[LD35] Robotic Egg Garden

Ross

Hey, guys. I participated in my first Ludum dare this weekend. I'm a bit late to the party but I had a lot of fun making this and would love to know what you guys think.
The other entries posted here are pretty cool, it just makes me want to get better so please be totally frank. I can take it :)

It's a management game about growing a garden to maintain a flow of resources that are constantly being used up.

You do this by dragging to rotate platforms to direct blue + orange resources towards plants.


Eventually, if you are really good you can start to form pretty complex systems (And there goes the framerate)


The only input you need is the mouse (dragging platforms, placing items)
You can rotate the camera by clicking on the sides of the screen if you want a different perspective.

The Ludum Dare entry (Online, Windows)
It definitely runs better on the windows build.

Zaphire

Nice I rated your game. I really enjoyed the concept of it except there was no real goal to achieve which made it feel pointless to keep on trying. The graphics are nice and I enjoyed the concept as it will be quite nice when given purpose.

Fengol

OMG! A local made this game!? This was the most intriguing game I've rated so far and I SO MUCH want to play it more. Unfortunately I struggled to understand what was going on between the beam and the particles. The UI could do with some improvement.

I see now from your screenshots the beam doesn't need to be placed on the plant which I thought you had to.

I had actually downloaded your source so I could understand it better and try to improve the interface.

dammit

Can you link to your LD entry page please? :)

Ross

@Zaphire I really struggle trying to find a point in games... I mean apart from the intrinsic reward the system provides and any learnt skills that may be transferable to real life. At the end of the day, games ultimately always end pointless. So far, I've tried to mask the end goal with enough progression that the player doesn't notice until the end. I actually had some unlocks you could get but I think I completely failed to communicate and pace the progression properly.

@Fengol I really, really appreciate that. I've only just started making my work public and its the scariest thing I've ever done. The beam was originally only going to be active while rotating or placing objects but I thought it looked cool so I kept it there :3 It kills performance and confuses players so in retrospect I probably should have gone with my first instinct.

God help you with the source, I know its a 48hr jam but I cannot understate how messy it is... If you still feel inclined check out the BounceLineRenderer. It uses recursion to raycast each bounce and then recursively aggregates itself on splitters or funnels which I thought was kinda neat.(It is the buggiest thing in existence, though. Cleanup is impossible). The UI is terrible. I need to improve. Feel free to do absolutely anything with the source, if you end up making improvements I would love to know.

@dammit The link was there but it was misleading. I've renamed it to make it a bit clearer. Sorry for the confusion.

It really means allot to get this feedback. <3

Fengol

This is what I was thinking of in terms of HUD changes. I also added a right-click to the rotating platforms which resets them.

It's nitpicking because it's the comp and you're under pressure. I know you continue to work on it though.



[Edit] Forgot to add obligatory post effects. Now that they're available in the free version of Unity3D there is no excuse NOT to have them to make your games look awesome!

Ross

The separation and linking of UI elements through color makes it so much more apparent what's going on! And we can actually see the messages. :P Its a really nice move in the right direction. And It's awesome that you took the time to actually go ahead and implement it.
Post effects exist?! Awesome!
I do have some future plans so I'm totally going to incorporate your advice into the next iteration. Thank you!

SUGBOERIE

I was so lost at first what was going on but the ambient patient music kept my trying to figure out. Which I liked. It was really hard to control those rotating tiles and I wished you could undo a rotating tile to being flat again. I don't get too far in the game but I got a feel for the mechanics as best as I could. I wasn't entirely sure how I use the block that roll off the trees. Do I just wait until I've got enough of them to get another tree?

Also, is it possible to feed more than one tree at a time? I couldn't manage to do that.

Ross

@SUGBOERIE Your comment is a goldmine for improvement! I think you pretty concisely listed some of the biggest problems the game has. Thanks :)
The idea was that over time your resources would be drained, forcing you to expand (using the blocks as resources), and in doing so one has to find a solution to the problem of navigating and dividing the water and nutrients. I've managed to sustain about 5-6 trees successfully by using the natural spread of the orbs and angling platforms to cut off only portions of the stream. The game is way too difficult though...
You can actually reset the tiles with a tap, I don't blame you for not figuring that out. I've done an amazing job at obfuscating the games systems and controls.

When I get the time I'll implement a visible arcball on hovering over the platforms, @Fengol's UI improvements and faster round iterations as the first attack vector. (So many improvements)

I've been thinking about how plants vs zombies addressed the resource grind by forcing the player to actively defend them. Of course, pvz has a completely different intended engagement, control is the important part there IMO. Hopefully addressing that issue will help make the experience a bit clearer.

francoisvn

This was interesting, but like others have said, pretty confusing. Honestly, I could quite figure it out without coming here to read more info. It feels like there's the potential for an interesting system here, and it looks like you have some ideas and feedback on directions to take it, so I'd be interested to see if those bring out the system's potential depth :)

EDIT: Almost forgot to mention, you should check out Audiotorium for some ideas.

Fengol

Well done!

Ross

@Fengol Thank youuu! Successfully mediocre!