Project Memory: Delay Extinction by RaXaH
Project Memory is a turn-based elephant conservation game. Poachers roam the grounds and hunt elephants, reducing their population. Spend Funding on Rangers and upgrades such as Ambassador Animals, Community Outreach and purchasing elephants from zoos. Your goal is to save the elephant from extinction. You have 100 turns. Can you persevere?
Detailed explanation of mechanics on the itch.io page.
Please watch this short video if you're struggling to figure out what to do!
https://youtu.be/yh-FVasINhk
Hint: Poachers won't enter a region if it has a Ranger in it! Poachers on the same tile as a Ranger also can't hurt elephants.
Note: There is currently issue with sound on some browsers. Just mute the game via the options menu if that's a problem for you.
Bug Fixes
Patch 1.01 (08.04.22)
- Fix ambassador not rebuyable after being killed
- Fix ranger placement bug, where funds could drop below zero
- Fix ranger being able to target water regions
- Fix display issue on report page on very high turn count
Credits
- Code - RaXaH
- Art - Hekateras
- Music & sound - Neverpure20
| Link | https://raxah.itch.io/project-memory |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/project-memory-delay-extinction |
Ratings
| Overall | 295th | 3.848⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 634th | 3.43⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 189th | 3.83⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 249th | 4.034⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 256th | 4.185⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 228th | 3.856⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 315th | 3.844⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 54🗳️ | 69🗨️ |
That's why it made me sad, that I couldn't figure out what should I do exactly. I couldn't buy/invest into anything, I clicked and pressed all the buttons I could, but nothing. I was just able to open pages like "Ranchers" but couldn't buy anything, even though I had my reputation for it. Please help, I would really like to try your game one more time and give it a proper rating :)
Thanks for the feedback. Were the icons greyed out? Purchasing things requires Funding, not Reputation.
Try starting a new game, opening the Rangers tab, buying a Ranger and placing him on the map. Or try purchasing an Ambassador animal - if you click on PR Center again, you should see the animated portrait in place of the button and can know for sure that it's working.
Anyway, I really like it, and felt like a great experience :)
I'd like an easy way to keep track of how many turns remain of my rangers though, I ultimately lost because several disappeared at once while being low on funds. In the web version all graphics but the menu only displayed in the top left quarter of the screen. Everything was fine with the downloaded version.
There's the basis for a really good game here. I can't think of an in the wild conservation game, but it's certainly something I'd be interested in, and this could very easily be expanded on and made into a full release with other animals, environments, etc.
It was a good game, nostalgic, top marks.
Looks and plays really lovely!
Even the good ending is sad, in a good (?) way. I'll remember this game.
I love all the micro-management systems that you put in there, and it's easy to see this game works for schools with an educative project but also with the public in general. I think that the rules just need to be clearer for the user, maybe a 1st play with tutorial (totally understand why it wasn't implemented in this version, there's no time for such a huge effort), and even make the actions grow progressively in the game could help a lot to understand it.
Great entry, hope to see more of it in the next jams. Keep it up!
Well, my record is 30 days, but I will continue)
@platyBOSS @Jozef @Chocolat-Endive @Ghatazorg We greatly appreciate the kind comments!
At first I found it difficult to understand how to predict the movement of elephants, rangers and poachers, but after reading carefully the explanation on itchio it becomes more understandable and enjoyable. I seem to have assumed that the description the developers put on the ludum dare page is the same as the one on the itchio page. Maybe it would be interesting to add that information here as well for clueless people like me.
I found it very interesting and fun, well done! :smile:
A lovely edu-game, and something I could see playing for hours in a similar fashion to the way I used to play Civilization before bed.
As I mentioned on stream, I would have appreciated, especially for a turn-based game like this, if some of the mechanics were a bit more transparent. Especially the mechanics around elephant/poacher movement and poacher capture. An optional mode that separates the elephant, poacher, and ranger movement stages and pauses between each would probably help beginning players and then you could have a checkbox to go to "fast movement" which would be more like the current behavior. Animations seem to happen in a different order than the canonical order (I see elephants moving late?) which is also confusing.
I have some considerations of what I missed (many of these happened in my game too and I missed it)
The feedback on the buttons is of great help, as I watched the video before playing I knew how it worked, however clicking the buttons, or hovering the mouse over it had no change, and sometimes it was difficult to know what was clickable and what was not.
During the game, it was not possible to know that it was possible to move the rangers around (which was also solved by the video).
Other than that the game is very solid, I didn't find any BUGs, and the art is really nice.
Unfortunately, the setting made me a little sad, but it is the reality of what is happening and has always happened.
Hope you are successful in the game! Congratulations!
If this feedback has positively helped your game, please leave a "<3"
PS: I'll leave this photo of a baby elephant.
I just wish I had more info...a comment here helped me with understanding how ranger positioning can stop poachers, but especially early game with few rangers and randomly (as far as I can tell) moving elephants, it was rough to feel like my choices made much impact.