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A jam submission

GathererView game page

Build your World, to escape an unstopable VOID!
Submitted by micecone — 27 days, 5 hours before the deadline
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Gatherer's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Potential, once improved#24.6004.600

Ranked from 5 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

This game is so fun that I ended up playing it for too long XD, good job!
The concept is very creative, and I look forward to seeing this project grow.
The only issue I have is the lack of ambient sound; the game felt quiet.
Overall, it's a great game!

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much!
And you are totally right, a bit of music or ambience is definitely somthing I need to add :D

Submitted(+2)

This game is really fun and I see a whole lot of potential in it! It's challenging, has some charm, and I see a lot of areas for expansion.

It reminds me somewhat of the board game The 7th Continent (if you've ever tried that!), about discovering tiles and harsh survival conditions.

The UI / UX and gameplay already feels pretty good, so I only have minor nitpick,  thoughts, and potential ideas for expansion.

- I love that everything is a single click to do, very quick and satisfying to play with. 

- Would be cool to see a "preview" of the resulting food / water / time whenever you hover on something. (When playing I tend to ignore the numbers written on the tiles while focusing on "what resources I have left", so if the bottom UI bar could also reflect the costs it would be nice)

- I wasn't sure how to close the tutorial tips at the very start (not a major issue but I did accidently start with picking up a tile.

- I think there is potential to have some really cool upgrades (if they don't already exist and I just haven't seen them). Some ideas - you have the option to jump over an empty tile, backtracking 1 tile costs no time, villages spawn more frequently, if you run out of water / food, you can use the other resource to cover for it, new tiles dropped are guaranteed to have 1 animal, etc. 

- I agree with the other commentor that creating islands is subject to a lot of RNG. II have a few more ideas that could help with that. Could allow the option to rotate the islands, which would help a lot with those "single tile gaps". A more drastic change would be to let the player know what the next tile will look like, tetris style (and maybe with the option to refresh / discard the tile), so they can plan ahead a tiny bit.

- In the style of 7th Continent (and a whole lot of work to implement), i'd love to see multi-tile quests. Maybe a village needs help catching some wolf nearby (and another compass marker would pop up), or you find a lost villager and can bring them back to their village for a reward, etc, etc. I think that would be fun but understand that it's a whole lot of work haha.

- Very occasionally I go a bit fast and accidently start creating an island instead of moving and the current design doesn't allow us to cancel that action (since know we know what the island looks like!). Some awkwardness there but not sure what could help with that. 

But overall it is really awesome, you have a great eye for simplistic design and I see a bright future for this game! Keep it up! 

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for taking the time!
All of your ideas fit really well into the existing gameplay! 

- I definitly need to try some more creative upgrades, like jumping, time-traveling and changing spawn-rates.

- Trying a more tetris-like approach to tile-placement is also a great idea, and might be a good mix of RNG and strategy.

- The water and food cost "preview" is amazing, I don't know why I haven't done it already

- I definitly see the resemblance to 7th Continent, and would love to do smaller quests and stuff like that!

Again, really awsome ideas, and thank you so much for the feedback!

(6 edits) (+1)

Gameplay is engaging, potentially not straightforward, somewhat simple, hard to master, a worldbuilding chase. It has turn-based actions, cycle timers, and random islands. This is an extremely immersive game, and if you can get past the randomness of both the island map and the landmaking it even has replay value.

I enjoy the loop, personal challenges (details below), the individual tile animations, and how well the whole concept works.

I don't like being forced to use a custom mouse pointer, despite that it is implemented well. At the alter, mispelling with "grain." Occasionally crashes.

Gameplay problems: Resource tile redesign because there's a bit too many tile types, and don't take this as a request for turning the game into a pity party. My first suggestion is to have a spinner over the counter when creating islands so with skill a player can landmake with 1-6 tiles, so with 6 tiles there's a better chance to get resource tiles or with 1 tile it could solve gap issues. Second suggestion is prayer on any tile when no other options are available which always does something. Like rain in the desert, spawning ruffians who could beat you up, messes with the void, get smited, and so on. 

Wishlist: a voidless mode (maybe a point deduction system?), more quests (you really have a great eye for constraint design), a beggar mode where you start "out," and an "Oregon Trail" mode where anything beyond 1 tile is fog of war (but you can store more than 100% - potential for other upgrades?). I currently play 2 ways, so maybe you could make achievements: tile by tile and nostop where I have to place tiles that allow travel as far as possible and I must move to that tile. Also interested in some type of warning that you will run out if you make a move.

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for the feedback! I'm glad you liked the game and your feedback is amazing!

- I agree that the amount of tiles is a bit much, and blurs the purpose of each tile-type a bit too much. Having a more well-defined purpose for each tile is very important for the game not to become confusing.

- Allowing the player to better dictate the amount of tiles in the next island is a great idea! You are right, the lack of control can be very frustrating at times, and honstly I don't know how I didn't think of it myself, brilliant!

- Warning the player that a move will make them starve or dehydrated is a good idea, and should bring a bit more clarity to the game.

- Thanks for finding a misspelling, I'll fix it :D

- I would like to introduce more 'quests', with things you have to find or build.

- An option to turn off the custom cursor would be pretty easy to impliment (I think), and is a good idea. I'm not sure how well the cursor scales and it can be kind of clunky.

- Adding more abilities to 'Upgrades', like boiling water, playing for rain, foraging for food, boosting the chance of animal encounters... and so on, could be a solution to the problem of not having anything to do on a tile.

- I would like to add an achievement system (it is a lot of work tho).

New game modes are a bit out of scope for the time being, but I will definitly keep your ideas in mind!

Again, thank you so much for the feedback, it means a lot to me!!
and even though I can't do all your suggestions, the fact that you took the time to write out such a thoughful post means a ton!