Nomads by Solifuge
Overview:
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A game about surviving in an Ice Age. You and your children travel to escape The Cold, though it's always close behind. Gather food and resources while you journey to reach warmer lands. Protect your children until they're old enough to help you hunt and gather. Build fire and tools to help you survive, and stave off The Cold.
Controls:
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Left and Right change move speed and gathering behavior.
Tips:
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Nomads slump forward when Hungry, Tired, or Ill. Build a fire, or try resting for a while. Moving faster tires Nomads out quicker, so pace yourself! Wait to stock up on Food before moving quickly. Also, save up Hide and Bone to craft into Backpacks and Spears, to help your Nomads hunt and forage.
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A game about surviving in an Ice Age. You and your children travel to escape The Cold, though it's always close behind. Gather food and resources while you journey to reach warmer lands. Protect your children until they're old enough to help you hunt and gather. Build fire and tools to help you survive, and stave off The Cold.
Controls:
=========
Left and Right change move speed and gathering behavior.
Tips:
=====
Nomads slump forward when Hungry, Tired, or Ill. Build a fire, or try resting for a while. Moving faster tires Nomads out quicker, so pace yourself! Wait to stock up on Food before moving quickly. Also, save up Hide and Bone to craft into Backpacks and Spears, to help your Nomads hunt and forage.
Ratings
| Coolness | 71% | 3 |
| Overall | 4.07 | 35 |
| Audio | 3.76 | 75 |
| Fun | 3.56 | 203 |
| Graphics | 4.36 | 36 |
| Innovation | 4.23 | 18 |
| Mood | 4.55 | 3 |
| Theme | 4.19 | 95 |
With all of that said, i did survive long enough to reach warmer lands and enjoyed the overall concept, especially for a compo entry. Nice work!
Nice game, loved the atmosphere you created!
I really liked the game's aesthetics. It's so simple, but so effective!
However, I felt the game to be somewhat too random... Even though I could gather resources, I wasn't able to actively use any but fuel and food. The game we do great with an 5th option "craft". If you can only build when resting, it isn't clear at all... =/
Still, the idea is really interesting. Well done! :)
It took me some 6 tries, but I was able to reach warmer lands. :)
I liked the character silhouettes, lack of dialogue, etc. - it allowed me to make the story my own. Sound effects were exactly what they needed to be. In the end, 3 of us survived. Thanks for making this, and for the experience.
I would maybe like a slightly better indication or explanation of the crafting mechanic and when it will be possible during the game.
Overall I really enjoyed playing this, it's one of my favorites so far!
Also, sorry for any confusion about the crafting; I talked about it some in the post-mortem, but if I'd had more time I'd have liked to have a more fleshed-out UI that explained items found or actions that are done in each movement state. Same goes for some indicator that the fire was about to burn out too. Feedback in general is the #1 area for improvement IMO.
@kmakai: Oops, compiled the project as a debug build, and never noticed I left those there. That's embarrassing! I took those files out of the zip; I don't think that's against the contest rules, but if so I still have the original copy!
Two thoughts about possible improvement:
- As many have mentioned, the controls and purposes were sometimes somewhat hard to understand. The introduction screen was good - I would have liked to be able to show that later during the game (for example: to see the crafting components). I got the hang of resting and eating, but didn't fully understand the crafting until after restart.
- My inventory got filled up with bones and another un-edible component which blocked me from gathering wood and food. This led to that I lost two members before reaching the end, which was a bit unsatisfying.
To some it up: Slightly confusing to grasp, but easily one of my favorites this Ludum Dare. Looking forward to future versions!
I'd like the delays during the start screen to be removed though, for a quicker start (because I die so much LOL).
Very clever controls, too!
Thanks for this kick ass game!
It's a cool mechanic, my only gripe is that my inventory would fill up so randomly I would get into situations where I had a bunch of bones I couldn't do anything with yet which would block me from stockpiling as much food as I would have liked to. With more time spent on the crafting system I'm sure you could resolve this slight frustration. Overall it's a really neat little game. I enjoyed the fact that when people slumped over I didn't really know whether they were tired or hungry or both, in a way it really made me feel like I was taking care of them, trying to figure out what was wrong. Also really like the simple way you used the bar to show the cold. Very nice result!