{"author_link":"\/users\/gamepopper","author_name":"gamepopper","author_uid":1002636,"comments":[{"id":712730,"author_name":"zimny11","author_uid":"zimny11","epoch":1633341296,"text":"Nice one! Everything fit together nicely!\n\nIn my first few tries I probably was doing something wrong, because even after placing all 3 starting buildings people still die, and I lost before I got another building. Personally, I would like the new buildings to show up a little bit faster, but overal good job! My best is 30 day, 23 people.","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":712938,"author_name":"theviraldragon","author_uid":"theviraldragon","epoch":1633344320,"text":"I had the same idea in the beginning but chose to do a different game. This one is well executed. But i feel the instability should be less at first and should become more and more unstable as the game goes on. Nice game.","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":712952,"author_name":"LDJam user 156942","author_uid":"156942","epoch":1633344605,"text":"What a nice, solid experience! Liked pretty much everything about this little game, especially graphics, bonus points for size of binaries!","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":712971,"author_name":"ilokimo","author_uid":"ilokimo","epoch":1633344925,"text":"This game is simple, interesting, makes you want to try again. seems almost like a complete game. Fits the theme perfectly. I only skipped rating humor as I feel it does not apply. Otherwise very happy to have played it. Will play again later.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":712990,"author_name":"jka","author_uid":"jka","epoch":1633345256,"text":"Nice! Love the 1-bit art style. Things really get challenging when the weather starts to hit.","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":713139,"author_name":"Violet Minehan","author_uid":"violet-minehan","epoch":1633347607,"text":"Super fun and well polished!","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":714527,"author_name":"Game_Coder28","author_uid":"game-coder28","epoch":1633362685,"text":"Cool game! Its a neat concept and i like the 8-bit graphic style. I found the people were dying randomly, even with just the starting buildings but still the game is very fun to play!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":717446,"author_name":"niterich","author_uid":"niterich","epoch":1633384188,"text":"Really clever take on the theme! Though I did find it a bit too difficult and kept dying at the first weather event.\n\nExcept the one time I lost when all my people were dead, even though I could clearly see them running about? I'm not quite sure what that was about","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":722818,"author_name":"BarelyEvenGames","author_uid":"barelyevengames","epoch":1633411520,"text":"Super clever take on the theme with some really fun gameplay! I absolutely loved it. Great job!","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":722980,"author_name":"ZhennaPerks","author_uid":"zhennaperks","epoch":1633412931,"text":"This is exactly what I like to see from LD games. It gets the point across and the mechanic itself is a lot of fun. I'd like to see a little more feedback from the people in my doomed city but overall really love this. It'll probably be added to my rotation of games I play when I'm supposed to be in meetings. Thanks for sharing! ","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":724183,"author_name":"Jupiter_Hadley","author_uid":"jupiter-hadley","epoch":1633423015,"text":"I really love this game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 49 compilation video series, if you\u2019d like to take a look. :) https:\/\/youtu.be\/6UdIqDKcGPw","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":729603,"author_name":"Evgeniya Zapolnova","author_uid":"evgeniya-zapolnova","epoch":1633451764,"text":"Oh, so simple idea and so perfect realization! Great game!! ","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":732437,"author_name":"Masaru","author_uid":"masaru","epoch":1633464787,"text":"How did you the vertical line effect when the building ? It's super cool and my brain can't understand how it works o_O","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":732754,"author_name":"gamepopper","author_uid":"gamepopper","epoch":1633466369,"text":"@masaru Vertical line effect?","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":733108,"author_name":"Masaru","author_uid":"masaru","epoch":1633468061,"text":"@gamepopper The \"staircase\" on the ground when it goes a bit to the side : https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/alqxWEw.png the building have it as well, it looks super cool","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":733648,"author_name":"gamepopper","author_uid":"gamepopper","epoch":1633470954,"text":"@masaru Ah, I believe that's just the pixel filtering when rotating the sprite, by default I use nearest neighbour.","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":735586,"author_name":"guigagliardo","author_uid":"guigagliardo","epoch":1633485909,"text":"I liked your game! Also, the execution of the idea are nice too.","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":736824,"author_name":"aeveis","author_uid":"aeveis","epoch":1633499414,"text":"got to day 17! I like the art and seeing the people walk around. Pretty hard to keep it balanced though for very long. nice job!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":740430,"author_name":"rumor","author_uid":"rumor","epoch":1633536166,"text":"I saw your development posts pop up a few times during the jam and was really jealous of such a beautifully simple and succinct idea for this theme. It turned out great, too! I will admit it wasn't always clear why my people were dying off - I was more focused on the physical balancing. But still - fun!","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":740882,"author_name":"Duck Reaction","author_uid":"duck-reaction","epoch":1633539969,"text":"Very original idea and nice to play !\n\nGraphics are nice and fit well with the gameplay. The audio is little bit too repetitive. It could be a nice mobile game.\n\nGreat entry !","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":746801,"author_name":"LLlarsO","author_uid":"lllarso","epoch":1633617549,"text":"As everyone else already mentioned: Very good execution of the theme!\n\nThe graphics are simplistic, but it is very satisfying to look at the town moving around and to see those little guys running from one place to another.\n\nSweet and polished little game. Good job!","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":750488,"author_name":"DDRKirbyISQ","author_uid":"ddrkirbyisq","epoch":1633676117,"text":"Is there a specific reason why you opted out of the audio category?","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":751885,"author_name":"gamepopper","author_uid":"gamepopper","epoch":1633709373,"text":"@ddrkirbyisq I felt the music I produced was too basic, combined with the generated SFX.","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":752721,"author_name":"DDRKirbyISQ","author_uid":"ddrkirbyisq","epoch":1633726473,"text":"@gamepopper: Fair enough!","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":757266,"author_name":"yikescloud","author_uid":"yikescloud","epoch":1633865385,"text":"Hard to keep balancing. I love the small citizen going around detail.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":757443,"author_name":"Jvdwijk","author_uid":"jvdwijk","epoch":1633870599,"text":"This was an amazing entry! Loved the way you had to balance the buildings, worked very well with the minimalistic but chill artsyle!\n\nHad a lot of fun playing with this and seeing how the balancing worked! ","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":757597,"author_name":"Gaming Night","author_uid":"gaming-night","epoch":1633875414,"text":"Hey, this concept looks familiar to me ;)\nReally nice graphics and audio.","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":757663,"author_name":"FancyReckless","author_uid":"fancyreckless","epoch":1633877215,"text":"Pretty clean graphics and cute sounds. Played few times, but wasn't sure why my people died even tho I placed buildings. I was amazed at the fact you made a 2 megabyte game and I assume you used no engine, so separate props for that. Love the sound of ground hitting the ground when it topples.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":757679,"author_name":"MabraX","author_uid":"mabrax","epoch":1633877837,"text":"The game looks polish, the UI fits with the graphics perfectly. The music and sound are aligned with the old school graphics. The in-game instructions are a very nice touch. I don't like tutorials in games. It is not an easy game, and for me that is a plus. The weather is a nice touch, it makes it stand out of just beign a simple try to find balance game. And of course the people too. \n\nAbout the graphics, there is some horizontal misalignment of the structures, but if I were to guess must be because of the rotation of sprites and the rendering order. The full screen is a little pixelated, but that is just a detail that of course can be fixed with more time. \n\nI know that is difficult to code and fine tune a physics based game, and for that you did a great job. I could go on so more, if you want you can pm me. This entry is in my top 10 for this ludum dare. Congratulations!\n","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":758346,"author_name":"ruthiepee","author_uid":"ruthiepee","epoch":1633893017,"text":"Unstable Ground is easy to pick up but hard to master -- one of my favorite qualities in a game, especially in a jam game. I made it to Day 25 with 5 people. I need to do one more playthrough to understand the mechanics of the people but I had great fun trying to balance the buildings. The graphics are quite handsomely done in a \"2-bit\" palette. The music is pretty repetitive but the tone suits the game. Well done!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":759939,"author_name":"elysiagriffin","author_uid":"elysiagriffin","epoch":1633964321,"text":"Hi there! Thanks for submitting your game for me to play live during my Twitch stream!\n\nIf you\u2019d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:\n\nhttps:\/\/www.twitch.tv\/videos\/1173738676?t=1h10m26s\n\nGood luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D\n\n\ud83d\udc9c Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady\n\nhttps:\/\/www.twitch.tv\/elysiagriffin","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":761876,"author_name":"JoeShanahan","author_uid":"joeshanahan","epoch":1634068573,"text":"I really love the aesthetic of this game, it's authentically 1 bit - the artwork here has a lot of charm to it!\n\n...I was really really bad at it :sweat_smile: I managed to get more than 10 people at one point, but every attempt after that was worse and worse. Couldn't work out a good strategy to stop the wobbling.\n\nI think this game is going to rank pretty highly in the end results, it's one of the most distinctive looking games I've seen so far! Amazing work!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":765233,"author_name":"timon","author_uid":"timon","epoch":1634390156,"text":"Art and sound worked really well together, relaxing to just sit and replay a bunch of times! Really nice work on an overall polished game!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":765561,"author_name":"JoeShanahan","author_uid":"joeshanahan","epoch":1634415873,"text":"I put my playthrough of this up on YouTube, you can check it out here :smile: \n\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6_c61TA_VfM","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":769101,"author_name":"SplitPainter","author_uid":"splitpainter","epoch":1634750220,"text":"This is very creative and innovative. Perfect take on the theme!","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":769636,"author_name":"almost","author_uid":"almost","epoch":1634787825,"text":"Nice concept. I think there is some nice potential here.\n\nI feel like there are a lot of mechanics that I don't understand. What do the buildings do? Is more buildings better? What causes people to die? I didn't realize that you can move buildings until I saw it in your gif, but that seems useful.\n\nI found that I could last a while by keeping my buildings in the center, but if I added too many buildings I'm forced to place something near the outside and the city would fall over. After a few tries I made it to day 43 with a population of 25.","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"}],"format":"md","images":["ldjam-media\/sha256\/0e\/0eae5d711ca7f55bcdfc5e1835c1a546837526d9a7d2ceca8e3c254de489b37f.png"],"links":[{"url":"https:\/\/github.com\/gamepopper\/LD49","text":"Link"},{"url":"https:\/\/gamepopper.itch.io\/unstable-ground","text":"Link"}],"metadata":{"g_key":"79241","g_author":"1002636","g_event":"LD49","g_eventkey":"119","g_subevent":"COMPO","g_urlkey":"379720","g_title":"Unstable Ground","g_status":"WAYBACK","g_place":"169","g_commentcount":"36","g_site2_node_id":"262825","g_hide":"N","g_has_icon":"Y","g_rqueue":"0","g_random":"0"},"nds":{"n_key":"262825","n_urlkey":"379720","n_parent":"258323","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/49\/unstable-ground-1","n_slug":"unstable-ground-1","n_type":"item","n_subtype":"game","n_subsubtype":"compo","n_author":"2636","n_created":"1632862327","n_modified":"1779396537","n_version":"816391","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD49","removed_author":false},"_superparent":9,"_trust":10,"author":2636,"body":"Physics-based city builder where you manage a small city on a large mound of earth that could topple at any given moment.\n\nEvery city must start with a power plant, a house, and a shop. After that, you will be given other buildings that can get more people into your city,  and prevent the population from going down.\n\nBut whatever you do, try not to get the whole place to fall over for as long as possible, especially when the weather can blow it in one direction.\n\nThis game requires the mouse. Left-clicking will select, grab, and place buildings while right-clicking will remove buildings. Even the menu will use the mouse controls!\n\n![LD49-00004.gif](\/\/\/raw\/c4a\/z\/43ee0.gif)","comments":36,"comments-timestamp":"2021-10-21T03:43:45Z","created":"2021-09-28T20:52:07Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"grade":{"grade-01":46,"grade-02":46,"grade-03":46,"grade-04":46,"grade-05":46,"grade-07":36,"grade-08":41},"id":262825,"love":0,"magic":{"cool":86.939797722871,"feedback":44,"given":28.25,"grade":43.857142857143,"grade-01-average":3.693,"grade-01-result":169,"grade-02-average":3.693,"grade-02-result":144,"grade-03-average":3.864,"grade-03-result":95,"grade-04-average":4.466,"grade-04-result":8,"grade-05-average":3.841,"grade-05-result":129,"grade-07-average":3,"grade-07-result":188,"grade-08-average":3.603,"grade-08-result":129,"smart":-13.418350356483},"meta":{"allow-anonymous-comments":"1","author":[2636],"cover":"\/\/\/content\/c4a\/z\/43edd.png","grade-06-out":"1","link-01":"https:\/\/github.com\/gamepopper\/LD49","link-01-tag":[42332],"link-02":"https:\/\/gamepopper.itch.io\/unstable-ground","link-02-tag":[42337]},"meta-timestamp":"2026-05-21T20:48:57Z","modified":"2026-05-21T20:48:57Z","name":"Unstable Ground","node-timestamp":"2021-10-03T21:45:17Z","parent":258323,"parents":[1,5,9,258323],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/49\/unstable-ground-1","published":"2021-10-03T21:45:17Z","scope":"public","slug":"unstable-ground-1","subsubtype":"compo","subtype":"game","type":"item","version":816391},"text":"Physics-based city builder where you manage a small city on a large mound of earth that could topple at any given moment.\n\nEvery city must start with a power plant, a house, and a shop. After that, you will be given other buildings that can get more people into your city,  and prevent the population from going down.\n\nBut whatever you do, try not to get the whole place to fall over for as long as possible, especially when the weather can blow it in one direction.\n\nThis game requires the mouse. Left-clicking will select, grab, and place buildings while right-clicking will remove buildings. 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