Helepolis : Make It To the Siege by olkeencole

[raw]
made by olkeencole for LD36 (JAM)
A silly but fun take on the helepolis, the ancient Greek unwieldy siege tower of yore. Try to get to siege without destroying your mighty weapon in the process.

You'll have to dodge rocks, trees and ancient ruins. You can smash most things, but not without penalty.

At each juncture, gain a new tower stack for your helepolis increasing the challenge to maintain its structural integrity. But make it to the end intact and victory will be yours!

I suspect that it is pretty difficult and tricky. I tried to make it easier, but physics is hard to tune correctly.

Tips:
1. When going through the arches, try not to move too much and go right thru the middle.

2. Trees aren't too bad, but try to smash them head on.

3. Try to avoid pillars as much as possible. If you must hit one, just hit ONE.

4. It should only take about a minute and a half to get to the end, but that is if you don't smash into anything.

5. And finally.....you don't actually need all the tower stacks at the moment. I wanted two ends, either one where you get smashed if you don't have enough tower stacks or you smashing the castle. Right now, only the latter is in there, since its hard enough as is.

A LeftArrow = Move Left
S RightArrow = MoveRight


Good luck!

Feedback

Cody Hansen
30. Aug 2016 · 04:57 UTC
I could see myself wasting an entire day playing some mobile version of your game.
It is an excellent time killer for lines, waits, and... um... bathroom trips.
Lovely game!
DaleP
30. Aug 2016 · 05:31 UTC
Great use of physics for humor. If you had more time to tune/balance the gameplay it would be nice to have a way to recover from mistakes or maybe control when the pieces drop — it seemed like once you had one piece fall off, the others would drop too late and slide off no matter what you did. I agree with the other commenter that it could make a great mobile game, especially if you could involve the device's gyroscope in some way.
PeachTreeOath
30. Aug 2016 · 05:50 UTC
Ok that was actually really cool. I could see that kind of gameplay show up in a lot of variants. Just wanting to see how big the stack got put pressure on me to be careful.
MirrorPolygons
30. Aug 2016 · 05:51 UTC
Good physics game with nice game mechanics and simple graphics. Love the concept and the low poly aspect of it. Would work best as a mobile game with some improvements.
qzqxq
30. Aug 2016 · 05:52 UTC
Pretty fun, although some of the game mechanics were a bit weird/glitchy (it was hard to tell what was safe to run into and what wasn't). Also there are some small polish issues (wood things turning into stone things, both "Game Over" and "Victory" being displayed at the end).

But overall this was a good amount of fun (fun enough to play a bunch of times).
Neonable
30. Aug 2016 · 05:52 UTC
Wow! Action-packed and full of neat details. You did a really good job :)
Others are right about this, you need to make a mobile version (with gyroscope controls, if possible).
The music successfully sets the tone for an intense and hectic ride, which would be appropriately complemented with characters running around in circles instead of standing idle, as well as volcanic ashes or other elements falling from the sky. I am looking forward to see this game expand further on!
TeslaCools
30. Aug 2016 · 05:59 UTC
The idea of balance added a surprising amount of depth to the concept of a runner game. The use of physics also allowed things like destruction to factor int other gameplay. I'm impressed with how far engaging you managed to make a typically stale genre.
Guennor
30. Aug 2016 · 06:16 UTC
Nice concept! Oh and thanks for exporting a web version, much easier to test!

It would be nice to hear some destruction sounds when crashing into things.
Volcanic Giraffe
30. Aug 2016 · 07:57 UTC
Epic soundtrack! fits game well.
When you run over trees, you practically feel how they are crushed. Little rocks are unexpectedly bumpy though =)
PanicTheFirst
30. Aug 2016 · 13:23 UTC
Haha, that was awesome. Nice job. Graphics and physics are really good. Music is also really good. Had a lot of fun playing. :D
kapricornmedia
31. Aug 2016 · 01:47 UTC
Love the low poly trees! Thanks for the web version! Works very well as a mobile game
RttStudio
31. Aug 2016 · 01:58 UTC
This is gold, I tried to get to the end, but I like smashing into things way too much. Love all the effects. The game seem a bit glitchy? at least the webgl version. But it's really entertaining I could see a game like that with many levels and all. Also adding sound and music would be even better. Really good hope you continue working on this.
wr4th88
31. Aug 2016 · 02:03 UTC
Pros: Nice idea, great physics, great music (not sure if you made it or not), Thanks for adding people to GTA into :)

Cons: I got stuck and couldn't get off a rock, but that's all
stigmawall
31. Aug 2016 · 02:07 UTC
Very good idea. One think I found strange is when we got a new piece all the others return to the original position.
Abdullah Elsayed
31. Aug 2016 · 02:12 UTC
Liked the game.. got victory from second try.. maybe you should consider getting this game an endless version.

Pros: good idea, simple game, simple modeling loved the game, minimalism.
Cons: as wr4th88 mentioned you can get stuck.. camera is very close to me so i can't reach the way (maybe if the game gets harder it would get a little far).
indieyp
31. Aug 2016 · 11:52 UTC
Nice demo, need more levels, i think it's great if you optimize it and published on mobile.
adaFish
01. Sep 2016 · 01:03 UTC
This was really fun. Nice to look at, fun concept, intuitive controls, and great music. I did wind up getting stuck on one of the arch thing, but with a little polish this would be a great mobile game.
Spinach_Chicken
01. Sep 2016 · 13:08 UTC
Nice! I typically don't care for games where you move left to right to avoid obstacles, but with it being physics based, if just adds a whole new dynamic. Great job!
thegunmaster
01. Sep 2016 · 22:08 UTC
Interesting physics game, I like this simple 3d art too :)
xesenix
06. Sep 2016 · 01:55 UTC
This looks really nice but camera scope is horrible wrong you cant see whats on road and sometime you dont even see your machine. Music is great for this kind of game play but you really need to do something with that camera. Second thing do not expect people to read game description. Game mechanics would be best described by game play so you could make some shorter level to introduce each obstacle and let player learn how to deal with them. So fix camera and make better introduction for game mechanic and you will have great game.