itch.io

Hi everyone,

after about a year of evening work I finally released a demo of my game Highbatch.

It's a first person factory/tycoon hybrid. You grow and process weed in small warehouses and build infrastructure that connects them. So instead of one huge factory you manage multiple smaller spaces with limited room. Think Big Ambitions but instead of placing things to sell in a shop, you build mini factories.

One mechanic I'm testing: product quality drops when items stand still too long on belts. Moving is free, waiting is not. Quality affects your sale price, so balanced production lines earn more. You can also ignore it completely and play with cheaper 0% quality products. I posted about this mechanic on reddit and got mixed reactions. In the demo it comes into play near the end of the content, so most of what you'll play is the core loop - growing, processing, selling, first automation steps.

It's rough in some places with placeholder graphics, I'm a solo dev. I have no testers yet, so every bit of feedback matters a lot right now. That's exactly why I'm posting now and not after another year of work. My hope is to slowly build a small community around the game and ideally find a few people who would like to follow the development long-term and test new versions as they come.

Demo is free here: https://joeyloey.itch.io/highbatch There is also a discord link in the game and on the page if you want to stick around.

If you try it, I would love to know two things: where you got bored, and if the quality mechanic feels like a reward or a punishment. Honest answers welcome, I can take it.

Thanks for reading.

Nice idea and execution! :)

Nice effects, interesting approach with camera.

I struggled with understanding enemy movement, it felt so random and sometimes they just decided to run towards me through bullets, so I couldn't find a way to finish the game.

Information about actual help of enemies would help a lot.

Spell UI could be smaller and maybe allow to use a keyboard to activate if you are not planning to add specific placement for your spells. (if yes, then it could be used for a selection before casting)

I think that if you would work on the game for a little bit more after the jam, it has potential to be a really nice game :)

Good job!

I made similar game but you kept it simple. You made nice effort in explaining mechanics.

I would prefer little bit faster text speed and maybe skippable.

I if you maybe changed direction on wall impact with character it could open much more possibilities in making levels.

In one level when placing blocks on the restricted area it would reset the blocks value to starting value -> infinite blocks bugs.

Overall nice game. If you added some more mechanics it could make a nice puzzle game.

nice game....I did something similar with faster pace and multiple characters but you have it much more polished I guess....

Slow transforming was the biggest problem in the game - but you can change that after jam easily :)

I like it, great job!

Thank you!

I would be curious how you would enjoy the game if I actually have some time to properly design levels.

Nice approach to platforming, I had similar idea and choose a little bit different path.

Its nice to see that you managed to polish and make it super clean in 48 hours.
Great job!

I enjoyed the game, great effort in 48 hours.

Good job!

Thank you. 
The game for sure could use more levels and give player better feedback about his actions to teach player all the mechanics and then some challenging one....time was the issue as always in game jam :X
I am glad you liked it :) 

Awesome game....amazing that you managed to create fun experience like this...only thing is the big UI blocking view especially in the bottom.

Levels are challenging but doable, nice final level :)

Great job!

Nice game for a gamejam :)