I made this one. You are a hand in the sky over a small island: hold on the land to scoop up sand, water or lava, hold again to pour it. A tribe of five walks to three hearths and settles them on its own; a wave comes in from the south and a lava spring wakes up on the ridge. What you pour is the only thing between them and the sea.
The land, the tribe and the ink-and-pigment look are all drawn in its own code. It runs in the browser with no account and no install, and on a phone too.
Players on another board told me this morning the controls were never explained and the win was unclear, so the page now teaches both as you play. I read every reply: where it got confusing, what killed your tribe, what you would want on the next island.
I’ll give you my brutally honest review.
I have played it a few times but was wholly unimpressed. You have the potential for an interesting game, but I found the execution to be flawed.
My main complaint is that there’s barely 2 minutes of gameplay and zero replayability. 1 free level is never going to be enough to draw people in.
Why do the NPCs exist? They add nothing to the gameplay or challenge. The game would play the exact same if they weren’t there to begin with. Give them some meaning. For example, maybe they need to move from town to town so that they can survive. Like trading or something. Maybe even have resource spots the NPCs go to for food or supplies.
I feel the game needs more variation in how it plays out. Something to add strategy so that each time you play is never the same solution. Longer levels and waves that progressively get worse would be one option.
Here’s one random idea that popped into my head:
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At the highest point of the map is an altar. You start with just 3 or so villagers that immediately populate the towns. Every town you hold gains 1 more population every 5-30 seconds or so. You can keep the villagers in the town, or choose to abandon it, which causes all the villagers to move to the next closest town. If the villagers have no town to go to, then they head to the altar where they ascend.
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The waves start out small, but grow in size each time they happen. Each wave causes the sea to rise. By the end of the game, only the altar at the top of the mountain will remain.
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The goal would be pretty straightforward. Keep your villages alive as long as possible to gain as much population as possible. Evacuate towns before they get wiped out to avoid losing villagers. Get as many villagers to the altar to get the maximum score you can.
My suggestion: make a solid game first before you start asking people for money. Have a free level pack that offers something like a solid 30 minutes to an hour of gameplay.
I would suggest looking at the game enclose.horse for some ideas at how to make a solid web game starting from just a simple concept.
Fair, all of it. It is one island of about two minutes, the tribe walks a fixed path, and once you know the answer it plays the same every time. Your sketch fixes exactly that: towns that grow while you hold them, an evacuation you choose, a sea that rises with every wave, and the altar count as the score. I am building it as an endless mode on the same island and will post here when it plays. The price waits until there is something worth paying for.
It plays now: https://overflow.games/stillwet/?sea (or “the rising sea” from the start line). Three settlers, a villager every 8 s per town you hold, tap a town to send its people on to the next or up to the altar, seven waves that each lift the sea for good, and the score is everyone at the altar plus whoever is still standing. If you try it, tell me where it breaks or gets dull.
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