I'll check out your game when I get home from work. From what I can see and looking at the comments it seems like your game is way more complex than mine is and the primary issue is the interface is confusing.
That really confused me, honestly. The interface is just there to allow you to monitor stuff. You can't interact with it at all, and the how-to guide says that. Other than that, the comments are totally legitimate. Even with the guide, it takes a bit of experimentation for it to kind of "click". Some of the buildings require interaction, others don't. For some, the interaction is vital to survival, for others it isn't.
I really, really, really wish I had the time to make an in-game tutorial. I think it would have increased the positive responses quite a bit.
For the time being, though, I did do a quick fix for two bugs, and updated it to open the local how-to guide, rather than the nonexistent online one, but I can't (and wouldn't want to be anyways, honestly. It's just not in the spirit of LD) be rated on that one.
In my case some of it is interface (having build and attack be the same key, broken research meters), but I think it's more that the game rules aren't clear and the goals are also unclear. I'm pretty sure a good amount of people don't understand that's it's a 2 player local multiplayer game. People don't know that cities give them research points which allows them to level up and jump higher, so when you first get in the game you assume jumping is broken.
Ah, I get that. Yeah, I think part of it isn't so much that it's unexplained than it is that people want to rate as many games as possible to be able to get their own games out there, and don't want a learning curve, regardless of how deep of an experience it is. They want it to either grab them and lose an hour or two, or have a session be over in a few minutes, play a time or two, rate it and move on to the next one. Or at least that's the impression I'm getting: The impression that in any other setting, there'd be more people willing to put in the time to figure it out.
That's not to say instructional materials aren't necessary, but that just seems to be the vibe I get from a lot of people.
I think I'm definitely going to plan accordingly for the next Ludum Dare, challenging myself to make something deep AND accessible, perhaps.
EDIT: And I really hate that people are knocking local multiplayer. I don't like online games quite the way I like local games, unless it's something like a shooter that requires a mouse, and I still like having someone here locally to play with on the same server/whatever. Gaming should be social. That's what makes games genuinely fun. Doing something stupid in a game and being able to laugh about it with the guy next to you. At least, those are the most fun times I can remember, not the total badassery moments.
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