LudumData

High Castle by Wheffle

[raw]
made by Wheffle for LD 42 (COMPO)

showoff.png

Summary

To escape a dying world (or maybe just for fun), a wizard has lifted up his castle on a chunk of earth to soar it through the void and to a new world. Island's aren't exactly built for flying, though, so the journey might get a little rough. Plus the void is filled with all sorts of unsavory folk.

Gameplay

  • Charge up and fire spells at baddies that want to break your stuff
  • Grab junk floating around in the void and use it to build walls
  • Capture land by completely enclosing it in walls to increase your spell power
  • Place magical guard towers to help fend off enemies
  • Your guard towers will lose power if they aren't inside an enclosure, so keep your walls repaired
  • Capture crystal structures by enclosing them with walls to harness their power

Controls

An attempt was made to explain controls in-game, however it may have been inadequate. Feel free to refer back to this handy overview if you get confused and haven't been totally turned off from the game.

Basic Controls
  • Scroll around map : WSAD or Arrow Keys
  • Charge + Fire Attack : Hold and release left mouse button
Debris Placement
  • Pick up debris : Right-click on floating debris
  • Rotate debris : Mouse Wheel or Q & E
  • Place debris : Left-click while holding debris over empty tiles
  • Cancel placement : Right-click while holding debris
Guard Tower Placement

A flashing icon on your wizard's tower indicates a guard tower is available for placement.

  • Pick up guard tower : Right-click on flashing icon
  • Place guard tower : Left-click while holding tower over empty tiles

Tools

  • Game Maker Studio 1.4 (Engine)
  • Bfxr (Sound Effects)
  • Bosca Ceoil (Music)
  • Audacity (Audio Editing)

Images

EnclosingCrystalFast.gif

PlacingTowers.gif

RePoweringTower.gif

Post-Jam Version

With some new ideas and taking into account some of the feedback I've gotten, I cooked up a post-jam version of High Castle! I boasts various new features:

  • Choose between Easy Mode and Hard Mode (hard mode being more or less original difficulty)
  • A fancy new in-game tutorial system
  • I opted for pre-built unpowered turrets on the island you can capture rather than building your own
  • Fixed enclosure detection bug (hopefully)
  • Various QoL improvements
  • Small graphical changes

Get High Castle post-jam version here!

Source code https://bitbucket.org/Wheffle/ludumdare42/src/master/
Windows https://www.dropbox.com/s/qpyt3d90xvv4mpf/HighCastle-1.0.0.zip?dl=1
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/high-castle

Ratings

Overall 26th 4.069⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Fun 14th 4.139⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 38th 4.028⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Theme 190th 3.897⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 203th 3.643⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Audio 9th 4.059⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Humor 114th 3.219⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Mood 37th 3.839⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Given 35🗳️ 43🗨️

Feedback

Madar Games
13. Aug 2018 · 21:42 UTC
I really liked this game. It was very engaging. I think you should have made the island crumble more as it didn't really affect me besides making one of my crystals impossible to use as a tower. Really like the audio aspect of them game. Story was surprisingly also pretty good for what it is. Why do the green snake things listen to the pirates?
quicklyer
13. Aug 2018 · 22:52 UTC
Wow, really impressed by this. Striking intro, cool atmosphere, great music, and surprisingly deep mechanics without being overly complex. Definitely on my short list of compo games to go back and play more of.
max6333
13. Aug 2018 · 23:03 UTC
Really fun game, I loved squishing the little guys by placing blocks on them. Cute graphics, nice audio, good mood overall. The theme was followed, but I feel like it more in the background of the game, I didn't really pay much attention to the crumbling blocks, nor could I interact with the crumbling mechanic.
Helen
13. Aug 2018 · 23:16 UTC
It was a lot of fun to play. The sound and graphics are awesome. The movement of the system accomplished a good overview over the island. Also liked the shooting system.
Sentrovasi
13. Aug 2018 · 23:18 UTC
I found myself playing this far longer than I intended to. It's really well done. Also - really well done audio and all around experience.
incobalt
13. Aug 2018 · 23:20 UTC
I don't think this game is well-suited for laptops. I eventually learned how to rotate with the keyboard. The game gets very frenetic very quickly. I couldn't figure out if I could remove stuff to place down, and the cursor seemed off half a block so placing was really awkward. All of that said, this looks pretty good for 48 hours and I bet people who really like tower defenses would enjoy this game. It definitely has the siege feel to it. Also, was this a nod to Floating Islands? The theme didn't strike me very much here, though perhaps it's just too slow a build for me to have noticed.
BelowParallel_Ian
13. Aug 2018 · 23:22 UTC
A lot of fun once you understand how it works. The difficulty ramps up a bit fast imo. Great work on the music and graphics as well. I enjoyed it.
Pabricka
13. Aug 2018 · 23:39 UTC
Awesome game! One of my favourites in this LD so far. Original gameplay mechanics, good soundtrack, intresting consept. Graphics were a bit lacking (espicially the flyin snake!), but I liked the retro style.
Truc_e
14. Aug 2018 · 00:56 UTC
Very well done! The most polished Ludum Dare game I have played so far. No only problem I had was it was boringly easy for the first couple minutes and after the big pirate ship spawned I was overwhelmed I guess because I hadn't played properly up until the point but I couldn't tell because it was too easy until then
BustosMan
14. Aug 2018 · 01:09 UTC
I'd say one of the main issues of this game is pacing, because at first the amount of enemies that are spawned is too little and too easy to overcome. When wave 2 starts, all of a sudden there are so many enemies it becomes hard to multi-task and they become more of a priority than defending the towers. I recommend that you play Civilization 5 and understand the progression of the AI players as the game goes on. The game mechanics are pretty solid, and I like the idea of spawning enemies from the flying ships. Also, I think it would have been better if some of the debris floated over the island not under it, to make it easier to fortify the bases.
🎤 Wheffle
14. Aug 2018 · 01:13 UTC
Thanks for the feedback so far everyone! It's super appreciated!

@madar-games Ah, missed opportunity to put a collar and a little pirate riding the snake dragons. That would have been sweet.

@max6333 As development went on I kept ramping up the amount of crumbling blocks so that it would impact the game more. I agree that it doesn't impact the game as much as it should.

@incobalt Right, I can see how it would be a nightmare trying to play this on a touchpad, definitely didn't think about that. And yes, I realized after the fact that nowhere in the game did I mention you could rotate pieces with Q and E. Whoops. If you play into it a few waves the island starts crumbling, which was my main attempt at the theme.

@belowparallel-ian In retrospect the game may have been a bit too busy mechanics-wise, so it unfortunately does take a bit to figure out. Glad you enjoyed it though!

@truc-e I've always been lousy at nailing difficulty curves in compo, it's one of my consistent weaknesses. Something I need to work on!

@bustosman One of my weaknesses is getting difficulty curves down right in compo. I always seem to have issues with it. Definitely something I need to improve. Some of the debris *does* fly over the islands, it's a 50/50 whether it's over or under. Maybe all of the debris should have been flying over it though.
max6333
14. Aug 2018 · 01:21 UTC
@wheffle My opinion is that you should develop the mechanic, make a way to restore them, and make the whole crumbly thing more interactive
Jima
14. Aug 2018 · 04:50 UTC
This is pretty cool game! Overall it looks completed, you even have a story at the beginning and some events like "a lot of enemies are coming" and "the island is destroying". I really enjoyed playing it. The only thing I would like to add is some kind of more interactive tutorial, because it was a bit confusing at the beginning. But it is to much to ask in a 48 hours game! Really solid entry!
Ulcius
14. Aug 2018 · 09:31 UTC
That game gave me so much more than I expected! It is quite complex, a lot of strategy thinking needed, but still with the right amount of dynamic. So far that's my favourite one. Still keep playing it.
And a story! You did a good job, wasn't expecting a nice stroyline (i mean game has a lot of options, it's not a simple one and yet you managed to find time to make good music and a nice storyline. Really good job.
Fenderbate
14. Aug 2018 · 14:37 UTC
Really nice game but it's way too hard for me to fight enemies and collect blocks at the same time :/
tigerj
14. Aug 2018 · 18:45 UTC
Here is a link to the segment of your game on my stream!
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/297300090?t=00h07m41s
🎤 Wheffle
14. Aug 2018 · 19:31 UTC
@tigerj Hey thanks for picking it up on stream! Much appreciated, great feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
TheCrittersCove
14. Aug 2018 · 22:35 UTC
I really love the mechanics of this game! The difficulty does ramp up pretty quick at the end, but I do like the challenge. Was there a way to rotate the pieces? If so I must have completely overlooked it.
🎤 Wheffle
15. Aug 2018 · 00:37 UTC
@thecritterscove Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for playing! You can in fact rotate pieces, with the mouse wheel. Unfortunately it's only mentioned in-game through a message and was omitted from the (already info-dump) 'tutorial' screen before the game. An unfortunate result of leaving the UI and user experience stuff for last...
jasperarmstrong
15. Aug 2018 · 03:43 UTC
Awesome game! Very engaging, and I loved the music. It fit the theme well. While playing, I kept thinking that it would be nice to be able to rotate the pieces, but I see you can after reading some of these comments. Definitely make that more obvious in-game. I think you have a very good core here, just add more feedback to the players' actions and better sound effects.
Zeriver
16. Aug 2018 · 10:59 UTC
That is a really well designed and made game! After reading the description i expected it to be complicated and hard to get into, but the gameplay turned out to be pretty intuitive. The whole multitasking mixed with tetris-twoer-building and hectic shooter really is a great idea and the whole game was really fun to play. The difficulty curve is also just right, i barely made it through the last wave with the flagship but it was rewarding when i beat it. I think this is the most fun game in the gameplay department i have played so far in this LD edition. The pixel art is pretty but i think the intro is a bit more stylish, still the graphics in the level is also alright and easy to read. One more thing is that 'closed wall' detection was finicky at times, there were few situation when i though i closed the territory, yet the game didn't detect that. Anyway the game is really, the concept and execution is just outstanding. In overall it is a great game, really well done!
🎤 Wheffle
16. Aug 2018 · 19:52 UTC
@zeriver Thanks for the feedback, glad you enjoyed it! I did notice some enclosure detection bugs, unfortunately they slipped through during development. I've also noticed that many people don't realize that corners count, which leads to a lot of confusion. Definitely a lot of polish that needs to be done, and quite a few lessons learned!
andreymust19
18. Aug 2018 · 07:33 UTC
Unusual mix of tower defence, tetris and perimeter.
Thx for new XP.
Island too small by my opinion and enemy progression too fast.
Sir. Syko
18. Aug 2018 · 14:27 UTC
Great game! I only tried the LD version but it was a very solid entry. Lots of fun and with awesome mechanics ;) congratulations :smile:
Hueson
18. Aug 2018 · 19:49 UTC
The audio and graphics were very cohesive which led to a nice feel.
Darylsteak
19. Aug 2018 · 01:46 UTC
A jolly little game, I liked the tetris style building mechanic and how the theme was implemented. The music was also quite nice.

A nice little strategy game overall.
ManBeardGames
22. Aug 2018 · 03:32 UTC
This was a fun challenge. I definitely feel the Rampart inspiration here. Visuals and audio are great. The controls seemed like they would be overwhelming at first reading the description page, but when actually playing they were intuitive and did exactly what I would expect for the different scenarios like shoot, grabbing, and placing items.

The only snag that I found was that it seemed hard to notices sometimes why a closed in section wasn't closed in. I'd place a piece, but it would be a small corner sliver that would be missed. Another thing, I never felt like anything was really running out of space. Maybe if I had made it further in the game, as I saw the island was falling apart. With the enemies in the waves coming in, it felt more like an overwhelming situation than a running out of space one.

Overall solid entry and would pay for this as a fully fleshed out game.

Here is the video of the play through from the stream:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/300348441
PeachTreeOath
22. Aug 2018 · 05:26 UTC
Agreed, this is like the proper sequel to Rampart lol. I liked how you expanded on the idea quite a bit, the enclosure system is cool and I liked how there was a sense to progression built in w the new towers and all. Very impressive for a compo game, there's a lot of systems here, from the pirates running around to the Tetris building system itself, no clue how you pulled all of that off in the timeframe. One of the more unique games I've played all jam, you surprise me almost every LD.
Eric Kulbiej
25. Aug 2018 · 17:33 UTC
Great art style and sound. Good job. I like the mechanics as well. Keep it up!

Please do check my game maybe you’ll like it and leave some feedback.