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A jam submission

Metal ModeView game page

A tower defense roguelike with mechs and dice!
Submitted by Devious_Oatmeal (@Devious_Oatmeal) — 5 days, 18 hours before the deadline
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Metal Mode's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Originality#304.1674.167
Presentation (graphics, audio)#374.3704.370
Fun#673.6673.667
Theme#1013.7413.741

Ranked from 54 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game represent Mode?
You can change the mode of the Dice to change your chances, and the main point being that you send out "Metals" (Tank-like things) with 2 modes that you can switch between; each having their own special abilities and stats.

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Comments

Viewing comments 27 to 8 of 47 · Next page · Previous page · First page · Last page
Submitted(+1)

You get a little too much information thrown at you which makes it hard to discern what's important and what isn't. The games seems incredibly complex, and insanely polished. Very impressed!

Developer(+1)

Yeah. Once you get it you get it, but until then, it's info overload.
The onboarding for this game was one of the toughest things given the time I had left to make the tutorial.
But! I'll be tackling all that with post-jam builds! :V

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

For feedback, I don't have much to add that other people haven't already said, regarding the info/tutorial/start of the game. After learning though the game was quite fun! And of course the visuals/audio are immaculate. Seriously impressive amount of polish, just a bit of gameplay tweaking and I could see this in a store. Nice job on this game!

Developer

I'll definitely see if I can get this to Steam. Seeing so many people enjoy the game is great and a real morale booster!

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Like other mentioned, I really enjoyed the presentation, but I think the tutorial is a bit lacking. In a game with this level of complexity, you really need to focus on making sure your player will understand the systems involved, and how to properly apply them. Obviously in the setting of a game jam, its hard to have enough time to both make a full featured game, and properly explain to the players, but in the future I hope you'll continue with it and flesh it out more, because the visual and audio experience feel very good already. Great work!

Developer

Yeah. Agreed.

Tutorials are always a hassle when it comes to "complex systems" in any game and can take a good while to get it right, so making it good enough in such little time is a challenge in itself. Especially since I made the "tutorial" near the end because the rest of the time was spent on making the game.

It was actually worse than the current version, as the player could soft-lock themselves. But after seeing some people test it before the deadline, I was able to change it. But after seeing more people play it, I now have a better understanding in the approach for the tutorial.

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Honestly incredible presentation, one of the best in the roster for sure! I could see myself playing this for hours with a full release, and especially with a good story.  With better conveyance of the mechanics (which really aren't that hard once you get the hang of them!) this game could really hook a lot of people in. 

I would still be playing this if I didn't have other mode games to get to! Balancing was of course an issue, but even after pigeonholing myself into simple units, I was having a blast. We just need to usher in the Age of Frogs. >:)

Developer(+1)

In a full release, I'll add more variety in enemies, levels, and missions, so I'll try and get you to play for more than hours! :V

Definitely going to try and make FROG strat viable in the future build. lol

Thanks a ton for streaming it! Learned a lot!

Submitted

(slams fork and knife on table in front of empty plate) full release full release

Submitted(+1)

The presentation was really polished, the audio feedback on input, and the graphics were great. It took me some time to get it but the mechanics were fun too

Developer

Yeah. I need to work on the onboarding. Glad you stuck around to learn and enjoyed playing!

Submitted(+1)

Amazing idea and presentation, everything is really satisfying. It took a while to learn but once I figured it out I wanted to keep playing. I came across a bug that one of my tanks was spending energy with its regular attack  so my energy (the lighting bolt icon) was in the negatives.

Developer

Yeah. That's the KING. I'll have to fix him. But because of the bug, and seeing someone play the game with just the one, it helped me come up with a new KING mode. lol

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

The presentation and sound effects were very very clean. I think the gameplay had a lot of features and was a bit overwhelming but the tutorial helped a lot with that. Great Jam! Post jam I agree with a lot of comments here that the game could use a bit of balancing, but balancing any strategy/turn based game in a few weeks is basically impossible.  

Developer

I honestly thought it didn't have enough variety, so I have been surprised when people said it was a lot- which is great! And yeah, the balancing I'll definitely need to tackle.

As for overwhelming, yeah. But I think I figured out a way to simplify it while still keeping the general vibe and idea going, so that'll be fun.

Submitted(+1)

It looks like you overdid your features a bit here hehehe. The game is pretty straight forward once you get past the tutorial and somewhat fun, although I found myself only using one unit and one mode...
I think you were a bit overambitious with the variety of the modes, that you didn't play test them enough. Maybe more specialized units and levels to showcase the different stats/abilities would've been the way in hindsight.
On the flip side I did enjoy the Presentation quite a bit. The sound effects and music fit your vibe perfectly and feels like a polished launch ready game! You were trying out something cool and original, but unfortunately your game design was a bit lacking.
All in all still a very enjoyable experience!

Developer(+1)

Jams be jams.

Not enough time to make whole levels, but I do plan on adding them in the future- not to mention smaller levels to start out in, as well as more environment hazards and such.

The strongest Metals were SHOT and KING, which funny enough, SHOT was the first one I made and KING because it was bugged. Although I did test some of them, I didn't have enough time to test all of them in every way, (Like FROG's ability that doesn't work), but I was aware of the potential that SHOT would be the best. Truthfully, I tried to balance things in the time I had left, but couldn't, but the variety each had stayed.

Since it's a jam, exploring the ideas and seeing the ideas is more the goal than a full complete game, as a full complete game isn't really possible. But now I can definitely tackle and apply everything I've learned from watching people play it and from the comments.

It's been a blast! Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

This is a super interesting design.  I played all the way to the end, but there were a few balance issues that kept me from engaging much with the more interesting mechanics like swapping modes on tanks or even using other tanks besides the basic gunner.  Having every action cost persistent resources rather than per-turn movement/attack/specials is very unique but I think ultimately encourages a very conservative playstyle.  I just stuck with the basic tank because it was the most cost efficient to use.  Also, having to save up on the upgrade resource to produce more of it makes progression feel slow.   I think if upgrades to upgrading costed every other resource it might work a bit smoother.

Rolling the dice is super satisfying as others have said and the core premise is very solid.

Developer(+1)

Yeah. I didn't get to fully take a look at the balancing and it caused some issue with pacing.
Some people had the intended pace, some took too long, and others zipped through it.
Most eventually zipped through once they realized the best strats.

aka, the SHOT or the KING.
The SHOT was the first one I made and became OP with the upgrades. 1 cost for a 2 ATK was crazy good, + it's range.
It basically became the clear strat.
The KING was just bugged and let you attack infinitely.

As for a conservative playstyle, the waves got stronger and change over time to mitigate that, so it was another thing with balance. Truth be told, the waves didn't get strong enough fast enough, were too slow in their movement, and not enough variety.

Originally, I was going to go with the dice cost their own resource. I might test that again with some newer changes I learned from seeing people play it.

So much I need to add and change. :V
But thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Fantastic presentation! Loved rolling the dice, very satisfying. Took a bit to get into but once I did it turned out to be good fun!

Developer

Thanks for playing! I'll be sure to make a better onboarding system when I get back to it!

Submitted(+1)

Terrific job! You nailed the aesthetic and feel you were going for and the game has a lot of depth and great strategy to it. Great work!

Developer(+1)

Thanks a ton! I'm glad people have been enjoying the game- even sticking to it for a good while.
Definitely going to be going further with the project!

Submitted(+1)

Very complex and polished game! Took a while to get the hang of but enjoyed playing this! Some more descriptions or a guidebook to reference would be very helpful to learn the game. Also the king unit lowered my energy to the negatives, is that supposed to happen?

Developer

Nah. That's a bug. lol
A bug that has inspired me to make a mode that works with it. Sort of.
Like an achievement.

Submitted(+1)

This is exactly my type of game! Interesting use of "mode" and I'd love to see that idea explored more. plus combining tanks is cool. I think more tooltips would help, kept forgetting what was power/range/cost, and which grit did what. ...and I didn't catch you could add new dice until way too late in my first attempt. 

There is a huge amount of potential in this concept, I wish I had more time to learn each of the mechanics and strategies.

Developer

Yeah. Onboarding for this game was a challenge.
I'm definitely going to change it up and add a little manual you can open for post-tutorial review.

Submitted(+1)

Great package all together in this game. Very complex, but certainly the type of person you would target with this title would like that. The difficulty could be tweaked a bit.

Developer(+1)

Yeah. I didn't have a lot of time to balance it, but it jumps with people.
Typically, people beat it on the third or forth go.

But that first playthrough's a killer. lol

Submitted(+1)

Hey, really great game. I love the the universe you've created here, I wanted to keep exploring and go deeper into this moody world. Everything about the presentation was selling the dark sci-fi mech vibe. I loved the neon colors on black background, loved the music and sound effects. It was very fun trying to upgrade my units and dice over time. Overall very impressive work!

Developer

Thanks a ton! I think I'm going to move forward and make a full version of it.

Submitted(+1)

I played the html version and worked fine minus the tutorial in wich I got stuck and the view camera cut a bit of the top screen everything else worked flawless. 

I played it a lot and is so much fun give me into the breach vibes but on a larger scale. There's a lot of stuff going on already but I loved the exploration bits ( and the perils you can avoid having some scout around the map)  and I was wondering if it would work like a turn based rts. The sound and the look is awesome too. Mad props!

Submitted(+1)

This is a really cool game, from the visuals to the gameplay it's all there and I regret not trying it sooner. Top notch work!

Developer

Curious what made you hold off on playing it. Was it the thumbnail? Admittedly, it looked a little plain, but I ended up adding the dice, and it looks much better.

Submitted

It was partially that, yeah. I didn't click onto the page before, just saw the couple screenshots pop up on hover. They were pretty small on my monitor in that view with a lot of dark space and didn't communicate the art style or gameplay to me at a glance so I moved on. Once I went back to the page and clicked on the screenshots for the full view and read the description did I see that this was actually a game I really wanted to play and now it's one of my favorites from the jam.

I know it's ironic coming from me considering how plain the thumbnail for Transmogrification is, but typing all this out made me realize I should stop pushing it off and spruce it up.

Submitted(+1)

Probably the most stylistically original entry I've seen so far. Pretty difficult, in a good way. Not to mention the sound design is incredible! Super good work!

Developer

Took me a while to pick the kind of sounds I wanted, but glad you liked the choices!
Sound's super important to me in games, so I put a lot of thought into them.
No point in making something sound bad when the player does it constantly.

Submitted(+1)

Wow, what a great game - definitely one of my favourites from this jam!

Super well polished, all of the art + sounds + music really fit well together. Did manage to beat it, although I had to abuse the bugged kings a little bit at the end with all of the stronger monsters (I assume you're not supposed to be able to go into negative energy when firing them?).. 

Also nice to see another game that used non-standard dice! Liked the idea of the dice upgrades, but felt like they were too expensive to really explore fully.. Even when I had a bunch of dice set to generate wrenches, I feel like I wasn't getting all that much :( Might be better if some of the initial dice you buy/upgrade are cheaper/ramped up? That way you would also have less wasted turns at the beginning where you're just waiting to get a few more of a resource

Awesome work on this!! 

Developer

Yeah. The wrenches were a challenge to balance. They cost the same as the other dice at first, but then I noticed from some of the playtesting that people ramped up REALLY fast when they matched the other dice costs. So I raised the prices. I'll probably lower their cost a little, but once you get them going, they snowball and let you max out all your dice fairly quickly.

More consideration and balance will be needed for them.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

This is a really well polished game. I feel like I would find this on the front page of ArmorGames or Kongregate or Newgrounds or Miniclip or…you get the idea. I really like the aesthetic vibe and the audio fits in really well. The only thing I could say this game would benefit from is a much slower ramp up into introducing all the stats and all the tower/gun types and the resource types. The information hit me all at once right after the tutorial and I felt a bit of overload! Really nice work though, I loved it!

Developer

Thanks! Means a lot with that compliment!

Yeah. Slowly introducing the concepts would be ideal. I sadly didn't have time to fully implement something like that, though I wish I did.
Seeing a bunch of numbers and symbols can be overwhelming.

Viewing comments 27 to 8 of 47 · Next page · Previous page · First page · Last page