Deboned

guitarbro 2019-10-08 02:19

I like the animations. Having the objects sway to the beat was a nice touch and gave some personality to the (small) world. It would be nice if the ghost moved a little faster since you have to go back and forth so much, but it works. However, I did manage to get stuck when I sold some seeds I don't think I was supposed to sell, so now I had no pumpkins or seeds to buy lol. One suggestion: perhaps use a different sound for the "action" feedback noise and the background music's lead. It was a bit hard to tell when it was giving me feedback that I couldn't do something. That being said, the game does have it's charm and ain't too bad overall. Nice job.

onlyallygrace 2019-10-08 02:39

I really loved this game! It took me a minute to figure out what to do but oh my gosh once I figured it out, I wanted to keep playing! Very polished game, great job!!

umsee 2019-10-08 02:51

The game gets stuck if I spend money without thinking or I plant all the seeds before doing something. So There you have it. Noobs get stuck and the majority being noobs your game would not be as successful as it could have been with all the work you've put into it. :v: peace bro!

sarah 2019-10-08 03:04

@umsee I initially planned to have some Game Over logic, that would test if you ran out of money and/or seeds, but I couldn't get it working in the final hour, so I took it out. It was intentional that you can 'get stuck' by running out of resource if you dont plan correctly, but since I didnt get the game over working, Im going to add more seeds to the store so that players can go on no matter what (:

@guitarbro the lack of seeds was supposed to be a bigger deal and cause a Game Over but (^^^) didnt happen xD BUT THATS OKAY, cause everything else happened. The soundFX, I agree, I did those in the final 20 minutes and once they were in game I realize how similar they were to the music, but I just didnt have any time to make new ones at that point (: In the end, I think the swaying is probably my favourite part haha \o/

@onlyallygrace Thanks a lot! This is my most polished game jam game yet! :D

Thanks for the initial feedback, Im updating the game riiiiight now so its a bit more playable (:

cjgladback 2019-10-08 03:06

Aw, it's adorable! I did seemingly soft lock it by trying to bake with bread and seeds. I thought maybe bread on the bottom of the oven crafting would equal the crust of the pumpkin pie, but then it wouldn't remove. So at that point, checking the other ingredients I had for whether they would remove, it looks like only the pumpkins and the sliced pumpkins were set up for crafting. It is pretty addicting (amplified by how late it is and how I'm still giddy from finishing) and took a while; so I didn't risk restarting.

But honestly, this is so satisfyingly animated and illustrated and the sound design really helped polish it (it avoided being at all jarring by having the feedback noises blend in with the extended background loop). Since I was a little lost after a while before glitching (and seemingly could only make roast seeds and bread out of sliced pumpkin?), maybe a future version could unlock recipes online as well as the shop (since the internet is a big place).

sarah 2019-10-08 03:19

@cjgladback Im thinking about adding a little recipe book now (: And thats the other MINOR >.> (MAJOR) bug in the game, is that you can just craft things with whatever ingredients... it really only cares about the formation AND I CANT FIGURE OUT WHY, it just always returns true on the "Are these the correct ingredients??" But im looking into it, im hoping fresh eyes tomorrow will spot the issue haha.

Thanks for the feedback, I started working on my own art&music in the past few years, so Im still not the best, but im getting there! (:

lightwaves 2019-10-09 01:59

:( I put my jack-o-lantern in the oven and couldn't take it out :( I was so hype about getting a bone but I guess I'm never getting one now :(

2019-10-09 02:06

Oh my gosh, the xylophone bone music is EVERYTHING.

I wanted to play more but got stuck on buying/selling – couldn't figure out how to make those actions go through (I dragged the item to the box and tried every combo of clicking and buttons, but it just reset to my having 3 pumpkins, etc). But love the art and concept, and the fact that it's appropriately seasonal :) Nice work!

bismark 2019-10-09 02:13

Really addictive game ... like "Voodoo Garden" :-)

sarah 2019-10-09 03:30

@lightwaves I tried to see if I could make that happen to fix it, but I couldn't make it happen ): Im not sure whyyyy, but there are still 5 other bones you can find xD

@maryana thanks! I spent a few hours on the music, and it turned out kinda perfect in the end :D The buying/selling, the items get placed in the top box, and then you click on the bottom box to buy/sell. I was soo excited to make a game about Halloween!

@bismark that game looks really cute!

Thanks for playing and the feedback \o/

hyperscope 2019-10-09 04:13

Took me a couple mins to figure the UI but once I did I ended up playing for at least 30+mins. Unfortunately I didn't understand the crafting recipe, they seemed to be empty? Eventually got stuck trying to craft items in the oven and had to quit, I hope I didn't miss something obvious.

Good use of music and mood!

sarah 2019-10-09 08:45

@hyperscope The crafting recipes were empty until they were discovered, but I realize now how misleading that is xD SO I FIXED IT, I added a lock icon so that its easier to understand :)

The oven recipes are admittedly kinda hard to figure out, after crafting them myself all weekend, I forgot that haha

aret24 2019-10-09 09:55

This game is cool!!! Also that effect of getting out and in a house was nice!!! The only problem is that the platform part of game with boss was hard, I tried giving all the pumpkins to him!!! This is Joke, but I didn't understand the story of game, maybe - Some rat or mouse took all of your bones and now you need to get 'em all.

But Everything was fine!!! :)

lukein 2019-10-09 10:12

Pretty nice game, didn't see the time flying by. Took me probably 30 to 40mins to get that expensive bone.

Looks like the bread slice recipe and the thing at its left in the recipe book are mismatched. I unlocked one by discovering the other. Also the recipes represented aren't correct either. The said thing at the left of the bread slice.. Yeah I don't what it is, shame on me. But it shows the same recipe as the first one.

catie-jo 2019-10-09 11:13

Hey this is a really cute game! I love how the objects' motion accent your really great soundtrack! The whole mood strikes that cute/creepy vibe really well.

I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to sell things because I didn't realize the dollar amount turned into a button in the shop -- a small tweak that might help is to turn the sell place into an image like a basket or shelf, and when it's empty, display hint text that says "place items that you wish to sell on the shelf", and once there's an item(s) in it, have the 2 buttons appear...one that says "sell for $XX" and the other that says "cancel". I also still can't figure out how the oven works?

Overall, the mood is great and the mechanic is super nice. I think some UI tweaks and tightening the core game loop (eg making the ghost move a bit faster, and allowing for multi-item purchase/selling to make it a little less repetitive), are all that's needed! Really excellent work--I enjoyed playing it a lot :smiley:

sarah 2019-10-10 05:49

@lukein I found out about that bug and its fixed now xD Im actually not sure how or why those two randomly had the wrong recipes in them, but theyre maybe fixed now... but as I type this I realize I didnt check another thing so its probably still broken actually \o/ BUT ITS OK, haha and theyre muffins :D

The expensive bone used to be almost double the price haha :D

@catie-jo I knew there would be a bit of difficulty using the UI system, but I was just having a hard time coming up with something that both looked nice & simple and got the point across easily. And I just ended up running out of time to focus on it, and I wasn't sure how to explain it. So I figured I'd let everyone figure it out rather than try and confuse them more haha. But basically, always put items into the top part, and always click on the bottom part to get an item/money back/sell.

The oven works when the proper recipe is in place, with the correct ingredients, a result will appear at the bottom. So for example, a Pie can be crafted with 3 Pumpkin Slices like this: [- X -] [X - X ] [- - -]

Thanks for playing and for the feedback :D

mimusangel 2019-10-10 17:30

The game is very nice to play, my only regret is that I can not find or there is no shortcut in the menu purchase / belly to go faster than 1 to 1, or even directly sell everything directly. otherwise I love graphics that are pretty

sarah 2019-10-11 00:22

@mimusangel Yes, the inventory management is a bit slow & repetitive, but that's because this was my first time building a drag&drop inventory at all, so I was surprised I got it working with a single item!! And once I got it working, I forgot allllll about maybe wanting to place more than one item xD So when I was doing final testing I realized that it was a bit.... slow (:

I might be able to add it in though, if I spend a short bit of time adding a bit to the management :)

Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for playing!

anticdope 2019-10-11 00:24

Cute little layered crafting game! As many people have already stated, the game falls short due to the inability to batch buy/sell/craft. Clicking a bunch of times is repetitive and painstaking. However the art is quirky and the music helps distract from the repetitive gameplay.

julianbeutel 2019-10-12 03:09

Hey great game. Had lots of fun as an entrepreneurial ghost with my jack o'lantern empire. really liked the silly premise and the crafting. bgm is banging, and really enjoyed the pumpkins dancing to the music. Nice job!

snesgaard 2019-10-13 15:06

Ghost recovers stolen bones by engaging in full blown capitalism! Might be the greatest game premise ever ^^ However like others here I would have appreciated faster movement for the ghost and the ability to sell/buy multiple item instances at once :)

lereveur 2019-10-13 18:19

Funny, cute, and entertaining entry! I spent much more time on it than I expected to XD Good job! PS: bread and muffins recipes unlocks are interverted in the recipe page (when you unlocks one, it's the recipe of the other that shows as unlocked)

chocolat-endive 2019-10-13 20:18

Very nice game with a cool mood! :) It may be cool to have a hint ingame about the recipes that are not yet discovered (or maybe it could also be something that can be purchased?), so that you don't need to look outside the game at all.

stamestratagem 2019-10-13 20:24

it is slow indeed, but it has nice animations

ynneblack 2019-10-13 21:57

The currency button doesn't look clickable so I was a little stuck on how to sell the pumpkin, and then I had to search the comments to find out how recipes work as there is no hint placement matters. That's pretty much all criticism I have! I got stuck on making a pie and 9-seeds recipe, but I'll come back to it later and try to find more combinations. :) The art is very cute and I *love* the whole concept. I thought it'd be exploration game so the gardening, cooking and selling were a nice, unexpected twist! And the ghost is just adorable, I'd hug them. The carved pumpkins were great, too! Though perhaps you should still get some seeds? :) And I'm really happy to have found a Halloween-themed game. It's the best holiday!

ynneblack 2019-10-17 14:14

So I played it again, with my partner, and we agreed that the time feels like a timer and adds stress but doesn't actually seem to do anything? Maybe just having Day X written there would be enough, since we can see the time changing by the changing skies. But that's just a detail, coming from two people who hate timed games!

As for the recipes, though, we gave up after the pie & 9 seeds. Trying all the combinations with no hints in-game was taking a lot of time, it probably takes more patient players or luck to discover them. I'd really like simpler combinations (4 of slices, 6 of slices, 3 slices+3 seeds, ...) where the placement doesn't matter, or the option to buy the recipes.

Other than that, we both really like the concept and thought it's super cute, so if you ever do a post-jam version, we'd both definitely want to play it again!

sarah 2019-10-18 20:05

@anticdope The repetitiveness was all due to me not knowing how to do multi select/selling etc I knewww it would be annnoying in the end, but this was the first time Ive done a drag&drop so to even get it working like I did made me really happy! :P Im actually trying to make it work with multiselect but I havent gotten to touch the game this week ): But thanks :D

@julianbeutel This is probably one of my best songs that I've made for a LD game yet! Making the pumpkins dance made me smile sooooo much haha

@snesgaard I even boosted the ghosts movement already!! You should have seen how slow it was before xD The ghost having to get its bones back by painstakingly making foods it couldnt consume it probably one of the deeper themes of the day :P

@lereveur Once you start playing, time passes quicker than you'd think! And thanks! I must have the unlocks swapped, it was a change I made quick before heading out one evening. But it's an easy fix :)

@chocolat-endive I tried to add a few hints for the recipes (on the computer screen) but I just wasn't sure how else to incorporate helping with the recipes. I knowww there are so many combinations, but in the end I had made everything so many times that I sort of forgot how hard it is to discover these combinations. I'm DEFINITELY now thinking about adding some that you could buy from the store, THATS SO COOL AND I DIDNT THINK ABOUT IT!! Haha Im pretttty sure its an easy add.

@stamestratagem It was slow, but it used to be slower xD

@ynneblack To start, I appreciate you coming back to my game!! That means a lot to me :D And I'm glad you appreciate that Halloween is the best :P I couldn't resist making a spooky game cause I usually try to jam something spooky around this time anyway. I agree that the money does not look clickable, I panicked about that for a little bit, and I was generally unsure what to do about it haha. I thought about adding a Buy Now button or something, but I just sort of ran out of time in the end. And with the recipes, I had tested it and played it myself so much, that I forgot how weird it was!

The timer was initially not meant to run so fast, I was planning on having muuuuuuch slower days and longer growing times/tending to the crops etc, but I ended up wanting to simplify it. And then I added the day/night/sun/moon/sky etc and I loved that part. I had wanted there to maybe spoilage of items, so timing would matter, but I decided to drop all that extra stuff. So in retrospect, I never really needed to show the actual time or day but I never bothered to turn it off and kinda forgot about it haha.

The only hints in game are two recipes appearing on the computer screen (pie and muffins I believe). When it came to the placement, I didn't actually want it to be configuration based, but then Ive just been playing a lot of minecraft lately so I wanted to see if I could make that part work (I did xD) but it would be really easy (and cool) to have some recipes where configuration doesn't matter. I.e 3 slices will always make soup, no matter where they are.

If you're interested in learning the other recipes, I can post a screenshot in the comments of all the possible recipes! You can make: Pie, Soup, Cookies, Muffins, Bread & Roasted Seeds.

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it! I plan on working some more this weekend on it and seeing if I can possible expand the crafting to have more recipes, with combinations of ingredients and any configuration etc. Im glad everyone is enjoying the ART&MUSIC, I WORKED REALLY HARD ON IT \o/

<3

itsdanidre 2019-10-20 08:14

There're so many subtle things that go unnoticed, yet make the game as good as it is. The day night loop for one. Everything built up gradually, making more money to afford more things, unlocking achievements and recipes.

One bug is making the muffins the first time, unlocked the bread recipe, so I figured out how to craft bread. Then that recipe unlocked the muffins recipe lol. I found all bones in the end tho! :grin:

The inventory only slows down when using the knife board. With the stove/oven, everything is fine.

And the world jumping left and right is so cute :joy: Nice Ludum Dare entry!