FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD40 → Friends.OS

Friends.OS

By rob-white

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2063.62126
Fun3403.28127
Innovation783.79126
Theme814.06126
Graphics2023.64126
Audio2453.18122
Humor713.67123
Mood853.67123

Comments

faloon 2017-12-04 11:21

nicely done

grostonton 2017-12-04 14:36

I agree, it's well executed, you need to be very quick to accomplish all the actions !

mormert 2017-12-04 14:37

Haha this game was really fun, keeping up with that social media life can be difficult. Nice "image" of the reality this game has!! :D

talia 2017-12-04 14:43

hey cool idea! But I can not response to the first friend to say: "lol" and the game ends. I tried the webbuild and the downloadable.

rob-white 2017-12-04 14:46

@talia Thanks for trying the game out! In order to reply to them you need to click on the chat box and type the exact reply (it is case sensitive)

@faloon Thanks for trying it out! :)

@mormert Haha yeah it is certainly a reflection of my thoughts on social media and the need to constantly keep on top of things. It's hellish!

@grostonton Yeah I wasn't entirely sure whether I had balanced it well enough or not. It can be very hard to tell when you're the only one who has played it in the 48 hours.

talia 2017-12-04 14:51

haha alright! I get it now! Such a great game mechanics =)

jackisaacs 2017-12-04 15:01

Interesting concept!

evandowning 2017-12-04 16:07

I love this type of game, and you did it in a way I hadn't quite seen before. Excellent usage of theme and great commentary.

tim-eriksen 2017-12-04 16:14

Fun game! I had to fail tens of times before I got how to interact with the different tasks, so the tutorials could be improved :) Nice graphics and good adaptation of the theme :)

gistnoesis 2017-12-04 16:21

Nice satire of our current internet life. Fun but I'm not a fan of the genre. I found the audio rather annoying but it's probably intended. Btw, let's play Cluedo, who did you murder with the lava lamp?

strelly 2017-12-04 16:30

It's good, I'd make the tutorial so you don't have to be paying attention to other things while you learn a new one though, that way you can properly learn it, it took me some attempts at the tutorial to get through lel, maybe it's just me tho.

tom-panton 2017-12-04 16:59

This is a really interesting game, I've never seen anything quite like it before. The gameplay is simple yet really fun (and intense at times!), and it works well as a criticism of modern culture and social media. I chuckled when I saw "spasm.tv" :D

fakeyou 2017-12-04 17:07

Nicely done! It took a while to learn all the different actions, especially with the short amount of time! Maybe the first time a new action pops up you should have much longer to respond, you could make the response time shorter and shorter to make it even more difficult.

pinneh 2017-12-04 17:39

Wow, that was pretty cool. For the first time you have to do anything you should be given a little bit more of a grace period I think. Pretty fun though!

jlreymendez 2017-12-04 18:27

Stop being so demanding! I need more time to read these instructions..

flubz 2017-12-04 20:15

Cool game, creepy atmosphere works well with the game idea. But yeah lemme read the tutorial before I fail :sob:

rasblo 2017-12-04 20:41

Now isn't this depressing.. Haha funny entry that was more challenging than I expected, maybe social media celebrities deserve more credi.... nah. As others have said, great atmosphere with sound and graphics. Lamp to the left scares me (is that blood?!).

neowedge 2017-12-04 21:23

This game makes me smile xD Great concept and nice job!

phillserrazina 2017-12-04 22:18

I liked it, simple yet fast paced. You know a game is good when it gives you mild anxiety but you keep playing it

jons-games 2017-12-04 23:03

Interesting idea, found it a bit hard to figure out what I needed to do each step though. Maybe having the game pause while you are initially learning each part so that you arnt kicked out immediately would help.

Overall good work.

farofa0 2017-12-04 23:14

Really nice ideia here. Played a lot of time! LOL! Let's take a selfie to celebrate your good work! :)

michael-feldman 2017-12-04 23:45

I love it. Could definitely see this ranking in the top 10s. The graphics are quirky, and hilarious. You know there's going to be laughs with a game like Friends.OS. I also love the subtle theme that our main character is actually in some sort of satanic pact. The selfie cam is like a mirror into another dimension revealing the devils numbers on the wall. I actually thought that was very cool technically speaking.

Well done.

drtizzle 2017-12-05 01:46

Very well done! Cool visual style and the gameplay is a lot of fun! It got really difficult really fast, but when you lost the game you could get to the same point you were fairly quickly. All the internet references are very funny and recognisable, especially the kappa-minigame, it is almost lifelike.

For each step, It took me a while to discover what to do. It would be a nice addition if you also could grab the phone itself to take a selfie, instead of only the wrist. It would make it a bit more intuitive (and easy ;) )

Nice job!

Highscore: 28!

ryuzaki-mrl 2017-12-05 06:29

Really well polished game! Thanks to it, I could finally experience what social life is like, yay!

infraxion 2017-12-05 09:38

Really polished and on point. A unique and fun game.

orcdraco 2017-12-05 13:55

Interesting game concept. The audio and graphics fit the mood really well. Keeping up with online presence in friends.os is kinda difficult, unfortunately. But it was really fun to play. Well done! :)

ionthas 2017-12-05 14:32

As a suggestion in the tutorial I would let the user complete the task at least once before you start the task countdown. I lost so many times just trying to figure out the tasks. I really loved how you integrated the game menu with the overall game. The general feeling was really polished and unique. Keep up the good work!

gwolf86 2017-12-05 15:52

Cool, idea and very challenging. The audio was spot on and I like the visual style of the game (Is that blood on the lava lamp?). Great work and it fits the theme well.

lillybyte 2017-12-05 18:15

A perfect simulation of Facebook! It took me a few tries to figure out how to 'not lose' this game, I think stopping the timer at the beginning of a new task so a player has a chance to go, "Oh, gotcha!" would be good for this. :)

limeniusteam 2017-12-05 18:43

Very interesting idea and use of the theme. Innovative and well implemented. Great work!

jeppe 2017-12-05 18:53

Really cool overall game, something that crossed our mind when brainstorming different game ideas, but the execution here made it perfect. The eerie atmosphere is well presented. Had problems with taking the selfie as it sometimes didn't feel responsive (maybe I just need more practice).

gerardb 2017-12-05 20:22

This thing is amazing! Great theme, graphics and execution, feels great and it's also intriguing. I tip my fedora to you good sir!

cklidify 2017-12-05 20:57

Cool idea, and a lot of fun. Only minor complaint is that the controls weren't initially explained all that well and took me about 5-10 tries to fully get the hang of them all

sholf 2017-12-05 21:24

The blood on the lava lamp, the 666 selfie, and the eerie music is really scaring me haha. I agree with the people who said pausing the timer whenever a new feature is introduced would really help. Other than that it's a cool hectic game with a really, really cool theme. Great job!

hbocao 2017-12-05 21:33

Awesome job! Damn, it was a adrenaline rush. You have to be too fast right at the beginning, so I guess the game would benefit from a little slower approach at the start. I loved how you used the theme. Solid entry!

potti 2017-12-05 21:42

A very good submission. I have to agree with @sholf here, it was somewhat eerie, also the fact that you * cannot simply shutdown your friends.os*.

poroh 2017-12-05 22:07

a very good idea, but I did not immediately understand that in some places it is necessary to print and not click. classy visual style. but playing me personally was not very interesting. perhaps because I do not really like games of this kind.

athoka 2017-12-05 22:36

I like it a lot. I'm stuck in the selfie, like in the real life, i can't get a cool picture :( Also I love the lava lamp. The music and the graphics were really nice.

mors 2017-12-05 23:01

It's really well made and pretty fun, but it takes a while to get used to the controls and how to react to the things. I also don't think the creepiness worked well here, it feels a bit forced. It's still one of the best games I played on this LD though.

cerberus 2017-12-05 23:46

wow it was a very good experience. it was hard at first and as i progressed felt very overwhelming. you nailed the theme perfectly and i really enjoyed it. awesome work.

vkmicro 2017-12-06 00:22

Best Cookie clicker game ever? :D lolz it was actually quite cool having to multi-task so much. Really neat idea xD if only better sound effects and maybe larger font size and i'd prefer that

asellio 2017-12-06 01:50

nicely done

william-bundy 2017-12-06 11:36

I ended up not being able to swipe properly; not sure why, but still a cool concept. Good job!

bumibomber 2017-12-06 11:49

interesting idea that's well put together. Well done!

bobgar 2017-12-06 12:10

Man, I'm terrible at the game. Maybe that's why I don't have many friends in real life.

Very impressive for the compo! Some of the pieces took me a bit to figure out how to do but super well done!

reality-blind 2017-12-06 12:11

Nice submission, good job ! 👌

sademoartist 2017-12-06 13:35

Nice idea, coulnd't get the selfie mechanic working though.

ben-howick 2017-12-06 18:33

Very unique and interesting game. Gets hectic pretty quick although I like it a lot. I got 12. I would maybe introduce the new features a bit slower and keep the explanation text on for a little longer for slow readers(me).

gris 2017-12-06 19:44

Different take on the theme. I really liked it. Sometimes the text was bit too small. It's hard but I liked it!Congrats!

rongo-matane 2017-12-06 19:54

Very cool concept! I also like the depressing atmosphere, as well as the social commentarty. I had a really hard time figuring out what to do when something new popped up - i failed 3 times with the selfie, because i had no idea i can and should drag it. Then, a fourth thing came up where i don't even have time to read what to do, when it's already running out of time. Maybe you could make the first appearance of a puzzle without a timeout, the second with a longer timeout, so that the player can ease into it? Overall, cool entry :)

r3l0ad1 2017-12-06 20:01

Nice Game, Amazing Graphics

gruhh 2017-12-06 21:20

An interesting interpretation of the theme. Congratulations for the game.

Uma interessante interpretação do tema. Parabéns pelo jogo. :flag_br:

sand-gardeners 2017-12-06 22:02

Really liked the idea behind the game, and most of all the execution! Hard to play on a laptop without decent mouse but will definitely check it out again later <3(Also thanks for having made a tutorial)

patrick-d 2017-12-06 22:14

How do I reply to my friend? I tried left mouse clicking and pressing enter but I keep losing at that point.

rob-white 2017-12-06 22:29

@patrick-d You have to click on the chat box and type the reply

rob-white 2017-12-06 22:32

I have added a short description of the actions you need to perform in the controls section of this entry.

patrick-d 2017-12-06 22:36

@rob-white Ah I get it now, this is great, reminds me of Papers Please.

jegus9 2017-12-06 22:57

The idea was pretty nice. I'd put a tutorial in the beginning just to set the player into the game mechanics. I had to learn some things by trial and error (like I didn't know i had to type to answer that friend at first).

benjamin-san-souci 2017-12-06 23:05

Super cool concept and well executed, honestly well done!

tinykidtoo 2017-12-07 00:38

This game has a super eerie mood. I really like it.

nammflow 2017-12-07 00:41

This is a wonderfully executed game with the theme. I have seen a few different uses of social media in LD40, but I think this is probably the most fun and funniest to play so far! I particularly like how grim and depressing the whole scene looks. You've put a lot of thought into how the user should feel empty when playing the game.

tmpxyz 2017-12-07 02:00

An unique entry and well implemented, the timelimit is a little too tight at the start.

yngvarr 2017-12-07 03:41

Linux version works well! =)

I think tutorial should be a bit slower, because I just didn't have enough time to figure out what to do before the game was over. But after some failures, it becomes really interesting. Nice done!

liquidream 2017-12-07 06:41

Good style and mood. But I found the game *way* too hard. Also, some of the UI was not obvious how to interact with (e.g. chat box). Spot-on with the theme though. Good luck! :D

louckousse 2017-12-07 10:50

Despite the frustration to not understand what to do in the beginning I didn't stop playing until I really get the game. Well done.

beepyeah 2017-12-07 14:44

Nice music and mood. I found it a little stressful and difficult, which i think is the point. Maybe instead of ending the game and restarting if you don't respond in time, the game could just lower your "friendship points" until you reach zero, so it's more forgiving. Great concept!

azathothep 2017-12-07 18:22

I like the computer style and the way you treat the theme is very funny (and a bit satirical). However the game is a little bit too small and... i didnt't understand how you take a selfie even after several try

ursagames 2017-12-07 20:50

Good use of post processing effects. Very challenging to keep up with all of the things that keep popping up. I agree with Jons game, having a pause on the other events when a new thing pops up for the first time would help a lot in trying to learn the new mechanics, but it does make it fit with the theme, so technically I guess it's good in that sense.

poorwill 2017-12-07 22:38

Nicely done with the concept and theme. I appreciate the tinge of creepiness that's out and about.

beebo-studios 2017-12-07 23:08

Good idea and nicely implemented into your game. Getting started was quite challenging and could be a bit eased as @beepyeah and @tmpxyz and others already pointed out. Overall very good!

pixel-shade 2017-12-08 09:25

Nice work! I had a little hard time following the instructions the first time and needed to do the different tasks over and over to get hold of it. It would be perfect to have a tutorial that is a bit more forgiving, before starting the real stuff. (Like my own game) xD

Anyway. great work! good idea, could definitely be iterated upon and released as a mobile game if you ask me. :)

linver 2017-12-08 16:07

I like your idea of the "streamer simulator". Really, this idea can have a commercial success, because a lot of young people dreams to be a streamer\blogger.

But I have some small problems with your game build. It was really hard to start and hard to replay because one mistake is a loss. If a mistake will cause only removing of some friends (if later in the game - more friends will lose) it will make the game better, in my opinion.

local-minimum 2017-12-08 18:07

Cool idea and execution. I liked the general principle and the game felt good. The thing with more friends makes it worse was something we also considered. I never had the time though to read the instructions for the selfie and didn't figure it out. So I would suggest that when running with tutorials that you speed down time while giving instructions so the player can learn. Otherwise very good game.

schmavery 2017-12-08 22:08

Nice game! I like how consistent the art style and tone are. The first few times I played, I couldn't get the selfie because I thought I was supposed to move the camera horizontally rather than vertically. As other people mentioned, the tutorial in general could have been a bit more forgiving and maybe in general the actions could have time limits that start out relatively easy and then get harder as you progress.

joror 2017-12-08 23:38

Very moody and dark. Had a few tries before if was clear what to do on each step though!

tobia88 2017-12-09 12:42

The best game i played today so far, i love even the dark moody and humor and perfectly compatible to your graphic, even though the experiencing for taking a selfie can be better, i'll still give a very high score, well done!

wizzardmaker 2017-12-09 16:54

Great game! It has a dark tone and is very hectic which I like. Its a bit finicky to move the selfie hand on the web version and you should a a little sandbox tutorial section in the beginning, because it was very hard for me to read the explanation before the time was up.

hisfantor 2017-12-09 18:40

good that I don't have any friends

mess110 2017-12-10 00:56

Pretty faces deserve selfies

naminuz 2017-12-10 21:47

Frightening :smile:

well done

petr-belohlavek 2017-12-11 16:42

Interesting idea, pretty hard to play. Nice combination of various controlls.

clemzd 2017-12-11 22:10

It's funny, I had the same idea for this jam. This game is really really closed to what I thought. So the game is fun, and the mood is super great. What could be improved is the tutorial that is quite difficult, I had a hard time understanding how to take a selfie and not enough time to understand I have to swipe on the left or on the right considering the picture. I think the diffculty should increase more slowly, so the player can understand how everything work. But for the time given it's a really good job, keep working on this game. Sorry for my english.

shito 2017-12-11 23:53

Nice implementation of the idea of having "friends" who take all your attention. We had some similar idea in the beginning, but threw it away since we wanted to design a card game around the idea. I really like your atmosphere with the flickering image, grey colour, subtle sound and tiny details such as the bloody lava lamp or the 666 on the wall. From a game play perspective I would have liked it if the game would give you a little bit more time during the tutorial to perform the task, because things escalated a little bit quickly.

All in all good job on your entry.

jay-valencia 2017-12-12 13:06

Interesting concept, loved the idea, still hard, but I liked very good game

rplnt 2017-12-12 19:08

The tutorial texts were longer than the time you had to complete them :) took me a few tries to even know what I was doing. Otherwise nice and solid game with interesting take on the theme.

kalkatos 2017-12-12 23:58

Cool idea. Makes us think a little bit.

2017-12-14 11:57

Challenging game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 40 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s2AmCPVSXQ

levidsmith 2017-12-16 00:27

Very cool concept, and executed well for only having 48 hours. It took me a few tries to get the hang of what I was supposed to be doing. At first I didn't know that I was supposed to type to respond to the text message. It would have been nice if there had been different responses. Taking selfies and swiping the pictures was well done. I liked that each task had a different mechanic for completing the task. The difficulty curve just ramps up a little too quickly when all three tasks are on the screen at once. Maybe give the player three chances of messing up before game over.

mosesg 2017-12-17 15:01

Great entry! It's definitely difficult to keep up with everything, but the challenges are all well implemented and interesting because they're critical of social media. What's funny is that my game for LD40, called 'Friendzy', has a very similar concept. Great minds think alike, I'd say ;)

belowparallel-ian 2017-12-19 01:01

Really cool concept. My only issue is that I ran out of time trying to read the tool tips the first time I came to a new activity. Great game overall.

sgadrat 2017-12-21 22:06

Interesting race condition when loosing while a pop-up is popping: break_leg.png

I love how your game is super high-paced, letting no time even to learn. It matches well with the idea of "I have to maintain my internet flood while discovering a new OS" =)

querk 2017-12-27 09:11

A very interesting game. good fit in the subject. really polished and gives a lot of fun. but it is moments when it is really hard. I like it: D

ps. Sorry of my bad english