Antstable by kakapoy

[raw]
made by kakapoy for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

This is Antstable !

Here's our submission, We use Construct3 to develop it.

At first we didn't have any idea what games we wanted to make with the theme unstable, then, an idea bringing another, we decided to go for a safe utilisation of the theme. Nevertheless, we decided to take an original road from classic city builder.

The physics implementation was easy with construct3, but find the right value was the challenge. Also, there is a lot of different things for beginners as we are, families in Construct3 prove themselves very useful !

Also we had a technical problem for the game art. Unexpected delay comes, but in a final rush we make it 1h before the end.

Hope you will enjoy Antstable !!

Ratings

Overall 499th 3.7⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 358th 3.76⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 438th 3.6⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 373th 3.92⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 550th 3.82⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Audio 395th 3.62⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 878th 2.72⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Mood 640th 3.5⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 46🗳️ 27🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 235694
06. Oct 2021 · 15:27 UTC
Well, quite a fun game with the mechanics of building a city on an unstable platform. It's great that every building has some meaning. It's very cool that there was a battle with the cicada, quite unusual. It seems to me that it is very easy to erect buildings, and there is no fear that everything will collapse. I think it would be possible to complicate the balance. Overall a fun game. Good job.
![Screenshot_157.png](///raw/ea8/93/z/477c3.png)
🎤 kakapoy
09. Oct 2021 · 12:43 UTC
Thanks for your feedback ! Yeah I didn't manage to have time to make the balance of the game better. I will work on that after the result. I'll have to make the force of the cicada a variable of the number of buildings or better the overall mass on the platform. Thanks again !
Taffaz
09. Oct 2021 · 12:48 UTC
Well done, really enjoyed the game and it fits the theme great. Tried to get buildings a bit too close a couple of times to fun effect.
MorePixels
09. Oct 2021 · 12:51 UTC
The game was pretty fun! But I did have an issue where sometimes I would place a building and when it hit something else stuff would just go flying off the screen! Really good game for a game jam though, well done!
ROBOWARRIOR1982
09. Oct 2021 · 12:52 UTC
Very nice game and idea !
VicoPTP
09. Oct 2021 · 13:04 UTC
Hey, I had a really fun time playing your game, quite an unique take :D

I really liked being able to plop down buildings (perhaps not having to re-open the menu each time would've been better idk (?))

Also found a fun feature where plopping a building in another building made them go crazy, really had fun with it :)
🎤 kakapoy
11. Oct 2021 · 19:33 UTC
Thanks @morepixels Yeah that's bug but I don't find it very game breaky, I was like "It's kinda fun, i'll correct it if I have the time" I didn't find it so here it is.

@vicoptp Yes I will remove the need to re-open the menu each time I don't really know why I do that ahah
LDJam user 267116
12. Oct 2021 · 07:24 UTC
Nice game! Goes with the theme well, and I'm a fan of the city building aspect. One idea to make the balance more tenuous would be to make the buildings random shapes each time.
FireSlash
12. Oct 2021 · 07:40 UTC
Pretty solid for a Jam game, lots of tiny mechanics here that probably weren't easy to get right in this timescale.

I got a good chunk in and had my base explode when placing a tower in a fairly innocent looking spot; some kind of bad physics reaction. I think maybe the placed building clipped with an existing one?

Second run went without a hitch.
Klosterliv
12. Oct 2021 · 11:11 UTC
Fun idea, nice for a browser game snack. You should probably have made it so that you can't place something inside of another thing though as avoiding exploding physics from clipping became the challenge to beat rather than balancing the buildings which didn't pose a problem at all. You could have it so that you have to drop the buildings from a certain height or distance from other buildings and make them into some dynamic shapes, like the woodcutters could be circles and you have to rein them in with homes for example. Or limit in which parts of the screen they are effective forcing you to put them on the edge. Then the cicada could shoot projectiles at your town that add force to the structure and damage the blocks as a test of structural integrity. I also think the log could have been a fixed seesaw because as it is the game is pretty much lost as soon as it tips a little bit.
I'm sure that many of these things were planned - there just isn't enough time - but this game could be a lot of fun with a few of these things in place!
🎤 kakapoy
12. Oct 2021 · 13:00 UTC
Thanks @klosterliv for your thorough feedback ! I wanted to avoid the clipping but I didn't manage to have time, furthermore I find it fun in the end, once you discover that you will avoid doing it again if you want to survive, so it's not making the game unplayable.

It's an excellent idea more unstable shape than square I didn't think of that during the weekend !

The rest was planned, but didn't make the cut during the process, I will improve it further, I loved working on it and will use your's and other's feedback to improve it and make it more enjoyable/balance.
nephronhunter
13. Oct 2021 · 00:49 UTC
I always live the surprise animal games. The art is great as is the game play. Your music is fun. I was not completely sure how to play based on the introduction, but it worked and was really fun. I love long term building games and would honestly play this if you made it more expansive.
Conduit
13. Oct 2021 · 01:01 UTC
That was stellar! Had an absolute blast, the audio was well balanced and well implemented and the physics were fun to play with. 5/5 <3
Chargrills21
13. Oct 2021 · 10:39 UTC
Very cool game! The physics were realistic, but when your place a building slightly in another they sometimes just fly away into the sky. It also would have been nice to see a clear healthbar on the boss at the end
zimny11
14. Oct 2021 · 12:05 UTC
Great game! The art style looks awesome, music is nice and game mechanic feels good. I would prefer for the menu with buildings to stay open all the time, since it does not overlap with anything important, and you just need to click all the time to open it. Placing buildings too close make them explode in all directions, probably overlap check would be necessary to fix that. Anyway, amazing job with the game. Long live the Queen!

BTW. It looks like we had kind of similar ideas for a game. Except, yours has better graphic and give more control to the player XD
Denzil Gomes
14. Oct 2021 · 12:36 UTC
I like the art style of this and the music, while initially I thought the music wasn't right it did grown on me and worked. Also very good job on that intro it was pretty dramatic and a nice way to start the game. It would have been good if you could explore the balancing aspect a little more as I thought this was in interesting addition as well as having other challenges to the colony before the end, It was relatively easy enough for me to get through to the end, I know how difficult balancing can be in jam time and you have quite a few variables to consider there. I think its a cool idea that with a little more time could be great
🎤 kakapoy
14. Oct 2021 · 13:41 UTC
Thanks you all for your feedback ! For our first ludum dare we didn't expect to do something like that and that so many people will enjoyed it.

@denzil-gomes Ahah we think about a post apo world soooo metal was necessary and fun ! Yeah we lack time to make the balance better and the boss more powerful.

@zimny11 The artists of the team thanks you for your appreciation of the art and music ! I didn't think it was so much a pain in the humhum... I will let the building button visible all the times in a futur update of the game, as well as some implementation that all of you gave me. I will test your game rightaway !

@chargrills21 Oooooh a health bar nice idea !
Nakami
14. Oct 2021 · 22:19 UTC
Nice entry, the music clearly add to it and help when I'm just waiting for my wood to go up for the third time because I exploded my base placing a build inside another one x)

Sooo, it would be nice to add a check to prevent placing building inside building and make the whole base explode.
puppetmaster
16. Oct 2021 · 20:47 UTC
Super fun game, the mood comes across well.

I was pleasantly surprised that it is a building game on a wobbly platform. Unfortunately, it blew away when I placed a house near a tower. It was a very funny situation.

Great game.
VarunDevs
17. Oct 2021 · 04:54 UTC
Super fun idea , I'd love to see where you will go with this idea.
Shea Kelly
17. Oct 2021 · 18:44 UTC
i love it so much, great job on the success
mrBell270
20. Oct 2021 · 17:58 UTC
Very nice entry.
Artwork and sound design are good, gameplay is fun and interesting!

Good luck!
zookatron
21. Oct 2021 · 17:56 UTC
Neat little game, cool concept but unfortunately the physics kept bugging out on me (no pun intended) and exploding my colony into a hundred pieces. I tried to get through to the end but the second time it happened I gave up. I think it happened because I was trying to build buildings to close together or something but I'm not sure.