The Abrams Machine has lurked in the Northern Woods for as long as anyone can remember. Why it was put there, what it does, or who made it are long-unsolved mysteries.
What is known is that every twenty years, the Machine awakes and summons someone from one of the nearby villages to feed it with resources from the woods.
Done. Well, not really. I was trying to push myself out of my comfort zone and, well, it shows. First time I've seriously picked up Unity since LD42; first time trying a 3D game; first time I created my own 3D assets in Blender.
I'm not happy with this game, and I seriously thought about not submitting (but since I took a couple of days off work to do LD47...). It doesn't come close to the vision I finally had after some three hours of trying to come up with an ideal; there is so much more that I wanted to put in -- research trees, more resources, more sounds, animations, proper win condition, a really big explosion if you lost...
Two big problems for me were (1) not putting in the effort of practicing with Unity and Blender in the months between when I decided I wanted to do the jam, and the jam kicking off; and (2) poor time management.
Still, six months until LD48. Plenty of time to practice.
Hi! I've tried to launch WebGL version but it is stuck at approx 90% in the unity's loading screen. I hope this issue is only on my pc :) Windows version seems to be working. Good work, thou :)
Edit: Just checked and it's not working for me either now; it was *definitely* working when I originally uploaded though, so I'm wondering if it's an issue at GameJolt's end. Modified some of the release settings (turning off fullscreen, switching to http) but none of them fixed the problem so they're back at the original settings. Continuing investigation.
Edit 2: Uploaded it to itch.io and it's working there.
I tried the game, it did work for me on itch also. I like the gameloop you got there, a bit of gathering and using that to continue the game. Great that you tried something out of your comfortzone, these game jams are a great opportunity to do so! Overal you did a great job, see you again at LD 48 ;)
@joey-vrij Thanks! I originally had the idea that you *wanted* to be stuck in the loop of gathering resources and feeding the machine, because bad things would happen if you didn't. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to put in a proper "bad ending" so the game just ends.
I have to say, the story at the game start really set up a creepy atmosphere! The premise reminded me of the show Over the Garden Wall, and the yellow portion at the 'full' side of the gauge piqued my interest. (I never got it there, though).
Thanks @dwink! The yellow on the upper half of the gauge was yet another idea that never managed to get to fruition. There was going to be a win-condition, where if you fed the machine enough and got the needle into the red-striped zone, it would go back to sleep. But before it did, its demands would increase insanely.
Interesting concept! As you mentioned, it would be nice fleshed out a bit more, with some more gameplay elements and animation/sfx. Great work getting something done though!
I've never tried 3D but it looks like you learned a hell of a lot! I'd probably still be working out how to export from Blender into Unity by now! I liked the funny dialog about the machine. With a few extra mechanics and some polish I think this could be a really solid title! Well done, don't be so hard on yourself!
@djayne There's a few YouTube channels I can recommend: Imphenzia (who has also submitted a game for LD47) for Blender/Unity, Brackeys and Jason Weimann for Unity.
WebGL works for me almost fine(menu and text are cutout for me unless I'm in full screen) Chrome, FullHD, no browser zoom. Other than that - a bit basic, with lack of gameplay features. But stuff implemented works fine without any bugs. Strange choice for camera rotation, since we use mouse, Q/E would be better, I think.
Good job, especially with getting things done in Blender; it's not an easy program to work with. Two sneaky hints I used in my game, for the future: -vehicles are easier to model and animate than people in the time you've got -Take a plane, subdivide it a few times and then apply three 'displace' modifiers (one each for x, y and z) with noise as the texture to make a quick and easy bit of terrain. Play with the sliders until it looks like how you want it to.
@steambrain: Yes, I realised Q/E would've been better but even though it've been an easy thing to change, for some reason I never did it. Had that "D'oh!" moment about 10 minutes after submitting, when I was on the way to the supermarket to get lunch! "*Working* 3d game"? -- you're too kind :laughing:
Objectives are super clear, love it. I'd love to see a bit more about my ingame main goal. Just feeding certain amounts of resources into machine is fun itself but a big objective is nice thing to have too :) Best of luck!
Well,I like your job. 360 degree camera and the audio for the theme, you have created fits very well. But maybe the camera can catch further a bit more.
Comments24
I'm not happy with this game, and I seriously thought about not submitting (but since I took a couple of days off work to do LD47...). It doesn't come close to the vision I finally had after some three hours of trying to come up with an ideal; there is so much more that I wanted to put in -- research trees, more resources, more sounds, animations, proper win condition, a really big explosion if you lost...
Two big problems for me were (1) not putting in the effort of practicing with Unity and Blender in the months between when I decided I wanted to do the jam, and the jam kicking off; and (2) poor time management.
Still, six months until LD48. Plenty of time to practice.
Edit: Just checked and it's not working for me either now; it was *definitely* working when I originally uploaded though, so I'm wondering if it's an issue at GameJolt's end. Modified some of the release settings (turning off fullscreen, switching to http) but none of them fixed the problem so they're back at the original settings. Continuing investigation.
Edit 2: Uploaded it to itch.io and it's working there.
And darn right I'll be doing LD48! :grin:
That's cool enough for me :smiley:
@djayne There's a few YouTube channels I can recommend: Imphenzia (who has also submitted a game for LD47) for Blender/Unity, Brackeys and Jason Weimann for Unity.
https://www.youtube.com/user/ImphenziaMusic
https://www.youtube.com/user/Brackeys
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX_b3NNQN5bzExm-22-NVVg
Other than that - a bit basic, with lack of gameplay features. But stuff implemented works fine without any bugs. Strange choice for camera rotation, since we use mouse, Q/E would be better, I think.
Congrats on shipping a working 3d game!
-vehicles are easier to model and animate than people in the time you've got
-Take a plane, subdivide it a few times and then apply three 'displace' modifiers (one each for x, y and z) with noise as the texture to make a quick and easy bit of terrain. Play with the sliders until it looks like how you want it to.
@steambrain: Yes, I realised Q/E would've been better but even though it've been an easy thing to change, for some reason I never did it. Had that "D'oh!" moment about 10 minutes after submitting, when I was on the way to the supermarket to get lunch! "*Working* 3d game"? -- you're too kind :laughing:
@thingus: thanks for the tips!