totems and the moves it gives you in return are the same.

It is pretty straightforward, but the graphics/audio are really nice and it's relaxing to play. I'd be interested to see what this could turn in to if you worked on it more!

Interesting game. I got 107, did some silly mistakes :P
I like the visual style as well. Good work :)

Nice game. I think the mechanics are good, but the randomness / balancing is a bit off. This could become something really interesting. Very nice presentation and style. Good job.

Really cool mix of short-term and long-term planning in the gameplay. Graphics, audio, presentation, everything is very polished.

It's an interesting idea but seems like is missing something. Fun at the start, bored when I saw that i couldnt do anything more :/

Interesting puzzle mechanic! :)

Simple, but very well crafted. The best strategy isn't immediately obvious, but with a little thinking becomes evident. Nice work!

Interesting concept and great presentation. Like cageinabird I also misunderstood the strategy to start with, I thought the aim was to create totems and didn't realise you didn't get points for it! But once I got my head around that I had fun.

Wow! Very unique, and very fun! It took me a bit to understand the mechanics, but once I did I loved it! I got stuck towards the end, I didn't die, but I couldn't place anymore pieces. GREAT GAME!

Great job on the core mechanic! It's got a ton of potential, and is quite unique. I can envision a really interesting puzzle mode, where your goal is to achieve a certain score or final configuration given an existing board. However, I feel like experimenting with more interesting configurations is limited by the small size of the board.

refreshing and intriguing. haven't figured out the best strategy yet but the game is quite rewarding so i don't mind :)

It took me a while to get the hang of it, but then it really works. And after that, I started devising strategies to get higher scores. At first I didn't understand what the totems were good for. Looks great too!

Now I haven't played every puzzle game every made, so I can't be sure, but this feels pretty innovative to me. Great icons, great presentation. I was about to say "oh, but it's too easy to beat by just making totems .." and now I realize I missed the point, since totems are defensive but gain you no direct score. I guess that points to a need for a little tutorializing or popup tips to clue the player in. You should continue working on this game since the foundation of what you have is excellent.

Really like the graphical style. Also quite fun to play. I think this would be a great mobile game!

142. Very nice presentation. Minimalistic, but I like it!

Figured it out, finally.

Excellent concept and realisation.

I liked the graphics, and the game was fun to play!
Since building the totem buys you enough time to build another, there seems to be no penalty to building a wall of them to totally block the incoming wave (the uprising water will still happen because you have to place temples to let the wave come). Maybe you should find a way to let the player "desynchronize" the wave/uprise timers in some way?
Loved the game anyway, good job!

Awesome Game!

Really enjoyed this game. Excellent puzzle mechanics. :)

Interesting puzzle game, ended up with a score of 123.

Nice design. Very clean and easy to underderstand. I love the tidal wave effects. Enjoyable puzzle.

looks pretty cool, but feels like there isn't really a right way to play or balance of some sorts. Or maybe I just feel to see it :)

still great for a ld48!

Like it

wow this was a super great game - love the idea - great job