.SWARM by Hegemege

PLAY NOW (browser)
You are an explorer, and you find yourself on a strange planet that has confused your bots' sensors. You have detected large quantities of precious crystal on the planet.
Place down markers to guide your bots to their goal around laser defences and inhospitable terrain.
If the game is lagging in one browser, try another! (Chrome, Firefox)
Controls
Mouse + WASD/Arrows.
Screenshots

Other
Made using Unity 2017.2, GraphicsGale Free, music generated on abundant-music.com, sound effects made with bfxr + my voice and Audacity. Took roughly 11h + 14.5h over the weekend.
Font is from FontSpace, "Xolonium" by Severin Meyer, licensed under SIL Open Font License.
The name is read [dot swarm].
| HTML5 (web) | https://hegemege.itch.io/swarm |
| Github | https://github.com/Hegemege/ludum-dare-40 |
| Windows | https://gamejolt.com/games/swarm/301343 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/swarm |
Ratings
| Overall | 140th | 3.729⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 239th | 3.479⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 4th | 4.417⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 479th | 3.104⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 233th | 3.563⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 110th | 3.604⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 450th | 2.263⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 337th | 3.065⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 23🗳️ | 24🗨️ |
Having a way to remove individual arrows would've made things a log easier, but still the game felt not frustrating and very enjoyable. Great job!
I also really appreciate that you didnt' put any fail conditions in. I think it would have been tempting to fail but for the purposes of a game jam it was very satisfying to be able to place influencers and play around and feel like I could be succcessful. Great call.
otherwhise extremly fun and solid game
feel free to see me there:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/team-or-greed
I kept kind of feeling like wait wait no don't start yet, but it's probably better that the game is the way it is there! I wouldn't have minded seeing a % of probes that died, as it was hard to gauge the success level from the time. I was basically listening for fried probe sounds the second play through, which really helped this aspect.
I liked the core mechanic here, and I also liked the presentation and graphics style. Nice work! Diagonal switchback paths were my main strategy after a while.
My only real issue is there's no "lose" state, so you don't really have to draw or think about the most optimal path, leaving most of my time waiting until the level was over. It also doesn't really fit the theme.
Overall, a solid entry with promise!