I enjoyed this a lot once I figured out the rules. The screenshot example in the comments really helped to explain - it reminds me of playing Go, where groups of stones need liberties to survive. Instructions and scoring could use some work but the game itself is fun and addicting.
Thank you for the comment! I haven't worked on this project for a while now, but I'm proud of it, and fully intend to expand it with some extra stuff and a proper interactive tutorial. :)
Water occupies the entire accessible area, and it can go through every tile type except Trees (it can go through the Farm tile, despite what the tutorial claims).
Water does not travel diagonally. Farms and Villages cannot connect to each other if the path is blocked by trees, and they cannot follow a path diagonally.
Nice puzzle game. I like the look of the tiles and the concept seems neat. Currently pretty rough for newcomers due to unclear rules:
No legend for tiles. It’s not too hard to figure out that the lighthouse is the ocean, but the uncertainty might turn people off.
At first I thought corn acted like trees. Maybe use clearer language for “flood tiles” and “dyke tiles”.
Would be great to have a hunger visualization like the water one. Similar to other commenters, I didn’t understand why I always save 0 villages and thought they could either share corn or one would claim the corn and let the other starve (instead of both starving).
I still don’t understand why my top right village wasn’t saved:
I like this! Some sound effects would really take it up a notch, as would some kind of post-game explanation as to why you won or lost. Even just a little cross through any village that was lost would be a big help.
I completely forgot that villages couldn't be "isolated" until I skimmed through the comments here, and I'm still not certain what "access to another village" means: I'm assuming it follows much the same rules as the river movement (in that villages can't be separated by forest) but it isn't made obvious in the instructions.
Also, just seconding the idea about turning this into an app. It's exactly the sort of chilled-out, non-time-sensitive game I like to play during ad breaks on TV.
Coming back to this, one other question I'm left with is: "Can the river pass through mountains?" That is to say: if I get lucky with the initial layout and can route the river right around the edge of the board, can I run water from one mountain directly through the other, or do I have to leave a channel around it?
Also it would be nice if the game eliminated layouts where villages spawned directly beside mountains. Aiming to beat my personal best, I find it's possible to hit a Minesweeper-style run of bad starts where at least one village is doomed from the very beginning. It doesn't prevent a win, but it seriously hampers your chances of a top score.
As before, though: really nice little game. I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops, but even in its current state it's hugely enjoyable once you pick up the basic rules.
I can't seem to get the game to run? I've tried on Chrome, Safari and the Itch.io desktop app, the tutorial button works but the new game button does nothing. Am I overlooking something?
I'm guessing you're on a mac? In Google Chrome can you please press "Command + Option + J", then click the New Game button and report if any error messages appear? :)
The water should start when the fourth tile is drawn, however right now there's a chance to get 2 water tiles in a row. Which of course isn't fair, I'll sort it out. :)
I love this game, but echoing other comments below, I do wish that scores could be reset, and that a tutorial round was available! After the learning curve, though, I've been really enjoying it. Excellent work! If there's ever an app, I'd totally buy this for my phone.
Edit: I've also noticed that there are games where I genuinely can't figure out why I lost villages, it might be nice (though it may be a lot of work) to have a togglable option to see why certain villages were lost. It's also not very colorblind friendly, which may be where part of my struggle is coming from. Maybe some edit ability for the tile colors?
I have a mobile app for Android and iOS planned, fortunately it's very easy to port with the technology I've used. I'll tell you when it's ready. :)
I definitely need to colourblind options and I should have considered that earlier, thank you for telling me! It's becoming very clear I need to give the player better feedback for the status of the villages, I'll find a solution!
Honestly kind of obsessed with this game, I can't stop playing! It's so simple yet so fun. Kind of confused about the 'point' system though, particularly the saved/lost count. I thought I was doing pretty good but after the flood, it said I lost my 8 villages? :( [image below]
Saved: 0 / Lost: 8
Overall a very enjoyable game, and very relaxing :)
Firstly, I'm really glad you're enjoying it! It's becoming very clear to me that I need to clarify the rules, and add a tutorial mode, but to help you out I thought I would go through why those 8 villages that were lost.
Villages A, B and C only have "access" to 2 corn tiles, they need one each for a total of 3 to survive. By access I mean, in an area not divided by forest. Village D is isolated by surrounding forest so it has no access to corn or any other villages.
Villages E, F, G and H only has access to 2 corn tiles. I hope this helps!
Thanks for the reply! I think I understand how it works now :)
I was going under the assumption that it was a 1:1 kind of thing with villages and corn, so I was confused why A and B for instance didn't count as saved, since they each had a corn. So for all the villages within a clearing, there has to be an equal amount of corn for any of them to count as saved?
On another note, I think a useful feature to add to this would be a 'restart' button, or perhaps some kind of level system. Then again, the simplicity in the lack of levels is part of why I'm so drawn to this game lol :)
I may be a total idiot, but I feel like I really need some rules clarifications here! Some I have figured out on my own--like water can go in any direction, this is a top down view, etc. But when villages need "access" to each other, does that mean direct orthogonal placement? Can corn be placed anywhere so long as it isn't flooded and matches the number of villages? Etc. I'm still not sure how to play correctly. Also, the running tally of saved and lost villages without saying what that particular game's score was is confusing, I have to remember what my old tally was to double check how many I saved this time. Perhaps not necessary if I wasn't trying to use that information to test rules and guess which villages were the failures and which were not.
Thank you thank you thank you!! Your reply to this and other new comments is super helpful! I just knew this was a game I'd really enjoy if only I could understand all the constraints.
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I enjoyed this a lot once I figured out the rules. The screenshot example in the comments really helped to explain - it reminds me of playing Go, where groups of stones need liberties to survive. Instructions and scoring could use some work but the game itself is fun and addicting.
Thank you for the comment! I haven't worked on this project for a while now, but I'm proud of it, and fully intend to expand it with some extra stuff and a proper interactive tutorial. :)
I tried playing on Itch, but I just got a white screen and clicking "New Game" did nothing. These warnings and errors were in the browser console:
Edit: Whoops, just saw there was another thread about this lower down, sorry ;~;
It’s okay, thank you for reporting it! I’m not sure what causes it exactly, but I think I know an easy way to fix it now. I’ll get back to you! :)
I tried open it in chorme and firefox but both look like this
Can we get an exe
Here's some additional instructions:
Water occupies the entire accessible area, and it can go through every tile type except Trees (it can go through the Farm tile, despite what the tutorial claims).
Water does not travel diagonally. Farms and Villages cannot connect to each other if the path is blocked by trees, and they cannot follow a path diagonally.
Hm, interesting, but surprisingly tough! I didn't know if diagonals counted for the longest time....
Nice puzzle game. I like the look of the tiles and the concept seems neat. Currently pretty rough for newcomers due to unclear rules:
I still don’t understand why my top right village wasn’t saved:
Regardless, thanks for the experience.
I like this! Some sound effects would really take it up a notch, as would some kind of post-game explanation as to why you won or lost. Even just a little cross through any village that was lost would be a big help.
I completely forgot that villages couldn't be "isolated" until I skimmed through the comments here, and I'm still not certain what "access to another village" means: I'm assuming it follows much the same rules as the river movement (in that villages can't be separated by forest) but it isn't made obvious in the instructions.
Also, just seconding the idea about turning this into an app. It's exactly the sort of chilled-out, non-time-sensitive game I like to play during ad breaks on TV.
Coming back to this, one other question I'm left with is: "Can the river pass through mountains?" That is to say: if I get lucky with the initial layout and can route the river right around the edge of the board, can I run water from one mountain directly through the other, or do I have to leave a channel around it?
Also it would be nice if the game eliminated layouts where villages spawned directly beside mountains. Aiming to beat my personal best, I find it's possible to hit a Minesweeper-style run of bad starts where at least one village is doomed from the very beginning. It doesn't prevent a win, but it seriously hampers your chances of a top score.
As before, though: really nice little game. I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops, but even in its current state it's hugely enjoyable once you pick up the basic rules.
I can't seem to get the game to run? I've tried on Chrome, Safari and the Itch.io desktop app, the tutorial button works but the new game button does nothing. Am I overlooking something?
Hmmm, that's very strange!
I'm guessing you're on a mac? In Google Chrome can you please press "Command + Option + J", then click the New Game button and report if any error messages appear? :)
Hi, I got same result as Maya.
Nothing happened when pressing New Game on Chrome and Edge on Win10.
Would love to try out the game!
Thanks!
Error log:
https://imgur.com/a/sqc71Wn
i got the same on firefox...
Please resolve this !
Another on Win10. Failed in Pale Moon and directly through Itch, worked in Chrome.
The flooding starts when four tiles are acquired, right? I keep drawing three, and then the game ends. It's either that or a typo.
The water should start when the fourth tile is drawn, however right now there's a chance to get 2 water tiles in a row. Which of course isn't fair, I'll sort it out. :)
I love this game, but echoing other comments below, I do wish that scores could be reset, and that a tutorial round was available! After the learning curve, though, I've been really enjoying it. Excellent work! If there's ever an app, I'd totally buy this for my phone.
Edit: I've also noticed that there are games where I genuinely can't figure out why I lost villages, it might be nice (though it may be a lot of work) to have a togglable option to see why certain villages were lost. It's also not very colorblind friendly, which may be where part of my struggle is coming from. Maybe some edit ability for the tile colors?
I have a mobile app for Android and iOS planned, fortunately it's very easy to port with the technology I've used. I'll tell you when it's ready. :)
I definitely need to colourblind options and I should have considered that earlier, thank you for telling me! It's becoming very clear I need to give the player better feedback for the status of the villages, I'll find a solution!
Honestly kind of obsessed with this game, I can't stop playing! It's so simple yet so fun. Kind of confused about the 'point' system though, particularly the saved/lost count. I thought I was doing pretty good but after the flood, it said I lost my 8 villages? :( [image below]
Overall a very enjoyable game, and very relaxing :)
Firstly, I'm really glad you're enjoying it! It's becoming very clear to me that I need to clarify the rules, and add a tutorial mode, but to help you out I thought I would go through why those 8 villages that were lost.
Villages A, B and C only have "access" to 2 corn tiles, they need one each for a total of 3 to survive. By access I mean, in an area not divided by forest. Village D is isolated by surrounding forest so it has no access to corn or any other villages.
Villages E, F, G and H only has access to 2 corn tiles. I hope this helps!
Thanks for the reply! I think I understand how it works now :)
I was going under the assumption that it was a 1:1 kind of thing with villages and corn, so I was confused why A and B for instance didn't count as saved, since they each had a corn. So for all the villages within a clearing, there has to be an equal amount of corn for any of them to count as saved?
On another note, I think a useful feature to add to this would be a 'restart' button, or perhaps some kind of level system. Then again, the simplicity in the lack of levels is part of why I'm so drawn to this game lol :)
I may be a total idiot, but I feel like I really need some rules clarifications here! Some I have figured out on my own--like water can go in any direction, this is a top down view, etc. But when villages need "access" to each other, does that mean direct orthogonal placement? Can corn be placed anywhere so long as it isn't flooded and matches the number of villages? Etc. I'm still not sure how to play correctly. Also, the running tally of saved and lost villages without saying what that particular game's score was is confusing, I have to remember what my old tally was to double check how many I saved this time. Perhaps not necessary if I wasn't trying to use that information to test rules and guess which villages were the failures and which were not.
Thank you for all the feedback, it's really useful, I definitely need to make some rule clarifications, and possibly alters some rules too!
Access means 4-way connectivity, so orthogonal placement doesn't count.
Corn must match the number of villages AND not divided by forests.
I'm thinking about reworking the scoring system a bit, you make some good points!
Thank you thank you thank you!! Your reply to this and other new comments is super helpful! I just knew this was a game I'd really enjoy if only I could understand all the constraints.
Interesting little puzzler! I wish the UI for dragging and dropping tiles was a bit more clear though.
Thank you for the feedback!
You're right, I think a little tutorial and reworking the UI a bit would go a long way. :)