TerraShift by Leon Möhring

[raw]
made by Leon Möhring for LD35 (COMPO)
In TerraShift you are a god! You have to change the world and use abilities to defend a village against droughts and beasts. After 30 years your score will be the largest number of houses the village once contained.

--INSTRUCTIONS--
The game is turnbased, each turn is equal to one year of in game time. You have 3 cards per turn and you must use 2 of them. There are cards to create new land and cards to change existing terrain. Some abilities cannot be placed on every land type.
After you finished the turn, the world changes like in a simulation. These changes follow specific rules. The village grows by itself, if it is located on green land.
You can try to learn the rules by yourself or read how it works below. Later on wolves and dragons spawn and destroy your houses. You can fight them by using certain abilities.

--Controls--
Control with mouse and left mouse button (to select cards and land tiles)
Pan view with middle or right mouse button

--Personal Comment--
The game turned out really nice. I wanted to make something different and the project was very complex. I had no time left to create music and sfx so sadly there is no audio at all... The graphics are quite good, I love the Icons of Fire, Rain, Meteor and Wolf, but I hoped to be able to create better graphics for the land tiles (not enough time, work time was about 18-20 hours I think). The simulation turned out really cool, especially the terrain simulation. There are some things not perfect with the beasts and there are no real menu screens(end screen is visually broken), but it's Ludum Dare! So I hope you enjoyed playing and leave some feedback please!

--Description of Simulation Rules--

Land types:
-Desert (-2 Green)
-Mountain (-1 Green)
-Dirt (0 Green)
-Grass (+1 Green)
-Forest (+2 Green)
-Water (+3 Green)

Kill dragon with storm or meteor
Kill wolf with fire or meteor

Meteor changes grass / forest / dirt to mountain
Meteor changes mountain to dirt
Meteor changes water to grass
Meteor destroys all houses on the land

Fire changes grass / dirt to desert
Fire changes forest to dirt
Fire destroys all houses on the land

Rain changes desert to grass
Rain changes dirt to forest
Rain changes grass / forest to water

Storm changes forest to dirt
Storm destroys half of the houses on the land

->Land Simulation:
The land type of a tile is determined by an average of all the neighbour's green values.
The tile can only change the type step by step

->Village Simulation:
Each house can create a new house on a neighbour tile, if the neighbours green value is high enough.
Houses cannot stand on water or mountains
On desert and dirt houses get destroyed over time
There can only be 10 houses on each tile

Ratings

Coolness 68% 3
Overall 4.06 24
Fun 4.13 14
Graphics 4.52 10
Humor 2.64 315
Innovation 4.08 36
Mood 3.66 96
Theme 3.82 162

Feedback

Garrett Hoofman
18. Apr 2016 · 03:36 UTC
This was really cool and had way more than I was initially expecting!
Would be neat to see dragon/wolf models over the tiles instead of icons. Overall, really well done. Made me think of this from the last Ludum Dare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtWiQxke8Vk
TiRSO!
18. Apr 2016 · 13:49 UTC
Very nice. I love how it looks, the level of polish and that it can be understood without any tutorials. Congrats!

As a negative, I have lost a bit of motivation after a while since it's not clear what the goal is or what's the losing condition.
cicanci
18. Apr 2016 · 13:50 UTC
Nice game! It reminds me a board game, well done!
tomdeal
18. Apr 2016 · 13:58 UTC
Nice game! It's fun to watch the settlement grow, like it was in populous :-)
Hyoga-3D
18. Apr 2016 · 14:00 UTC
Nice gameplay and use of the theme and the graphics are very good, great job.
eott
18. Apr 2016 · 14:00 UTC
Wow, what a great game. :)
It's very fun to play, trying to make the most of the given cards and fighting off monsters with godly fury.
Capitals
18. Apr 2016 · 14:06 UTC
A really good game. Looks great! However I't would have helped to have a idea (A GUI Element), which showed how many houses you had.
Husky
18. Apr 2016 · 14:08 UTC
This game is beautiful and interesting, I like when the wolf and dragon spawning, it give and push me to face these threat, and then there are some strategy for defeat them or glow more tiles.

Although I'm not quite sure when or how do I get to the end game, but it's still pretty solid to me.

Good job! :D
RealityCheck
18. Apr 2016 · 14:15 UTC
Very good entry. I really enjoyed watching the village grow, and unleashing natural elements against dragons and wolves. Graphics are top-notch for a compo game.

Easy to play, easy to understand (if you read the goals of the game first) and a very solid entry. I liked it!
gameXcore
18. Apr 2016 · 14:16 UTC
Absolutely excellent, I would to see this developed further.
Yrasin
18. Apr 2016 · 14:19 UTC
Very cool game with an awesome mood and graphics style! I do however feel like the game is lacking in informing the player about what the goal of the game is and how you perform "good". But overall very good work! :D
cameronpenner
18. Apr 2016 · 19:37 UTC
Wow, really solid entry! Felt really polished. I'd have loved a bit of chill music and a bit of interactive sounds, but other than that, a really great game!
Z4f1
18. Apr 2016 · 19:51 UTC
Very very nice! This was made in 48 hours!?!?! This is going to win!
Hempuli
18. Apr 2016 · 19:55 UTC
Very cozy and enjoyable! Pretty easy too, but I seriously enjoyed the depth present, what with the different tiles affecting each other and the dragons and wolves ravaging cities. My score was 190. I'd love to see more of this!
DivineOmega
18. Apr 2016 · 20:07 UTC
I liked the strategy of the game. Pretty intuitive as the gameplay was quite discoverable without the need to read the instructions.

The graphical style was very nice, as I felt it suited the game well. I think would make an excellent 'on-and-off' mobile puzzle/strategy game.
Rakowu
18. Apr 2016 · 21:09 UTC
Rellay nice and funny game. But...Stupid
wolf killing my citizens... he had to die.

It's one of the first games i needed to finish. Good job. Kepp it on.
goodbadokay
18. Apr 2016 · 22:58 UTC
Wow, this is really awesome!
So meditative and relaxing
Aaranos
18. Apr 2016 · 23:16 UTC
I played it through twice. The first time I kept wondering why my grass was turning into desert all the time. On the 2nd I managed to get about 285 houses. I enjoyed the game a lot. A greater diversity in tiles and events would make it even better.
Funske
19. Apr 2016 · 01:41 UTC
That was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the game, and found myself getting into it. Graphics were beautiful, and my only complaint is that I wish there was more(Which of course is understandable with such a short time). Great game!
pogo
19. Apr 2016 · 14:53 UTC
This was so much deeper than I expected.
I like the art, and the controls are tight and clear. I particularly enjoyed the moments when I was faced with villages everywhere, and only a fire or a storm :) I'd love some sounds and a little more animation when villages appear, but the game is solid. Congratulations.
bigbatardyt
19. Apr 2016 · 16:26 UTC
Great game, cool graphics and longest game on this ld35 ive played .
RoboNebula
19. Apr 2016 · 17:35 UTC
Good game, I really enjoyed it!
ZeroFaction
19. Apr 2016 · 20:17 UTC
Very well done. I actually played through twice because I found myself very entertained. Amazing graphics and a good take on the shapeshifting theme.
Gametery
20. Apr 2016 · 00:41 UTC
Really nice game! Very well done .
Arvydas
20. Apr 2016 · 03:50 UTC
Pretty funny and innovating game! I enjoyed playing this :)
tentacode
20. Apr 2016 · 14:27 UTC
Cool tiled based game :) a bit hard to figure all the combinations but I had fun trying all sort of things :)
BoltKey
20. Apr 2016 · 21:31 UTC
The graphics were perfect. It took me two tries to understand how to play, but after I got it, it was really enjoyable. I think I will come back to this later.
Mango Malarkey
22. Apr 2016 · 10:38 UTC
Love this game! The visuals are amazing :D
AnaGF
22. Apr 2016 · 23:30 UTC
Very polished entry, good one. Minimal graphics works pretty well, and the gameplay is funny. Maybe it could have been clearer in game how to defeat enemies
Freank
23. Apr 2016 · 07:21 UTC
Hi, nice game ! We're realizing a video with several games of the Ludum Dare #35.
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free)
So we can include also your game in the video ;)
p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description
samlo
23. Apr 2016 · 11:49 UTC
Wow there was so much in this! What an awesome concept. Great work man! Would love to see you take this further :)
CoderDozer
23. Apr 2016 · 12:15 UTC
Very well put together, enjoyable to play.
PaulJs
23. Apr 2016 · 21:02 UTC
Great game ! Just game !
fin_nolimit
23. Apr 2016 · 21:48 UTC
Super innovative game! The graphics are fantastic and the GOD SIM is super awesome! Excellent job
lanestp
23. Apr 2016 · 22:00 UTC
Fantastic! Easily my favorite game of this LD!
Jeasonfire
23. Apr 2016 · 23:13 UTC
Got 118 houses! Don't know if that's good, but most of the world was pretty green, so I'm alright with it :D Probably spammed a few water tiles too many though..

The graphics are really neat, and the animations very fluid. The artstyle seems very consistent, and the only graphical gripe with me was the description font (seems a bit too thin), but even that stopped annoying me after only a little while. And font tastes tend to be quite subjective.

The lack of audio is a bit disappointing, but the graphics & really cool gameplay more than make up for it. Good work!
PowerSpark
24. Apr 2016 · 00:24 UTC
Great depth in this game, good job. I got 282 houses.
studdert249
24. Apr 2016 · 06:20 UTC
Great work! A well fleshed out concept for the allotted time and easily understood even without reading the simulation rules until after I finished a playthrough, deliberately mind you, I wanted to enjoy the game, not try meta-game so to speak.

The only thing I could think to add would be a counter for the number of houses you currently have and more days so I can keep enjoying expanding my village!
omarhuseynov011
24. Apr 2016 · 08:54 UTC
Great game! I wish it was even longer
tmpxyz
24. Apr 2016 · 12:15 UTC
It might add more strategy if there's some tile-type that could be used to counter wolves & dragons.

Like the wolf cannot pass water, etc.
🎤 Leon Möhring
24. Apr 2016 · 12:54 UTC
yeah I wanted to do that, but I would have needed proper Pathfinding Algorithms which was not possible in 48 hours:), I also wanted the storms and fire to spread and maybe other villages to fight, but that was very optimistic...
Jupiter_Hadley
24. Apr 2016 · 15:35 UTC
Lovely graphics! I included it in my video compilation series of Ludum Dare games, if you’d like to check them out :) https://youtu.be/Rc53wZClozM
randomhuman
24. Apr 2016 · 15:47 UTC
Fun game, and very nice looking graphics.
FistBumpGames
24. Apr 2016 · 19:26 UTC
I like it! The lowpoly look and simple game mechanic made this a very pleasurable experience. It felt a bit like playing settlers of catan on a table :)

Greetings, Bruz
Foxarya
24. Apr 2016 · 21:11 UTC
Very simple and very addictive! Love it!
Nomys_Tempar
25. Apr 2016 · 14:38 UTC
Neat entry !
neilcorre2k6
26. Apr 2016 · 11:42 UTC
That was fantastic! :D keep up the good work! :D like the way the tiles show up and the gameplay itself :)
jonnopon3000
26. Apr 2016 · 23:40 UTC
I didn't do so well at first, but I came back for seconds and really had a great time. Nice work
TeamCardthulhu
27. Apr 2016 · 14:15 UTC
Got 339 on my first try! :D

Really love the game, very solid entry and fun gameplay mechanic! Would love to see this further developed - with some more content and varying goals, it would really be a cool puzzle game I'd be willing to pay for! :)
Tselmek
01. May 2016 · 10:54 UTC
Nice game, wish there was a way to zoom in and out as well as a less brutal view panning, it's quite frustrating to lose your progression because you can't find the land after a glitchy view panning. Nice game nonetheless.