What do you think of this game?

[Doodlemeat]

A group of 4 including me, created a game on a local game jam using javascript which was held for about 48 hours from 13th Dec to 15th.
The outcome became a game called Melvind where you have to defend your beer keg from angry ketchup trolls whos main interest is consuming beer, using axes to throw at the trolls and build towers crafted from stone/wood. ** You play as a dwarf **.

Please play this here: http://doodlemeat.se/ggj13/
A new version is coming soon made in SFML with far more things and updates.
We are very open to feedback so please post something.

*** controls ***
x - Throw axis
c - chop wood or pick stone
f - goes into build mode(press 1 to build a tower). Toggle build mode if you want to use x or c again.
arrows - move
I know, awful controls. Will be much better in version 2.0


Some updates in new version
* Written in C++ with SFML.
* Multiplayer, LAN
* One more character, female
* Random generated levels
* Upgrades to towers
* More towers
* Multiple enemies with different attributes like hp, dmg, speed, cleverness(?)(how to use a pathfinding algorithm.)

[Nexus]

Quite funny

But also a bit difficult. It takes so long to gather the resources for a tower, while you're always under attack. And towers are very weak in comparison

[eXpl0it3r]

I played right through it, so I guess it's engaging, plus the fact that's it's rather simple, makes it easy to just play it.

From the difficulty, I wouldn't say it's really hard. Sure the cost are quite high, but over the five waves I built around 8 or so towers, lost three lives however.

What is missing, is an indicator if there are enemies close to the base if you're further away. And if you want to make it harder, you could limit the shots or add a cooldown, so one can't just spam the key as fast as possible.

[StormWingDelta]

Maybe add a structure that warns you of enemies near your base?  Also adding other ways to get the resources you need might help, like say build a structure that pumps out more helpers to go mine things or help defend your base.   That aside nice work.

[Doodlemeat]

eXpl0it3r: One should not be able to build 8 towers! I do really not know how you did that. 2-3 towers is normal at this pace. It is maybe because deltatime is not used, or something with keyboard input.
About enemy indicators: we want the player to feel insecure when going further away from home(beer keg) and give the player a feeling of awareness, instead of alertness.

But I agree that the player should get some feedback if enemies is coming or not, but this is not really needed as for now I think. This is really not needed when multiplayer is implemented.

Nexus: I do not think we will decrease the amount of time it takes to get resources for a tower, but instead creating resource pools from where you can get X amount of a resource.

I can already see this game becoming more stable with C++ using SFML.
Do you have more suggestions about things you want to see in this game?

[eXpl0it3r]

eXpl0it3r: One should not be able to build 8 towers!

Oops

Well it felt kind of buggy sometimes. Like from time to time the enemies moved froward and then teleported one tile back again and there were many cases where enemies we're on one tile. And the movement felt really slow...
If I get time tomorrow, I could make a quick recording.

[Doodlemeat]

enemies moved froward and then teleported one tile back again

This is because the enemies use A* algorithm. Whenever the environment is changed(chooped wood, picked stone, placed tower), a new path is calculated for each enemy. And since I need to calculate a path from tile A to tile B, I have to move the enemy to the last tile it successfully walked onto. I am doing so because the enemies does not collide with terrain at all(a fix for enemies not clipping trough any obstacles when a new path is generated).

[StormWingDelta]

enemies moved froward and then teleported one tile back again

This is because the enemies use A* algorithm. Whenever the environment is changed(chooped wood, picked stone, placed tower), a new path is calculated for each enemy. And since I need to calculate a path from tile A to tile B, I have to move the enemy to the last tile it successfully walked onto. I am doing so because the enemies does not collide with terrain at all(a fix for enemies not clipping trough any obstacles when a new path is generated).

If I remember right there is a way to not have to reset AIs back to last good spot in A*.  Might be useful too.

[Doodlemeat]

Yes, there is. I can save the tile position from the last path and let the enemy successfully enter it and then let the enemy walk the path.