Benefice by JustinMullin
A little game about production and pirates.

Written in Kotlin using the wonderful LibGDX game development framework. Visuals lovingly hand-crafted in Aseprite. Music was composed in Propellerhead Reason 7, with BFXR for sound.
Fonts used:
Lychee Soda by jeti: https://fontenddev.com/fonts/lychee-soda/
Bradley Gratis by Justin Callaghan: https://www.dafont.com/bradley-gratis.font
Pixel Mix by Andrew Tyler: https://www.dafont.com/pixelmix.font
Ratings
| Overall | 23th | 4.095⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 42th | 3.929⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 32th | 3.952⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 148th | 3.786⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 61th | 4⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 17th | 4.068⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 179th | 3⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 68th | 3.786⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 19🗳️ | 28🗨️ |
I wish the walls and combat had been explained a little more, because a pirate blew up a stone wall with one shot and dropped a platform on top of a bunch of my buildings and then I was suddenly looking at the game over screen wondering what just happened.
I love building system though. This is the kind of game that I could sink hours into if it were just a bit more refined.
Overall, I think you should have shifted some effort from polishing to playtesting. Otherwise: good game.
All in all, I very good game, and it felt polished as well- Probably my top 1 pick, so far.
Thanks for sharing your game.
This is a really really solid game, one of the most interesting ones I've played so far. Nicely done!
I really enjoyed it!
It is quite difficult at the beginning, I agree that a short tutorial is needed. But it is already amazing in compo!
There were a couple of things that I struggled with early, but then they smoothed out after I lost a few times. One was that I got into a wood trap: this was likely a false trap, but I had spent enough wood that I had only 3, and the wood-creating building takes 4. So I also hadn't discovered what the "Sell" does.
Part of my confusion around "Sell" was that I thought the money icon was wheat, in an unprocessed form. It took a game where I was stuck on needing "wheat" to plant more fields, and none was forthcoming. I had fields, and even a field that was not next to a farm that would harvest it. I waited, but eventually I started experimenting, and then at some point it all clicked.
After that I was rolling. I didn't do super-duper well. I imagine an island of pretty epic proportions is possible, with proper advance planning and many layers. It's really cool how the highest possible island is conceivably doable, but the timing and the monkey-wrench of the pirates (whether you pay or not!) that would distort your perfect plan, all come together to force you to improvise. All that, plus the way that stuff falling down wrecks you because your mines have to be on the ground layer.
It's really cool how all of these elements come together, and how these problems are rooted firmly in the theme. The time pressure of the pirates coming is also a key aspect creating some tension while I play.
Beyond the design, I found the aesthetics very nice. The music is soothing and just the right amount of peppy to set the building mood, and the graphics are very nice as well.
Overall, a really nice entry. Even as I'm typing I'm kind of picturing that idealized island and wondering if I could build it with just one more go... hrmmm.......
(Three more games later)
Oh, weird, I built to the top of the screen and the game simply shut down. I can rep that from the start by just building straight up -- actually it doesn't happen if I build to the side of the menu, but if I build such that a block ends up behind a button, I run into trouble quickly, but I'm not certain if it's on build, mouseover, or button interaction.
But I did get one doozy of an island going. Right out of the gate with with a 5-slot area dedicated to wood with one layer of food, and then the right-hand side of the island was all mines with a handful of stone markets for money production. I was able to pay off all the pirates until I ran out of room.
Really a fun entry, well done.
WHY WOULD THEY ALWAYS ASK ME FOR TWICE WHAT I STILL HAVE T_T
Great game though. Now I will just lie down somewhere and cry.
Trying to manage resources wisely was really fun, I just wish there was more of a tutorial on how things worked. The pirates blasted right through my walls.