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RTS Simulator (parody)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fun | #134 | 3.360 | 3.360 |
| Originality | #167 | 3.400 | 3.400 |
| Presentation (graphics, audio) | #216 | 3.200 | 3.200 |
| Theme | #286 | 2.840 | 2.840 |
Ranked from 25 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game represent Mode?
One definition of Mode is "a way or manner in which something occurs or is experienced, expressed, or done". My game explores one of my favorite genres, RTS. Most RTS games and players are stuck in a mode of play that is antiquated and results in the game being less about tactics and strategy and more about your ability to preform a large number of often very meaningless actions. The game company Relic coined the term "Meaningful Micro" to describe their attempt to create an opposite experience. However much of the RTS community rails against this idea.
TLDR; My game explores the mode of play RTS users say they want in the game and attempts to make light hearted fun of it. :) I'm doubling down on the meaningless micro here a bit, but not so much to make the game dull.
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Comments
I liked ordering the workers around.
Hahaha ๐! I hope they enjoyed it as well.
This was really fun take on rts and way to make some satire! Loved it.
Personally I enjoyed the puzzle levels a lot I loved all the small micro decision you have to make there and the trick that you have to acknowledge. The rts part due to your way of highlighting gave me anxiety as micro tons of stuff is why I stopped playing rts but I like the way you settled for small skermishes and with a pause botton where you can issues some chain of commands I think it would be a really nice experiment.
Great stuff I loved the presentation too and the lots of menus to explore.
Thank you ๐! I'm with you, I enjoyed the micro levels the best but they lost of the game's satire. You aren't the first person to say the macro levels game them "anxiety" haha
Great work on this! You did a great job realizing your vision for the game. This was a fun take on the RTS genre that I enjoyed my time with. Nice job!
Thank you ๐!
peak voice acting and sound effects ! thats all the depth i ever wanted out of an rts
Thank you ๐!
Wow this was really fun! The challenge level was somewhere between just right and too hard, but I always felt like I was just on the cusp of beating whatever level was giving me trouble, and I did end up pushing through and finishing every mission, that was awesome!
For some reason I was never able to build archer units, but my spearman/highlander and knight combo was able to handle all the RTS stages. I got every coin in the game, although it seemed like the "Kill 3 trader" one was bugged for me, so I couldn't get that one. I killed 6+ traders and it didn't pop, and then I even killed exactly 3 traders and then finished the mission but I couldn't get the coin. Regardless, this was really fun and I couldn't stop playing.
I like how the multiselect patch was locked behind an impossible amount of money (I'm assuming, since I got all the coins I could), that was funny. I was a big fan of the voice sound effects and the peasant voices in particular, I've used voice sound effects for a jam before (pinball game) and that's always fun and gives a really personal touch.
I would definitely play more of this, thanks for making it!
Thank you ๐! Omg such a wonderful note! Thats awesome you beat the game, I apologize two of the "macro" levels were created in rush. Also haha ya `multi-select` was there just as a tease, I wanted to add a few more teases but I ran out of time. I originally was going to make you pay to unlock hotkeys and control groups, but it was just so frustrating without them lol.
Thanks for your amazing response if you don't mind would you answer a few additional questions I have if I ever turn this into a real game.
1. Have you played RTS games in the past?
2. Which did you prefer the "macro" or "arena" levels? Did you dislike either of them?
Again thank you for your amazing response!
Sure thing, yeah I grew up playing Age of Empires II all the time back in the day and was always fascinated by Warcraft III but didn't play it that much. There's a little inspiration from both of those evident here especially Warcraft, that was awesome to see. I played AoE III when it came out and then got a little disillusioned from RTS since it wasn't as good as AoE II in my book. Empire Earth was my favorite RTS of all time, I played a ton of that.
I preferred the macro levels but the arena levels were key for learning the controls and units, so I think having both of those modes and interleaving them like you did is a really smart move.
I really liked how one of the first things that happens in the game is that you dodge the arrows just by moving, that's a great way of telling us what this game is all about and how it's different from your typical RTS. Smart stuff!
Ah AOE2 was an amazing game. AOE4 is actually an amazing game too. I really love Relic's game design in general and IMO they knocked it out of the park with AOE4.
I really appreciate you answering my questions!
Cool take on mode. I'm not too familiar with RTS games but this was fun! Good work.
Thank you ๐! Oof this would be a ruff first RTS. Just so you are aware this game is meant to parody the genre, with all its pedantic mechanics and such. If you found things frustrating at time that might have been intentional :D
Very impressive!
Thank you ๐!
This is a really interesting demake of the traditional RTS genre. I did used to watch some SC2 back in the day and the impressive micro skills that were on display were always mesmerizing to watch. I've tried my best to keep up but some of these levels are a bit too tough for my measly RTS skills haha. Though I do say I really like the upgrade system you implemented! I also enjoy that enemy projectiles in particular are actual projectiles with a flight time that can be dodged if you are quick enough.
The handmade SFX and low poly style really gave me TABS vibes. It was a really cute game. Overall great job making an interesting twist on an established genre.
Thank you ๐! Ya the level of micro required in SC2 was definitely an inspiration for this game lol.
Reminds me of a combo between the phoenix minigame in FF7 and mount and blade for some reason.
Cool submission!
Thank you ๐! I definitely see the mount and blade connection did you make it far enough for the macro maps? Those are more like the traditional RTS game you'd be used too and thus infinitely more frustrating lol.
Wonderful submission!
Thank you ๐!
ฤฑ like the system but level looks so empty to me as a level designer. I can see the coding under this project well done mate such a nice game. ๐ฅณ
Thank you ๐! I know what you mean by a lot of empty levels. I didn't have enough time to add a lot of flavor to them. Level design wise tho, most of the design time went into placement of resources, trade posts start/stops, and placement of enemies.
I'm glad the games software polish wasn't missed by you, I'm not sure an RTS was a good choice for a game jam lol. I spent a majority of the time polishing this game, which I think for a game jam isn't great. I'd rather have invested more time in experimenting with interesting mechanics.
The controls were a little tough for me but I had fun overall! I couldnโt quite figure out the mages but my archer micro was powerful.
Thank you ๐!
The trick to beating the mage levels is to utilize hotkeys and control groups and to cheese the AI.
Hotkeys + control groups allow you to select a mage and cast magic missile without too much mousing ( 1 + Q, 2 + Q), which enables you to invest energy in controlling the magic missiles to hit the enemy mages. Also magic missiles do AOE dmg when they hit a target, so you can try to trade 1 magic missile in for 2 of the enemies.
You can cheese the enemy AI a bit here by tricking their missiles to chase yours missiles by getting yours close to theirs so they'll target them and then you can try to slam your magic missile into an enemy mage.
- Edit - This sort of tactics is part of the game being a parody of RTS games.
God I want to see this as a full game, loved it.
Thank you ๐! Thats really nice to hear!
Pretty good parody of the RTS game genre, loved the voice acting and sound effects.
Thank you ๐! Lol I did the voice acting I wish I had more time to add a lot more. My friends and I still say War3 voice lines to each other and games like AOE4, CoH, and DoW have suuch amazing voice lines. Its a real staple of the genre.
I'm not a hardcore RTS fan by any means (my only real experience with the genre is with PA and SC2), but I really loved this game. Simple things like the sound effects and voice lines gives it a lot of personality! Also great satire. I agree with your design philosophy, and these antiquated attitudes you speak of are also quite present in the fighting game community as well.
Thank you ๐! Ya I remember the great quarter circle fiasco lol. Thanks for drawing the parallel.
I'm a huge WC3 player and it's fun to see people poke fun at RTSs. I wish it was faster pace as I think the movement is a big sluggish and hard to follow. Also I watched one of my friends who does not play RTSs attempt this and even after starting off by reading the instructions he needed me to explain to him how RTSs worked to play it.
Thank you ๐! Ya I loved War3 as well. It defined a lot of my childhood. I moved onto DoW, DoW2, and COH later in my life and they really redefined the genre for me. Since playing them its been hard for me to see War3 and SC style RTSs in the same light. That's part of why I made this game. War3 melee maps hold up pretty well, but IMO its less of a strategy game and more of a like a "fighting" game. The arena mode in this game is partially inspired by War3's combat. When making this game I invested a huge portion of my time creating the macro aspect of the game. In retrospect I wish I hadn't and just focused on the micro arena battles. I think had I had time, adding some hero classes that level up and more balanced focused on the arena it could have been really fun. But obviously a very different game.
So unfortunately movement had to be tuned between two very distinct modes. The arena mode, the movement was too fast even now its too fast and the macro mode its way to slow. I think if I had more time I would have made the arena maps larger to allow for more regularities between the two modes.
"explain to him how RTSs worked to play it." I ran into this issue with a friend play testing it as well, particularly the resource gathering maps. I ran out of time to create enough polish to make the game truly accessible to non-RTS players. It's unfortunate, especially as a majority of the time I invested in this project already went to polish. That coupled with the intentionally obtuse mechanics, it was hard to balance QOL with staying true to something that poked fun at the genre.
When I started making this game, I had to make a choice between going full "goat simulator" or actually making something challenging and fun. I chose the latter. Ultimately I think just doing something extra goofy would have been better but less of a valid critique of the genre.
Thanks for playing!
I didn't understand it at first until I realized it's a parady of modern RTS games. Now I think it's art. I like it.
Thank you ๐! It was such a debate to make the game more apparent it was a parody by adding in funnier mechanics, but each mechanic I added that broke from the RTS feel ended up making the game very frustrating. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Do you have any feedback on improving the game to be more easily understood? I think adding better mission indicators would have been a good idea, but I ran out of time. RTS games require so much polish compared to other game types, I must have spent a majority of the time polishing.
I guess I associate the term "X Simulator" with parody games, but in retrospect I don't think that's true for most people.
I don't think I would change much. Having to select every individual action for units, having the APM counter, it works.
It's not super apparent that it's a parady until I read the description (twice) so maybe clean up the description? I think the game itself is fine.
Ok I put parody in the title and the icon. Its not subtle, but I think its more important to get the point across. Thanks for the feedback.
I'll work on cleaning up the description as well.
A really nice take on the RTS genre. Great presentation and quite original gameplay.
Thank you ๐!