While worms duplicating looks good on paper for risk and reward , in game play it turned a slow pacing game(turn based games not your games fault) into extremely slower. With no option to skip or accelerate AI play I was waiting my turn longer than some games in the jam that I played and finished.
We kind of had same problem in our game too and you can see the difference. Just play second part in our game without using the buttons first time and with the buttons second time.
I wish Trojans could also teleport enemy units. I am not sure if it will be good so that is something to be tested.
Towers should work by themselves , seeing them on next idle with nothing to do was not fun and diminishes the buttons work.
For the current version I would remove the main towers replication ability. Worms could replicate fast enough to populate the map already.
This is a very risky game to make in a jam. Not most people are into this type of game play. The abilities and mechanics were well thought on them and an overlay game on top this -like something you are gaining areas by each fight- would benefit this game a lot.
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Thank you for such a detailed review! Making a fast mode and tower auto-attack mode are planned for post-jam.
turn based games not your games fault
Do you mean me or you? :) Because they are totally my type of games. However, due to programming complexity and the fact most art-related work was also done by programmers, I didn't have time to conduct even a single playtest during the jam unfortunately.
Ironically, we've discussed the issue of slow turns with a co-designer before and during another jam where we made a tactics-ish game. And it was a PvE game with all enemies moving simultaneously (and all friends too). I think this time the lesson is finally learned about the importance of fast animations mode. And I think that leaving slow animations by default is OK, look at Advance Wars, for example, they have hilariously slow animations by default. :D
For the current version I would remove the main towers replication ability. Worms could replicate fast enough to populate the map already.
I disagree, it's totally possible to lose all Worms. A situation like we don't have minerals to build drones and don't have drones to gather minerals is unacceptable for me. :P
This is a very risky game to make in a jam. Not most people are into this type of game play.
Hahaha. Risk is in commercial games. In jams there is zero risk, we just make what we want to make. :)
I meant all turn based games are slow paced by nature. Not your game alone. Even X-COM or Xenonauts or HOMM. If you make a quick analyzing all of these games actually have another game play loop on top of the tactical map part. That is because only playing tactical part over and over could bore the players faster. Don't get me wrong I am not saying why yours did not have it for a 1 month jam. Game is already pretty polished and was bug free.
For replication ability: If one player lost all his worms I would consider he lost the game. The possibility that you can't start over when you lost your main building and drones/villagers is both very accepted in the biggest 2 RTS games AoE2 and Starcraft 2. I am not saying I am 100% right. Every major and sometimes minor changes needs to be tested and could have adverse effects but you must accept sometimes we developers had to let go things in our games even if we don't want to.
I meant risk by getting played more and you have the right spirit. We do this jams because we want to do. That is the most important part.
Good idea, but we don't plan adding a campaign mode (maybe next game). This is a pure PvP game.
We made a meta-game before in another game, if interested, but that's a real-time one: https://igorsgames.itch.io/nectarpolis
Also I think what you say is more of a myth.
1) Turn-based tactics and puzzle games won Ludum Dare before
2) There are not many of them in jams not because of popularity, but because they are really hard to make
3) Just as with commercial indie games, the point is to get enough players in absolute numbers (to recoup budget or to get rated), not relative percents
4) Turn-based tactics are very very popular actually, in the form of card games :P