justking144 2017-12-04 00:56
Wish making friends was this easy IRL
Interesting concept and the colors work really well
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD40 → Secret
By wiseclock
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 624 | 3.40 | 38 | |
| Fun | 947 | 2.81 | 39 | |
| Innovation | 86 | 3.91 | 38 | |
| Theme | 112 | 4.09 | 40 | |
| Graphics | 779 | 3.11 | 38 | |
| Humor | 471 | 3.13 | 39 | |
| Mood | 588 | 3.25 | 38 |
Wish making friends was this easy IRL
Interesting concept and the colors work really well
The intro needs to be a bit faster!
Concept is really interesting though.....
Cool concept! There's a sort of strangeness in eventually swapping out all of my friends for their friends, and then their friends in tandem. The fact that even just movement gets harder as more people arrive plays well conceptually and with the theme in general.
Also, nice song choice.
Thanks for all your comments ;) @jjjjason Yeah the song is by one of my friends' orchestra. I kinda liked it so asked if I could use it ;)
I like the concept, it's very original, but the game mechanics are slightly confusing. Music was nice.
@jani-nykanen I guess you are right... sent it to some friends and they were too kinda confused. It's sort of a strategy game, you can make more friends, but there will be a higher chance to expose your secret. You can break off with your friends (most likely who expose your secret the most), that'll keep them from telling your secret but you'll lose those friends (which deducts the score too, just not as much as exposing secret) The purple ones are just people who heard your secret and don't want to be friend with you, but they'll too share your secret.. with a slightly lower possibility. :v not sure if I made it clear..er but thanks for the comment!
Very interesting aproach on the theme! The game is really difficult and the secret spread so fast. The first playthrough is not very easy to understand what you must do. Overall is a good concept.
nice game keep it up, don't forget to check my game too
I didn't really get how the game plays BUT really nice low poly art style, cool relaxing music and a VERY interesting concept !
It's a neat concept. It's sometimes hard to tell if someone is already in a conversation (and therefore can't be interacted with). The ideal strategy seems to be to stand near the door and get to people first when they enter the party.
Thanks for all the comments!
@valkyrie Yeah I know really because they'll just stand there and wait for the other person come and start the convo... The only difference is that when you get closer to them they'll not glow. Sorry about that :v
For the strategy part, the funny thing is that I used to have only one door, and that absolutely would become a killing strategy. Now people come from both sides, you'll have to be fast enough to catch them ;)
Really great idea, I appreciate the sentiment and the mechanic design very much! The graphics are also pretty great (yay post-processing stack, it's definitely trending this LD).
But the game itself is simply not fun for several reasons, unfortunately:
The controls - the need to both be close enough to highlight someone and then also to click on them makes it really hard to actually do what you want to do. The hitbox probably could tweaked for that. The way the collisions work between characters make moving through the space and crowd really difficult too. And it's not a challenge that one can overcome through clever moves, so it just feels like you know what you want to do but you can't do it.
The way people turn on you is completely random and there's not enough time to remedy it once you see it. Which means the best way to play is to tell someone, and then just walk with them. I don't know if they would randomly turn, or if they are "born" with being good or bad. Either way, it's all completely random so it feels like there's no skill component. One could argue that it's "realistic" in that way but that doesn't really help the game be enjoyable.
@tuism Thanks for the comment! The collisions were actually designed to be like this, and the speed too -- I don't know if anyone figured, you are a little bit slower than other people, making it harder to "run" into people and break off (or become friends)
But you were right about the hitbox. I too found it's a bit frustrating when you chase someone and wanted to click on them. I should have made the size larger.
The mechanism is really sort of random. They'll expose your secret almost certainly, but just how often. If it was an action game it really failed on that because you just can't do what you know would solve the problem. But I personally just want people to experience it like a story -- like experience that in life you just can't control other people speak of you privately -- and they include your "friends."
I'm not sure if I made my point, it sounds like quibbling but for real I was trying to make a narrative style thing. But still, I admit the problems you put forward, they really lack the enjoyability, and thanks for pointing them out!
Love the introduction and ending, really well done with the voice overs, and the secrets are pretty funny. Game was interesting too, I started off by trying to friend as many people as possible, with the idea that "well, if everyone is my friend, they cant be blabbermouths". You will be happy to know that it was not a good strategy, as the people too quickly spread around the room and blabbed to the straggers. Although I found a way to cheese the game, you can become friends with people leaving, giving a free friend with no risk at all. Since there is only one exit, it is very possible to become friends with everyone! Music was top notch too, really worked well with the game. Only big problem was the controls, sometimes they would seize up, and locomotion was not very smooth in some cases. I feel like conveying people you cant talk to with a red highlight would also be useful (maybe even a cross marker on the cursor)
@aciertz Thanks for the feedback! I'm indeed happy to hear your first strategy didn't work :D But hey! That's a bug right there in your second strategy which is to make friend with the leaving ones! That's my oversight :O
Right, the defects you mentioned are very fair. And it's true that I should mark the non-interactable people to avoid time wasting ._.
Thank you!
I like your concept however the mouse control feels strange because the target choice is location based (would've work well by pushing a button)
@drakncel I agree, thanks for pointing it out. But I'll just leave it as for consistency ;)
Nice concept. Played 3 times, the first one I didn't got how to break off and finished with negative 400. Then I tried again, understood the controls, and finished even worse at minus 520 :). I then strategized a little (wait before telling secret) for my third game and finished at 740. The mechanic is fun, and I enjoyed the lack of control. Although observing all the actions I sometime lost the focus of where I am. Quite realistic moving through the crowd effect when you try to stop a badmouth. Overall fun game but I would be very wary about getting/inducing any life revelations from such a simplistic simulation.
@gistnoesis Thanks for playing and commenting! The simulation is quite exaggerated but hey I'd say it's true to keep your confidants few in number while having a large group of general friends or, say, acquaintances ;) (It's only my opinion though)
@wiseclock your game reminds me of dark mood Nicky Case's games.
Hey! Good idea but the game is totally random, it's not strategy. There should be some stats about the characters (social, fidelity, etc) which affect in different ways how people interact with each other. And multiple levels of friendship.
Clever idea.
wow, blabbermouths spread like a wildfire :-O that was quite hard but definitely fun. well done!
I wish there was some sort of indication about the people before you chose to friend them.
An interesting and original concept! I'm not sure why so many people are hating on me just because I have no hair, though...
Ohh wow!! This is the most innovative game i played so far in the jam. Super interesting concept!
Love the concept and the anxiety when I found out someone is talking on my back. I do hope that I don't need to walk around. Simple mouse-clicking would be just enough.
I like the idea of this!
I think now I know the secret of "Salty hair" now :smiling_imp: That's a cool idea! Easy and clear. Making social decision easier!
Great game with unique original concept. Love it!! It is a bit hard for me though.
Interesting design
I love the concept, the way of narrative remind me The beginner's guide! It definitely brings me the experience of hating or scaring the friends who knew my secret and spreading them in undesired, but the collision is annoying me , i met few times that i pushed by the strangers away then i cant deny the spreading happen in the certain time, it's frustrating and deny me from the willing of playing the second times.
Really cool idea, and it quickly becomes apparent why you shouldn't make friends with everyone.