Enduring Atlas is a 2 player game between Darkness and Light. Players take turns connecting lines between the worlds to reach their perspective goals: Darkness tries to let the planets collide while Light tries to lighten Atlas' burden. Each players' progress is indicated in percentages at the top of the screen.
Each turn a player gets to draw one line between the top and bottom row of nodes. Darkness goes from a dark node to a light node, and Light goes the other way around. Every line connected to a node increases that node's strength for the player. Multiple connected lines to a single node expand that nodes strength exponentially.
Lines can be drawn straight or diagonally. If a newly drawn line intersects with any lines of the opposing player then there is a 50% chance that the opponents line will be destroyed.
After each turn the strength of all dark nodes is added up, as is the strength of all the light nodes. These forces are pitted against each other and the planets are either pulled in closer together or they move further apart. The first player to reach a 100% wins.
ABOUT THE GAME
Enduring Atlas deals with connected worlds that are also opposing worlds. Besides the two external worlds - the ones Atlas stands on and the one he has to carry - it also deals with two conflicted and connected worlds within. Darkness and light.
The darkness and light theme is also present in the audiovisual part of the game. The graphics consist of harsh shadows and clashing colors. The cursor is Atlas' own hand controlling both sides. The scattered piano tones in the background music are all "neutral" tones, while actions by the dark player add minor tones, and actions by the light player add major tones.
@Frump haha, yes! That's a great way to describe it :) @Appocket haven't had that happen to me yet. Was it a really long game maybe? Can't think of what could tax the memory to bad
Really cool visually, very moody. Good choice of music as well. The actual game was not that intriguing to me, but that's likely because I had no one but myself to test it with.
I quite enjoyed playing it with a friend, but i couldn't find good strategies to win, it seems the better way is always to cross the most lines. Music, graphics and mood is very good.
phenomenal visual design and overall aesthetic! I like it when people do original stuff like this with the theme, very creative. Feels very solid all around, great job.
The rules are a bit too dense for me, but it's a very refreshing and different concept. The art and music is amazing and it's a very original take on the theme, I'm in awe. :)
(Rated this based on AtomicVikings' stream since I didn't have anyone around to try it with)
The game runs a little weirdly for me - the Web version lags a lot and the Windows download will crash and reload after you make a move.
Still, even in the laggy web version, the game's beautiful to look at and listen too. The neon-on-black, the organ dirge, and the classically-rendered Atlus Dong are all perfect.
This game has an interesting concept and it's more complex than it looks at first glance. Intelligence and strategy are important to win. Also, nice graphics and pretty good music ;)
Very cool game! Nice visuals and music create great atmosphere. Unfortunately I didn't have anyone around to play with. Also for some reason the game worked a bit slow.
Nice use of the theme. Really creative and stylish. Needed a little bit to understand the mechanics, but then there was this "aha" moment. Nice ambient music... good mood, good job man
Pretty cool 2-player game,I liked the concept :) Visuals were pretty solid. Music was good but not very appropriate is it? You have Atlas struggling to stand and then this calm soothing sound in the background xD Give us something intense and worrisome!
I'll agree with everyone else here and say that this really needs a Player vs AI mode (as it was slightly awkward to play by myself) but this was a very fun game to play. I loved the graphics and audio and the main gameplay concept matched the theme pretty well.
Nice graphics. I included it in part 12 of my Ludum Dare 30 Compilation video series, if you’d like to check it out :) http://youtu.be/NXgeb3Jk3nI
I feel the 50% rule feels really unfair, but on the other end it is REALLY hard for the light world to win without it. Maybe a different rule to cut the beams could balance it in a better way.
Very solid entry, though rules were very unclear to me. Normally I'd add that this game lacked AI, but I had enough trouble trying to figure out how to make the Light side win (eventually I did ^^).
I didn't have anyone else to play this with, but I still found it to be an immersive experience. The music is very fitting, and Atlas' animations are fantastically fluid and and expressive: you do a really great job of theming the art, music, and gameplay together cohesively. It seemed like the Dark had an easier time making progress; I was finding that most Light lines I drew worsened my position, regardless of the light/dark combinations I chose. Overall, very well executed.
Great take on the theme! It was a nice 2 player game and the way to play makes you think strategically, even if the outcomes are limited. Nice graphics and audio. Great job!
Fantastic atmosphere, the drawn style, calm gameplay and meditative music go very well together. The mechanic does seem broken to me though: since darkness has the first move, it can keep stacking in the left column, abusing the exponential increase in force. As far as I could see, there is no way for light to break this or catch up in any way.
Best regards from a fellow Dutch team! (See Connecting LD30 to the Real World by Will Edwards)
Great mood here. The gameplay is not bad either. It took us a while to figure out how to play, but it's actually quite strategic. The web version is very slow but it worked fine on the desktop. Good job.
@Dining Philosopher I agree that Dark's first move seems to be best spent on (1, 1), however, Light can then reply (1, 5), and the tables are turned. The best response I found for Dark was (5, 2). (Notation being start node to end node, numbered 1-5 from left to right). I'd love to see someone do a deeper analysis of both the game mechanics (I'm not sure how the percentages are calculated for example) and optimal strategy.
@miotatsu wow, you got into it! Cool :) It's indeed a pretty bit advantage to have the first move, that's why crossed lines only have a 50% chance to get destroyed. With 100% is was near inpossible to come back if you were behind.
Points are calculated like this: every connection to a node is worth 5 point + a bonus of number-of-connected-lines-to-a-node to the power of 3 per node. Then the points of light and dark are compared to each other end you end up with, for example, +10 for dark.
This is really cool. A bit hard to take in maybe, I played 2 games before reading the rules and I had no idea what I was doing, even after reading the rules some of the mechanics was still a bit blurry(especially the "intersections cut lines" thing) but it plays very well and it seems to bring some interesting tactical choices when playing versus a friend I think? Good stuff! Oh also of course, I have to mention how pretty the graphics are, love the subtle effect from the shadow world. The music made me VERY impressed with how well the different notes fit in with the mellow background music! You did a daaaamn good job here! :D
Strong mood, great (if somewhat heavy and depressing, but hey, that fits!) music/sfx and the art fits well too! I'm a bit partial about the gameplay: There is a first-move advantage even if there would be stacking OR tearing inside, and you have both. Is that a statement about the power of darkness? :P
Apart from that, I'm not sure what the optimal strategy is - it isn't as clear cut as I thought it would be, but I'm pretty sure it's related to stacking a single node. Not sure how to get constantly the best tearing though?
Currently I'm considering 5-1 to be the best first black move: It stacks and tears light connections - 75% chance for at least one, 25% chance for a second one. I don't see how light is coming back from that. Sure, light can go 5-1 too and possibly do the same, but even if at best case (dark teared nothing, light teared all) it's only darkness 46%, light 54% - and darkness has the next move. Note that that's the best move with a 12.5% chance, and ALL other cases are bad for light.
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Love the music, it fits it totally.
@ehtd yeah, AI was planned, but you know... time :)
@Appocket haven't had that happen to me yet. Was it a really long game maybe? Can't think of what could tax the memory to bad
graphics are spot on too! ;D
I like it when people do original stuff like this with
the theme, very creative.
Feels very solid all around, great job.
(Rated this based on AtomicVikings' stream since I didn't have anyone around to try it with)
Really nice entry !
Still, even in the laggy web version, the game's beautiful to look at and listen too. The neon-on-black, the organ dirge, and the classically-rendered Atlus Dong are all perfect.
Also for some reason the game worked a bit slow.
Great game!
I love the drawings and the animations
Liked the entry :)
Can the light player win?
I feel the 50% rule feels really unfair, but on the other end it is REALLY hard for the light world to win without it. Maybe a different rule to cut the beams could balance it in a better way.
good job, many stars for that one
Best regards from a fellow Dutch team! (See Connecting LD30 to the Real World by Will Edwards)
It's indeed a pretty bit advantage to have the first move, that's why crossed lines only have a 50% chance to get destroyed. With 100% is was near inpossible to come back if you were behind.
Points are calculated like this: every connection to a node is worth 5 point + a bonus of number-of-connected-lines-to-a-node to the power of 3 per node. Then the points of light and dark are compared to each other end you end up with, for example, +10 for dark.
Good stuff! Oh also of course, I have to mention how pretty the graphics are, love the subtle effect from the shadow world. The music made me VERY impressed with how well the different notes fit in with the mellow background music! You did a daaaamn good job here! :D
Apart from that, I'm not sure what the optimal strategy is - it isn't as clear cut as I thought it would be, but I'm pretty sure it's related to stacking a single node. Not sure how to get constantly the best tearing though?
Currently I'm considering 5-1 to be the best first black move: It stacks and tears light connections - 75% chance for at least one, 25% chance for a second one. I don't see how light is coming back from that. Sure, light can go 5-1 too and possibly do the same, but even if at best case (dark teared nothing, light teared all) it's only darkness 46%, light 54% - and darkness has the next move. Note that that's the best move with a 12.5% chance, and ALL other cases are bad for light.