United Parcel Force

beard-or-die 2017-12-05 11:38

If you want the pure Ludum Dare 40 jam version, it's pretty minimal on the gameplay. What i mean is that there is exactly one click involved in the original submission, and the rest you just watch. Hopefully it's still funny. I worked a few more hours past the deadline for what I would call the satisfactory completion of my original concept. For ratings purposes, ethics demands you rate the original build, but if you're only going to play one and not necessarily rate, play the patched build. Itch.io has both versions.

notpresident35 2017-12-07 01:59

I like the visuals and the fact that you used cutscenes, but it has no gameplay.

beard-or-die 2017-12-07 02:08

@notpresident35 You are correct, there is no gameplay in the jam build. I just ran out of time and decided the simple joke still worked well enough. This is my very first game. The second build does introduce interactivity, but it's still a minute-or-two of gameplay. It's more about the joke and fostering sympathy for those poor seasonal workers at the delivery companies. :)

notpresident35 2017-12-07 02:15

Okay. It makes sense that you ran out of time, with the nice visuals you worked hard on.

nillard 2017-12-07 05:05

I think I saw the numbers fall off a box. That got a good laugh.

beard-or-die 2017-12-07 06:14

@Nillard Yes, I experienced that as well and got a kick out of it, so it stayed in. Hence a couple of the motivational quotes at the bottom reference glitches being free. :) This also illustrates a lesson learned that I should have already known: work on core gameplay and mechanics first, and visual fidelity/post-processing tuning later.

justin-toyo 2017-12-08 14:30

The cutscene at the beginning was great, there just wasn't any core gameplay? Otherwise, it was a good laugh

beard-or-die 2017-12-12 06:27

@justin-toyo Correct, no gameplay in the jam-deadline version. The joke still works in that version, though. The patched version post-jam (actually just hours after the jam deadline) does have some gameplay in scanning each parcel and having a score (super minimal, no losing), but the main goal here was not great gameplay, it was the joke of parcels (including the parody logos on the parcels) exploding out of the trucks, making an impossible job. People: this is why your gifts are going to be late. These seasonal workers are doing their best, have some sympathy! :)

ponchoguy 2017-12-18 01:07

Hey I played this on stream - It was really funny! :yum:

The box physics and the sound effects were quality - Although they did glitch through the truck it did give me a great laugh!

I'm not going to comment on gameplay but I have a few suggestions as you are making this into a proper post-jam version

The wheels on the truck I noticed didn't animate to roll when I saw them - This is really nit-picky although I did notice it quite instantly, I'm sure that that wouldn't be too hard to implement?

For turning this into a game, with the round system - it would be great having a UI with the amount of boxes that need sorting and scanning and having multiple cameras in locations within the warehouse (as to which the player can warp to) - Hovering over boxes would highlight them as to indicicate the player can pick them up. These would be marked (could be rotated maybe with different codes/numbers E.G N01 needs to go in Section N, Rack 1 etc. etc.) This could be timed? With a round system it could go back if you fail to pack the boxes in time in order to keep up with the "christmas rush" :wink:

This could - If you really were up for the challenge it would definately be a really fun VR game idea!

Sorry I might have blabbed on abit - and you may have other ideas for the game in the encorporation of mechanics but this has great potential! you obviously have great humour too so make sure that works it's way into the game! :yum:

Cheers for the play anyway! :yum: It looks like you've learnt alot during your LD which is great to hear :thumbsup:

ponchoguy 2017-12-18 01:07

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ponchoguy 2017-12-18 01:07

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ponchoguy 2017-12-18 01:07

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ponchoguy 2017-12-18 01:07

:l I was way too excited to post that - I may have overclicked sorry :sob:

beard-or-die 2017-12-20 07:30

@PonchoGuy Thank you for playing my game on your Twitch stream. I checked it out. Sorry you ended up playing the first build rather than the post-jam fixes version. (I published the second version just hours after the jam deadline, so I was just being thorough and honest to include both builds. It looks like you didn't notice build2 was there, so I've renamed and reordered the builds on itch.io to make that more clear.) Yeah, there was pretty much no gameplay in that first build, and just a little bit on the second build. But gameplay was not the point of this entry, it was the joke of being bombarded with way too many parcels to scan. Which I think you got. :) Also thank you so much for your ideas on furthering the game! I had some of those concepts on my wish list for the jam, but I got just the minimum done, and as it is I got very little sleep. Several of the glitches were intentionally left in (honest) rather than fixed, such as the boxes glitching through the truck bounds upon a large round, and how sometimes you might see a logo fall off of a box (for some reason this is hilarious to see when that happens). I definitely plan to explore VR soon (I doubt I could keep the framerate high on maximum parcel bombardment, though. Regardless of whether I use VR, I may revisit this game next shipping season to incorporate some of your ideas. That could be fun to expand this into something more akin to a playable game. :) Let's just say I have a somewhat professional relationship with a certain delivery company, and there is plenty of inspiration from my day job to incorporate into this concept. Thanks again!

2017-12-26 14:52

Funny idea! 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=m_cfsd64xFk

devmax 2017-12-26 21:32

If this is what the employees of courier services go through, I now appreciate them more heh. This has lots of potential but needs more gameplay and exploding boxes heh, good job on the presentation :)

beard-or-die 2017-12-27 05:40

@jupiter-hadley Thanks for playing! Glad you gave it a laugh. Yes, I liked contrasting the ominous cinematic intro with the silly gameplay. It's more of a joke/social commentary than gameplay, but I think it achieved its goal.

beard-or-die 2017-12-27 05:41

@devmax If you have more appreciation for delivery workers now, my job is done. :) Thanks.