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[larsiusprime]

Hey guys,

Lars here, one-time TIGsource interview writer and ever-present forum lurker. I made a game about sustainable energy usage and blowing the crap out of mutant zombie aliens. I was wondering if you guys could give me some feedback on it?

Here's a picture:

And here's the game: http://www.fadupinator.com/energyapocalypse.htm

The game is basically a super trimmed-down RTS which focuses on these questions:

1) In most RTS', you basically rape the environment, cut down all the trees, etc... and that map is basically no longer livable when you're done with it. I wondered if you could make a game where instead to survive you had to do the opposite?

2) I like upgrading things, so I put some of that in there

3) I've been studying energy policy, and it's really complicated! But I thought it could make a fun game. So I did some research and decided to make a game about it.

For instance: Apparently solar power like, totally totally sucks, and ethanol fuel has hidden costs (fossil fuels to burn to produce energy to run the farms to produce the ethanol to put it in your tank = greater emissions than you'd think),  most of the worlds emissions come from power plants instead of vehicular traffic like we're used to thinking, and all these other interesting things. I thought they'd be really fun to put together in a cheap little simulation with Advance-warsy graphics and bouncy little icons.

This is just my 1.0, but I think it's ready to be vetted and torn apart and have some feedback on. I'm definitely going to make a 2.0 Got any suggestions, guys?

Oh by the way it is a flash game, I hope that isn't a problem.

If I've succeeded, then maybe I can make an educational game that doesn't totally suck. Hopefully someone who's played this game can discuss energy policy on an energy 101 level.

You know what I mean? After playing starcraft you learn all these things about an abstract magical space crystal world, like how to manage ore and vespene gas and best defend against a zerg rush. But wouldn't it be cool if learning that kind of stuff gave you a little bit of relevance in today's debates?

Anyway, that is my high and mighty pretentious aim. Please let me know all the ways in which I've fallen short

[Guert]

I found the game quite interesting but I haven't played much of it. The game feels slightly difficult at first but it's not that bad either.

In general I think the concept is nice altho I'm not sure if fighting zombies was the best avenue. I mean, it's fun but it's not that serious either (but I do understand that this direction was intented ). I felt a bit annoyed by the fact that I couldn't build my own base/city alone. Like I said, I didn't play much, but whatever I created in the first mission got lost once I moved on to the next (where I meet the texan guy). I think it could have been interesting to have something a bit more permanent. I also think that, if you don't have it already in the game, adding a human side would help the experience. Like, who am I protecting? Having a civilian count or something would be interesting, imo...

Also, is there some way I can recycle the dead towers and zombies? I mean, since you're going for this ecological thing in the game, it could be interesting to develop the technology to recycle old zombie bodies and turn that into fuel or energy. Or soylent green

Anyways, interesting concept, I'll try to play it more later on. Good job!
Later!

[larsiusprime]

I hit a deadline for a competition I was submitting to, so I definitely want to add more stuff along those lines.

Also, yeah I think having a more permanent base and some more inspired level design would probably help things out.

I DEFINITELY wanted to add some recycling programs you could mess with, since it's better to melt down old broken trucks than mine metal out of the ground to build new ones. I'll be working on that and make a new version one of these days.

Thanks for the feedback!

It's a little unpolished, but I think it could be better as it goes on.

And yeah, I like games with "serious" topics, but "serious games" usually = "boring games", so I wanted it to be a little lighthearted.

[larsiusprime]

I did a quick round of bugfixes and updates:

Also, keep in mind there is a SANDBOX mode where you can just build up your base and fight off endless waves of zombies. People keep seeming to miss this.

http://www.fadupinator.com/energyapocalypse.htm

[Guert]

Whenever I play this game I keep getting some sim city flashbacks. Tis is one of my personal issue with the game. I want to play it but I can't help but to search for the tools found in sim city, like building roads and connect houses with power lines. This is probably personal tho, I spent alot of hours on the original game.

On the other hand, it's fun to see the energy value of all the different types of energy source and their effects on environment wich I really got to see in the sandbox mode. Do you think you'll be tackling other similar subjects in your next games?

Later!

[Pacian]

If there's one thing I like about this game, it's that your turrets fire on full auto.  I hate RTS games where you have these kick-ass machinegun units who only fire once every few seconds.