LudumData

Fish Tank Commander by quill18

[raw]
made by quill18 for LD23 (COMPO)
GUEST ACCOUNT:
Login: guest@ludumdare.com
Password: ludumdare

Keep in mind that you will be seeing each-other's games! Please try to avoid confusing yourselves. :)

Feel free to challenge me (quill18) -- I'll try to be as responsive as possible!


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Fish Tank Commander is a multiplayer, turn-based tactics game set in the world's most violent aquarium. Your goldfish and seahorses will battle your opponent's bettas and turtles for dominance of the tank!

Every win and lose is tracked and you will be ranked using Elo Ratings -- the same as professional chess players. You also earn XP for every game, which unlocks huge e-Peen!

A full map editor is built right in, and users can vote for their favorites. Make your own maps, then own people with it!

Fish Tank Commander was programmed in Ruby on Rails and JavaScript using Sublime Text 2 and Gimp and is hosted on Heroku. Full source code is available on GitHub!

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The entire game creation was streamed live and recorded at: http://www.twitch.tv/quill18

Web Site http://fishtankcommander.com/
Live Stream Recording http://twitch.tv/quill18
YouTube with Tutorials http://youtube.com/quill18
Source https://github.com/quill18/ld23-tiny-world
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=7862

Ratings

Coolness 39% 777
Overall 3.06 380
Fun 2.63 540
Graphics 2.19 765
Humor 2.42 333
Innovation 2.94 425
Mood 2.43 595
Theme 2.44 715

Feedback

MarekkPie
24. Apr 2012 · 18:36 UTC
While it might be good, making people sign up for an account is probably not the way to go.
Raptor85
24. Apr 2012 · 18:39 UTC
there needs to be a guest account, I don't really want to create an account on your site just to play your entry.
pbackx
24. Apr 2012 · 18:52 UTC
It's a little difficult to get an opponent because you can only challenge one guy and not just wait for the first one that appears (or maybe I missed this in the interface?)
Otherwise, nice idea and very impressive for only 48 hours.
bwdevel
24. Apr 2012 · 18:55 UTC
I'd love to rate, but no way am I creating an account... imagine if all 1000+ submitted games took this path.

You should have made it anonymous play with no logins.
Transmit
24. Apr 2012 · 18:59 UTC
Yeah I gotta agree, signing up for an account is a pain in the arse. Guest account please!
🎤 quill18
24. Apr 2012 · 19:06 UTC
This game rapidly progressed from something I wanted to just make for the compo into something that's going to turn into a real product, shippable product in the vein of "Chess with Friends" and such (in my dev copy I'm already adding Facebook integration and ensuring iOS/Android compatibility).

Unfortunately, by moving in that direction I've ended up with something that isn't well suited to a quick playthrough for voting purposes. In hindsight I focused too much on the user-account rankings and map editing and should have made - for this competition - an anonymous queuing with just the core gameplay.

On the other hand, then I probably wouldn't have a product I felt was on the verge of being shippable.

Blah. Decisions are hard.

TL;DR: I'm certain my score will for this compo will suck, but I'm okay with it.
iFred_QC
24. Apr 2012 · 19:14 UTC
I made Summoner's Rift (The League of Legends map) for real!
http://fishtankcommander.com/maps/1341

Also making Crystal Scar and Twisted Treeline (The real ones!)

Look for the maps with "Real" prefix!
iFred_QC
24. Apr 2012 · 19:32 UTC
All 3 League of Legends maps!

Summoner's Rift http://fishtankcommander.com/maps/1341
Twisted Treeline http://fishtankcommander.com/maps/1344
Crystal Scar http://fishtankcommander.com/maps/1346
🎤 quill18
24. Apr 2012 · 19:36 UTC
<3 for the LoL maps :)
Keirua
24. Apr 2012 · 20:11 UTC
It doesn't matter if there is a login thing and people think it is not in the spirit of LD. It totally is. You got ideas during the weekend, you probably learnt a lot and this will make you go on in the future, so in my opinion this is, for you, totally in the spirit of LD.
Nocturne
24. Apr 2012 · 20:38 UTC
Interesting concept, but (as you have realised) not really adequate to the competition... However I wish you the best of luck with the continuation of this project as it is very promising!
iFred_QC
24. Apr 2012 · 21:12 UTC
I'd have to say too, this is one of the RARE LD48 games that will make it out alive after the voting ends!

Just make sure to advertise about it somewhere else than here! And good luck!
wibblymat
25. Apr 2012 · 00:05 UTC
Challenged a bunch of people, no one ever took a go. Not rated because not playable.
wgemigh
25. Apr 2012 · 00:11 UTC
It took starting a couple of games to figure out the basics. It was also a bit slow, although that's probably just because so many people are trying it right now.

It's a cool concept and I like the silly aquarium theme. I would have liked more difference between the units. The betta and the goldfish in particular seemed too similar.

I look forward to seeing an updated version!
Catman
25. Apr 2012 · 20:46 UTC
I love turn-based strategy games! :)

Good job on the game, I'd like to see some animations and especially more feedback on what happens during your moves!

You should speed up a bit the initial phase, all the fish get stuck easily.

Otherwise, keep up the good work!
oldtopman
25. Apr 2012 · 21:06 UTC
I definitely have to give you points for ambition. Throwing together a MOTBS over 48 hours cannot be easy. However, playing the game becomes a bit of a grind for a few reasons: no realtime updating, you have to rely on messages. No lobby, so you have to track down someone willing to have a match. No animations at all, leaving me wondering whether or not my damage took. Not enough movement or strategy when it comes to the fights, half of the game is just trying to move into a battle-ish shape. The infrastructure is un-nesecarrily complicated for such a small game. It does work well though.

Overall: Great aspirations, but too many flaws for me to see to the gameplay behind. 3/5
🎤 quill18
26. Apr 2012 · 13:49 UTC
Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! I've just hit 100 issues on Github and have already closed 33 tickets (primarily on my dev site). I have 2 months of work already mapped out to turn this into a truly enjoyable, competitive game. This includes much better matchmaking and social tools (such as chatting), not to mention many gameplay changes including rules changes and new units.

I can't wait for the voting to be over so I can push out some new changes! (As is, I'm trying to restrict my changes to site-breaking performance issues, plus the text on the front page.)
artefon
28. Apr 2012 · 04:22 UTC
I got the message: "We're sorry, but something went wrong."
Kvisle
01. May 2012 · 13:11 UTC
I got the message: "We're sorry, but something went wrong." when attempting to log in.
cantorfew
02. May 2012 · 19:06 UTC
I have to give you points (lots) for the technical aspect since the matching system is working fine. I'd still suggest focusing on gameplay and making it easier to play first (long term project or not). It does need to have an account system, for example, especially if that's not the selling point of the game.

Unfortunately, like many others, I wasn't able to play a game since I couldn't see who is available (and could only challenge one person).

Still I'd like to see more entries like this.

I also get the "We're sorry, but something went wrong." error each time I try to return to the games list.
robcozzens
05. May 2012 · 05:45 UTC
We're sorry but something went wrong.
Datw
08. May 2012 · 00:33 UTC
The game seems to be fun, but I won't create a account to play it. Good luck shipping it though, your choice was (probably?) the best :)
minimicro
13. May 2012 · 15:05 UTC
Nice ! LoL maps ;)