Santa's List

apace 2018-12-03 09:04

Wow. Just wow. The mood in this game is really good. The monotonic color palette and the announcer's voice in the background, combined with the "dystopian" music and the sound effects. Really great.

Also, I loved that the elves' health was not only displayed as a number, but also in the way they look. Great addition!

I haven't quite figured out what the best strategy is, but after I found out that elves respawn when they die, the game suddenly got a lot "easier"! Before that, I thought I was gonna fail.

I think killing elves should somehow affect you negatively instead of just being part of the score in the end. Maybe have them drop / raise the other elves' productivity semi-randomly because they get scared of you?

Anyway, really nice entry. Just in time for christmas as well.

koltzow 2018-12-03 09:38

Thank you for your feedback @apace :)

You do get 0% productivity for few second before a new elf spawns so thats does effect you overall productivity. But you are right I would have loved to add some more 'complex' mechanics as the one you mention. Hopefully i will have some time to expand upon it in the future.

thegamedev 2018-12-03 14:14

You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. Excellent resource management game, but elves seems a bit to disposable, maybe they should revolt if you kill to many.

piranha 2018-12-03 14:18

Hey, this is really fun and fits perfectly into the season of the year!

koltzow 2018-12-03 16:50

@thegamedev thanx. Totally agree, it’s definitely not utilizing the full potential of the elves. We are all slaves of Father Time though. Haha. Really appreciate the feedback.

andrea 2018-12-03 22:50

Great mood, music, feel to the game, well done! I hated punching those elves though, but I guess that's part of the theme :(

koltzow 2018-12-03 22:56

@andrea Thank you so much. Everything comes at a cost.

wheatleyscience 2018-12-03 23:30

cool game, i always think that somebody has to disciplined this elves. and now i had a chance

syverlauritz 2018-12-04 09:45

Great stuff! Punching those little shits felt really satisfying. The mood is spot on, with the music and graphics contrasting but strengthening each other as a result. You have these Steamboat Willie-esque elves scored by an industrial, dystopic soundtrack. Brilliant. I'd maybe like the days to fly by a little faster but overall a fantastic entry to the compo!

kanacell 2018-12-04 10:00

the choices in graphics and color fit really well with the game objectives. As TheGameDev said, maybe it could be interesting to add a counterpart if you kill too many elves in a shot time and during the whole game. anyway, nice work !

koltzow 2018-12-04 12:11

@syverlauritz @kanacell Thank you for your kind words, glad you like it. I wish I had more time to implement more mechanics, but that will have to wait till after the judging is over.

wowa 2018-12-04 21:37

Great mood and the game fits perfect for the theme. Well done! :)

anton-savinov 2018-12-04 23:39

That brilliant meta moment when you find out that you'll actually get a new elf to replace the one you broke and you almost immediately make a decision to "optimize your whole production" following your gamer instincts while another part of you contemplates at how utterly horrific and cynical this decision was is a pure example of why video games are a fully-fledged art form in their own right. Don't know if it was deliberate or not but you're a winner in the Theme implementation category for me.

ecmjohnson 2018-12-05 00:10

I love the mood you've got here! The loudspeaker announcements add great flair and the music is on point for beating elves to produce more christmas presents. I do wish there was a bit more to do while waiting until the next round of beatings, like maybe having to stop bad gifts or something similar (quelling dissent periodically is a good suggestion) to split the player's attention. I like the implicit high score mechanism in minimizing the number of elves killed.

koltzow 2018-12-05 12:29

@anton-savinov You are definitely suppose to feel somewhat bad about it. It's not intentional to keep the fact that they respawn from the user, but is a great effect that it is as the game does lack enough features.

@ecmjohnson Glad you like the mood i was going for. It definitely becomes repetitive quickly and does suffer from the fact that the player ends up trying to beat the algorithm rather than playing the game. More random simultaneous events like you mention would absolutely thrown the player off and and make the game more challenging and fun to play multiple times. The first version i made had the goal of making as many presents as possible which made you not want to wait and then give you a rating based on your productivity minus dead elves. Gameplay balancing is fun but tough.

I'm getting a lot of great feedback from you guys. I might just create a separate repository and add all these features to see if i can make it better.

toulou 2018-12-05 20:31

Wow, this is depressing.

The concept of the game is great, it's maybe a bit too repetitive and too long ? But I like the idea and the moral of the game, it's not said explicitely but you get the point pretty easily. The artstyle also is great, even if it's simple there's clearly a lot of care put in the pixelart, and it shows. The music is weird and a bit obnoxious but I don't mind. Overall it's a great game, with an original concept and gameplay. Congrat !

honey 2018-12-05 21:56

Strong experience, I like it very much like it is - bit repetitive, bit upleasant, not that fun after first few slaps, but just something that must be done within a deadline to please the boss. The only thing that kills it form me is the music, it should have been all the happy sang orchestral songs about hapilly making and delivering all the presents and happy children and stuff, just like those typical in authoritarian regimes, with radio effect on it, that's what's in my head. But still, very dark and great experience, really! Don't add anything to make it traditionally fun - that will half kill the point - you work for Santa too, as well as they do! No fun for you, just productivity! Love it! Seriously!

ynneblack 2018-12-05 23:32

46 days left over 69 dead bodies. Wow. It's definitely dark; the audio fits very well, I would say, makes the mood even heavier. I've got mixed feelings about playing to the end. If a piece of entertainment makes one think and feel things and question what they do in a virtual world... I'd say it's a success. Oh, and making their condition visible was a good "detail" – makes it feel all the more terrible. (Which is a good thing in this case! Doing this *should* feel bad.)

madhumster 2018-12-05 23:38

Very good experience. The music is perfect as well as woman talking in a background. And the style is amazing. Also monotony makes experience few times stronger. If one thing to be improved maybe to add some text about consequences of killing elves.

david-lo 2018-12-06 00:19

Fun game! Had fun slapping those elves to keep them in line. It was a little unclear about what happens when you beat an elf to death, but that was sorted pretty quickly.

kantieno 2018-12-06 03:02

I really enjoyed the audio in this game, definitely one of the best designed entries from an audio standpoint that I've played so far! The art worked well along with the audio to create a nice atmosphere as well.

The gameplay a little lacking, but I think it has an interesting core that could be expanded into something really nice. Definitely felt a little bad for the poor guys, but it worked well with the theme!

This was overall a nice entry!

koltzow 2018-12-06 09:47

@toulou @honey Thank you for your kind feedback. I does get a bit repetitive and would benefit from some randomness or additional tasks to break it up. Music is hard, but ultimately i decided to double down on the mood instead of creating another contrast. I felt i already had enough contrast with the joyful elves and the grim graphics that adding more contrast wouldn't add anything new.

koltzow 2018-12-06 09:48

@ynneblack Really glad you liked it.

koltzow 2018-12-06 09:51

@madhumster @david-lo Glad you had fun. Since the elf death consequence turned out so simple in the end you quickly learn the consequence of killing them (loosing productivity). Had i added more complex ramification i would probably had to explain it more clearly.

koltzow 2018-12-06 09:55

@kantieno So glad you enjoyed to audio and artwork. Being my first Ludum Dare i gave myself 1 day for concept and gameplay and 1 day for graphics/audio and polish, so i'm happy with my choices with that kind of feedback. Again thanx.