We have a pretty great idea but probably won't have time to model, rig and animate 7 low poly characters. Especially since our team has no dedicated blenderer. What do you guys think about premade assets?

Hot damn was that one productive day. I'd say more than half of our work is done and our core gameplay is solid. Tomorrow is going to be all about particle effects and sound design. The main headaches of implementing an unusual turn based combat system are behind us. I can't say the code is pretty but it works flawlessly and is some of the fastest prototyping I've done. Very positive mood, now its time to get some sleep.

Well let this be a lesson. Just because you have 90% of the code working properly doesn't mean you can muddle through the last 10% for a whole day. Thanks to this we barely made it before our local jam deadline. We even added a menu scene in the last 5 minutes before. All in all this was a really fun experience and our team was happy with the end result. I hope you guys enjoy some tactical amphibian combat from time to time: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/amphibian-aura

Do you like frogs? How about frog warriors? How about frog warriors fighting foxes in a unique turn based combat system. Well we just fixed most of the bugs in Amphibian Aura so go ahead and give it a try! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/amphibian-aura/

For those who were interested, we finally fixed the annoying save bug in our game, so it now works 100% of the time. No more frustration in your frog combat! Also boat technology. If you find it.

We just need one more review on our tactical amphibian combat simulator with nuclear destruction technology to reach exactly 40 reviews! Please have a look at the game, and once you're done playing it press right shift in combat for a previously unnanounced sneaky easter egg that very few have experienced.

The levels and how we came up with them

Once our game had all the essential systems working, we knew we should start making levels.

We participated at a local jam site at the University of Tartu, so we took the opportunity to sit down in front of a whiteboard and discuss the ideas we had for the levels.

We knew we shouldn't plan to make the game too long just to get the story across, and we should limit ourselves to three levels at most.

Overview

These were our plans at first:

• The first starts you in the city

  • You get introduced to the basic controls like movement and interaction through the tutorial.
  • The environment should convey the sense of ruin and tragedy
  • You should be able to go through collapsing buildings to get familiar with platforming.

• The second level establishes more of the story and provides platforming challenges in the power plant itself

  • You find notes, signs of people escaping, signs of people failing to escape
  • The environment is dangerous and unstable, you need to platform to continue

• The third level ends the story at the reactor

  • There should be a tiny minigame like removing panels from the reactor core as the radiation increases
  • The game should end with a cutscene

How it went

During development, we spent a lot of time getting the look and sound of the game right, so we had to cut back on our goals for the levels. This is usually how it goes during gamejams though. In the end, we were proud to have made a game with a distinct story with a beginning, middle, and ending. I think the time we spent getting the look and feel of the game right paid off since everyone seems to be enjoying it so far. Still, we can't help but feel like there is potential for so much more in this game.

See for yourself?

We already got the votes we need, but if you feel like checking it out here is the link.

Please let us know what you thought or which parts you would like to see more of.