lance-krasniqi 2017-12-06 10:35
This looks really good and I had a lot of fun playing this! I'm glad you added a tutorial, and it all came together once I figured it all out. Well done!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD40 → Happy Chicken Farm
By frozenfractal and dining-philosopher
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 105 | 3.95 | 23 | |
| Fun | 422 | 3.47 | 23 | |
| Innovation | 427 | 3.33 | 23 | |
| Theme | 215 | 3.90 | 23 | |
| Graphics | 324 | 3.90 | 23 | |
| Audio | 113 | 3.88 | 23 | |
| Humor | 443 | 3.19 | 23 | |
| Mood | 234 | 3.70 | 22 |
This looks really good and I had a lot of fun playing this! I'm glad you added a tutorial, and it all came together once I figured it all out. Well done!
Really fun game, very addictive. I'd say cleaning up gets a bit annoying though, I'd have to just spam the space key at times lol. Amazing that you managed to do this in so little time! Loved the music and the art too, honestly I think I'm gonna have the whistle stuck in my head for a while! XD
Very solid complete game.
@PUR3
> I’d say cleaning up gets a bit annoying though, I’d have to just spam the space key at times lol.
Well, the more you have, the worse it gets... Have you tried the concrete floors? They're much easier to clean, although the chickens aren't exactly fond of them.
Very cute. I liked it but it would be way more fun if the controls were better (mouse to select square, mouse button for action, right mouse instead of shift).
Really good! It matched the theme well, and had a nice buildup of tutorial prompts. I could see a definite strategy with when/how to buy chickens vs. fences, and keeping the pens clean made sense. Good controls too. Great job!
cleaning up get harder overtime, you did use the theme well ! good job !
Great audiovisuals and mood. The idea of running a chicken farm is solid and I do like the juxtaposition between the cutesy presentation and gruesome chicken slaughter. *They even have names!*
The big problem for me is how cleaning works. Repeatedly pressing space is *annoying* from the user interface point of view. You really should not annoy your users for thematic reasons. I would much rather have more challenge over more annoyance.
A simple fix for this is simply to allow pressing the button down for slowly cleaning the ground. Repeatedly pressing the button would clean faster for those situations where speed is needed.
A more complicated fix is reducing the amount of cleaning required and adding in other things to do. Currently there is little time for building new coops or even need to. Who is going to clean the second coop?
Potential additional mechanics: - Chickens get sick. Sickness can spread so you better move the chicken to a quarantine coop and medicate them there. Medication could be relatively expensive so it isn't always a good idea. - Hens lay eggs! Collect and sell them. Some hens might be more valuable for the eggs than meat. - Hiring helpers. For X money per month a helper will clean up for you. *Press that space bar, worker!* - Rooster! What do you do with it? *Dunno.*
*After ten years of hard work the farmer counted his earnings: 163.76 moneys; that's peanuts! Too bad the road leads to green nothingness and not Vegas.*
Overall: *Good (4.0)* Fun: *Bad (2.0)* Innovation: *Average (3.0)* Theme: *Below average (2.5)* Graphics: *Above average (3.5)* Audio: *Great (4.5)* Humor: *Great (4.5)* Mood: *Great (4.5)*
@HuuvaKodia Thanks for the detailed feedback! Pretty much all these were things we wanted to do but didn't have time for. We could totally have planned better. Especially sickness would fit in well with the theme and enhance the mood, if unhappy chickens would get sick more easily.
This is very impressive and I had a ton of fun playing this. Have to agree that cleaning is probably the least fun part and either could be automatic or removed completely. I'd love to play a post-jam version of this. Best of luck!
This is really nice, well polished, the graphics are fantastic, and the music goes well with everything ! I don't I have spent this much time on a LD Game so far. Congratulations ! :) I also hope you do push this concept farther..!
That's a cool game, as others, I would say that the cleaning mechanic has an balancing issue (At first, you spend nearly all your time cleaning stuff). Maybe it would be nicer if chicken produce less waste and the cleaning process is done by maintaining the space key (and waiting more if there is more waste on the case). ps: I'm happy to see users of Krita, and what you did with it is very beautiful !
Edit: Oups, my message was posted twice ... Sorry !
In July of the Year 48, I finally managed to save enough money for retirement, and finished the game. :) (After a few failed attempts...) I didn't buy any new land - I was too busy cleaning, I would have liked to buy a cleaning robot or hire a helper. I divided the farm into three parts, and after a while I had a system of keeping chickens of the same age in the same part. I guess I had too many chickens and too much dirt, because I didn't manage to keep the chickens happy. I really like the music and the art, and the game looks very finished. The tutorial is useful. Great job!
@papaver Congrats! The inability to keep your chickens happy is kind of the point of this game... wouldn't fit in with the theme otherwise!
I really enjoyed playing the game. When I started, picking up chickens didn't always work but I got the hang of it eventually. In the end, I was playing for absolutely ages because its quite addictive.
I never managed to finish the game because I got a bit overwhelmed. If it is developed further, workers to help clean/refill food would be good so you can go further with it.
Overall I like it and nothing seems to be incomplete as in other LD games. Well done!
Damn, your game hooked me. It is exactly what a simulation should be: you can expand, you must expand and doing so jeopardize your steady revenue. All this with a main mechanics inspired by the theme makes a great entry. Well done!
After 93 years of hard work I earned enough money so I can finally retire. Assuming the life expectancy of 80 and starting to work at 10 years age, this would leave me with -23 years to rest and enjoy my savings. Well, ...
What worked: 3-4 relatively small (4x4) pens, each with feeder and 10-15 chickens of same age. I gave up on cleaning as it required too much work and was nearly impossible with more pens. Chickens were not happy in these conditions, but I could still get between $17 and $18 for each of them when they reached 2 years. Sorry I turned the game into a chicken slaughter simulator. :cry: Did anyone manage to finish the game while keeping the chickens happy?
Maybe the controls could be improved a bit (picking up chickens and cleaning), but the game is well polished and addictive.
(Audio does not work in Safari 11.)
@m-1 Thanks for the feedback! Of course with that many chickens, you can't keep them all happy. "The more you have, the worse it is." On the other hand, if you do keep fewer, but happier chickens, you will find yourself well past your deathbed before you have enough dough to retire. We like to think that this is at least somewhat realistic, and part of the reason why we see so much animal mistreatment these days.
I'm not sure know what's up with the sound. Surely Safari supports mp3? It might have helped if we provided .ogg format too, but it's a bit late in the game for that now.