Play jam entry
Nightfall's itch.io pageLink to your Game Design Doc on Google Drive.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X3phrAfeTjz8W-tb4hJUa87Rmd9dmKWq5c84veM2ZOM/edit?tab=t.0
Have you checked that your GDD is publicly accessible ?
Yes!
Is your game set to public on itch.io so we can see it?
Yes!
Summarise your game!
Resource manager sim by day, Autobattler by night: this game can be entirely controlled with a mouse and is scoped to be a <10 minute game experience.
Focusing on turn-based strategy over precision controls, players dictate the daytime behavior of meeples within a small village, deciding how their local tradespeople will support a military force that has been gathered to deal with a growing threat of nocturnal monsters. With just a few days before the monsters are set to arrive in their town, the meeples will each volunteer to help one of the tradespeople in their effort to outfit the incoming cavalry.
Please explain how your game fits the theme:
I wanted to make a game where someone who is not trained to fight has to take up arms in a pinch, as though an invisible hand is pointing a finger at them and shouting “YOU are the weapon now!” That was the core of my game design.
Is there anything you'd like the judges to pay particular attention to?
It was a solo effort so please excuse the crummy art and imperfect balance, I did my best with a full time job lol.
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Comments
Charming little game! Saved the village with a librarian in the end, knowledge is power! As others already mentioned the UI could use a little more work. A confirm button on the hours selection screen and more visible exclamation marks (above the 3D art) for the untasked villagers is what sticks out for me the most. Very good job overall!
Thanks for checking it out! Librarian is an off-meta pick, well done :D Definitely agree with the crowd on the UI, I always bite off too much in jams lol. Good feedback, thanks!
I had my blacksmith be the fighter but then I changed to the baker, problem is he got low HP and I couldn't switch back so he just died. It was pretty much game over for me at that point.
Yeah you can only pick one fighter per night, that's by design. Poorly communicated, as you point out, but by design lol. I appreciate the feedback and you checking it out though!
This game was pretty fun overall. I didn't really understand what the heck I was doing and at first. I thought I was assigning workers time in a day aiming for 24 total but then realized i could just set everyone to 16 hours and that was fine.
I hope you learned a lot in this game jam and lots of fun making this guy. There is a lot of potential that could be had here.
Thanks so much for checking it out! It's definitely a "you gotta play it for a few rounds to get it" type of game, which generally struggles in jams lol. But I haven't learned that lesson in past jams and damned if I'll start now! I did learn a ton, so there's definitely thanks. Thanks for the kind words!
Seems like a great foundation to continue to build upon
I sort of wish there was some better interface though - An OK button next to the amount-of-hours picker ( was not super intuitive that I had to click the X to close the window and then select a new pawn and do the same
Hah yeah my Achilles heel in jams is not broadly playtesting enough. The UI was pretty common feedback and in hindsight I def could've added features like what you described, but after a week and a half of crunching on it was like "nah people will get it" lol. I appreciate the feedback for sure, and the kind words re: foundations!
Great concept! I am not sure what is happening with helping the workers but I had fun.
Thanks! I think it takes a playthru or two to get it, and in a jam I know folks aren't usually gonna put in the time. Better tutorialization is always my gameplan for next jam :D Thanks for checking it out though!
I like this!
There is not really any description on what the different resources do and what they are used for.
Yeah I put that stuff in the GDD, where people would totally read ;) Thanks for checking it out anyhow!
Cute little autobattler. I like the mashups of different genres, I think town sim and autobattler could work really well together. Nice job!
I think assigning villagers tasks every day becomes a little tedious. Maybe there should be an option to use the same assignments as the previous day? Also it's not entirely clear to me why I would want to level up one fighter over another. Do they have different strengths and weaknesses?
Ayy thanks for checking it out! Yeah I always have a hard time communicating stuff like that explicitly lol. The blacksmith has more life, baker attacks faster, and librarian does more damage. In support roles they use different skills and consumables. Not sure why I thought those things would be clear to players after a night or two lol.
Still, I appreciate the feedback! And I agree re: storing their choices, except that the available villagers get randomized every day so that had to be out of scope to get it in on time. Def something I can add for an update when the jam is done though!
I liked the concept of the game, congrats on managing the time to deliver a solo submission while balancing your job! Great design document, could've used a bit of the ability context for the characters in-game as I read it after playing to avoid spoilers. Fun play-through!
Thanks for giving it a go! Agree, tutorialization remains the bane of my jam submissions lol.