Drifting Statuary by squirmonkey
Once, the Drifting Isles were an idyllic place, where angels frolicked and merriment was endless. Today they are beset by demons who, for some reason, leave statues all over the place.
Drifting Statuary is a turn-based strategy game in an arcade style (in the sense that you play for score, and the game only ends when you lose). Lead a team of angels, two Assassins and two Bruisers, to fight back the demons as long as you can. Why did the idyllic land of angels and merriment have Assassins and Bruisers? Listen, you're gonna want to not ask so many questions about this game's backstory.
Play it now: https://squirmonkey.itch.io/drifting-statuary (More links at bottom)
How to play
The Angels
On each turn, you'll move three of your angels. The number of moves you have remaining is shown on a counter in the bottom-left corner of the screen. If you have fewer than three angels remaining, you'll move each angel once. You must use all of your moves each turn.
To move an angel, click on it. Green boxes will appear depicting where that angel can move. Click on one of the green squares to move there, or click on the angel again to unselect it. You can move up to three spaces (no diagonals), but you can't move zero spaces.
After you move, if you landed next to (again, no diagonals) a demon or statue, they'll be highlighted in red. You can click one of the red boxes to make an attack. You'll deal one damage, by default. If you don't want to attack, you can click on the angel again to not attack. If your attack kills a demon, you'll be healed one hit point and a statue will be left behind in the space the demon occupied. Killing demons also increases your score.
If you aren't able to use all of your moves (if some of your angels are trapped) it's game over.
The Assassin
Your team starts with two Assassins. Dangerous angels of the night, they can be identified easily by their black and yellow garments and dual blades. The assassin has three health, and normally its attacks do one damage. However, if the assassin attacks a target that is also adjacent to another angel, the attack does two damage instead.
The Bruiser
Your team starts with two Bruisers. Thuggish angelic enforcers, they can be identified easily by their blue and brown garb, wooden club, and awkwardly small shield. The bruiser has four health, and normally its attacks do one damage. However, if the bruiser attacks after moving exactly one space, the attack does two damage instead.
The Demons
Once you have used all of your moves, it will be the demons' turn. Usually, two demons will act during the demon turn. Fewer demons will act if there are fewer than two demons on the board. It is also possible for three demons to act if there are six demons on the board (there will never be more than six demons, that's plenty, trust me).
Just like the angels, a demon that is acting will move up to three spaces (not zero, and not diagonally) and then attack an adjacent unit if possible, doing one damage. The demons only attack angels, never statues. If, after a demon attack, there are no more angels, it's game over.
After a demon moves, it leaves a statue behind on the island it used to occupy. The only exception to this rule is if that island has a sigil. Demons won't leave statues behind on sigils (though it is possible to get a statue on a sigil by killing a demon there).
Once all the demon moves are done, slain demons respawn. Any demons killed this round will re-appear on a random sigil-island (the islands in the corners with the pentagrams) that has no other units or statues on it. Throughout the course of the game, new demons will be added to the board during the demon respawn phase as well. If a demon attempts to spawn but no sigil is available, a new sigil will be placed on a random empty island for it.
If the demons are forced to act with a demon that can't move, that demon spends its turn dying, and will respawn as normal.
Statues
Statues are left behind when demons move or die. They have two health, and neither demons nor angels can stand on an island with a statue on it. The more statues there are on the board, the more points you'll earn when you kill a demon. However, let too many accumulate, and you'll surely be trapped.
Scoring
Whenever you kill a demon you get 50 points, plus 5 points for every statue on the board. Additionally, at the end of the demons' turns, you get 2 points for every demon turn that has passed so far.
Strategy Advice
(take with a grain of salt, I probably don't have all the best strategies figured out)
Remember to heal When you kill a demon, the angel who struck the killing blow heals a hit point. If you have injured angels, don't waste that heal by killing the demon with a full-health angel if you can.
Smash statues Even though having statues on the board is worth points, they will get in your way. A demon who's near statues is much harder to kill than one that's not, so having fewer statues on the board will help you kill them faster. Your Bruisers are really good for this, because the statues never move, so you can plan ahead for your bruiser to be one space away and then break the statue in one hit.
Hide behind statues The demons can't stand on the statues either, and they can only move 3 spaces. This means that you can often get away from a demon who attacked you on a previous turn by moving near some statues. If you're not going to be able to kill the demon, this is probably better than taking another hit.
Let your assassins take hits If someone has to take a hit, let it be your assassins. Even though they have less health than the bruisers, it is much easier for them to strike the killing blow against a demon than it is for the bruisers. This means they typically heal faster than the bruisers do.
Misc
This is my first Ludum Dare! Exciting stuff. I decided to use LD as an excuse to learn Unity, so this is my first Unity project, and I've really enjoyed getting to know it.
As required, everything in the game was made by me, except for the three fonts, which I downloaded from a free fonts site. Also, obviously, I did not make Unity.
I'm gonna include a Mac and Linux build because Unity says I can and I think that's sweet. However, I don't have a Mac or Linux computer to test on, so those builds are completely untested. If you're using one of those systems and are having trouble with the build, I beg your forgiveness and encourage you to check out the web version.
Tools I used: - Unity - Visual Studio - Aseprite - paint.net - Bosca Ceoil - Audacity
I think that's it...
My best score is 8391 points. I look forward to hearing your tales of beating it!
Source code: https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1yIoSQ8ATlcMvPGPLdHU0HmC31mCcL2ci
Ratings
| Overall | 276th | 3.5⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 282th | 3.381⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 292th | 3.31⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 278th | 3.721⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 533th | 2.849⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 346th | 2.907⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 36🗳️ | 44🗨️ |
-Mathstr0
@mathstr0fficial Thanks for playing, I'm thrilled you liked it so much! You have correctly identified me as a "new Jammer", this is my first game jam, though not my first game and certainly not my first piece of software. I won't argue about my needing some work in the art department lol. There should be a sound effect when you move, though it's pretty soft because I didn't want it to be annoying. If you're sure you didn't hear one, would you mind telling me which platform you played on so I can check if it's a bug?
@mathstr0fficial Yeah, its there, but you're right that it's _very_ soft.
Because the overall quality of the game is so high, the rest of my critique will be a bit nitpicky.
- The angel units are tough to differentiate at a glance (although the art was perfectly serviceable for a game jam product)
- There is no indicator under the currently selected angel unit
-To switch active angels, you have to click on the currently selected angel before selecting a new one
- It is difficult to discern where demons can jump. It would be nice if, for instance, hovering over a demon showed it's jump range
Once again fantastic, one of the best entries I've played so far!
The demons have a jump range of 3 spaces, just like the angels, but I acknowledge that this can be difficult to gauge while playing.
Thanks for your feedback!
I can see something like this being immensely addicting and satisfying with polish.
A good game immediately makes you consider your options and strategies, and in this game you learn so much and many different strategies jump out on the first playthough.
Immediately you notice that you may want to run away so enemies jump near and then you kill them in one blow.
As the level becomes more crowded you start to realize that statues are useful defense, but as it becomes really crowded the statues also change the way you have to approach the game. At some point you're overwhelmed by statues and unable to do much at all.
A game like this could easily be played for hours and still feel satisfying.
Very impressive game mechanically!
@tombus Thanks for playing, and I'm glad you liked it.
@ian-kettlewell Thanks for playing, I'm pleased you were able to look past my relatively-meh art skills and see the depth in the game.
Graphics and gameplay surely needs some tweaks and polishing, but in the overall is a solid entry and surely one of the most enjoyable I played at moment.
Nice work and good luck!
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/298453024?t=00h04m54s
Good luck, Don't forget to take a look at ours if you don't mind and see what it's like when we just focused on graphics in this game jam!
Game Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/spacelab-42a
I recorded myself playing this in part 5 of my LD42 series. I'll upload it soon. check it out : )
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG--XwkRpPBAHBinS7hsRQg?view_as=subscriber
0 - Main Mechanics:
Attack after movement of some members of the player's team, against waves of creatures that appear.
The implementation was challenging, I plan to play again and try to beat the record (mentioned).
1 - Secondary Mechanics:
Emergence of pillars that prevent movement (at first I would not know if it is a secondary mechanics, or if it is only the second part of the main mechanics).
Restoration of life based on defeat of enemies.
Increased damage according to battle condition.
They were mechanics that matched well and were well crafted to sustain a more interesting and challenging gameplay.
2 - Learning Curve:
The learning has not presented great difficulties, except for the mechanics of attack increased (coming from assassin) when the enemy is surrounded, that is understandable, but with necessary situation more complicated (I liked it enough).
3 - Flow:
With a bad start, the result is defeat. I think this is part of learning, playing multiple times until you become good at the game. I think the flow of the game is going well, with some secondary mechanics that will reverse the situation a little in the late game.
4 - Love Points:
The set of mechanics became very interesting and the gameplay was fun for that reason.
5 - Presentation of the Narrative:
The narrative was presented about the game, but it says little about the mechanics (changing the story and changing the art we would have another game, with the gameplay isolated, or with few changes). I think this characterizes the game more as a sport than as a story-based game (and, to my mind, that's great the way it is). The question of angels and demons can be put inside the gameplay, if the idea is to increase the proximity of the game to the mechanics, adding cultural elements in that sense (I would not know for sure how).
6 - Art Polishment:
By the time of Ludum Dare I think it was very good. There is always room for polishing, as it would be the case to switch the sound according to different levels (if the idea is to do several levels, continuing the project), etc. From the point of view of graphic art there are details that can be created to give different ambiance, and with that to enrich the experience. It seems that the game could be migrated to other formats without great difficulties, for example: three-dimensional trays, with varied themes, with spaces outside the rectangular grid etc.
7 - Monetization Attractiveness:
I believe that if the project continues, they can implement different levels and sell the game as casual on smartphones (either by selling the game itself or by monetizing through advertisements).
8 - Community Generation:
A well-polished casual game can generate community around the players (who knows a scoreboard falls well into the project). If you create a Facebook page to get the project going, invite me to follow. :)
9 - Cultural Dialogue:
The game mentions Christian religiosity (mainly, with Judaic ramification and such). Adding concepts of popular culture and other aspects (staves, red demons etc). This shows potential as a skin of the project, to attract players (whether by polemics, or by humor, or by interest in investigating how far they have deepened in the narrative aspect). In the sense that the game contributes to the culture, I believe that the development of more levels and the narrative itself, would be factors that could increase the potential of the game.