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A jam submission

Make Mars HomeView game page

A game about humanity's drive to not only survive on a new planet, but make it their home.
Submitted by Eden Meridia (@Eden_Meridia), Xelanybor — 39 minutes, 17 seconds before the deadline
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Make Mars Home's itch.io page

Names and Email Addresses of ALL Team Members
Gage Courie - gagecourie@gmail.com
Alex Smith - xelanybor@gmail.com

Categories Your Team is Eligible For
Overall, Students, Diversity, Best Art, Best Audio, Technical Excellence, Best Narrative

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Hi there. Interesting game and idea. I like the concept. I did struggle to understand the concept at first however after reading a bit I figured out what to do. In honesty I don't like these reading games to figure out what to do, but this was a jam game, I'll give you that. Regarding the effort that went into the decision tree I can think that would have taken some time well done.

Submitted(+1)

I like the concept and how quick it is to play a turn but the game needs some serious rebalancing (to be fair - I forgot about the reroll option and never used it so it might have made a difference to my games). In my first game I had almost no supply/supply building options, a little bit of terraforming and enough defence, and just couches, couches, couches, and books so eventually I got ending 1. In my second game I finally saw a bunch of buildings I didn't know existed so I built a nice colony (ending 3) even though in that game I was hit by quakes and such turn after turn, which felt a little unfair except for the fact that the RNG had swung so opposite to the previous game that I was just being gifted with supply and terraforming options (an incredible variety) that compensated for the ongoing bad-luck events. In my third game it was once again similar to the first game, with a little bit of variety in the beginning and then onwards just some defence, the occasional terraforming, and couches, couches, couches everywhere until I hit ending 1 again.

I liked the music, I liked the art, and I think it's a good concept (and perfect for the theme) - it just needs an algorithm to keep an eye on what's being rolled and what's in the pile to prioritise certain resources over others when the RNG goes too awry.

Submitted(+1)

Really enjoyed the game, and an interesting take on the theme. Visuals and music were nice and everything fits together well. The random events made my one playthrough feel tense and fun. while in another it just felt punishing so there may need to be tweaks there to even out the experience. But I enjoyed having to take chances and pick the best options for both the short and long term, sometimes at expense of one or the other

Submitted(+2)

The art and soundtrack are both really complementing to the gameplay itself, I feel as if many other comments echo that sentiment so well done guys!

In regards to gameplay; it does feel a bit too difficult to survive. While I appreciate that it's not meant to be easy to survive given the context of the game, perhaps the way in which you lose could feel as if it has a bit more causality to it than random events which greatly and negatively impact your progress.

I think this could be really, really fun given a bit more time to work out some of the seemingly unfair mechanics but the core gameplay is definitely there and definitely engaging and fun.

Thoroughly enjoyed this entry! Goodluck!

(I'm still hunting for the secret third ending! Or maybe I'm just bad xdd)

Submitted(+3)

Nice style and soundtrack!

The game feels very unfair, and nothing you as a player can do seems to help make it less so;

  • no way to build sturdier structures to prevent damage from storms/damage,
  • no smarter ways to store food from expiry, stuff like that, that I feel would be obvious in the context of colonising a planet.

This makes it feel the fun and novelty that is there is tapped and drained at a much faster pace than they can be built, leaving me feeling drained after every playthrough.

I would like to play it again after some rebalancing is done, as I do think there is something fun in there!

Submitted(+3)

Wow!

This is great! You leaned into the management of human desires and needs so nicely. It creates a really satisfying gameplay loop, and I really like the overall theme of life being more than just survival - it's about living, and about *home*!

I was absolutely obliterated in my first run, but I managed to get all three endings eventually. Great writing, design, and a fantastic entry!

... I just don't understand why those damn marsquakes hate my karaoke bars so much. Is their singing *that* bad that the planet itself visits with such fury? xD

Submitted(+2)

A lot of text but that’s to be expected from the type of game. I enjoyed balancing building up recourses with building up defences.

Submitted(+2)

Gameplay is pretty fun, cool concept for a management game, though it did feel like how well your run went was dependent on what random events happen.

Submitted(+2)

Very addictive game play. Loved the music.  A game that you can build on and take further in the future.

Submitted(+2)

Man, what an epic track. I really liked the concept. Simple and easy to start. I was disappointed that the population didn't have any affect other than just(I assume) make you lose when it reaches 0. I liked the conflict between setting up the colony, and also having to prepare for an attack that was coming. 

Would love to see this taken a little bit further to see what you guys can come up with.

Developer(+1)

Glad you liked the track! (Can thank Xelanybor for that masterpiece. If I find the time, I do think I'll be coming back to refine the game. Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Really good idea, and I like the concept of being limited by deliveries not so much resources. There is balance issues, felt like you had to take defense no matter what, what might make it more interesting, if you develop it further, is to maybe focus on upgrades and progression. I.e. you upgrade your building but so you need to risk maybe getting a upgrade delivered and hoping the base building arrives on time. I think this way the weather events don't need to knock out so many building... I hope I make sense :)

Any way it was a great submission and good luck with the Jam :)

Developer

I agree, the balancing is a bit off, but we opted for the game to be easy for the jam for the sake of getting the good ending.

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

I like the concept, and the interface works really well for how this plays out. The buildings were really cool; I was pleased when the first one popped up.

I was quite ravaged by Mars quakes the first time around, getting several in a row, which was pretty disheartening. Maybe having some kind of delay before another can proc would be good? That said, in my second run, I could really rack up the buildings and had a very high output, so maybe it needs to be like that.

Interestingly, my strategy became very anti-people despite me eventually getting the "good" ending where you've maxed out Homeliness. Since everything is worse with more people, I would generally set up a supply generation situation for a bit (maybe +40 per turn), and then time after that when my supplies hit zero (because of the increased population because of the high amount of supplies), I'd just let them die until they get back to the equilibrium.

I also felt like it was very necessary to take every defence upgrade you can get, since that's by far the most dangerous problem. The first time, I didn't really use the reroll, and got to a no-win state since I didn't draw enough defence cards.

Basically, this was fun, but maybe some balance is needed to avoid a sort of singular solution kind of situation that I think might be happening here.

Developer

Firstly, thanks for playing. Second, thanks for playing multiple times! I appreciate that you got to know the game and when I find time to polish, I'll keep your criticism in mind.