GrimTide: Delay the Inevitable

by martink

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.65

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.50

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.48

Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.05

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.83

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.61

Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.15

A tide of red stuff is creeping towards your base. How long can you hold off it's unstoppable advance?

GrimTide is a dark, surreal strategy game.

* Build factories on purple squares to generate resources.
* Use resources to order and stockpile new defences.
* Use proximity mines to protect your factories, and mortars to clear out the red stuff.
* Prevent the red from creating new sources by intercepting it's spores with your missiles.
* If the worst comes to worst, you always have the nukes.
* The tiles are randomly generated, so no two runs are the same.

Controls:

* Click on tiles to use the currently selected defence. (highlighted in green)
* Missiles are fired to the clicked location from the nearest factory.
* Number keys (1 - 5) can be used to select and order defences in addition to the UI.
* Esc: open menu.
* Backspace: self destruct factories.

Changelog:

* V1.1 disables window resizing.
* V1.2 fixed sprite scaling bug, window resizing re-enabled.
* V1.3 Reverted accidental change to speed of enemy missile spawning introduced in V1.2.

Comments27

Quinn_Patrick5 Apr 2022, 00:21

That was one of the most bizarre, creepiest games I've ever played. Genuinely unsettling. Amazing work. It is a little confusing, but I think that adds to it. One thing I could call a complaint is that intercepting the missiles is next to impossible unless its a head on collision, but the sense of hopelessness is really key to what makes this game cool, so maybe just leave it.

MorganMoon5 Apr 2022, 02:13

Wow! The audio was really intense and great, it really made the mood of the game standout and as the red areas got larger the background noise got more intense, which made it feel more stressful (in a good way). I played this one for a while. Only suggestion I guess was at first I could not tell a different between the create buttons and weapon/factory buttons so I had no idea how to create more of them, but once I got the hang of it the gameplay flowed well

haztro5 Apr 2022, 06:32

Awesome entry! Took a little while to figure out how the stockpile mechanic worked but after that it was super fun - gets stressful managing all the factories. Sound design is really nice as well. Great work!

LDJam user 2401685 Apr 2022, 14:03

A really nice game! The only thing that bug me is that some red cells seem to be indestructible, making it impossible to actually last long enough. The UI isn't super intuitive either, sadly. Loved the concept and gameplay, though, and the art & sounds are really nice, good job.

MartinKauthor5 Apr 2022, 15:53

@lisyarus Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you like the design. The permanent cells are a feature not a bug, they are the source of the red stuff and are spawned by the red missiles.
From the feedback I've been getting, I could have done a better job with the UI and UX, seems people are getting confused about how to play.

MrEvilGuy5 Apr 2022, 20:03

I recently played through Creeper World 3 so wanted to give this a go. I love the mood, music, and sounds --beats creeper world in that regard. Gameplay is pretty good. I like how you have to constantly move factory locations to survive longer. Overall, solid entry!

Sam Minh5 Apr 2022, 20:10

The mood and impending doom were really well delivered. As a fan of Creeper World, this game is right up my alley. I do normally preferer some passive way to protect yourself as the clicking can become very repetitive. I am also not sure about the buying aspect, it is fairly tedious.
Overall very nice and well executed entry!

MartinKauthor6 Apr 2022, 15:17

@sam-minh Thanks for the feedback, creeper world was definitely a big inspiration. I thought about passive defences, but the balance and sense of urgency relies on the player being a little overwhelmed. It's definitely something to consider if I do a post-jam version.

MartinKauthor6 Apr 2022, 15:20

@quinn-patrick "one of the most bizarre, creepiest games I’ve ever played. Genuinely unsettling". This is high praise indeed XD, it is exactly the kind of tone I was going for. I am glad you enjoyed it.

nardandas6 Apr 2022, 17:26

I really liked the like, feel of the setting, it was very nice. Additionally I thought it was really satisfying getting wins against the... thing. I do think the source cells could be better communicated. It took me a while on my first playthrough to realize what they were and I wasted quite a few resources on them, as well, once there's a big mass they just are unfindable. I felt the missiles were super difficult to target, but getting a hit felt really good. Maybe a little bit of help there would be nice - tracking or something. Finally I kind of got frustrated when the factories just exploded when misplaced. That's a lot of resources! Cool game though, really enjoyed it!

Oliver Richmeier6 Apr 2022, 17:29

Another creeper world fan here. You absolutely nailed the aesthetic, I love the audio design. and while the UI wasn't the most intuitive, once I figured it out it definitely plays uniquely. Really nice work

Abdonatioera6 Apr 2022, 17:52

This was fun! It took me a while to understand what was happening though. Maybe flash up a message saying "low resources" or "low stockpiles" or something when you try to build and don't have the required things to do it. That might make it a bit clearer. Overall, once I understood what was happening, I really enjoyed it. Reminded me a lot of minesweeper. The sound effects and music were really great too, they built quite an intense atmosphere.

MartinKauthor6 Apr 2022, 18:36

@nardandas Glad you enjoyed it. I agree about the source tiles, I'm thinking I will put some kind of sprite on them.

@abdonatioera Having popups to highlight low resources/stockpiles is a good idea. It's on the list for the post-jam version. Thanks for the feedback.

svemir6 Apr 2022, 19:19

Such a nice creepy vibe, the impending doom and sounds really made me feel I was inside some nuclear holocaust aftermath. I would've like the UI to be a bit bigger, but you quickly get used to it. There are a nice number of choices, but not too many that you're overwhelmed. Very cool!

ArdaKrkz6 Apr 2022, 19:47

Very interesting core and vaious content! Cool entry!

TheGamerASD7 Apr 2022, 07:58

Nice game, the atmosphere is really well done and I really liked the gameplay.

Vidu7 Apr 2022, 08:05

Amazing atmosphere and cool gameplay ! Too creepy for me but well done 💙

CandleBird7 Apr 2022, 19:33

Something about the simple nature of the game along side the great sound design made this game send a chill up my spine. Something about the slowly creeping red wave causing more and more distortion hit all the right notes. Gameplay was pretty good, but I did end up losing much quicker than I expected. I got much further on the second playthrough, but I feel like the difficulty ramps up very quickly. Other than that, this was a great game!

MartinKauthor7 Apr 2022, 19:48

@svemir Thanks, UI is definitely an area I need to improve.

@candlebird Glad you enjoyed the game. Difficulty is definitely hard to judge for Jam games. It randomly generates the grid too, so it can vary based on how lucky your start is.

unpronounceable7 Apr 2022, 20:01

You nailed the atmosphere for this game. The music, colors, and noise on the tiles gave it a very unsettling feeling. Wasn't to figure out how to get the missiles working. Was able to figure out the permanent spots, would have been nice if there some sort of indicator that they were different than the other tiles. I also really wanted to be able to push the creep back more. Keyboard shortcuts also would have been very nice to have.

Stefan Funke8 Apr 2022, 12:01

How do you shoot down the enemy missiles? Couldn't figure it out.

Cool game. Good job.

MartinKauthor8 Apr 2022, 15:24

@stefan-funke @unpronounceable Thanks for the feedback. You have to intercept the enemy missiles with your own, that mechanic is directly inspired by missile command.

Christian Zommerfelds8 Apr 2022, 20:08

Interesting idea. The sound adds a lot to the atmosphere, although it's a bit too intense after a while :)

I guess we all wanted to match the theme, but I have to admit that forcing the player to always lose made some games in this jam miss some potential. For this game I feel like it would have been nice if you could actually win and build a nice base.

Some other feedback: the UI is very small and hard to read. I found the symbols a bit confusing. Maybe a lot of numbers could be removed from the UI (e.g. the time it takes). Also the grid and some is kind of blurry, not sure if this was intended.

Nice work!

MartinKauthor8 Apr 2022, 22:36

@christian-zommerfelds Thanks for the feedback! I agree about the theme, there's been a few games I've played that I wished didn't have an impending fail condition. I do plan on making a post-jam version, which doesn't force the defeat.

UI is easily the weakest part of the game, I will be re-working that.

WilloXs10 Apr 2022, 10:43

It took me so long to figure out the missiles... I always thought "why even use them?" but ok they have their very important place but are hard to handle nervertheless. Nukes could be even a bit more powerful imo but should probably destroy your facilities too.

One thing that could be very cool - if you keep working on the game - are buildings that continuously shoot the red stuff. Something like turrets. Id also as you said improve the UI as its very cluttered but you seem to have the same impression. Maybe get rid of the "ordering" part so you can just buy things and they have a cooldown afterwards.

Anyway it was fun for a few minutes (i got to 8 on my second try but could have delayed it further with mines spam) good job. nice idea.

oneowerse11 Apr 2022, 16:06

your game is very suitable for this topic, I like the design and the mechanics of the game surprised me, great game

OtterFaeLure17 Apr 2022, 08:05

The game was an interesting take and the music definitely set the creepiest mood I've ever seen in a tower defense type game. Well done there. :D
That being said, and I can see you've commented on this, but the user interface was, very hard to work with.
Tower defense style games are my thing, but, I stopped playing because it wasn't enjoyable due to UI issues. On my screen the bottom section was partially cut off, and (with 20/20 vision) I was squinting at the screen due to the low contrast. This made the game unenjoyable even though the concept is great and the execution seems very useable. I can't imagine how people with vision issues would find the game.
Other than that the game seems like it would be great and my only sadness is that the UI is so restrictive and, in the span of a jam, it is really hard to get everything down.

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