Thank you for trying the game!

I have pushed some fixes right now to:
- Improve performance of text
- Clearer UI optimised for more screen sizes
- Tweaked map generation

We are currently working on a very big update to the game that will introduce new dangers and deeper population mechanics. Would love to hear what you think about that when we drop it later this autumn :)

But thanks for the detailed comment, and hope the fixes helps with some of the pain points!

https://lanternfall-promo.agge.dev/

Wow, great job!

I played the game and these were my thoughts:
- Nice animation in the intro, it was fun to have the guy move in and you just get straight to the game.
- The art looks very cohesive and appealing, fits the gameplay very well. Good job!
- The selling mechanic became a bit tedious, my poor programmer mouse arm was not too pleased with the repetitive motion :(
- I don't feel I understand when progress was happening, and I didn't get to lose, and at some point I started just selling everything to one person and mashing the end turn button.

There is something here, looking forward to trying it again if you continue working on it :)

Good job matching the theme!

I have lots of thoughts playing the game:
- It was hard to understand how the lasso mechanic worked, I'm so used to dragging a rectangle to select in RTS games and colony sims. But once I got it, it was pretty neat! Wished that it would autocomplete the lasso for me better without having to fully encircle it (like the lasso tool in Photoshop).
- It was quite fun to see a low level enemy with a lot of nice loot, and then see my guys stacking up with all this gear once I've defeated him. Maybe there is space for even more feedback when that happens, because it felt like the most fun part of the game.
- Some more context and "story" to wrap it all together would be nice. I didn't really feel like I could come up with a many goals that I wanted to achieve, other than kill someone to get loot for my guys. And once I had a bunch of gear, I felt a bit aimless.

Well done! Always fun to play strategy-like games with small people in them :)

Omg, love the art style! The look is a lot fun. And the music fits great!

I wanted to play more, but the movement is quite nauseating for me, I have an easy time getting motion sickness.
It moves a bit like a first person camera, but I would have loved to play with third person camera movement: some free movement in the center, smooth catch up as you make sharp turns etc. 

It was difficult to get passed this feeling and on to having fun, but the game do look like it is a lot of fun!

Thanks for playing!

Hm interesting. The white "rocks", did you try those? Perhaps they don't read well as "stone" 🤔

Thanks for playing!

That’s definitely on the list for post-jam fixes. Both improved UI and more content.

The three of us who started working on this game, we are working from possibly the 3 worst timezones to collaborate across. Seattle, New York, and Stockholm. We have never been able to meet, and the first time we talked was tonight for a final push across the finish line.

But the chat has been busy.  It's an endless list of messages on our private discord, and I count over a 100 ❤️, some of which are on fire. So despite no video, no voice, and no time overlap, we made a working game. I hope we get to collaborate again soon.

---
If you like the art, sound, music, in the game you should go to the credits section from the menu! It showcases the work of everyone involved and links to more of their art. Some really cool stuff there to check out :)

It should be fixed now. Thanks for playing!

We just finished some final touches for the end of the game jam. Added a lot of stuff, and fixed a lot of bugs.

Made in collaboration with @Sicky, @LilBigDipper, @Jil

@Bamfro feel free to come join us anytime! We just need your Discord name :)

Breaking news! Half the mood board has become classified.

Sounds good! Sent you a friend request, and created a lil' server.

@lilbigdipper I looked at your art, and started a little mood board with some inspiration, possible secondary themes to the main "you are not the main character". I realised we might have a big time zone difference - but that shouldn't be too big of a problem for a 1 month long jam :) 

Add your own thoughts, ideas and generally go nuts:
https://link.excalidraw.com/l/A7BztTLy8MD/27QYKiF5HdM

Then if you are onboard - it would be great if we all could find a time to kick things off over a call!

Sure! @aggedev

Do you have a Discord user? And are you perhaps in the Indie game clinic discord server?

Wow, you're illustrations are amazing!

Yes, would love to collaborate! 

@Bamfro For sure! Do you have any soundcloud, or what kind of music do you enjoy making? 

@sicky, sounds good :)

Also still looking for an artist or two that would like to join, perhaps interested in a city building simulation kind of thing  🥹

Nice! Got 2500 points as most.

People are leaving, and the mayor has abandoned the city.  

You are the last hope to bring this city back to life.

A small cozy city building game where you're planning matters as the city grows from your actions.

A short introduction...
I have been making small games for 8 years. But in the last 2 years my projects have become bigger than ever, and so I've been struggling with finishing anything. It's been a long time since I published a game on my Itch page.

This project started as a small prototype in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep. I had some basic mechanics in place in a couple of hours. Fast forward 2 months and I've spent most of that time polishing that small idea, testing the game with friends and improving feedback and the UI to make it more accessible. 

My goal was to create a simple city builder, with few options, but that still results in many decisions you can make. Basically, a simple game with a lot of depth. I think this is the best I have been able to achieve that with a game so far, I hope you enjoy it!

Play it here

If you love small games, and city builders, then I think we should try to collaborate! Would be a lot of fun :) 

I've been making games as a hobby for 8 years, and I've been working as a programmer for 10 years. 
https://augustalex.itch.io/

I am looking for an artist and a musician/sound-designer. No technical skills required! I'm up for using Unity, but lately I have also been making games using ThreeJS. So if we did that - then the art pipeline would be as simple as dropping assets in a folder and seeing it show up in the game. However, if you also know programming, then that's just great - we could do some really cool stuff :)

My hope is that we'll design the game together and that we all bring something to the table, I love collaborating on projects, so I am hoping we'll make something small and really great!

My focus for the last 2 years have been practicing making games in the city-building/simulation genre. I'm trying to get better at designing small games that can be finished in 1-6 months. I will add a list of games I have made in this genre in the bottom of this post, and link to some inspiration I have as well.

I have experience collaborating with other artists and programmers on game projects before:

After the fire:
https://augustalex.itch.io/after-the-fire
A small little 3d puzzle/adventure, with physics based gameplay. Made using Unity.

I collaborated with a Sound designer/Programmer and a 3D Artist.

Pocket Island:
https://augustalex.itch.io/pocket-island
A small city builder, where you only shape the environment, and people move in. Made for both VR and desktop, using Unity.

I collaborated with a 3D artist.

Stenmonster:
https://augustalex.itch.io/stenmonster
A short 2D action adventure with some interesting mechanics and pretty pixel art style. Was actually made it to work with online multiplayer, so you could play together p2p! But that is stripped from the Itch version. Made from scratch using javascript and HTML canvas in a weekend.

I collaborated with 1 more programmer, 2 musicians/sound designers and one 2D artist.




Some games I have made myself in the city-builder/simulation genre:

Rocks in space:
https://augustalex.itch.io/rocks-in-space-2023
Gather resources and build a city in an asteroid field, set up production pipelines and set up trade routes between asteroids and become an established colony.



Holographic City Manager:
https://augustalex.itch.io/holocity
"Manage a virtual city to increase virtual profits and make real cash"




Red Pixel:
https://augustalex.itch.io/red-pixel
~ Transform mars into a sprawling metropolis - or maybe a flooded pollution wasteland ~

Community submitted image courtesy of @Shenmansson



Some inspiration I have:

~Inspiration~
Farlanders
https://andriy-bychkovskyi.itch.io/farlanders


~Inspiration~
Dune Keepers
https://aznoqmous.itch.io/dune-keepers


~Inspiration~
Dawnfolks (Lueur)
https://darenn.itch.io/dawnfolk

I can't seem to place the barn.

Thanks for playing! 

Ouch! Gonna look at this, thanks 🙏 

pollution :)

Thanks for trying it out! I'll try to get a build up :) 

Thanks for the feedback! Interesting thought about giving more meaning to where you choose to settle, I'll think about that.

And thanks for playing :)

Looks really neat! Nice done with the farming :)

Got a new update up now, much faster rendering, bigger world and some new features. Would love to know what you think if you try it out :)

Aha, interesting! It sure is my intention now  :))

Thanks for playing! 

I usually try and dig canals after building the first city. By digging canals I can put farms in a safer place at higher grounds. Since the water level increases upwards, building on higher grounds is a good idea :)

It's a very small game, the goal could be to increase your population as high as you can. It gets tricky fast though - cities spread pollution, and grass consumes that pollution. Having moderately size cities not too close to each other can get you very far.

In case you haven't seen it yet, there is a menu to the top left to toggle things like rotation, pollution, and the height map as well :)

If the planet doesn't show up after the menu, try reloading the page :)

Looked very interesting on the outset! Unfortunately it's very buggy, and I could not find a way to earn more money at all :( Couldn't play more than 1min!

Wish there was a browser build! :(

The game looked really cool on the itch page! Quite high up on the tag "City builder" as well :)

I also like where it is going! I do really wish that the controls where direct and not indirect however, that would have been a great experience. I felt quite confused and annoyed at the current controls :(

Bug: The game does not run well on very wide monitors

But again, looks really cool! Hope you could pick this up again or do something new and similar :) 

Thank you for having a browser build!

The game was fun! I did enjoy just staying in the flat view getting my money though, the 2.5D view didn't do much for me :)

Another thing would be the pacing for me. I felt I was quickly drowning in tasks! New tasks where coming in before I even had a chance to complete previous tasks haha! It's just that I like the management aspects, and so the frustration pace didn't quite do it for me :S

Wish there was a WebGL build available to play in the browser as well!

~ Holographic City Manager ~

A game about being a trainee in an unnamed company turning a profit on the booming business of virtual city management.

Grow your city, make profits, and turn virutal taxes into real life cash to pay off your crippling debt.

Relaxing, fast paced, easy & impossible - but it's all good fun!



~ Will your city reach the sky, before you are crushed under crippling debt? ~

We had something like this in mind earlier actually :) Thanks for your input!

That sounds interesting! Combos in what way?

Happy that you liked it! If you don't mind me asking, what could we improve to give you more fun out of it? :)

I really like the design of this level.It's intuitive and fun! I had a good time playing this :)

Love the style.

Love it!