Solar Grid by svntax

[raw]
made by svntax for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

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screenshot_01.png

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Begin gameplay as a single solar module, starting with nothing to connect with or defend yourself with. From this helpless starting position, use the energy you harvest to branch outward, fortify your defenses, and survive as long as you can.

When you run out of solar modules, the game is over.

To defend your solar modules, you connect them to combat modules. These combat modules resupply their ammo at a fixed rate, and also require energy input from the solar modules.

Both building modules and shooting require energy, which is obtained by connections to solar modules, even indirect connections as part of a larger circuit. If you have a combat module that is not connected to anything, you cannot build a new module starting from there or shoot it even if you have energy elsewhere. You need access to that energy through a connection.

Controls: - Q: Switch to building solar modules - W: Switch to building combat modules - E: Switch to building connections - Left click: Selects a module, or unselects if you click on empty space. - Right click: Builds a new module or link based on your current choice of q/w/e. - Spacebar: Shoots if you have a combat module selected.

To build a new module, select an existing module with left click, then right click within the range circle to build a new one. To connect two existing modules together, left click a module, then right click another module within range.

Ratings

Overall 596th 3.421⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 739th 3.053⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 525th 3.211⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 662th 3.184⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 245th 4.026⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 93th 3.947⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 728th 3.132⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 20🗳️ 15🗨️

Feedback

OrdiNeu
08. Oct 2019 · 02:33 UTC
Fun! I liked the graphics, but it was too easy to just spam energy nodes and ram them into enemies instead of ever making a gun.
Bongard22
08. Oct 2019 · 02:48 UTC
Unless you cheese it it's very difficult to get started. Switching to turrets and shooting correctly in time is very difficult. Fun though. I think with some improvement to the controls and maybe automating some things this could be even better.
aevek
08. Oct 2019 · 02:51 UTC
Fun but kind of hard to get started in. I had a hard time figuring out what strategy worked, but once I did I don't think I'd have ever lost. (I spammed solar panels and gave up on guns, guns required activity and so solar panels did a much better job of defending me from enemies I didn't see coming). Some indicators for how much of the energy bar building a thing would cost I think would help a lot. Overall I had fun, and the look and sounds were awesome.
koemeterion
08. Oct 2019 · 11:53 UTC
Like the other people here, I had difficulties to get used to the guns. Its to time consuming and you would end with spamming more and more solar panels. Guns should shoot automaticly. Enemies were a bit fast (for the first minute or so) and some indicators for when I can use the gun would have been good.
Beside of all that the graphics looking nice and the music and sounds are great. The kill-sound is a bit loud maybe. Overall I like the idea, it would need a bit more polishing / balancing at the end. Well done!
Hiago Tadeu
10. Oct 2019 · 15:07 UTC
A very good game, and quite challenging and fun too, congratulations for a really cool game.
Call_me_Nutty
11. Oct 2019 · 17:54 UTC
Great concept and visual + audio design however I share the sentiment with other commenters that guns were far too high of a commitment to ever be more effective than just spamming solar panels.
shabbyrtist
12. Oct 2019 · 14:32 UTC
9 waves. So, all you have to do is put energy blocks around the turrets, building a wall of mines out of them. The game is addictive. But controls is very inconvenient. Linked turrets should shoot at the same time (Choosing each individual turret is a mockery). The sounds of explosions are very loud. Overall, not bad. I like it.
hwaet
24. Oct 2019 · 06:12 UTC
This was fun! I didn't understand that you could build things without having full energy at first, so it seemed almost too hard! It's still a challenge, though. I got tripped up on the controls for placing and controlling turrets. It was a lot of clicks in rapid succession to try to control them all, which is part of the challenge but also doesn't feel like something that you can get into a flow with. Controls aside this felt really tight and successful :)
Catusfelony
24. Oct 2019 · 14:55 UTC
I like the idea, but I don't think it was executed in the best way.

The guns seem totally useless seeing that you have to control them manually, and can only control one at a time, and you have to put your focus away from building solar nodes to control them.

On the other hand, the solar nodes are cheap to build, and building them allows you to build more of them more quickly.

So I ended up optimizing the fun out of the game. I could go on forever by just frantically building more solar nodes.

![optimize_out_the_fun.png](///raw/820/72/z/29d1e.png)

I liked it though, the music is nice and changing around some things could make it a really good time waster (also yay godot), but this is not it.
Terribly Awesome Games
24. Oct 2019 · 22:41 UTC
Really loved the graphics and concept for this game, and really enjoyed the audio too! However, I think the destruction sound effect was a bit too loud. I found it hard to get used to the controls and the gameplay, but I could see how it'd be really fun with more balancing and seems really well geared to a tablet.
ijzm
25. Oct 2019 · 00:38 UTC
Interesting game, but I feel it could have been so much better!
The controls weren't the friendliest, it felt confusing having to right click to build, also having to click the connection every time i wanted to build something.
Selecting what to build with Q W E seemed a bit awkward, and firing guns was a bit of a pain.

In my opinion, if you could make the buildings auto connect to each other, and being able to control all the turrets at once would make the game so much better. Also a little bit of a grace period before wave one so you can get your things settled would be a welcome improvement.

The graphics and music were nice :)
benk
25. Oct 2019 · 05:56 UTC
Like other people said, I eventually figured out the only way to survive more than a few seconds was just to right click as quickly as possible and spam the energy nodes. I think there is a lot of potential here though.
- I wasn't sure what the meter did, it seemed to have no effect.
- Ditto connectors.
- Took me a while to get comfortable with the controls.
- The art was really nice, especially the enemies, but generally the vibe.
- Music was cool. Wish the explosion sound didn't totally interrupt it though.
- Maybe with some balancing, auto-firing combat nodes, resource management... it would have been an awesome game.
bramreth
25. Oct 2019 · 11:40 UTC
very effective art style and the music is fab, as others have said spamming energy modules seems very powerful making building weapons not really worth it
oillen
25. Oct 2019 · 22:32 UTC
Although i think it is a bit difficult for a jam game (what didn't keep me from trying over and over again), your game is strong in Theme, Innovation and Media (sound & graphics)... the enemies seems cute to me ;) ... imho what could be improved is giving more space on the screen
Alphish
26. Oct 2019 · 20:17 UTC
Not much to say except for what others pointed out - mostly the part about controls and how the game can be cheesed with a literal power grid (maybe more of a graph than a grid, but still power). Having to control the turrets manually in this kind of game doesn't really work out... ^^'

I liked the audiovisuals, still, they were cool (though destruction sound effect volume could be toned down a notch).
PROJECTaroid
27. Oct 2019 · 23:09 UTC
Interesting game. Nice graphics and audio. I found it really difficult to made progress in the game but it was still enjoyable to play. Nice work.