My 3rd Ludum Dare Entry and 2nd one submitted for the jam (plus first entry since being unable to complete the last LD on time).
Kind of started late on this one (on a Saturday evening) since I was initially unsure whether to take part this time as I was pretty much ill for most of the weekend (plus, it was difficult trying to make something in the limited time I had that would fit the theme).
Graphics are a bit basic as I'm really terrible at drawing things if you haven't guessed by now (I actually used the primitives in Unity for this one) and the AI is a bit rudimentary (but still does the job somewhat) and there may be one or two bugs I haven't found yet.
UPDATE (on the last day): Just replaced the Linux build with a universal one that should work on both x86 and x64 (Again, let me know if there are any problems)
UPDATE: Standalone versions have just been added (Also, I don't have a Mac or Linux machine myself so please let me know if there are any problems with those builds)
Instructions
1. You are in control of the red cells whilst the computer is control of the blue cells
2. Click on one of your cells to connect to all of its neighbouring cells.
3. You can only click on cells that can connect to at least one neighbouring neutral or opposition cell
4. The game ends when there are no more neutral cells available and whoever has the most cells wins.
@Capitals: I wasn't really sure whether this could be linked to the theme as well (I showed it to my friend who was doing the jam as well and he said it somewhat fitted the theme) but I suppose each cell can 'connect' to all of the other cells surrounding it (if you can interpret that as the theme part)
@Aumni: I actually coded the primary mechanic with two players in mind first then added the AI later (I suppose I can add local multiplayer in some form or another in a post compo version).
As for the AI itself, it's pretty basic. Essentially all it's doing is iterating through every single cell it owns and checking which one would capture more cells. Also, because of time constraints/me being lazy (or rather, this is actually my first time trying to make AI for a game jam game or actual AI for that matter), I used a random number generator as a tiebreaker when you have several viable cells (There's also a few lines of code that makes the AI go for neutral cells more and taking that out makes it very aggressive and attempt to capture as many cells as possible but unfortunately it becomes so stubbornly aggressive, it won't actually finish the game because it's too busy trying to capture the most cells).
the entry is ok, and it reminds me of a very old flash game i once placed (very similar, but ewith hexagons) the ai needs some work though, because all I did was eating into blue (if possible: getting 4, elsewise get 3) and i easily won
@pythong: I'll agree that the AI needs some working on (I'm not exactly great at making them to be honest). At the moment it's stupidly passive (since it goes for neutral cells more).
I think that what the game needs (in addition to a better AI of course :P) are some deeper mechanics. For example if capturing a circle prevented that circle from being captured for N turns (maybe 1) the battles for territory when the players clash would probably be more strategic! Another mechanic you could add is that circles which are cut off from the "main group" (largest amount of circles that connect in some way) become automatically captured by the enemy (for example in your fourth screenshot, the four blue circles would automatically turn red. What I'm trying to say is that it has potential, even though it isn't much right now.
@Moosefly: One of my planned mechanics was that if you capture an opposing cell, your newly captured cells will start capturing its neighbours (beginning a chain reaction of some sort) but I decided to cut that out due to time and complexity (and the fact that it could potentially make the game too short).
I also originally had randomly chosen walls (cells that cannot be captured by either player) added in but I had to take that out as sometimes the random wall generation would inadvertently block off a group of neutral cells (preventing the game from finishing).
Not bad AI and interesting concept. It could be further expanded with special cells with items and different levels with unique map configurations. Good job!
Nice concept. Like others said, with stronger AI it would be really cool, but understandable given the time constraints of Ludum Dare. Thanks for sharing!
Nice simple mechanics are good. Shame you didn't get walls working properly, that would potentially have made it more interesting. Very easy to win so I tried eliminating all blues. Wining with three blue cells on the board is the minimum possible.
Nice game, but too easy. It make sence to do different level of AI, because when you firstly done it, playing the game become no sence. Try to think about replayable.
A very simple game. And I mean this in a good way.
Here's an idea: how about each player can program their own AI, and then you can let your AI fight against the opponent's AI. This game would be a perfect for such a competition.
Simple but well done game. I included it in part 25 of my Ludum Dare 30 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) http://youtu.be/mlEPiXm0ehY
Comments33
As for the AI itself, it's pretty basic. Essentially all it's doing is iterating through every single cell it owns and checking which one would capture more cells. Also, because of time constraints/me being lazy (or rather, this is actually my first time trying to make AI for a game jam game or actual AI for that matter), I used a random number generator as a tiebreaker when you have several viable cells (There's also a few lines of code that makes the AI go for neutral cells more and taking that out makes it very aggressive and attempt to capture as many cells as possible but unfortunately it becomes so stubbornly aggressive, it won't actually finish the game because it's too busy trying to capture the most cells).
the ai needs some work though, because all I did was eating into blue (if possible: getting 4, elsewise get 3) and i easily won
Anssi@MooseflyGames
I also originally had randomly chosen walls (cells that cannot be captured by either player) added in but I had to take that out as sometimes the random wall generation would inadvertently block off a group of neutral cells (preventing the game from finishing).
Yeah, the time limit can be quite harsh. Too bad you had to cut those features, they sound pretty cool!
Very easy to win so I tried eliminating all blues. Wining with three blue cells on the board is the minimum possible.
Try to think about replayable.
Here's an idea: how about each player can program their own AI, and then you can let your AI fight against the opponent's AI. This game would be a perfect for such a competition.