Ugh. The World is MINE feels like it could’ve been so much better. More focussed.
Yet still people like it. Currently it’s the 5th most-played game this LD, which is awesome :D
What went wrong:
Graphics
The style is boring. I feel putting a water-shader might’ve been a mistake, and the entire thing could be more comic-y. The buildings are ugly, the result of me being swamped with other stuff. The textures are boring too.
Difficulty
The World Is MINE! suffers from the same problems it’s spiritual predecessor My Little Planetoid (from the last LD) had. Namely, it is too easy. You can just wait until the resources pile up, and then do your thing.
On the other hand, city-building-games like Anno 2070 (or Anno 1404, etc) have the same “structure”. In those you can wait too until you have anough material. I’ll have to figure this one out.
The first draft also had Enemy Agents, who would undo your progress. The got cut in the stress.
Inefficient use of assets
The World is MINE! Has a lot of single-use-assets. The models are used for one purpose, and then never again. All the lines describing the buttons (the narrative, if you will) were time-intensive to write and make witty, and are only used once too. In the end this led to bad 3d-models.
Unclear Advanced rules
The simple rules – hire goons, take over cities – work just fine. The more advanced happenings, like control of missiles and assets are a bit more complicated, and only explained in a text-box.
The stupid text-bug
I wanted to have two things (among others) in this game: A text displaying the city-name, and a planet that isn’t a sphere.
After some deliberation after the event I realized that these exclude each other. To make the text not clip through the mountains I’d have to place it very high, but that would make it look worse. In the end there is no elegant solution to this. Or I just haven’t found it yet.
Timelapse
Somehow I recorded less images than in the last videos. To counteract this I slowed the framerate, resulting in this “slow” video. Yet somehow it works. Kind-of.
Meh, you decide :P
What went right!
Music
Almost forgot this (as devs are wont to do). I composed the track in less than one hour 2 hours before the deadline. And it works. It’s pompous, and grand, and the march fits the “Evil Mastermind” perfectly.
I should do more music.
Goons
I am SO GLAD I re-named them “Goons”. “Henchmen” is so boring (and exluded women). The Goons are named procedurally, with every Goon receiving a unique name. The name shows up when you hire them, and again when you send them on a mission.
“Writing”
This game may have the biggest amount of “dialogue” I’ve put in a game (I usually try to avoid long texts). The text-button-descriptions are the dialogue of an unseen advisor, and I’m satisfied with the results (people agree). I also love the names of the Evil Vehicles you buy (Buttercup, Purplepants and DeathRigible).
Pacing
The game starts slowly, and then picks up in complexity. A lot of buttons appear later, and buying the DeathRigible-Blimp allows you to see more cities, ramping up the challenge.
I am very proud that few people seem to quit the game prematurely (so far I can gather), which means they are eased in well (Nice work me! *show off*)
The DeathLaser
Till the very last second possible I thought whether to make it an Orbital Laser or a Lunar Laser. In the end I felt satellites would be too much like My Little Planetoid, so I opted for the moon-base (which, funnily, also appeared in My Little Planetoid). Reaction to the DeathLaser has been 100% positive, so it was a good decision :)
The world changing
At the beginning, the world is blue, and only your evil hideout (on super-secret Doom Island) belongs to you. But the more you advance, the more the world changes in color. Your submarines patrol the sea, and cities switch over to you, while auxilliary bases appear around the globe.
The Ending
After the world has slowly changed to become yours, the games calls back to the beginning. I still laugh when I see the final screen.
Go check it out, you might like it :D
Matthias Zarzecki 