Ludum Dare #42compo

You Are God

by goudagames

Overall★★★★★★★★★★4.09

Fun★★★★★★★★★★4.09

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★4.00

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.96

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.86

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.12

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.16

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.41

You are god trying to create more space for your followers to settle. Use godly powers to manipulate the world and create beautiful environments in which your followers want to live.

I'm really happy with how this turned out, but I didn't have time for many things, I have never gone this close to the deadline before (never had to use the submission hour to submit).
Due to the time limit, I didn't have time to play test everything, so it might be really hard or really easy (well, there's no win condition, so...), you'll have to see.

As always with my games, it would be very appreciated if you could post the highest score you can get (population in this case).

I hope you enjoy!

A longer, more elaborate Post Mortem will be posted later when I haven't been livestreaming for 17 hours straight.

Comments27

Tinamil13 Aug 2018, 02:13

I really like this. I got 529 people on my first attempt. The fact that you procedurally generate the levels is interesting, I wouldn't have expected that for a Ludum Dare game, but it's a nice touch.

Barrier13 Aug 2018, 19:20

Cool God game! Things can get overcrowded really fast, lots of replay value because of procedurally generated level!

StateOff13 Aug 2018, 19:30

Roughly about 1000 on the second attempt. Surprisingly balanced game, enjoyed it a lot.

Bichodust13 Aug 2018, 19:52

I would have loved to play it with music but nice game. The game was paused by default and I was 5 minutes clicking without effect hahaha. But honestly, congratulations. I am a huge fan of management games and yours is awesome for a game jam. The art is fantastic and I love the map with the buildings. Very well done!!

samsonpauljr14 Aug 2018, 09:31

So far I have managed 1259, on the 3rd attempt, I must say it was fun playing it. Good build especially on the approach of game levels.

Jupiter_Hadley16 Aug 2018, 13:45

Nice game! I included it in my compilation video series of the Ludum Dare 42 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/8T98Y6n8oZk

velvetlobster16 Aug 2018, 14:20

Feels a bit like Carcassone, the board game. I like the mechanics in this one, and also agree that music and having some events that trigger music to be played could make this a more involving experience for sure.

goudagamesauthor18 Aug 2018, 04:11

Thank you all for the great feedback! Yeah, I really wanted to do music this time (I usually don't have time) but I simply spent to much time on the graphics and gameplay to have the time to add it.

kruemelkeksfan23 Aug 2018, 10:50

976 on my first attempt, 1840 on my third. It appears to be heavily luck affected, my second attempt was on a small island, completely hopeless. Fun little optimization game. It started lagging on my machine (MacBook Pro, 2012, 2.9Ghz Dual Core i7) at around 1500 people.

dimesto5223 Aug 2018, 12:00

I am your gods live in 3 square meters !! if not the game lag when have come far in the game

Mowztouch23 Aug 2018, 13:07

Wooh this game is great ! One of my fav of this jam. I've kept trying again and again, and improving myself ovre time. Mechanics are good, really innovative, every tiles are usefull, everything seems well balanced, even when you begin with a poor start point, you can grow a big city. I liked it a lot!
Very well done !

goudagamesauthor23 Aug 2018, 16:34

@kruemelkeksfan @dimesto52 Yeah, I'm aware of the lag when the population gets big, I just didn't really have time to do something about it sadly :/ something to think about next time!

@mowztouch I'm glad you liked it! 1,538 pop is not bad, and I'm glad you find it innovative and somewhat balanced.

Rongo Matane23 Aug 2018, 18:56

I love it! And woohoo, a god game! The concept is cool, the graphics are great and the many people jumping around feel very lively! I actually played twice which i rarely do - second time with 1879 people. Though the fps went down heavily around that area, before it went smooth. Sound is practical, but the house building sound was a bit intense - scary :D
I really like it. What are priests for?

erikiene23 Aug 2018, 23:29

definitely one of the best games I've seen this compo. I'm amazed you achieved all this in such a short amount of time. I can come up with 0 negatives.. Good art, fitting sfx, targeted theme & most importantly - very fun to play. Awesome work!

goudagamesauthor25 Aug 2018, 22:34

@rongo-matane The priests are actually pretty poorly explained (didn't have time to implement a good way to explain it) but they are basically the end-game way of dealing with pop. They generate 4 times the amount of faith as a normal population and does not count towards the population count. I'm glad you enjoyed the game! Yeah, the FPS drop at large populations is definitely the biggest issue I have with the game.

@erikiene Thank you! I'm glad you feel like there are no negatives, but I'm sure if you dig a bit you'll find some ;). It's awesome that you like this game that much though! Thank you!

Lexyvil26 Aug 2018, 00:14

A population of 1,442 on my third attempt. Very high replayability, which makes this in my top games, with how each round has a random map! Great game~ It gets exponentially harder as time goes on I feel like, which makes it seem like it's impossible to fill the whole map with houses, but I know that's how it was intended to be though. Having a lot of fun with this one.
I just don't know what the Miraculous sign does yet, since it doesn't seem like it changes the attractiveness of tiles.

Edit: Over 2k population!... New record? The game started lagging at this point.

The lag is the only negative I can think of, which in itself isn't bad at all.

adrisj726 Aug 2018, 00:20

Got up to 1218* , loved the game!

Really wanted to see how far this game can be pushed, despite the lag when there are too many people. I did get a tad bit annoyed when it seemed like the people were too stupid to build a house in a viable tile and I lost, and the Divine Plains always ended up being the most precious and expensive powerup, but there's a strategy to "suggestively" shaping the world so the dumb humans don't starve themselves to death. Definitely a goldie, won't forget this one!

*EDIT: Played again and got to 1873! Saving up for Miraculous Signs really helped!

Might want to have a high score table, people would totally get into it!

goudagamesauthor26 Aug 2018, 16:03

Thanks to all of you for the feedback! I did not expect such great responses from this, I'm glad you all like it!

MerpADer26 Aug 2018, 17:52

this looks pretty good! Though I would change the font from the standard Unity font.

MartinTristan26 Aug 2018, 17:58

Wow this is really cool and addicting! Pretty simple but the challenge is there. I love the pixel art and the special effects / particles. also loved the miraculous site! a great simulation game and use of the theme!

GreenBoxGames26 Aug 2018, 18:23

This is a really great game! the concept is a great interpretation of the theme. The idea for attractiveness levels on tiles is great! The only thing I would want added is some chill music in the background.

goudagamesauthor27 Aug 2018, 20:47

@merpader yeah changing the font just wasn't a priority in this case, if it wasn't for the time restriction I would've used a more fitting font.

@martintristan Thank you very much!

@greenboxgames Thank you! I do agree that some relaxing soundtrack would've been nice, but I was really pressed for time towards the end, so I wasn't able to create a good enough loop.

BBApps30 Aug 2018, 22:57

Very fun game, I kind of got messed up my first attempt because my first house was almost completely surrounded by coast and forest. I love that the map is always different and I played it for a really long time.

Roman Petrov31 Aug 2018, 08:55

I liked this game a lot! I couldn't understand what to do and how to play on the first minute and thought that the Mac version doesn't work, but then I realized that accidentally put the game on pause. :) After that, I had a lot of fun trying to make my people happy. :) I think that the game balance is right, the game is challenging enough and fun to play. What can be improved: sounds and music, but I understand that it's a Compo game and making such complex game just in two days is a real challenge. Thank you!

goudagamesauthor31 Aug 2018, 21:02

@bbapps thank you for the very kind words! Yeah, the world generation can mess it up sometimes, but hey, it's random so you can just restart ;).

@roman-petrov Thank you very much for the feedback! I made the decision to start the game paused so the player doesn't feel stressed in the beginning, but I obviously didn't make that clear enough :). I'm glad you like the balance, I'm also very happy with it. Sound and music could definitely be improved, but time got in the way.

benblack32117 Sep 2018, 17:23

Really like this type of game in general, but this is an especially well executed game. I played it a dozen or so times until I got luck enough to have a good map. I really like how each and every powerup is incredibly useful, but are useful in different ways as your population increases, so you need to be careful to ration yourself.

goudagamesauthor28 Sep 2018, 15:20

@benblack321 Thank you for the wonderful words! I'm glad you liked it.

Other games by @goudagames

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★4.09