More Room! by Skosnowich

To execute the jar file, you need Java 8 installed on your machine. The game was tested on Windows and Linux.
Description
It is well known that humanity is multiplying like bunnies, thus we need more and more room. What to do, when we run out of space?
Gameplay
In this game you have to conquer all worlds in each level. You can send out units, produced automatically in your worlds, to other connected worlds to reinforce or conquer them. The enemies all have different behaviours, so beware of their counter tactics. Have fun playing. :grin:
Technical Details
The game was made in Java using libGDX (http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/). We made all the graphics ourself with the tool PyxelEdit (http://pyxeledit.com/). The background music was made using LMMS (https://lmms.io/). All the sound effects were created with assets of the 'The #GameAudioGDC Bundle' (Part 3) (http://www.sonniss.com/gameaudiogdc2017/).
Made by
Skosnowich
Matjes
Links (Download)
Complete Playthrough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5ixousHKzU
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/more-room |
Ratings
| Overall | 36th | 4.13⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 36th | 4⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 562th | 2.783⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 405th | 3.391⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 327th | 3.682⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 201th | 3.435⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 289th | 2.864⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 268th | 3.455⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 42🗳️ | 38🗨️ |
It was difficult to play at first- but after taking some time to re-try the tutorial, I think I got the gist of it and was able to play for a good 5-10 minutes or so! :D
Well- I think it seemed like an incredibly complex game for me- so it was hard to understand. I don't normally play a lot of strategy games- so this took some time for me to sink in and all.
It was a good experience in the end, but I do feel like simplifying the art and UI more would have helped keeping things easier to communicate! :D
And this artwork reminded me of that time when I playing Mushroom Wars.
The art design and style are special, and unique. The whole gameplay has a high completeness.
A good JAVA(or maybe Scala?) game anyway. GJ.
If you have time, I would appreciate you taking a look at our game:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/run-cola-run
What I would love if it would be full game:
Some way to automatically send troops, it get's annoying to click all the time from the far vilages to get troops to the front ones!
Some better way / explanation how upgrades work, I didn't really need them and I know it probably did something, but I didn't feel it in the game after purchase
There is many more features you could implement like different types of soldiers / cities / islands. More types of resources, .... really lot of
Keep up the good work, if you finish it I will buy it! (I would prefer is on iPad but I see you are using Java :D)
I second the automatic troop sending feature. It is a must and a mainstay in similar titles. Another nice mechanic is setting the troop sending percent to anything from 0% to 100%, the scroll wheel is fine for this purpose.
I can recommend two swarm strategy titles on Android: Starlink and Auralux. They are both extremely well designed and fun. (It seems Starlink is playable in the [browser](http://starlink.tasharen.com/) too, with the old Unity Web Player plugin)
Good work!
I really enjoyed experimenting with the different upgrades, and seeing the effect on the battles. It gave a tangible feeling of progress which, combined with the gradual assimilation of the map nodes, worked really well.
The art and UI was effective in conveying the "grid" as well as the current status, and also conveyed a good mood, especially in combination with the background music. I wonder whether the ability to auto-send soldiers from the consolidated areas would be a good extra feature, or if it would take away part of the "multi-task"-management challenge - while it was sometimes a bit frustrating having to do so manually, especially when the action became frantic, it also imposed an extra tactical element (rather than being purely a "quality of life" features).
The tutorial was very effective (and funnily written), and I loved how the scale of the game kept increasing every few levels - a sad, but perhaps realistic view on the evolution of war.
It's a pity that the source code is not available. I try to learn as much as possible from other LibGDX developers each Ludum Dare, but this time, without a proper search function on the new site, finding other LibGDX games is a matter of pure luck.
>Always expanding.
>The world is our birthright!
>We... demand... more... room!
@Fingerpass It is written in Java.
@wolar, @Somnium & @HuvaaKoodia Yes, the automatic troop sending feature first was on our to-do list. But we removed it, because we had the same thoughts somnium has about this feature. It would take away the multi-tasking and that is somewhat the idea of the game. On the other hand I agree, that it becomes pretty tedious in some levels to manage all those nodes you have.
@Somnium If you are interested, we will maybe release the code. But we have to see when we are able to do so. I'll inform you. :)
@MHGameWork Ok, does it show any errors on startup? If there aren't any errors, could you please navigate with the commandline (cmd.exe) to the folder with the "More Room-1.0.0.jar" in it and execute the following command: **java -jar "More Room-1.0.0.jar"**. Now it should either start or give you more informations on the error. It would be very kind of you to send us these informations. Maybe we can then fix the problem. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpLa_G-bsto
Super fun and classic game! Enjoy it!~
PROS
- Fun strategy game that works well
- Rules are simple but have lots of strategy and timing to them
CONS
- Would be nice to have some means of sending troops automatically
For full criticism and breakdown of ranking, as well as candid reactions to gameplay, do check out the video~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjQOngi3b-E
The different enemy AIs did a good job of keeping things interesting - however, in many cases, it seemed like keeping every area selected and focusing relentless attacks what the winning strategy against every one.
Graphics and audio are a nice package, too. I'm always impressed by decent strategy games during Ludum Dare, and this one did not disappoint. Great job!
It would be more convenient to have more keys in the controls: add to units selection on Ctl and hotkeys for upgrades. Otherwise it was great!
The art is simple, and I think you could've benefited from a good colour scheme and better execution of perspective, but I clean clearly see what's what, so the functionality of the art is there. The same goes for the UI, it's very simple and could've used some more love, but it's not actually _lacking_ to where it's a problem. The music and sound effects are solid as well.
I think the _room for improvement_ I am thinking off in this game looks at the game as a full feature rather than a jam game, because you delivered what feels like a full game rather than a jam game. So, all in all, a very good entry!
Its a great entry, thanks for sharing.
Additionally, it was cool to see the same mechanics applied in a bunch of different time periods and scales.
There's not really much to say here other than good job! Keep it up!
-Skruffye
P.S. After reading your response regarding the auto-send mechanic, the rationale makes sense, though I do think being able to zoom out and see all the action at once might reduce some of the tedium while still keeping the frantic multi-tasking feel.
Again, I love how smooth and polished this game is!
If you're looking to expand the game, one thing you might want to look at is introducing a few new elements over time, the way that @dgspitzer did with Song of Fungus (admittedly a puzzle game rather than a strategy game, but similar in some ways nonetheless). Basically, keep the players interest with some Differences in Kind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlBR1z-ue-I
I don't think it would take a lot of new elements (indeed, too many new elements introduced might damage the game, or at least make it a different kind of game), but I think if you introduce a new twist when every once-in-a-while (no more than one per major scale shift, I suspect, and probably fewer), it'd help maintain interest and keep the strategizing fresh.
In any case, very good job, lots of fun to play, and pretty funny, too!