Ludum Dare #37compo

We Need A Hero

by tomdeal

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.15

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.15

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.48

Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.52

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.56

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.77

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.74

Coolness★★★★★★★★★★51%

We need a Hero
=================================
Super Hero Control Room Simulator
=================================

You are Oracle! Or at least, you are in the Super Hero Control Room of Big Deal City.
Manage and hire new Heroes with FAME Points! Assign them to difficult missions and watch
them succeed! Or maybe fail?

============================
This Game is best played in
1280x720 windowed mode!
============================

========
Controls
========
- Click things with the left Mouse Button
- Hold the right Mouse Button to pan around the Map
- Use the Scroll Wheel to zoom
- ESCAPE: Brings up the Manual, also includes the Exit Game Button
- SPACE: Toggle Pause Mode

===============
How To Play
===============
Please read the ingame Manual. It opens automatically when you start the game.

===============
KNOWN BUGS
===============
There is one bug where the game gets stuck in the fight screen. I've uploaded a (hopefully) fixed version on itch.io. The webgl version is still buggy, so for the best experience, use the download version.

===========================
Tools
===========================
Game Engine: Unity 5
Graphics: Adobe Illustrator

==========================
Video / Post Mortem
==========================
I've created a video for the game and also talked a bit about what went right and wrong during the jam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLd2FNUdJ2Q

Questions, Bugs, everything? Write a comment, or write me a mail at [email protected]

Thanks for playing and have a nice day :-)
Thomas Diehl

Genres: strategy

Tools: Unity

Comments21

Crafted Entertainment13 Dec 2016, 07:52

Really fun and imaginative game!

DillonEA13 Dec 2016, 11:34

https://puu.sh/sNW9K/53b4cde320.png - Don't think that is supposed to happen if you spam click the "Fight" button. Admittedly wasn't quite sure what to at first, which is what led to this happening in the first place.

FinGamer13 Dec 2016, 11:37

Fun little game. My heroes lost too many fights to have motivation to play the game more than 10 minutes though.

Somelife13 Dec 2016, 11:37

Probably a sucker for super hero games but had lot of fun.

If you're pushing this beyond just LD37, I would think about breaking the routine that sets up fairly quickly, add some complexity (ie: actual street path finding, differentiate between flying/on foot heroes, some "too much destruction" press events or the like) and a bit more mini game around managing/moving around the heroes.

Good fun though.

Devastus13 Dec 2016, 11:59

Quite the fun idea, and loads of potential for pushing this further.
At it's current state however, the game has some balancing issues. Granted, I played the WebGL version (bugged version?), but I never really got anywhere in the game because my starting heroes pretty much lose to everyone at level 3 or above, and I lose all the fame I've collected whether I fight them or not.

BlueTheLemon13 Dec 2016, 12:04

Clean job. Like the idea, solid execution. I think sound design would have made the game great !

Khud013 Dec 2016, 12:06

It was a bit too complicated, hard to understand and overcrowded in the beginning, but when I zoomed out and understood what is what, it turned out to be really fun! )

Chroteus13 Dec 2016, 12:12

Quite an interesting concept, but could be fleshed out more. For an example, stray weak heroes who join you for free.

negativice13 Dec 2016, 12:26

Pretty cool, kind a buggy tho,got stuck in a fight forever.

tomdealauthor13 Dec 2016, 13:34

I think I've managed to fix the infinite fight bug. Please report if you still getting it.

Somnium13 Dec 2016, 13:54

I love the concept! A very fun strategy-game!

It seems that you can become "doomed" pretty easily, hitting a downward-spiral of losing fame because you do not have enough heroes to send out, causing you to not have enough fame to hire new heroes, and then you just pick fights until your last hero dies, without making any progress :)

I really liked the style of the city and GUI! Also, the concept of having "cards" for the heroes and events, and having the battles play out in a small "card-window", including "shake" impact-effects worked really well! :)

Some suggestions for UI-improvement, if you make a post-LD version: Auto-start battles when the hero arrives, and let clicking the red dot have the same effect as clicking the corresponding "card".

SimonHutchinson13 Dec 2016, 15:56

Great concept! It reminds me of this mobile game I played years ago called something like "middle manager of justice."

I'm playing the web version, and the text is a little hard for me to read.

kamranwali14 Dec 2016, 00:39

Nice game. Like the concept of the game. I failed miserably. This just proves I shouldn't start my own super hero company :( . Overall the game was fun to play. Keep it up!

spacedoubt14 Dec 2016, 05:12

Cool game! I could see it being made into a CCG.

Maple14 Dec 2016, 10:28

Hmm, nice concept.

It was a bit overwhelming at first -- information overload with a visible countdown in the top right! -- but as I messed around for a bit, I got the hang of what was happening. Super difficult, though (and a little buggy). The fame i/o was like an even tug of war.

I'd say the biggest issue is with the information overload, though -- I don't need to know everything at once. Also, figuring out that I could zoom out was super helpful -- and I wonder why it is even a feature. K.I.S.S. would have really helped this entry.

Overall, though, you did pretty well. You were off in the right direction, and given some more time for polish you'd have a solid game.

Keep it up!

cynicalmonkey14 Dec 2016, 11:37

agree with Fingamer, maybe start by throwing out a few easier fights to give the player a bit more early wins to get interested

DOXM14 Dec 2016, 20:05

I like it, but try to add an arrow image on the previous and next buttons :)

bentglasstube18 Dec 2016, 00:15

I really liked the concept but it seemed like I immediately ran out of fame and couldn't progress much. Maybe I'm just bad.

caranha25 Dec 2016, 12:37

Ok, this idea has a lot of potential! I really like the idea of working as a supervisor to a team of super heroes, without direct control over them.

I hope you keep working on it!

I think the thing that I missed most was a few sound effects as feedback: simple things like a "bleep" when you press a button, or a "ping" when a new bandit shows up.

Also, it was not very clear that you have to press "fight" for the battle to start. My first game my heroes stayed near the bandits with silly facing waiting for me to say "GO!" :-)

Good game, keep working on it!

Jupiter_Hadley29 Dec 2016, 16:59

Interesting game! I included it in my compilation video series of the Ludum Dare 37 games, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/hYD1PzuDX-0

Ellian3 Jan 2017, 00:35

Wow, there's a lot of work there to make a fun little managing game work in such a short time. Awesome work! This is a super solid entry. love the random names. :)