Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD43 → Ethic in the machine
By toulou
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 487 | 3.45 | 26 | |
| Fun | 539 | 3.22 | 26 | |
| Innovation | 317 | 3.41 | 26 | |
| Theme | 163 | 4.02 | 26 | |
| Graphics | 710 | 3.12 | 26 | |
| Humor | 605 | 2.66 | 23 | |
| Mood | 303 | 3.58 | 25 |
Hey there! Great game and it fits with the theme really well. I have one question though, can you actually win in the game - it looks like it gives you questions at random, and there doesn't really seem to be a strategy to go further.
@vesk Thanks for your comment ! No you can't actually win, the system is doomed to fail. But the questions aare actually decided by the stats, and your answers affect the system. I just didn't had the time to make the whole thing more robust and make your decision affect more the system.
I like the whole idea. It seams a bit short? I played it for 3 times and always had 3 choices to make. Anyway. For a bit more atmosphere some sounds would be nice and in my opinion the font color was a bit to bright. Fun little game!
@koemeterion Yeah, when I tweaked the stats the system either dwindled too quickly, or never broke and block the game in a endless loop. It was the best compromise I was able to make. Thanks for the comment anyway !
That was a cool game ! Very nice to see the downfall of the thing you are put in charge of !
My only concern was the walls of text, sometime a bit cumbersome (like the explanation about the role of the referee).
But beside that, that was a cool game that fit the theme !
Good game! The text was quite calming and the general gameplay quite fun. It would be nice to see more directly how your actions affect gameplay. Great job!
The idea is really good, looks simple and neat. Could've used some beeping sounds or a space station background humming for the atmoshphere. Would like a full game like this with some different endings. :)
Pretty cool, nice writing. I wish my decisions would have had a noticeable impact based on which I would have to make other decisions, and some atmospheric music (opengameart.org?) would have made the game a lot better. One typo: under station state it says ressources (instead of resources).
One of my favorites this LD! That being said, it's a bit annoying after playing a few times that it seems all options are doomed to fail the station :(
@dining-philosopher Whooops my bad. But to my defense, this is how "resources" is written in french. And also in the code too : P
@amatwiedle Well that's the point. In the end, there's no ethic in the machine, an nothing you do can save the system. Thanks for the comment though !
An impressive entry Enjoyed trying different routes, but did not manage to find a good one :( How much time could you potentially survive?
The idea to run a space station by an AI but refer to a human for ethics is a super interesting concept. I would love to see it developed further. Too bad there was no sound to contribute to the atmosphere but i really like this kind of terminal interfaces anyway and the option to instantly print text is a nice help for when doing another walktrough. Sometimes i felt it quite bothersome to visit every submenus to check the station status especially because i wasn't able to see the ethic problem before looking at information. Great job overall !
Nice entry, good job! But I couldn't find out how my decisions were so deadly for the station's population. It would be really interesting to know how my decisions influenced the life on the station, for example in the logbook.
@toulou Haha touché! I think you're allowed to change something like this btw, it sort of counts as a bug right? ;-)
Interesting story. I included it in my compilation video series of games from the Ludum Dare, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/Lq0vHUPYciI
love the typing effect ... the minimal sound effects make an interesting sci fi vibe ..
Is it possible to win? Great game.
I'm not sure that there is a 'correct' answer, for the birth-control problem, I have done both and both outcomes result in death. This makes me feel like I have no control, which admittantly may be the intended theme of the game, but feels to be limiting the potential of the game. Fun problems nevertheless! Keep developing :thumbsup:
I really felt like I was in front of a station terminal in some alien movie, excellent job on the mood and visual aspect of the game! I loved it instantly thanks to that background story. In that sense it is very similar to Duskers. Also the favicon made me laugh 2018-12-10_13h42_42.png
In terms of mechanics, like others said, I didn't feel like my decisions were very impactful, hence I didn't feel like I was really making sacrifices. I suppose it could be clearer in the propositions what you are sacrificing? But it's a ton of work for sure to really make a game like this balanced and deep (a game like Reigns takes months to "write").
In all in all, excellent job! I would totally play a game like this if it had a stronger and deeper story. Maybe this could be a series with stories from different stations, so you don't even have to play them in a specific order. Those stories could be very reminiscent of Fallout vaults too, which we all love.
The concept is good and the storytelling is great (even if it is a bit short). The lack of music is not that impactful (which is rare enough to be pointed out).
Two minor problems: * when enabling the fast text, the game directly send me to the question without letting me check the rest of the station * when checking the station, the text is mixing itself with stats. I don't know if it is intended but it is a bit confusing: the first time I played, it asked me the question while I was checking the station resources and I did not notice the question (I thought it was just some random text to let me know the IA was deteriorating) and I was not able to go back with enter (as the game was expecting my anwer). So, if it is intended, try to make it a bit clearer that the IA is deteriorating (maybe with the wake up message being more and more bugged).
Excellent job overall, I loved the game
@vivien-fargette Thanks for you feedback. And for what I understand, looks like you encountered a glitch. It happened if you press enter too fast several time at once, resulting in several string of text being written at the same time. I corrected a bunch of bugs like that during development but I must have let some errors pass. Doesn't seem to have happened to anyone else so it's not a big glitch. Thanks for letting me know anyway.
Nice one.
Even if it's a text based game you managed to create a very nice mood with those little sound effects and the "retro sci fi" look.
Very calm and pleasant experience. It was a well thought out and considered game which I very much enjoyed playing through. Not really anything else to add.
Simple concept with a 5-star presentation.
I loooooved the silent, scrolling text and the clinical, if slightly passive-aggressive Jarvis. Kind of eerie to imagine an existence where 100% of your conscious hours are spent making drastic moral dilemma decisions.
Kinda wish I could get different endings, though. In both of my playthroughs, I decided to both strictly limit birthing and eliminate half of the population, but neither of them resulted in a different ending. :( I noticed different paths I could take to get to that point though, so that was neat!