Conquer, survive and expand your lineage

Really ambitious project, love the idea and the effort put into it. Definitely would love to see how this game evolves in the future. Great job!

Ohh, it’s so funny, I like ☺️

A bit hard to really know why I lost several times, but had fun trying to decipher this game. I was pleasantly surprised by the drastic contrast between colony sim and top down shooter.

@firebender Yes, some feedback is missing. If the survival game ends, without bringing back enough food, then the game ends in failure.

Thanks for your feedback!

Interesting concept, I like the decisions you have to make for the colony. A little polish on this and it would be a very fun game.

I really like the idea! I like that you can try yourself in different things - even if you're not very good at management, you can still try yourself in more action-packed battles! Very cool!

Love the idea behind this game, really ambitious and unique! A bit easy to get lost at times, but still had fun. Good job.

Ok, it's a very interesting game! I believe you focused a bit too much on the content, which is massive. I believe with more playtest and polish, it could be a very interesting game. Thanks for the ride!
By the way, I believe Ladylprc isn't cited in the description's credit as I write

@cortez Thanks for your feedback! Indeed we have an obsession for mechanics but always lack a little time for testing ^^

Ladylpcr is not mentioned because unfortunately she couldn't participate this time, and is present in the team because it was created before the jam started :/

What a huge project!

It was challenging to get grips with the game's rules, but it is really fun! I'm amazed at how many mechanics you managed to come up with and implement. And it's refreshing to see those two different genres playing in harmony here. Thanks for the game!

the chill music really helps concentrate :D

Needs a hand with graphics, but nice system design

It took me one round to get it, but once i got to know how this game works, it was a blast!
Really really cool gameplay with basebuilding, strategy and even some fighting.
Love the artstyle! :D
One thing i would like to see is an arrow or some marker to see where i am aiming because my mouse cursor is pretty small.

Wow, nice bundle of mechanics! Really cool what you can do, it's almost like an Ant Crusader Kings! :ant:

The music is really nice and the giant buff ants are very awesome.

@zwartraider Indeed! It's the principal inspiration for the Feature system! We've maybe played to much at those games (CK2 & 3 😄)
Thank you for your feedback!

@magicstunts123 Great idea! We should be able to make it happen ! Would be a big upgrade in QoL !
Thanks for your feedback ❤

Good management game ! I like the fact there are 2 game parts because that add some action.

Maybe the survival end menu lacks of a "take all" button, you must spam + button for each object.

A very good game :blush:

Good game, I like the contrast between peaceful colony builder and frantic action. Maybe the ant colony part would be easier to learn if you introduced the mechanics one by one. As for the action part, I wish the arena walls were visible, I kept hitting the invisible walls.

Great job! Good luck with your future projects!

You really got the foundation for something amazing here, the gameplay loop is addicting and the fusion of 2 game styles breaks the monotony of either one. It can certainly use a lot more polishing, mu suggestions would be:

- Improved tutorial and UI: I didn't even realize my ants were being lost between turns due to lack of rooms until a few turns in, since there was no tutorial about that. They do have a little icon that says so next to their name, but hovering over it to get the description was very finnicky.

- More actions to be taken each turn: being limited to only 2 actions, sometimes 1 or 0 depending on how you spend your ants, makes the management phase very short compared to the action phase. Maybe being able to build extra research labs to expand the number of actions? Or more buildings that allow you to consume ants.

- Some general QOL stuff would be appreciated, like being able to permanently give an ant a bedroom instead of having to do it every turn, a take all button at the end of the action phase, larger windows and more readable fonts sizes, etc.

- I didn't quite understand the ammo system, does the ammo I research only work for one action segment? If so, I don't disagree with the system, but it does make the action sections a bit more tedious if I have to give up on expanding the colony to get ammo, which slows down the pace of the management section. If making ammo was relegated to another building instead of the research lab, then that would alleviate the issue.

All that being said, don't mistake this review for a diss on the game. I really like what you've made here, and this has the potential to be even better!

I like the chill music, it really fits. This is quite an interesting take on an art colony game!

Wow, this was a really in depth game! There's definitely some room for improvement around QOL things, but overall this is impressive for a jam! I unfortunately killed my colony after one battle :joy: Keep on making games :smile:

This game has a really ambitious concept, and I love the blend of colony management with the action-packed segments. The fusion mechanic and the decisions you need to make for the survival of the colony add a unique depth. I did get a little lost a couple of times with some of the mechanics, but once I got the hang of it, it felt really rewarding. The contrast between peaceful colony-building and frantic action is a great touch, though I agree some UI and tutorial improvements would help smooth out the experience. Overall, this is a really promising project, and I’m excited to see how it evolves. Great job!

You can really see the depth that went into all the systems. I can imagine that the "skill ceiling" is pretty high here. The mix of the 2 very different parts of the game is also definitely interesting.

What has to be improved for sure is the UI. At the moment it is very convoluted and you can barely see what is going on, since everything is layered with text and buttons, which made it very confusing to know what's going on.
I do definitely see the potential tho, so keep up the work!

I agree with alot of the other comments, really nice mix between the two seperate phases but I would have liked to see some more polish in things like UI and overall controls. Really good job overall though congrats! :)

I really enjoyed the switch between management and fighting. The combat was tough at first, but by the second (or maybe fifth or sixth) try, I started to get the hang of it! The music is good and relaxing, but then the battles kicked in. I love how the bullets look like ants!

I didn’t quite understand the food mechanics at first, so I think easing players into the game’s mechanics could help, especially since there’s a lot to take in. Sometimes less is more (and I’m just a bit jealous of the amount of content you have!). Overall, great game!

Combining the managment and fighting mode was fun, tho I gotta admit that the third time I went into battle mode I didn't found it as enjouable as before, in my opinion there should be a little more variety of enemies or a mechanic to hook you into the game, but it was overall pretty fun! other thing I have to say is that with the managment part I find it kind of slow to progress, but that's more of a preference

I really do wish it was a bit more obvious what was going on but it was fun to play nonetheless

Very ambitious and cool! I liked it :D

Wow, there's a lot of game here. I like the idea of combining a colony builder with vampire survivors combat in between rounds, and the gameplay is fun.

I got about 10-12 rounds into it before losing. When you don't get enough food, I think there should be one round of starving before you die and lose the game (if you don't manage to get enough food on the next round, you lose completely). Equivalently, you could have one round's minimum amount of food storage capacity.

I had a hard time figuring out the mechanics at first. I unlocked a new ammo type but didn't realize I needed to build the armory to equip it (maybe ammo should be researched in the armory). I was also sometimes confused about how conquerAnts disappear between rounds. I assigned one a bed and then sent it to battle, but it never returned (I think? Might be wrong about this).

The stats are a bit hard to read and contextualize since all the scales are different. A bar chart showing where each stat is on the distribution might help.

For the combat, I'd probably zoom out just a little bit (maybe 10-15%) and make the background pan at the same rate as the enemies when walking. Sometimes, I misjudge how quickly I'm moving and run right into an enemy who has just fired a wall of ants, killing me instantly (although my ants are just too weak).

fun idea!

The battle music slaps! Not sure if I understood all the game systems but was engaged enough to give it a couple of tries. This could be a blast with some more polished visuals and UI.

Also I am curious is it possible to beat this game? Do I need to finish a special building/research in order to do that?

Here is my playtest:
https://youtu.be/iqmtfxLqjv8

Fun and interesting combination of genres here. I had a bit of difficult time early on, but once I got setup I was able to go on some missions, feed my family, and start to expand. The game seems really tough, and man did those beetles destroy me, but I can tell there's a lot of action and tactics beyond what I could get through! I won the first mission by the fraction of a pixel!! Impressive scope and scale for the game jam. Great job.