Ludum Dare #56compo

tiny_sim

by crcdng

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.64

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.64

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.40

Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.76

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.26

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.46

*links to playable game on itch.io and to source code zip (Flutter project) below*

tiny_sim

an exercise in micromanagement

YOU are MAGENTA. move with WASD keys.
friendly faction is BLUE, opponents are RED, neutrals GREEN

collisions are resolved at ticks:

Rule 1 "neutralize":
BLUE + RED -> GREEN
YOU + RED -> GREEN and you lose a life.

Rule 2 "release":
BLUE + GREEN -> BLUE + BLUE
YOU + GREEN -> BLUE + BLUE
RED + GREEN -> RED + RED

how long can you fend off RED?

tl;dr avoid RED seek GREEN

3 difficulty levels: chill (no death), normal, insane

made from scratch in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 56
by @crcdng (handcoded without ai assistant)

made with Flame Game engine
sound effects from https://sfxr.me/ and https://jfxr.frozenfractal.com/
font: Kenney-Mini-Square

*links to playable game on itch.io and to source code (Flutter project) below*

Tags: #abstract, #no ai, #prototype

Genres: simulation

Tools: sfxr

Comments19

zwartraider7 Oct 2024, 14:30

Interesting game concept! I got really protective of my green tiles, went straight for them. Quite challenging as well, I found myself scrolling down to the combinations explanation to check how it all works again. But practice makes perfect, and having a chill difficulty setting helps as well! :thumbsup:

voidraizer7 Oct 2024, 14:34

This was honestly really interesting. It's a novel concept but the rules are a very confusing at first and the way things jump around all the time, it's hard to tell what's going on or if what you're doing is having an impact. Overall I liked it a lot though

sbackman7 Oct 2024, 18:03

Interesting game. Took a while to get the hang of it. A visible score would have been nice to try and get a highscore.

Brendan Aeria9 Oct 2024, 23:37

I like the simplistic idea. It reminds me of Conway's game of life simulation. I just wish the instructions told me how to help the blue faction (do I sit on green tiles and avoid red tiles?)

pierallard10 Oct 2024, 16:46

Simple but it's working as I played several minutes trying to get an end score... But I never had it!

khaotom10 Oct 2024, 16:53

Observe and experiment. Very chill.

Martingonn11 Oct 2024, 04:45

Simple yet fun!

henk11 Oct 2024, 20:45

My little magenta square seems to die randomly even when it's nowhere near any red squares.
I thought I might be the victim of wraparound or red squares hiding under blue
squares, but neither seem to be the cause. Is this a bug? Or a mechanic I'm not understanding?

Aside from that, I thought it was fun. It might be good to have some sort of visual indication
of the number of lives, though. I started on "chill" mode and didn't realize that
meant "no death" until several minutes had passed.

SdCorpse12 Oct 2024, 01:05

Nice game.

LDJam user 23850012 Oct 2024, 10:51

Interesting idea, but very hard to understand what is going on. Sometimes I am just randomly moved somewhere else, I died I guess? But was not close to any red squares (or any squares actually). Sometimes there is a sound when I am moved somewhere else, did I die here too? Or did I level up or something?

PlasmaPuffs13 Oct 2024, 03:23

I found the rules and colors kind of confusing. I think a score or health indicator would be really useful, but good game (and it was pretty fun dodging the red squares on insane mode)!

Adrien Tremblay13 Oct 2024, 17:30

Im sorry. I didn't really understand this game. This is the type of game put out in like 1979 lmfao

Harmadillo13 Oct 2024, 19:54

It took me a while to work out what I should be doing and I don't think I understand 100%. Especially why i would randomly(seemingly) teleport. Interesting to play. Insane difficulty definitely was.

crcdngauthor14 Oct 2024, 01:51

Thanks for all the feedback so far, it is very much appreciated. I definitely want to see if the concept works out with a few improvements, many of which are mentioned here. Therefore I am hard at work on a post-LD version. And I can't wait to share with you after the rating period is over. It will be available at the same place: https://crcdng.itch.io/tiny-sim

ellaris14 Oct 2024, 19:01

Interesting, I feel I understood the rules, but even tho I never touched red the game was over?

tinykidtoo17 Oct 2024, 03:18

Didn't really understand the rules. But avoiding the red was fun.

DzejPi17 Oct 2024, 19:38

Interesting stack, you don't see Flutter often, I still have nightmares about working with it occasionally. Joking asides — interesting game which reminded me of Game of Life a bit. But I have to agree with most of the people — rules are quite hard to understand. And I too was moved randomly few times, which I was not sure whether it was bug or not. And then I died seemingly out of nowhere, because there was nothing around me. But avoiding the red squares was fun.
If you plan to work on this further, then I would definitely try to introduce the rules slowly, so, that everyone gets them well. Otherwise very original entry, it's great to experiment a bit!

CatZP22 Oct 2024, 21:48

Fun game! Still it would be nice to have a score in the end ^^

stmate0323 Oct 2024, 11:15

simple and clean, easy to understand the main mechanics, can get hectic on high difficulty, I had fun just watching what happen on easier difficulty only really dodging every blue moon or seeking green to reduce red numbers, wish there was a life indicator :(