The Precarious Balance

almost 2017-12-04 06:13

I really like the concept. Each week it feels like I'm running out of personal joy, and looking forward to the weekend when I can hang out with Mark and procrastinate.

The number of available events is usually pretty small (around 6), so I feel like they could be larger and always show the +- icons.

Mr. Schneider gives a lot of homework! I didn't notice the 3 buttons at the bottom for a long time. It seems that they cannot be 'undone' and I think it would be nicer if they used the same control scheme as normal events (drag an event onto school or onto sleep).

I couldn't tell whether or not the difficulty was increasing, but I stopped after day 41 with a score of 6-5-9-10-10-5. Joy and homework seemed like the most limiting factors.

somnium 2017-12-04 09:54

@almost Thank you for your comments!

I'm glad that is the flow it gives you, that was exactly my intention :-)

The number of events are random, but perhaps I veered a bit too much to the "safe" side (the difficulty is not very high currently, if you pay attention to what you are doing). I don't particularly enjoy difficult games myself, and I guess that has a tendency to "bleed through" to my games sometimes. In hindsight, introducing a few "long lived" tasks might have evened out the constant disappearing of missed task a bit.

As for the buttons, the deviation from the normal control scheme was intended to highlight, that they are all extraordinary actions which break the normal flow, at a potential penalty. E.g. deciding to ignore sleep for an extra action (at a penalty to rest), a "joker" to effectively turn a weekday into a weekend-day (which is one-use), and the possibility of cheating if you have a good relation with Mark (which can potentially be found out, and punished with detention).

There is a difficulty increase over time, as the weeks go by, where you will gradually trigger more and more extra homework. But perhaps it was a bit too subtle :-)

Thanks for playing!

william-bundy 2017-12-04 10:43

Too much like real life! Very well done though, easy to understand but with plenty of depth (I managed to last only 7 days my first time)

My only complaint is the apparent lack of a windowed mode? It decided to fire up at full screen at some non-native resolution, which made the text a little hard to read.

somnium 2017-12-04 11:49

@william-bundy Thank you for your comments!

It was a delicate balance to hit, so I'm glad you found it entertaining.

And thanks for pointing that out! I apparently broke the resolution while porting the game to HTML, and none of my playtesters tried the Java version it seems. I've uploaded a fixed version which should scale properly. Many thanks for pointing out the porting error!

Thanks for playing!

linus 2017-12-04 23:03

Strategy games are always fun. This one was well done and all of the random events kept you going and the game didn't become dull.

Being the "strategist" I am and focusing on the "important" things all the time, happiness was the most difficult factor and was my culprit likewise in Civilization 5 and sometimes real life too..

I didn't fully understand how the happiness score worked, do I gain happiness each day or is it only gained from random events?

The implementation of the game was well done and the controls were good but I would have liked if there some kind of feedback if pressing a button did not work, for example if you try to make Mark do your homework I didn't know if it was successful or not.

Good strategy game and very interesting link to real life and the theme :D

somnium 2017-12-05 08:38

@linus Thank you for your comments, I'm glad you enjoyed the game!

Happiness can come from three sources. Two of them are random events (hanging out with Mark and spending time with your parents). The third is to procrastinate, which (in keeping the link to real life) is what you are doing, if you are not specifically doing anything else :D I.e. by having empty slots in your daily tasks, when ending the day. It's mentioned in the introduction, but perhaps it could have been clearer, for instance by having it as the default tooltip for empty slots.

The buttons are supposed to be greyed out if the action have no effect, but the coloration is not very clear, I agree. I noticed that only the button background color changes, not the color on the button image itself, but I did unfortunately not have the time to fix it :)

Thanks for playing!

zeriver 2017-12-05 15:59

Really engaging game, although i might be biased since i really like turn based games. Balancing all 'variables' was really hard, sooner or later my joy was reaching 0 i think there should more ways to replenish it since it is most used resource. I like how you added 3 special actions that still have consequences or need some conditions to be used. Graphically game is simplistic but easy to read and intuitive. In general pretty fun turn based game, well done.

somnium 2017-12-05 16:31

@zeriver Thank you for your comments!

It is a bit of a balancing act, definitely, although that was intended as part of the trade-off (and simulation).

Usually during the school week, you have to specifically reserve some time to relax, if you want to gain more happiness (i.e. procrastinate, by leaving empty slots in your daily tasks).

By developing a close friendship with Mark, you will also get more "hang out" events during ordinary week days, which replenish 2 happiness instead of the usual 1.

Other than that, the objective is to get through the week (sometimes having to compromise), and then have spare time in the weekend to recuperate your happiness. At least, that was the intended game flow.

And yeah, I guess my art style can best be described as "functional" :)

Thanks for playing!

flaterectomy 2017-12-05 20:51

Listen, I don't want to go back to school. There are reasons why I prefer adult life to school life. Why are you making me relive this?! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

It's a fun concept and trying to balance activities kept me going back a few times until I managed to make it 24 days. A game like this could hold my attention for longer if it had juicy feedback effects. Clear up-and-downs of scores, different sound effects, etc. I was confused when certain deadlines would pass - is it just the next day?

The art is minimal, but good use of mouseover information made everything pretty clear. (Except the procrastination bit, that could've used a mention in-game.) The sound started getting on my nerves a little after a while - repeated sharp clanky noises that they are. A softer tone would have helped there.

All in all, nice one! :grin:

smbe19 2017-12-05 22:40

Really nice idea.

It would be nice to be able to undo staying up late / pretending to be ill (after I clicked the button and before I proceeded to the next day). Also it is rather easy and I would like a bit more of a challenge.

vkmicro 2017-12-06 02:20

this Life simulator was NOT accurate enough. As a student at university, sleep is not a thing that happens every day, hanging out with friends is usually done in the library at midnight while studying and trying to finish homework, and spending entire day on campus in the library is the most normal thing ever.... xD

but that aside, this little simulator / management game was really fun pleasant and satisfying. I really LOVED it.

Really well done. I think the sound effects were pleasant

somnium 2017-12-06 14:25

@flaterectomy Reflect on your past, grasshopper, to appreciate the present! ;)

24 days - not bad! And yeah, I only had time for three polishing/"juiciness" passes at the end of the Compo: Making sure that each action had at least some kind of sound effect, the gradual appearance of the after-day reports, and the fact that the faces in the reports has facial expressions based on whether event is good, bad or neutral. The sound effects would probably be more palatable if they were softened a bit, although I kinda like the "harshess" of the sound, considering the subject:)

The deadlines vary randomly and according to activity type, but the deadline for a given activity can always been seen on the tool-tip for that activity.

I agree with your observation about procrastination, I should probably have made a default tooltip for empty slots. I mentioned the mechanic in the introduction, and otherwise it was meant as an "what you do if you don't do something specific" parallel to real life.

Thank you for your comments, and thanks for playing!

somnium 2017-12-06 14:30

@smbe19 I think the simulation would have suffered a bit ("hey mom, as it turns out, I am not incapacitated by illness after all!"), but from a game mechanics perspective, I see your point! :-) Same for the difficulty.

Thank you for your comments, and thank you for playing!

somnium 2017-12-06 17:05

@vkmicro Hmm, interesting points - maybe I should make a University-themed sequel: "What Precarious Balance?" ;)

And thank you for your comments, I'm glad you enjoyed it! It was quite fun mixing management gameplay with the simulation aspects.

Thanks for playing!

ex3d0 2017-12-06 20:04

Pretty good idea.

I enjoyed the concept of a turned-base life simulator and had pretty fun gameplay. The sounds and graphics were pretty good as well. It's very simple gameplay but it was also entertaining.

zee 2017-12-06 21:49

Fun little game, I enjoyed the multiple endings and the UI looks nice, is clean, and responsive. I liked how certain stats where harder to grow then others, which gives an interesting balance. It's simple, but an engaging little game.

As pointed out, the icons where pretty small, also, they were quite similar to each-other, (3 faces, the teacher and Mark might also be clones) causing me to forget which one was which a couple of times. Also it could be more obvious when the deadlines are. For example, it seems like you can delay finishing homework on the weekends (maybe even weekdays?), but the game doesn't seem to tell you this.

Overall, it's a fun little time waster! With a little more mechanics and depth, it could be something fun to mess around with while in class :P . Good work on a solid entry!

somnium 2017-12-07 05:25

@ex3d0 Thank you for your comments, I'm glad you found the game entertaining. Thank you for playing!

somnium 2017-12-07 05:33

@zee Thank you for your comments!

I'm also pretty happy about how the UI turned out, it is my first real experiment in implementing drag'n'drop functionality. As for the stats, my goal was to make stats which are both interacted with in varying ways, and also to tie this to the simulation aspects of the game.

Teacher is grey-haired, friend has unruly hair, and parents are two - but yeah, my resource indicators were a bit small. I's a bit better on the "reaction shots" on the after-day-popup I think.

The deadlines are written explicitly on the tooltip for the activities. But perhaps it could also be displayed as a "count down" directly on the activity icon to make it clearer.

Thanks! And that would be very meta indeed, playing a game in class about balancing class with funnier things ;) Thank you for playing!

huvaakoodia 2017-12-23 17:31

This kid isn't very smart; solving Millenium Prize problems left and right, not claiming the rewards! The flavor text is great, although it repeats at times even during the same day.

Reminds me of [Klass of 99](http://retrospec.sgn.net/game/ko99), luckily with no unnecessary side scrolling ambling about. [Bully](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bully_(video_game) is another school themed title, one with unnecessary 3D running about.

The user interface is extremely clear and simple to use. As such the rules page, a wall of text, really doesn't need to explain everything in such detail. It could be condensed considerably. Not a big issue.

Activity deadlines are a neat touch and add quite a bit of depth to managing your limited action slots. Weekends are a relief (just like in real life!)

There do seem to be some random events, like concentrating in class and falling back in grades, which are only triggered if certain requirements are met. These are an effective way to reward good actions and throw in a curve ball every once in a while. There could be more of these.

I guess the important family event is similar, for me that one happened a bit too often. On the third week we had an important family evening every single day! I guess I was just unlucky (too much family stuff, *yuck!*)

Staying on the topic, it does seem weird to have a pleasant family event and skip chores receiving shouts a plenty. Mathematically it evens out, but does seem somewhat schizophrenic coming from a bunch of *loving* parents on the very same day.

I lasted for 66 days, had pretty much maxed out everything but Mr. Schneider's opinion at day 42. Then a few unfortunate mistakes (caught cheating!) cropped up. Tough luck, sonny Jim.

Some week or even month long objectives to work towards would help to keep the weeks more interesting and stop them from blending into each other. E.g: Parents: "Increase your grades by X this week and we'll go to the amusement park", Friend: "Help me build a tree house!", Teacher: "The school play needs actors. You'll be a tree Jim, join the practice every Thursday."

Great work in all! Mood takes hits due to the lack of (fitting) music. An extra layer of graphical polish and more events would push this to the Amazing territory.

Overall: *Great (4.5)* Fun: *Great (4.5)* Innovation: *Great (4.5)* Theme: *Great (4.5)* Graphics: *Good (4.0)* Humor: *Great (4.5)* Mood: *Above average (3.5)*

somnium 2017-12-23 19:16

@huvaakoodia Thank you (as always) for your comprehensive feedback!

The UI is my first experiment with more intuitive/organic "drag and drop" based gameplay, so I wasn't sure how well it would work. Hence the wall of text as a fallback (easily dismissable at least). My goal is definitely to reach a point, where the majority of game play information is conveyed either intuitively, or context based (e.g. through tooltips). And from the feedback I got on this experiment, both from you and others, it seems that I've come a step closer to reaching this goal.

I agree with your analysis, the combination of event types, the circumstantial availability of activity slots, and the pseudo-random deadlines which adds a prioritization layer worked well, both from a mechanical and thematic point of view (e.g. the weekends "feeling" like weekends). As did the situational events, which depends on specific requirements. The three "special actions" were added for the same reason, to be able to affect the base mechanics directly (but either with limitations or with potential consequences).

From your comments on my previous games, I also tweaked my approach to dynamically generating shorter and more interesting flavor texts, which worked better this time (although as you noticed, I still need to handle duplicates/repeating text a bit more efficiently).

Point taken, regarding the conflict between family events and chores. I tried to take the various thematic interactions into account, but I definitely missed that one!

I agree on your point regarding the benefit of an even greater variety of events, both recurring and longer-lasting (as well as special goals). I especially like your idea of temporary recurring events (like the school play), since that would fit nicely into the existing event-generator framework. I did have a number of other events planned, but since I participated in the Compo this time instead of the Jam, combined with spending a longer amount of time than usual on brainstorming the theme, they became a casualty of scope triage.

Same for the music, I did experiment with a few tunes, but none of them ended up fitting the gameplay, and I'd rather have sound feedback only, than music that directly counteracts the mood.

Thank you for playing, and for your useful suggestions!

Oh, and thanks for the reference to "Klass of 99" - I played the original Skooldaze, but I wasn't aware that it had been "modernized".

mgpxl 2017-12-27 04:11

Good use of the theme and very relatable concept. Good humour as well, I particularly loved all the names of the study textbooks.

bookworm31 2017-12-27 08:27

This is definitely one of my favorite games from the compo! I really enjoyed the feel of the game; it felt very realistic (in terms of actually balancing life). The controls were nice and smooth; I liked being able to both drag and drop as well as double click. One thing that would be nice would be seeing what exactly it was that pushed you over the edge at the end (though I may have just missed it). Overall, awesome game!

somnium 2017-12-27 08:46

@mgpxl Thank you for your comments, I’m glad you found the game entertaining.

Coming up with the names and descriptions for the various textbooks, homework, chores and other activities was quite fun.

Thank you for playing!

somnium 2017-12-27 08:58

@bookwork31 Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed the game!

I spent a lot of time on making the controls feel as smooth as possible, including the choice between double-clicking and drag-and-drop, so I'm glad it shows!

An yes, I'm quite happy with how well the simulation aspect works in tandem with the mechanics themselves, so that it both feels like solving a puzzle, but also like you are actually balancing the player characters life.

There is indeed a different custom "game over" message for each resource in the ending description. If you retry, and run out of a different resource, you should get a different "ending" :)

Thank you for your comments, and thanks for playing!

colozz 2017-12-27 13:18

This is one of the best games I've played so far, I found it addictive (I played 4-5 to find balance then I played for 50 days). I loved the concept, the bouncing the text boxes. I hope to see you on future LDs if you keep making games like this ;)

hayzar 2017-12-27 13:47

Loved the idea and the concept! I enjoyed my time playing it(Had no issues with the HTML5 version).

I lost due to not doing my homework in time, just like in real life lol.

I don't know if it was intentional but I had a really hard time figuring out which homework is due soon and which just came in later when I had 3+ homeworks at a time.

There is a huge room for improvement and I believe you can even make it commercial after adding illustrations.

I am inspired. Congrats!

somnium 2017-12-27 14:02

@colozz Thank you for your comments, I’m glad you had fun with the game! Thank you for playing!

somnium 2017-12-27 14:08

@hayzar Thanks! And yeah, homework will get anyone :)

The deadline for the homework is mentioned in the popup-text when hovering over the homework. I also try to help the player, by sorting the tasks in deadline order, with the leftmost tasks being closest to their deadline. An alternative could have been to display it as a countdown number on the icon as well.

Yeah, I'll admit that the graphics are a bit on the simple side currently :)

Thank you for your comments, and thanks for playing!

ambi 2017-12-28 10:45

Very interesting idea. The mechanics are well thought out. It's a little hard to get into and figure out how everything works. A gradual introduction of the mechanics and a type of tutorial would be appreciated.

somnium 2017-12-28 17:34

@ambi Thank you for your comments. I'm glad you found the concept to be interesting.

I'm not quite sure how a tutorial would work in this case, since the interactions are relatively simple, and handled in exactly the same way for each activity?

I.e. there isn't really a increasing amount of complexity in the game, but rather an influx in the sheer *number* of activities (in relation to the theme).

Specifically, each task can either be handled (i.e. dragged to the bottom bar), or ignored until its deadline, at which point the "bad effect" of the task is applied instead. And both the good and the bad effect is stated directly in the tooltip?

There is also only one end-condition, stated in the intro: Don't let any resource reach 0.

I would appreciate it, if you could elaborate further on which additional guidance you would have found helpful :)

Thanks for playing!

ambi 2017-12-28 18:16

@somnium: it just felt that everything hit me at once. As a story progression and getting into the game kind of a thing it would be cool if there weren't so many mouths to feed immediately. It was a little overwhelming. This is of course just my take on it. It's not an objective reality. YMMV. I felt I had to hit the grouned running instead of being gradually introduced to the mechanics. Thrown into the deep end of the pool. Even if the actions were trivial, I feel it would still be an improvement over starting to do everything at once from the beginning. You could learn the flow of the game by doing, instead of by reading and thinking.

somnium 2017-12-28 20:55

@ambi Thanks for your elaboration! The reason I ask is that the first few days are hardcoded to start you of easy (for instance, day 1 always only has one homework). So I actually think that I already had done what you suggested :)

As for making the game more intuitive, I tried to do this implicitly by mirroring the decisions you would have do make in real life, rather than relying on more abstract mechanics.

ambi 2017-12-28 22:47

@Somnium: It may be also UI issue. There are too many visible objects at the same time making me think I have to control them all at the same time, while the starting days do not have to use them. Maybe also simplify the UI and add UI objects as they are introduced?

somnium 2017-12-29 14:23

@ambi Thanks again for your elaboration!

As for removing the extra elements, that would impact the player's later strategy. For instance, spending that extra action in the beginning on extra study, is risky in terms of running out of happiness, but it can pay off in the long run, since a head start on above average on homework can actually trigger some better events down the road. By the same token, staying up late on the very first day can give you an extra happiness boost to offset this (or to buffer against future homework).

In other words, this being a turn based strategy game, I think that artificially limiting the players actions in the beginning could be detrimental for his ability to shape his long term strategy. This is why I wrote detailed instructions and tool tips instead, so that all the necessary information is available to the player, without hurting his ability to plan for the later game.

Similarly, I don't think that making moves "at random" in a strategy game is an efficient way to learn how to play them, unless you plan to play them more than once. This since the first moves in any strategy game will strongly impact the late game, due to the "snow ball effect" of the consequences of your actions. It would be different if it was "level based", or solving distinct puzzles, but in this case, it is a long running "survive as long as you can".

As for the UI overload in general - perhaps the color scheme could be changed for the "unmoveable" or otherwise unavailable elements, so that they blend more into the background. This could more clearly differentiate the five "active" elements (i.e. the two active buttons, and the three different activities) on the first day, from the static elements.

Thanks for the input!