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The Holographic Principle's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Controls | #1 | 4.267 | 4.267 |
| Audio | #2 | 3.933 | 3.933 |
| Fun | #2 | 4.200 | 4.200 |
| Overall | #4 | 3.978 | 3.978 |
| Graphics | #6 | 4.200 | 4.200 |
| Originality | #6 | 4.067 | 4.067 |
| Theme | #16 | 3.200 | 3.200 |
Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
Custom build based on 3.1 stable branch
Source
Maybe!
Game Description
Turn based strategy game where you try to escape before the black hole devours the system.
Controls
Mouse
Discord Username
toasteater#2878
Participation Level
My first time!
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Comments
My Let's play...
Thanks for giving it a try, and especially for the video! It really gave me a lot of insight on how first-time players react to upfront complexity. This really needed a tutorial..
Yeah, giving feedback is the #1 reason I do this. Also, I just realized, if you added a 2nd black hole option later on, it may help. To simplify things, maybe you can only move the cat via blackholes :D
Was this post intended for Fat Cat?
Oh, my, yes, I don't know how or why it posted here. (insert red face here).
I wans't expecting to see a strategy game but i'm pleasantly surprise. The mechanic look promising even if i couldn't figure out how resource work.
Thanks for trying it out! Sorry the discoverability was low. The game really needed a tutorial, but I wasn't able to add one.
The resources are explained in-game with tooltips and also in the README: The resources are generated at the start of every turn. Productivity go to projects, and any leftover is valid until the turn's end. Productivity is halved when there is no surplus energy.
Congrats on great game! Very impressive. I'm so addicted to it. Although a bit more explanation is needed. But overall very polished game in all aspects. Good job!
Thank you for playing! I agree that the introduction needs work.
Dang, for a first jam game this is oustanding! The audio, the visuals, the smoothness, the gameplay, the flow... all are great!
Unfortunately even after several attempts I wasn't able to win the game or even get close to winning due to not knowing what's happening. This game seriously needs a tutorial mode or a manual, or at least an easy mode, but I understand that it's a bit hard to implement all this in a short time span, especially considering you made all of this on your own. I'm still amazed by that fact, there's a lot of content in the game, including the AI! :D
P.S. "afterwords.md" was a fun and honest read. :)
Thank you for playing and giving feedback! Sorry it was a bit confusing to you. I did add tooltips on most of the UI controls, but yes, I didn't have time to prepare a full manual, not to mention an interactive tutorial. If a post-jam version ever becomes a thing, I will surely try to make things smoother.
P.S. "afterwords.md" was written in a very sleep-deprived state right before submission. It may or may not be representative of my usual writing.
Whoa...very impressive! Reminded me a bit of Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander which is an amazing accomplishment for a jam game. I'd love for you to release the jam code for this as I'd love to implement some of these mechanics in my own games in the future.
Thanks for being interested! I think I will release a zip archive of the source after the rating period is done, because there were too many embarrassing placeholder art in the commit history that I don't really want to release to the wild :P Beware that the code became really messy and full of hacks towards the end, though. Didn't have time for proper coding practices.
I haven't heard of Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander before. Definitely going to check it out!
Wow, what an amazing UX! Lot of little animations, audio feed-back, icons, transition, clarity... I'm really impressed, especially for a game jam, and knowing how tricky it can be to build GUI in Godot.
The game itself is pretty deep as well! Remind me a bit civilization (and why I'm terrible at it). I'm not good enough to say if it's balance or not, but it sure was interesting enough for me!
Thanks for playing! And yes, Civ is indeed a major inspiration.
Great game! Super in depth for a jam, lots of fun. Would be nice to see the ark objectives be a little more competitive with "domination" strategy, it seemed to me to be much easier/faster to eliminate the opponents rather than building the ark, but all in all great work!
Thanks for playing! I have to admit that I didn't have a huge amount of time to playtest during the jam, so given the setting, balancing efforts were focused on ensuring that the ark ending was possible, rather than making both routes equally challenging. Hopefully I'll strike a better balance in a post-jam version, if it ever becomes a thing!
The difference between endings is a narrative one. Technically, the ark ending is the "true" one, but you can decide which one you want to see, and I find that to be part of strategy games' charm :D
Wow this is a pretty heavy game. The black hole shader looks awesome. The menus and gameplay have a nice clean flow. This is one of the best. Great work.
Thank you for playing!
Ho. Lee. Crap.
I was right to save this one for last. This is incredibly impressive! I have no complaints, but I'm not sure what to compliment either. I suppose, since I also made a black hole shader, congrats on making such a beautiful one yourself. You should upload it to Shadertoy.
On the other hand, strategy games are way beyond me. After trying it I realize the strategy in my game pales in comparison and I should really just change the genre to 'casual'! 😉 But seriously I have no idea what I should be doing in this game, so I'll let others critique the difficulty.
Thank you for playing! I guess it's true that no part of it really shined above the others, and there are indeed many rather glaring flaws in the game. As I went for general completion rather than pushing a certain aspect, maybe it's kind of expected.
I do admit that a game like this totally needs multiple difficulties and a proper tutorial. Sadly I haven't got enough time to add them. And, your game's strategy elements play very well! I've had a lot of fun with it and I certainly wouldn't call it 'casual' 😉
Cool! really nice game, I liked the background a lot!
Suggestion: It's cool to see the AI battles, but can be boring after a while. It would be nice some kind of skip battle functionality
I will definetly check this game again in the future, good job
Thanks!
Originally, there were no AI battles planned. As a result, the game architecture is not built with skippable battles in mind. However, during playtesting, I find myself needing to know what happens on the enemy turns in order to plan for my next turn, so I sort of shoved it in late in development.
I do plan to release a post-jam version later, so I'll keep this in mind!
That's some serious strategy game :O I died every time :D
Thanks for playing! The balancing might be a bit too tight without a difficulty selector. There was not enough time to add one. If you find it too challenging, there are some tips at the bottom of the spoiler file!
I liked it! :)
Thanks for playing!
This looks extremely impressive for a jam game. I will come back to it when I have time to sit down and figure it all out.
The game is updated to v1.0.1 with some bug fixes. Please re-download if you have the older version!