FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD34 → Hard Decisions

Hard Decisions

By vortex

View on Wayback Machine

CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness284
Theme804.23
Mood913.74
Overall1923.64
Innovation2923.45
Graphics3863.28
Fun4073.25

Comments

falkreon 2015-12-13 23:58

That was a strange experience. The game only had one resolution available for fullscreen, and when I started it up, the button hitboxes were located as if the view was centered. Problem is, the actual graphics were at the top of my screen. Worse yet, when you finish the interview, there's only a green button to restart. I had to tab out and quit it while it was backgrounded.

The game itself is vaguely reminiscent of Papers Please and Please Don't Touch Anything. I like that, and I like that the questions here aren't easy. Some bugs to iron out, but keep up the good work.

pluberski 2015-12-14 16:26

Really captivating for having been made in such a short period of time! :)

vortex 2015-12-14 17:58

@Falkreon Thanks for your feedback :). The problems didn't occur to me, because the background is 16:9, and I wanted to lock your Window only to be 16:9 too. That's where your first problems came from. Since I opened it in windowed mode, I didn't need a quit button, since I just used the red X.
These small bugs are now fixed! :)

velddev 2015-12-14 19:35

Neato. i blew myself up.

maxamaden 2015-12-14 20:11

Awesome little text-based game! I really like the UI and the way the text appears gradually on the terminal screen.

wevel 2015-12-14 20:12

BOOM, nice game interesting idea of controlling things you are only being told about so you don't really know whats going on

dmecke 2015-12-14 20:37

Nice story, I felt that I was too often asked the same questions maybe (different questions actually, but the same meaning). After all very well done!

peterthehe 2015-12-15 16:06

Very interesting

reccy 2015-12-15 16:29

Awesome little game. I kinda got a War Games vibe from it. :P

n00basaurus 2015-12-15 18:43

An interesting concept. I would highly recommend seeing nuclear crisis movies from the 1960s like Dr. Strangelove or more importantly, FAIL SAFE.

Some minor programming issues: No 'esc' to easy quit/exit
Text would shrink when too much would appear on the screen at once. Greatly jars the player out of the immersion.
Could either make the in-game "screen" image bigger to accommodate your larger paragraphs, or condense your wording to prevent shrinking.

No "quick appear" for large blocks of text.

I did like how different this game was for the theme of two buttons, though they might have been better mapped to different sides of a keyboard than mouse pick events.

si1ver 2015-12-16 18:46

I liked it =)
Is it possible to overcome the enemy?

vortex 2015-12-16 19:22

@Si1ver No... It isn't.
I didn't want you to be able to win because that would result in there being a definitive "correct" path, that would be a weird combination of choices...

thedashdude 2015-12-16 21:59

Fun, but where is the data you said you would be collecting? I would be curious to see it.

vortex 2015-12-17 12:54

@thedashdude right now the data is just sitting in an xml file... I will probably post it somewhere once I got the time to actually put it into some nice diagrams

vikinggames 2015-12-17 21:51

Played the post-compo version, since the only difference is the stats at the end. However, the stats said I chose to allow teenagers to be recruited, even though that's not what I said.

As for the rest of the game, I liked the tone of the game, and the choices were all well-written. The graphics fit the game well, and the flashing towards the end was a nice touch. It could be even better with some ambience and button noises, though.

iamspencer 2015-12-18 08:57

I liked the aesthetics, and the atmosphere was spot on!

I did find it slightly disorienting when the message text would show up and start re-sizing itself while I was reading it, but other than that, nice game! :)

aare 2015-12-18 10:56

Nice idea, but the story and decisions I took felt very disconnected. In one moment I was deciding about one thing, and at another about something completely different.

warboys 2015-12-18 11:43

I guess I won and lost at the same time? Played a few times doing negative and positive reactions and then a mix of both, I suppose there's no way out of being blown to smithereen? ;)

Really like the art style and mood (it would have been extra nice with some audio), and the subject matter is compelling... if the options were a little binary. I really hope there isn't a system of responding with only A or B with access to nukes!

sk16games 2015-12-20 00:58

Very nice game! :) I love the ending(s), even though it's a bit frustrating not being able win the war or end it peacefully

andrewkennedy 2015-12-21 21:26

It looked like the best way to win was just pressing the green button a bunch? Regardless, it was a pretty cool "choose your own adventure" kind of experience.

poptartftw 2015-12-27 19:52

I launched the nuclear missile and it felt good!

camlang 2015-12-27 20:40

Nice game with several ways to play. I like this type of games. It's very funny to investigate all branches of story. Very good entry! Well done!

evanegibbs 2015-12-28 07:51

Cool game! The choices were really hard and I really liked how they could come back and really bite you in the butt. It really makes you pay attention to what you are doing. Awesome job!

eternalcastlestudio 2015-12-29 11:34

Ey, very good entry. I love text-decision-games and this has a very interesting plot. Good job!

tselmek 2015-12-29 18:05

Nice experience, I don't if there was a good ending but I could never reach it. Definitely missing some sfx for a best experience. Nice take on the theme.

somnium 2016-01-02 15:57

Loved the game, great writing!

I liked how previous decision could come back to haunt you several "choices" later.