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The Pale Blue Section's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Story / Writing | #21 | 2.576 | 2.895 |
| Concept | #26 | 3.700 | 4.158 |
| Gameplay | #30 | 2.950 | 3.316 |
| Balance (Challenge and Fairness) | #32 | 2.669 | 3.000 |
| Audio / Music | #38 | 2.435 | 2.737 |
| Overall | #42 | 2.763 | 3.105 |
| Use of Theme (Reflection) | #47 | 2.060 | 2.316 |
| Visuals | #49 | 2.482 | 2.789 |
Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team Members
Captain Hiro, Eagletanker, Kit, Ramaseta, and StellatedCUBE
Streaming Permission
Yes
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Comments
Turn based strategy? Hex grids? Laser beams? Developers after my own heart. I really appreciate how the game centers around thinking several turns ahead, and how to apply area denial. Setting my laser fields while dodging bullets or determining what to sacrifice leaves many decisions. And interesting decisions are the crux of a good strategy game. I got good fun out of the offered levels, but there is so much room for more here. Blocking terrain, different unit compositions, etc. What I think is missed most from this version, though, is the ability to click on the tengu units to see what their abilities and movement range are. I could not distinguish which of them could melee, for example.
Playing this makes me wish for more strategy games in jams, because they are my jam.
thank you!
for the jam I did want casualties to be persistent, so as you go from level 1-3 you'd only have the units that survived the last battle. That sadly didn't make it in. For the Tengu Units, the only one that can Melee is Momiji, who usually dies pretty fast on the level she's in due to being the head of the pack.
When there is only 1 enemy left it's like playing a game of chess trying to checkmate, peak
Map / grid type game isn't my main type but surprisingly got myself through it, the visuals and stuff got pc-98 aesthetic so I didn't think of it too deeply; the writing is a wall of text-y but also it's kind of how the genre goes so Lol.
funny story, I didn't realize in my first game that friendly fire was in the game, so i just accidentally killed half my teamthinking my bullets would go through them instead.
A tactics game is neat, and it's impressive that it's done in a jam period. But It's very hard to see what's happening on the enemy turn or the bullet phase. Adding an option to slow those down would help a lot. Another thing is that units are very hard to distinguish. They have distinct faces sure, but their icons are so small, and all in a similar colour, that they are hard to make out. Some clearer and more distinct icons for units would be good.
As someone else said it is very hard to make tactical decisions in the game and usually ends up being a bigger number wins the battle. But I don't really know what to change to make it more. I'll just throw some ideas into the ring. Maybe give the player more info to work with? Stuff like how fast every type of bullet moves per turn, the movement of every enemy. Maybe ways to shoot that aren't straight lines. Adding some terrain to maps could also work.
One of the cooler units is the laser ones since you can plop those on the top and deny your opponent an entire section of the map. Perhaps make the game more focused on area denial?
You could also add an additional phase after the bullet phase, to see what bullets your opponent fires, where if you have spare command points, you could move units that haven't been used out of the way, but they wouldn't be able to shoot. To prepare for next round.
thanks for playing!
The game designer here,
In regards to the changes to the design to make it more tactical.
the whole thing of numbers is in part Personal bias of myself towards mass being the decisive factor in battles. The AI having more command points than you is something that would help it work it's mass more effectively, but part of the problem is that as you said, the field has no terrain or organic blocking potential. Part of that is deliberate, your in the sky, but part of that is the consequence of trying to make a game on such a short time in such a small scale (8x16 is Big yes, but not that big.)
When designing I actually thought of the laser and shield units complimenting each other. Shields could reflect lasers, lasers work as area denial, which allows for you to pin down forces or force a opponent to move, as I imagined the distances in a turn would mean a lot of movement without anyone being hit. That didn't really make it into the final game, but probably post jam I'll type a document for which you could play the game physically with a alternative rule set.
I like what the game's going for, but I had difficulty finding opportunity for much in the way of strategy or tactics. Either I make a vertical wall and camp, or rush the enemies down and rely on my army's superior numbers to win despite taking inefficient trades.
Thank you!
Yeah, part of the intent was for your forces to carry over between scenarios, so you'd be forced to be playing with preservation of force in mind. That didnt make it in sadly, as did a few other rules which would have made creating a wall or rushing enemies much harder. In addition, quite a few units are bugged (plus AI being a crapshoot)
As the designer, if I had to do it again, I'd add alternative win conditions like "dont let your force go below X" or "take/hold hex Y and Z", along with a bit more tweaking of the scenario comps in general. I'd probably also add some hard cover and expand the map out further.