Escape from The Alliance by Jimbly

made by Jimbly for LD 42 (COMPO)

Escape from The Alliance carrying as many refugees as you can by dropping equipment along the way.

Links * HTML5(WebGL): dashingstrike.com/LudumDare/LD42 * Source Code: Jimbly/LD42-alliance-escape * Post-mortem: jimb.ly/2018/08/25/

I ended up making something that starts out pretty complicated, but gets, in some ways, simpler as you go along, although maintains its difficulty. The game has 11 "Chapters" (short battles) to play through, although a couple of them are notably longer than others, especially if you're down a couple weapons.

Hopefully the tutorial and in-game stuff explains most of how things work well enough. I've got some tips (after the screenshots below) if you're having trouble. I might have been watching some Firefly recently and felt a bit inspired by that for the game's story =).

Screenshots:

TIPS: * It's possible to ditch equipment on every port and still win * If things are too confusing, you can pretty much just ignore Repair, Power, Engines, and (until the alarm goes off) Life Support * Whenever any component is blinking because of Heat, just click it immediately! * Try to keep 1 Shield, 2 Weapons, and 1 Life Support as long as you can * When fighting a group of 2 Heavy Fighters, make sure to start charging your two weapons immediately, and you can take them out before they get off a second shot * Make sure to always have some shield up and you'll take no damage * Whenever the middle bar (Shield charge, O2 Generation, Evade, etc) gets full, immediately turn off the component, it's just generating heat at that point * To survive more easily later, you'll definitely need to take the Etherians on board, so don't drop a Shield Generator until that event (around Chapter 4, I think)

Post-compo changes (just load-time optimizations/engine fixes): * Fixed a bug causing the loading screen to go entirely black * Applied minification and converted audio files to MP3 to greatly reduce load times * Fix canvas scaling/click detection on mobile (was blurry and clicks were slightly off on high-DPI devices)

Tools Used * Custom Engine: GLOV.js * Mtn Dew * Some tiles in Piskel * Image postprocessing and other tiles in Photoshop * Sound Effects in Bfxr * Music in Bosca Ceoil * The PICO-8 color palette

Also, if you're read this far, check out my other game Splody on Steam and PS4!

HTML5 (web)	http://www.dashingstrike.com/LudumDare/LD42/
Source code	https://github.com/Jimbly/LD42-alliance-escape
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/escape-from-the-alliance

Ratings

Overall	10^th	4.161⭐	33🧑‍⚖️
Fun	36^th	4⭐	33🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	108^th	3.717⭐	32🧑‍⚖️
Theme	149^th	3.968⭐	33🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	76^th	4.016⭐	33🧑‍⚖️
Audio	75^th	3.683⭐	32🧑‍⚖️
Humor	120^th	3.196⭐	30🧑‍⚖️
Mood	61^th	3.672⭐	31🧑‍⚖️
Given		24🗳️	35🗨️

Feedback

artbohr

13. Aug 2018 · 02:00 UTC

This is made in 48hrs? Wow, incredible.

toboggan

13. Aug 2018 · 02:00 UTC

Really cool and ambitious! I personally find it extremely stressful and would enjoy it more if it was turn-based somehow and i had time to think and strategize carefully. Not a criticism though, nice work!

13. Aug 2018 · 02:16 UTC

impressive

🎤 Jimbly

13. Aug 2018 · 04:28 UTC

@artbohr Yeah, and I definitely spent a larger portion of my weekend on Ludum Dare than usual (usually I go out to dinner with my friends right when the compo starts, but since it started earlier this year I was already deep in code...), and still only just barely got everything done - space and planet backgrounds, animated passengers, sounds and music, all thrown in during the final 2-3 hours or so, almost thought they were going to get cut. Never even got around to polishing the mechanics or balancing things (my first full game I ran after the end of the compo I managed to make it through without losing a single passenger... though I had a lot of practice, I woulda liked at least some chance of failure ;).

@toboggan I strongly considered putting in a "pause" feature, it was the top thing on my list of things I didn't get around to, although I wasn't completely sure the game would actually be much fun or challenging if you could pause... might still be satisfying though!

caeonosphere

14. Aug 2018 · 08:05 UTC

I win! Saved 140 refugees... so why can't I help but dwell on all the ones I left stranded?!

It was certainly fun enough to play through the whole thing, but a couple thoughts I had:
- I beat every encounter with the same strategy: swap between shields, use the other two power for both weapons unless I need O2, in which case I powered a weapon and life support. Swap weapons when necessary. The encounters didn't seem to get much harder.
- I like the idea of ditching equipment for refugees, and it fits the theme, but it ultimately means that I'm making fewer interesting decisions as the game goes on. When I strip my ship down to the bare essentials, I'm just doing my one strategy over and over again.
- More enemy types would have been cool. I bet you could think of a bunch of interesting effects for them.

Nice work!

NOTBADGUN

14. Aug 2018 · 08:12 UTC

Good luck! Nice game!

karlipoppins

14. Aug 2018 · 08:13 UTC

Wow a full fledge FTL clone in 48h, I'm baffled! So many nice finishing touches this feels like a complete game that could be sold on Steam. Seriously this is so cool. I tried a couple of different strategies and made it almost to the last chapter. I kept losing my weapons at the end and not being able to do much without them.

I love the theme song, the whole atmosphere, the graphics and gameplay. One of my favorite entries so far.

r3c0d3r

14. Aug 2018 · 14:01 UTC

Yay! I got 200 passengers and (only?) 5 deaths!

Such a great game. I can't believe it is made within 48 hours! The strategy is bit simple, but hey, it's made of only 2 days. Loved everything: music, SE, gameplay mechanics, and others. But, Difficulty at the end of the chapter is a bit easy to handle, but this is great. I'll be going to tell my friends about this game... This game deserves more good ratings.

mgsx

14. Aug 2018 · 18:08 UTC

a great game : graphics and music are lovely, i love the contrast between the lovely music during space ship customization and distressing music during the battle.

Gameplay is very fun, switching from shield/weapons quickly optimizing the heat, i loved it.

It fits very well with the theme.

Excellent work, congrats!

I'm Third at this time with 208 refugees !

🎤 Jimbly

14. Aug 2018 · 21:02 UTC

@caeonosphere Yeah, the reductive nature of it means that the strategies get less interesting as things go along, and get simpler (though you need to be more precise, with a little less wiggle room, no spare shields, etc). When I finally had time to play through the whole thing after the competition ended, I used exactly that strategy too. Encounters, for the most part, got slightly weaker as the game went on - as with only 3 equipment at the end, there's no way you'd survive some of the earlier encounters, but I agree that felt unsatisfying as a player. Definitely wanted to put in more enemy types (and make the current three "types" look different), but, alas, time =).

@karlipoppins Glad you liked it, and glad you liked the music, I never have as much time as I'd like for music, so if I get any made at all I call it a success =). The music during combat was basically me thinking "that "effect bass" instrument sounds fun, so let's make a bass line, and now I'm out of time, so let's just randomly click notes that probably aren't even in the chord for the atmospheric "melody" line", but it turned out okay =).

@r3c0d3r Glad you liked it, and nice score! You must have been using your shields well (correctly ;) and consistently.

@mgsx Nice score there too! You're #1 as far as Ludum Dare people go, followed closely by @r3c0d3r, the others with names in the high score list are all my (non-LudumDare) friends ;).

MandaRad

14. Aug 2018 · 23:36 UTC

This was pretty cool. Definitely gives off some FTL vibes.

The art style is nice too.

I had fun :smile:

An impressive entry for 48 hours!

huskitch

14. Aug 2018 · 23:36 UTC

Seems to have taken some inspiration from FTL, and you executed the idea well, so good job!

calixjumio

14. Aug 2018 · 23:44 UTC

Wow its a great game!, only used shields and guns tho lol, great game!

Ramanujo

14. Aug 2018 · 23:45 UTC

Wow I'm really surprised by this. I like FTL so this was right up my alley, but I'm super impressed how fleshed out the game is. As policy I have to suggest improvements, and it would probably just be a little more balance on the different components of the ship, to make it less of an obvious decision what you should jettison etc. Great work!

D1gital Cuts

14. Aug 2018 · 23:48 UTC

I usually try to point out all the things that are wrong with a game when I'm reviewing it, but there's just nothing to point out here, you've done a great job! Now go get some damn sleep you absolute madman :D

Derek Volker

15. Aug 2018 · 00:12 UTC

Nice game. The concept of having to lose equipment in order to save more refugees is interesting and adds a mechanic that leaves for the player balance its own game. The concept fits the theme very well. Good job!

🎤 Jimbly

15. Aug 2018 · 00:24 UTC

@derek-volker Yeah, I hadn't really thought that through when I started, just added the "take no one" choice as an excuse to add some flavor. I have a history of making games that are a bit too difficult for most Ludum Dare users, and this way it worked out so that, even if your score might be bad / you might feel bad, almost anyone can beat this one... although only at most 5 of the 20 who rated it have so far :P.

AwiX

15. Aug 2018 · 06:07 UTC

Good Gaming Idea, Music needs to be improved Graphics good

Alexey Akulovich

15. Aug 2018 · 13:11 UTC

Very cool it turned out. Game is selected with visual design and a gameplay. You make a good job!

Ossi

15. Aug 2018 · 17:36 UTC

This was really good! I love how simple it was to see what needed to be done to protect my ship. The story was really entertaining and did a lot to create a mood where I wanted to save these people. Very good idea swapping out equipment over time to increase the challenge, although I didn't find it particularly difficult since shields and weapons were generally enough to overcome anything. I used the engines one time and it didn't seem to make much of a difference. Pretty great game, I enjoyed it a lot!

🎤 Jimbly

16. Aug 2018 · 03:32 UTC

@ossi Glad you enjoyed it! The engines generally weren't as good as shields, although I think there's one fight around the midpoint where I needed them to prevent getting any deaths - my two shields were not quite able to keep it up long enough for me to get the incoming damage down, but with an engine going, that was 33% less damage coming in, which was just enough, but otherwise were pretty worthless. If I had actually played the game all the way through and had more time to balance before the end of the Compo, I probably would have made the engines give a bigger boost - although all three on at the beginning *is* 99% damage reduction, that sounded like a lot to me, but in reality shields are 100% reduction, so engines are the first to go =).

saoi-games

16. Aug 2018 · 05:49 UTC

Thank you for sharing your game with me. I played it on my stream tonight at https://www.twitch.tv/saoigames

I have rated your game, but all of my feedback was captured in the stream.

You can hear my comments in the archive at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/297889760

somuch

16. Aug 2018 · 08:16 UTC

Ended with two shields, 1 weapon and life support. Saved 200 with shield cheese strategy (rip energy beings used as batteries). It's really awesome that you manged to fit so much in just 2 days. Maybe I'm inherently biased cause we both tackled refugees but I hope you get at least top ten <3

🎤 Jimbly

16. Aug 2018 · 14:49 UTC

@saoi-games Thanks for playing on your stream! Watching you play, I realize I *really* should have added one more tutorial pop-up about power - the one panel you never clicked on was the power generators, and if you have one of those running, then you can turn on more other panels, which would have made your play-through a little easier. As you noted, the battles were getting harder, but only up until the chapter you stopped at, they get each get slightly easier after that, to account for your ship quickly running out of equipment (until the final battle, slightly harder than the one before it, but, numerically, no where near as hard as what you already beat). I think you chose a good point to stop playing though, having lost both shields, you were not likely to have much fun or success in the coming levels ^_^. Maybe overheating should have been made more clear or less punishing, as I think 100% of the damage you took up until that point was from overheating and not noticing it.

@somuch Thanks for playing, and nice score! Spoiler: if you sacrifice one of your shields earlier, the Etherians upgrade your other one a few chapters later, so it's not *so* bad. I also hope I get top 10, but looking at the analytics (the full high score list), most people are quitting (dying?) around chapter 3 or 5, so most of them probably aren't enjoying the game quite as much (or are just getting confused and losing some equipment early, then frustrated), so top 10's very unlikely ^_^.

YamiOG

17. Aug 2018 · 02:23 UTC

It was super fun. It also really fits with the theme because you are like am I going to have enough ->space<- for the refugees.

Lars-Erik

19. Aug 2018 · 17:44 UTC

Really well done. Could do with a few more options when docked, but overall quite impressive for compo!

johnnwfs

25. Aug 2018 · 15:10 UTC

Great job - Wonderful for just the 48 hours!

triplefox

25. Aug 2018 · 23:20 UTC

I won on my first playthrough with 193 alive - perhaps this is because I have won at FTL before so I kind of had a sense of the resource-management shenanigans - but it succeeded at producing the same kinds of tense scenarios I felt in that game. If it were pausable real-time, it would probably be too simple, but as-is it succeeds at being a streamlined time-management action game that cuts out all the stats and cruft.

The criticism of the game getting simpler as you go along is one that could be reworked in an expansion/follow-up by making the refugees more interesting characters and shifting the focus away from battle scenes as you progress towards some kind of interpersonal drama. There is a starting point just in having writing to give context to everything and it's possible to go a lot deeper with that(though it can also easily blow up the scope to do lots of writing).

🎤 Jimbly

25. Aug 2018 · 23:31 UTC

@triplefox Nice job! That's an interesting idea on where to go with shifting from battle strategy to story drama, that might be interesting to explore. Could easily be given some choices in *which* refugees to take on board and it turns into a bit of a balancing act of keeping all of them happy and from fighting while continuing on the run =).

RobotFK

29. Aug 2018 · 20:23 UTC

Great game.I think some more remiders of the suffering of those you left behind would be nice

diptoman

03. Sep 2018 · 02:33 UTC

Damn you made this in 48 hours? Color me impressed - that is a huge amount of content and polish! Loved it!

🎤 Jimbly

04. Sep 2018 · 17:50 UTC

@robotfk Glad you enjoyed it! The one reminder of what was left behind was just a side effect - I had an event if you had the Etherians with you, and needed to display something if you didn't choose to bring them along =). It worked out really well (and *most* people seemed to see that particle dialog), and left a memorable impact on people, so, yeah, would have been great with a few more like that =).

@diptoman Glad you loved it, thanks for playing!