Really loved this one. Wish there was an option to play with mouse (my index and middle fingers were asking for a break after a bit :P ), but that's just a nitpick. Really cool and relaxing micro experience; almost meditative once you get enough resources to forget about micromanagement and start building and "beautifying" your town.
Speaking of meditative, I gotta ask: What's the background music?! Did you compose it? LOVE IT!
Glad you liked the game! That was the whole idea with the game, so I am glad it worked for you :)
So, emm, I got the track off humble bundle quite some time ago, there was this gigantic pack of loops, sound effects, etc. Found one track I liked, adjusted the pitch so it sounded a lot more slow paced, and you got the track! No magic there I am afraid. I tried looking for it now, but can't find it :/
Kudos on making such good use of stock sounds and original art. It blends beatifully. And best of luck with the development of Lost Lands! On my wishlist already (;
While on the subject, and I know this is not the most orthodox channel to ask but, are you guys interested in localizing the game into Spanish? I'm looking to bring my years of translation experience to the videogames industry and I would love to collaborate with you guys on LL.
Nice graphics, interesting idea. There must be something that disturb you in the game. Some enemies, disasters? And exploring should show more than on tile of map to make it a bit faster. I’ll keep watching the game develops.
I removed all those "disturbing" bits on purpose, I wanted a very chill experience. I do agree that some changes to spice things up would work well, to change context for the player every now and then, so that is already planned :D
Hey Poppants! I just made my first devlog about Lueur. I'm talking a little bit about how Lost Settlers inspired me. Thank you again for making this interesting game.
hi, srry this is a bit late. first, very excited to see this spiffed up! one of my favorites.
alas, my first go produced this:
422×358png 14.5 kB
i don't think there's any way to advance that town. i have a disturbingly huge sample size of games (lol i played this a lot!) and none of them did that before.
also... i'm not really keen on how the windmills animation goes now? i know that's a nitpick but the previous animation was not jerk-y reality-glitch. the still pixel art might be neater but in motion it kind of interrupts the vibe.
i'd also humbly suggest a few adjustments in resource requirements, as usually you don't pay much of a resource X to build the thing that makes resource X. most of the game mechanic nails this; but in many cases, like with population, it's grindingly unbalanced. i estimate you need about 3 houses to achieve steady population growth, and with the cost list of each house ... ironically it's difficult to actually attract settlers.
what might put this over the top into legend mode would be more area effects bonuses, like woodcutter next to forest (or type of tree! i've farmed maps into one type of tree, just for the Aesthetic. mushroom farms are my favorite too.) or house next to apples or sheep next to open grass.
Your comment made my day, thank you :D I honestly never considered the possibility of the starting point to be surrounded by the mountains, like in your case, so I already made myself a task to take care of that so that does not happen.
Regarding resources - noted! We also changed how some of the resources "behave" and what they are used for, so hopefully we can balance it out so there is no grinding.
And regarding the last part - you can expect more of those indeed! We aim to make a lot of building to provide new unique actions and changes to the game mechanics, and more chains (e.g. when upgrading or building next to each other). Also, perhaps not in early build, we will be adding "prettify"ing options for some buildings, allowing you to customize how stuff looks but also brings in some bonuses. So.. stay tuned ^^
PS: I really liked the concept of a mushroom farm, so I am stealing that one for the game :D
Hey ! I discovered your game a few months ago and it really sticked with me. Especially thanks to this minimalist approach.
I set myself the challenge of making a city builder into a 64x64 resolution for the LOWREZJAM.
Your game was a great source of inspiration. It allowed me to benchmark what works, what don't, and what's missing without having to prototype anything. Your visual style was also a big help, as I'm a real beginner in pixel art.
You'll see it's quite different in a lot of aspect, and I would love to know what you think of the game.
I really liked what you did with the "source material"! Really liked the illumination mechanic, and the end game is a lot more fun, can be challenging in the first run. The 64px limitation makes everything looks crammed, but that honestly works well with the darkness of the world that you've built.
For starting pixel art I think that looks quite good! I would advice you to look over at lospec.com for palettes and tutorials (artists Pedro Medeiros and Slynyrd are my recomendations). Even a tiny change, like applying a custom palette will breath a lot of live into the game.
Thanks ! I'm actually using a palette from lospec yes. I found out that saturated colors can be hard on the eyes so I choose the Waldgeist very desaturated and nostalgic color palette. The UI elements do not use it to make them pop out though, and the light 2d modifies the colors so that might be why it looks messy.
Awesome game, I usually don't like minimalistic games, but this is just so cool!
I would really like to see some more progress on this, my main suggestion would be a tutorial, since when I first played the game, I personally didn't understand the controls, I had to look at the description multiple times, and when I got to building, I didn't really understand why some things, like wheat fields, indicate that food will go up, and farms don't, aswell as the functionality of lumber mills.
Still, great game, I support the development process, and I hope it will be an even better game when it's finished!
PS: I don't think a final goal is needed, having an end goal just doesn't fit the vibe of calm, minimalistic gameplay. What I think would be great tho, is some longer gameplay, such as more Outpost upgrades. This does not mean stuffing the game with too much features tho.
Currently working on it! We did decide not to have an end goal, and a lot more content than present now, new mechanics, buildings, etc. Still same process of discovering new things as you go, but with more explanation of what is going on :)
This game is lovely. I didn't made as far as I saw some other in comments, but loved progressing through it.
As said by @Darenn, I also felt like I needed to play it. Especially after recently making also a resource management game and getting stuck from where to go now.
I really like your game. You just need arrow keys and one button, and it just works. I was in a infinite loop for a few days, asking myself if my games were complex enough. I really needed to play this one to realize how much we can do with simple stuff. Grid based games have been made for ages, and yet this one feels unique and personal.
You can be sure your game is gonna inspire me in my next developments.
Hei Darenn, I am glad you enjoyed the game! I always try to evaluate the games on the basis of elegance of its game design instead of complexity - and that’s the approach I take when I design them as well. Becomes harder, mind you, but I think it is the correct parameter to… optimise?
I think it was the 3 minute game design mini-series by Keith Burgun where I first learned about the concept, and I wholeheartedly suggest to take a look if you have got the time.
Cheers, looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
I love the amount of detail put into this gam. it's the little things like that camera shake when you can't build an object that make this game so satisfing and great
Haha, thanks! I actually started by making the movement around with shakiness and sounds to feel nice, and then did the same for the right-hand menu before I had any idea what kind of game I was building :D
Hi, I was watching the playthrough uploaded on the Itch YouTube page and noticed that your drop down menu spells "ligthouse," which I see is also in the screenshots. I thought I'd pass that on. Hope that helps.
i rate it 9/10 like it but needs something like what others talk about here. being save feature and some way of knowing how to use or what buildings do or how they are most effective. like i can guess lumbermill needs trees but dont know if it needs surrounded and farm can have fields but im not sure how much difference more fields do. or if i need more farms. i have no idea what lighthouse (spelled wrong in game) does for the base buildings or surroundings.
Do not know how I missed your comments, thank you for the kind words and for the feedback ^^
The description of the buildings are lacking, and that kind of was the point - to discover what things do on your own. I have to admit though, it is a bit overwhelming with the ones that rely on nearby tiles for production. In any case, that is one of the things I will be re-working :)
This game is amazing! I have so much work to do, but I just spent (not wasted) an hour playing this. It feels so fresh and well-designed. The game just lacks a simple description for each building. Great job though!
Also, some dumb people (like me) could restart the game by accident. Please, add a confirmation popup.
Hey, thank you for your kinds words and support, you are the first one ^^
The story about the G-button was left from the debugging, to Generate worlds and I just kept there without giving it much thought :D But, noted, thank you!
10/10 Super chill and addicting! I would add a challenge mode of some sort but either way I enjoyed it. Thank you for making this cool little game. :) PS Love the art style it fits very well.
To begin I would have to agree this game is fun and worth an hour or two if you're looking to waste some time. to keep it short I would rate this a 9/10 fantastic game Poppants.
Glad you love it! Magic is accumulated by building the mage's tower, for which you need the last level of the bonfire (castle), and you have to build it next to it :)
Glad you liked it! I think you can do it through itch.io app right now, but since I am working on the full version of the game, I kinda... lost access to this version of the game :D
Nice game! But could you let it run in background without focus? It often takes just time to wait for something and it would help if the focus on the game is not required.
My base:
that's VERY awesome to play! :D For improvment, I think it would be nice to have some text in the description saying what exactly the buildings do. I'm still not so sure about the difference between the chopping block and the lumbermill
Yes, a description would be very nice. For some, if not most buildings the effect building/removing them has on the resources is indicated by arrows to the right of the icons, but e.g. for lumber mill and chop block there is no such indication. (Maybe a bug?) And of course if a building enables new features, this can be found out by accident only - if you have the bonfire surrounded by buildings, you may never become aware that special buildings can be built around the outpost.
So, originally I based the idea around the accidental discoveries (e.g. you can build specific buildings only if you have a specific tile next to it), but as you pointed out, it can lock out players out to discover more of the game.
PS: Lfzinho, you get more wood when chopping down the trees if you have a chopping block :)
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Comments
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Great game, love the graphics.
Can't wait to play again now that I understand the functions a bit better. One question is there a way to increase magic output?
Glad you liked it!
I do not think there is any other way to get mana but to build the Mage's Tower im afraid, did;t really think about it :D
Really loved this one. Wish there was an option to play with mouse (my index and middle fingers were asking for a break after a bit :P ), but that's just a nitpick. Really cool and relaxing micro experience; almost meditative once you get enough resources to forget about micromanagement and start building and "beautifying" your town.
Speaking of meditative, I gotta ask: What's the background music?! Did you compose it? LOVE IT!
Glad you liked the game! That was the whole idea with the game, so I am glad it worked for you :)
So, emm, I got the track off humble bundle quite some time ago, there was this gigantic pack of loops, sound effects, etc. Found one track I liked, adjusted the pitch so it sounded a lot more slow paced, and you got the track! No magic there I am afraid. I tried looking for it now, but can't find it :/
Kudos on making such good use of stock sounds and original art. It blends beatifully. And best of luck with the development of Lost Lands! On my wishlist already (;
While on the subject, and I know this is not the most orthodox channel to ask but, are you guys interested in localizing the game into Spanish? I'm looking to bring my years of translation experience to the videogames industry and I would love to collaborate with you guys on LL.
Thank you!
I was about to suggest you ping us over the email, but I guess you already have :D
Nice graphics, interesting idea. There must be something that disturb you in the game. Some enemies, disasters? And exploring should show more than on tile of map to make it a bit faster. I’ll keep watching the game develops.
Thank you!
I removed all those "disturbing" bits on purpose, I wanted a very chill experience. I do agree that some changes to spice things up would work well, to change context for the player every now and then, so that is already planned :D
Stay tuned!
very fun, kinda reminds me of dwarf fortress, i can't wait to see how this game grows, keep up the good work
thank you for the kind words ^^ will do our best
glitch: lumber mills stop working if you reset by pressing the g button
Welp, almost a year into the game since release you are the first one to find a bug :D
Thank you, I will take a look at it :)
oh lol, ive found plenty of bugs, but some of them I like XD.
Hey Poppants!
I just made my first devlog about Lueur. I'm talking a little bit about how Lost Settlers inspired me. Thank you again for making this interesting game.
I am really happy I was able to inspire your next project, it looks absolutely lovely!
Ps: really liked the devlog, I should do something that too ^^
Thank you!
This was just what I was looking for, a relaxing little game and more complex than might seem at first. Loved it!
Well thank you ^^ I am really happy to see people enjoying it
hi, srry this is a bit late. first, very excited to see this spiffed up! one of my favorites.
alas, my first go produced this:
14.5 kB
i don't think there's any way to advance that town. i have a disturbingly huge sample size of games (lol i played this a lot!) and none of them did that before.
also... i'm not really keen on how the windmills animation goes now? i know that's a nitpick but the previous animation was not jerk-y reality-glitch. the still pixel art might be neater but in motion it kind of interrupts the vibe.
i'd also humbly suggest a few adjustments in resource requirements, as usually you don't pay much of a resource X to build the thing that makes resource X. most of the game mechanic nails this; but in many cases, like with population, it's grindingly unbalanced. i estimate you need about 3 houses to achieve steady population growth, and with the cost list of each house ... ironically it's difficult to actually attract settlers.
what might put this over the top into legend mode would be more area effects bonuses, like woodcutter next to forest (or type of tree! i've farmed maps into one type of tree, just for the Aesthetic. mushroom farms are my favorite too.) or house next to apples or sheep next to open grass.
Hi there!
Your comment made my day, thank you :D
I honestly never considered the possibility of the starting point to be surrounded by the mountains, like in your case, so I already made myself a task to take care of that so that does not happen.
Regarding resources - noted! We also changed how some of the resources "behave" and what they are used for, so hopefully we can balance it out so there is no grinding.
And regarding the last part - you can expect more of those indeed! We aim to make a lot of building to provide new unique actions and changes to the game mechanics, and more chains (e.g. when upgrading or building next to each other). Also, perhaps not in early build, we will be adding "prettify"ing options for some buildings, allowing you to customize how stuff looks but also brings in some bonuses. So.. stay tuned ^^
PS: I really liked the concept of a mushroom farm, so I am stealing that one for the game :D
Hey !
I discovered your game a few months ago and it really sticked with me. Especially thanks to this minimalist approach.
I set myself the challenge of making a city builder into a 64x64 resolution for the LOWREZJAM.
Your game was a great source of inspiration. It allowed me to benchmark what works, what don't, and what's missing without having to prototype anything. Your visual style was also a big help, as I'm a real beginner in pixel art.
You'll see it's quite different in a lot of aspect, and I would love to know what you think of the game.
https://darenn.itch.io/lueur
I'm working on a complete version as we speak, so feedback is greatly appreciated.
Thanks again !
Hi Darenn!
I really liked what you did with the "source material"! Really liked the illumination mechanic, and the end game is a lot more fun, can be challenging in the first run. The 64px limitation makes everything looks crammed, but that honestly works well with the darkness of the world that you've built.
For starting pixel art I think that looks quite good! I would advice you to look over at lospec.com for palettes and tutorials (artists Pedro Medeiros and Slynyrd are my recomendations). Even a tiny change, like applying a custom palette will breath a lot of live into the game.
Looking forward to the final version!
Thanks !
I'm actually using a palette from lospec yes. I found out that saturated colors can be hard on the eyes so I choose the Waldgeist very desaturated and nostalgic color palette.
The UI elements do not use it to make them pop out though, and the light 2d modifies the colors so that might be why it looks messy.
Awesome game, I usually don't like minimalistic games, but this is just so cool!
I would really like to see some more progress on this, my main suggestion would be a tutorial, since when I first played the game, I personally didn't understand the controls, I had to look at the description multiple times, and when I got to building, I didn't really understand why some things, like wheat fields, indicate that food will go up, and farms don't, aswell as the functionality of lumber mills.
Still, great game, I support the development process, and I hope it will be an even better game when it's finished!
PS: I don't think a final goal is needed, having an end goal just doesn't fit the vibe of calm, minimalistic gameplay. What I think would be great tho, is some longer gameplay, such as more Outpost upgrades. This does not mean stuffing the game with too much features tho.
Currently working on it! We did decide not to have an end goal, and a lot more content than present now, new mechanics, buildings, etc. Still same process of discovering new things as you go, but with more explanation of what is going on :)
PS: Thanks for the kinds words ^^
Really excellent game, very relaxing, very calm, love the pixels and the vibes. Very well done.
Aww thank you, you made my morning ^^
This game is lovely. I didn't made as far as I saw some other in comments, but loved progressing through it.
As said by @Darenn, I also felt like I needed to play it. Especially after recently making also a resource management game and getting stuck from where to go now.
Hi Cuca, I am glad you enjoyed it! Please let me know when you are done working on it I would love to check it out.
Great job poppants.
I really like your game. You just need arrow keys and one button, and it just works. I was in a infinite loop for a few days, asking myself if my games were complex enough. I really needed to play this one to realize how much we can do with simple stuff. Grid based games have been made for ages, and yet this one feels unique and personal.
You can be sure your game is gonna inspire me in my next developments.
I look forward to see more games from you.
Darenn Keller, Game Designer at Ubisoft.
Hei Darenn, I am glad you enjoyed the game! I always try to evaluate the games on the basis of elegance of its game design instead of complexity - and that’s the approach I take when I design them as well. Becomes harder, mind you, but I think it is the correct parameter to… optimise?
I think it was the 3 minute game design mini-series by Keith Burgun where I first learned about the concept, and I wholeheartedly suggest to take a look if you have got the time.
Cheers, looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
I love the amount of detail put into this gam. it's the little things like that camera shake when you can't build an object that make this game so satisfing and great
Haha, thanks! I actually started by making the movement around with shakiness and sounds to feel nice, and then did the same for the right-hand menu before I had any idea what kind of game I was building :D
Glad you liked it! The full game will have passive and aggressive creatures as well, to add some challenge to the game
Hi, I was watching the playthrough uploaded on the Itch YouTube page and noticed that your drop down menu spells "ligthouse," which I see is also in the screenshots. I thought I'd pass that on. Hope that helps.
Heyo, thank you for pointint it out! Will be fixing that ^^
How do you get more people? Do you just wait?
certain building increase rate you get people not sure the specific amounts.
houses and their updates as well as the bonfire and its updates :)
is this the full game or is there an updated one i can buy somewhere?
i think i built everything possible in my game but doesn't seem to be a way to win.
i rate it 9/10 like it but needs something like what others talk about here. being save feature and some way of knowing how to use or what buildings do or how they are most effective. like i can guess lumbermill needs trees but dont know if it needs surrounded and farm can have fields but im not sure how much difference more fields do. or if i need more farms. i have no idea what lighthouse (spelled wrong in game) does for the base buildings or surroundings.
Great for a free game. :)
Do not know how I missed your comments, thank you for the kind words and for the feedback ^^
The description of the buildings are lacking, and that kind of was the point - to discover what things do on your own. I have to admit though, it is a bit overwhelming with the ones that rely on nearby tiles for production. In any case, that is one of the things I will be re-working :)
awesome. i will try check back and follow what i can. a few games on itch appear like games i enjoy. fun but not overdone.
This game is amazing! I have so much work to do, but I just spent (not wasted) an hour playing this. It feels so fresh and well-designed. The game just lacks a simple description for each building. Great job though!
Also, some dumb people (like me) could restart the game by accident. Please, add a confirmation popup.
Hey, thank you for your kinds words and support, you are the first one ^^
The story about the G-button was left from the debugging, to Generate worlds and I just kept there without giving it much thought :D But, noted, thank you!
10/10 Super chill and addicting! I would add a challenge mode of some sort but either way I enjoyed it. Thank you for making this cool little game. :) PS Love the art style it fits very well.
No, you are 10/10! Glad you liked it ^^
The full version will have at least two new different modes, in one of which you can actually lose the game, so... stay tuned?
Review.
To begin I would have to agree this game is fun and worth an hour or two if you're looking to waste some time. to keep it short I would rate this a 9/10 fantastic game Poppants.
Glad you liked wasting your time playing my game :D
I love it. But how can I get magic / build a magetower?
Glad you love it! Magic is accumulated by building the mage's tower, for which you need the last level of the bonfire (castle), and you have to build it next to it :)
Such a lovely, relaxing game! Is there any chance for a download version?
Glad you liked it! I think you can do it through itch.io app right now, but since I am working on the full version of the game, I kinda... lost access to this version of the game :D
Thank you for your reply. Ah ok, then I'll simply wait for the full version. :)
That's was so nice!
I'll probably play again in the future :3
Glad you liked it!
help i am addicted to this game, super fun
that is step one of my foolproof world domination plan :D Glad you are enjoying it!
I think I finished the game. I have every building or?
Damn that is impressive, I think you got them all indeed!
PS: I will make the game not freeze on unfocus on the next patch, thanks for the tip!
An interesting little game! Would appreciate it more if I kenw what these buildings did!
Was hoping that discovering that was part of the game :D But I will change some things to address that problem in the next update
the problem is when it's not obvious what they do and the resource indicator doesn't help
Nice game! But could you let it run in background without focus? It often takes just time to wait for something and it would help if the focus on the game is not required. My base:
that's VERY awesome to play! :D
For improvment, I think it would be nice to have some text in the description saying what exactly the buildings do. I'm still not so sure about the difference between the chopping block and the lumbermill
Yes, a description would be very nice. For some, if not most buildings the effect building/removing them has on the resources is indicated by arrows to the right of the icons, but e.g. for lumber mill and chop block there is no such indication. (Maybe a bug?) And of course if a building enables new features, this can be found out by accident only - if you have the bonfire surrounded by buildings, you may never become aware that special buildings can be built around the outpost.
So, originally I based the idea around the accidental discoveries (e.g. you can build specific buildings only if you have a specific tile next to it), but as you pointed out, it can lock out players out to discover more of the game.
PS: Lfzinho, you get more wood when chopping down the trees if you have a chopping block :)
i love this game - so relaxing
Glad you liked it!