LudumData

How To War by machrom

[raw]
made by machrom for LD 40 (COMPO)

My first ludum dare game!! \o/

Okay, now that i'm over that I can continue to describe the game, hope I don't mess something up in this markdown.

Cover.png First Preview.png Second Preview.png

How To War

Description

So basically, since the theme was "The more you have, the worse it is", I went with an approach that you have to build factories, and they produce pollution. The more pollution you have...the closer to defeat you are. Also the more factories you have the louder the noise from the transports is...

Sound

Now for this, I had to make a separate area. My first time making something sound...ish. Well, in my opinion it's catastrophic, there's an option to remove music and sound effects in game, I expect most of you to press those buttons :rofl:

Gameplay

Mouse...Everything works with the mouse :mousethreebutton: Left click to well..you know. If you're in building placement, right click to cancel. Destroy a building by clicking the x and then clicking on the building you wish to destroy

Tools

  • Unity
  • Gimp
  • Audacity
  • Bosca Ceoil

Conclusion

For my first ludum dare, I'm more than satisfied. I mean, I actually made something.

I don't think the balance is quite right so...

Good luck, I hope you actually beat the game! :video_game:

Source

The whole source, or rather I just packed the whole project and got a shared link with google drive. It's on the bottom of this page.

Edit 1:

Added a link to itch.io, where there's a ludum dare version, and the updated one. Also a place where I'll continue to post updates to the game, until I feel satisfied with it.

Source code https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XfETp-WrrvVXMCd-CrP_qsEjQf9CXme2
Windows https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fYexurXgGGz3C3KZmyMzJ6Og_XaW-ELn
Windows https://machrom.itch.io/how-to-war
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/how-to-war

Ratings

Overall 456th 3.154⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 441th 3.077⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 395th 3.019⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 187th 3.75⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 540th 2.731⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 432th 2.596⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Humor 390th 2.478⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 420th 2.92⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 27🗳️ 28🗨️

Feedback

oxrock
04. Dec 2017 · 19:24 UTC
I like that vision becomes seriously obscured the higher the pollution levels go. I found myself seriously wishing there were handy keybinds for the factory and greenery buildings, simply because I couldn't click fast enough with the mouse alone it seemed. Nice entry overall, good job.
Kapura
04. Dec 2017 · 20:48 UTC
The UI becomes very difficult to make out at higher pollution levels. It also seems like the balance between factories/greeneries was difficult to grok.
vizitas
04. Dec 2017 · 22:06 UTC
Great graphics, story and gameplay! The only small problem I found is that it was hard to make a lot of buildings fast, either shortcut to building on keyboard or ability to create multiple buildings with "ctrl" would be nice.
Wevel
04. Dec 2017 · 23:08 UTC
Very good first entry, I like how the colours change as your pollution increases. The only issue is that you it shouldn't make you click on a building button every time you try to make a new building as late game is just placing loads of trees which is difficult to do. The messages are good and the music isn't too fits the idea of the game. Well done
🎤 machrom
04. Dec 2017 · 23:13 UTC
Yeah, I realized a bit too late (after the compo ended) that i should have hotkeys. They aren't that hard to put in, but I don't know if I'm allowed to update the game anymore xD

Thanks for the comments everyone! :)
Wevel
04. Dec 2017 · 23:28 UTC
Normally you should only fix bugs after the deadline. However, given how annoying it is, I thing its fine to add them.
Lawrence
05. Dec 2017 · 00:05 UTC
I think I felt pollution in my eyes. :smile:

Great entry & good job.
Chong Lee
05. Dec 2017 · 00:43 UTC
Extremely fun! Great job!
MarshCannon
05. Dec 2017 · 01:45 UTC
Fun game, but no matter how many factories I built the green bar in the bottom right wouldn't go up. Did I do something wrong?
pvtroswold
05. Dec 2017 · 02:29 UTC
I agree about controls, but good job here! I like the take on the theme.
🎤 machrom
05. Dec 2017 · 08:59 UTC
@marshcannon It should go up if you have weapons available in storage, as in "demand" is satisfied :)
sirikan
05. Dec 2017 · 13:08 UTC
Nice idea. The music did get a little repetitive though.
Raogs
05. Dec 2017 · 15:51 UTC
Seemed a bit hard at first but was managable after a while, good job.
meles
05. Dec 2017 · 18:52 UTC
Really nice concept, think that the balancing might have been off (didn't seem to matter how many factories I made, I seemed to have negative weapons available and no war progression) Key binds for the factory/greenary would have been great, A fun interpretation of the theme, good job!
🎤 machrom
05. Dec 2017 · 19:55 UTC
@meles yeah the balance is a bit off, there wasn't time to find that sweet spot...but you should be able to catch up to the demand.👀

After the general appears for the first time 15-20 factories are needed to keep up with the demand. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the comments eveyone! :)
Egor
05. Dec 2017 · 22:05 UTC
Spend like 20 minutes on this! It's a time sink ) Balance a bit strange, but for compo - it's still great job!
smilewood
06. Dec 2017 · 00:47 UTC
Fun management game. I felt that the fire was a little too powerful, in order to get enough factories to satisfy demand they had to be close together, then fire spread through the whole place faster than I could deconstruct a fire block in front of it. Wiped out most of my factories and trees in one swoop, then bankrupted me when the rest of the trees ate up the money. It really drove home the theme though, I had more and it was worse. Much worse.

I really liked the factory graphic, especially the helicopter that came through to grab the supplies. The music was fine, and a good effort for a first time. Overall quite fin to play.
ThePelranthean
06. Dec 2017 · 03:37 UTC
I think I must be bad at this game... I spent the entire game with a negative weapon count. Not sure if that was a bug.

I like how the game works though. Good job integrating events above the basic management layer.
Mathiouza
06. Dec 2017 · 20:46 UTC
Hum ... Too much fires ... That is too difficult to win the game badly. I think for a first jam that is really great (and compared to other first-time LD, you made a music ! Not everyone do that !). But for the next one, try to make something not too difficult for bad reasons like randomness. You can make, for exemple, something needing skills (with a crescent difficulty, of course - at least a tutorial), or a puzzle game (that is always attracting to try to beat a game like that I think ^^'). But if you want to make a tycoon game (like that in some points), think that it should be easy to learn AND not too bad random if there is no good random.

Hope I was clear ^^' But you can be proud of you ! I am always a little too negative, but that is a really good beggining ;) Keep coding !
🎤 machrom
06. Dec 2017 · 20:59 UTC
@mathiouza well yeah... I think it's too difficult as well. I tried to keep the fire down a lot...the chance to spread is really low, but it always spreads everywhere for some reason. (Maybe there's actually a bug there somewhere, I'll look into it when I have the time).

However, thank you very much for the constructive advice, I'll try to do better next time! :)
ConorOD
06. Dec 2017 · 22:18 UTC
Really cool concept, and good job! Felt like fires happened way too often though. Also couldn't even get my weapon amount into a positive number, never mind meet demand.
Newton
06. Dec 2017 · 22:30 UTC
really good, although a bit hard. I loved the pollution effect on the view :)
Antti Tiihonen
07. Dec 2017 · 17:05 UTC
Difficult. Concept definitely shows promise but as it is it's a little difficult to get into.
Wheffle
07. Dec 2017 · 19:22 UTC
It was brave of you to go for a strategy game for your first time! It worked out, it's a nice and simple management game that fits the theme. Well done!

The only big suggestion I'd make is to not pause the game every time an event happens, or make it an option. That kind of messed up my groove sometimes.

Bosca Ceoil tip: If you pick a key *and* pick a chord in an arrangement, Bosca Ceoil will only let you place notes that fit within that chord. This means you can kind of splatter notes and they're guaranteed to sound half-decent, without any knowledge of music. Then you can play around to find out what you like.
🎤 machrom
07. Dec 2017 · 20:21 UTC
@wheffle yeah I love strategies, so I just had to go with that type xD

Really, I thought it would be welcome so you can actually read what the event caused? 👀

Thanks for the tip really! I'll probably practice making music before the next one so I can actually make something half-decent. :)

Thanks for the comments everyone! :D
Wheffle
07. Dec 2017 · 20:29 UTC
@machrom Hmmm :thinking: your're probably right, if the events rapid-fired without a pause to help you react to it, it could be hectic. Maybe they just happened a little too often then?
jlauper
15. Dec 2017 · 01:59 UTC
Showing the rising pollution levels graphically is a nice idea, though it makes it quite hard to play.
And took me a while to realize that the available weapons I had wasn't actually rising it was negative, I think it's bit weird having a negative amount of weapons available...