pascone 2020-04-21 03:36
Played this game for a very long time. Great job!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD46 → flamaraderie
By bluilisht, spiralhalo and Lazcht
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1050 | 3.56 | 25 | |
| Fun | 1083 | 3.38 | 24 | |
| Innovation | 661 | 3.56 | 24 | |
| Theme | 1072 | 3.72 | 24 | |
| Graphics | 903 | 3.84 | 25 | |
| Humor | 1509 | 2.59 | 24 | |
| Mood | 637 | 3.70 | 24 |
Played this game for a very long time. Great job!
Great and very solid gfx! Good job.
Really solid game! Took a bit to kinda understand the best way to do things, but after I got it it was really interesting! One bug I did run into is that the feed counter will feed the people until you close the window on the windows version, so I thought I could only feed one person a day.
Thanks everyone who have played and gave feedback to our game so far!
@binary-coder The feed menu was a UX challenge for us. At first we made it so that you have to close the feed window before feeding another person so there was no ambiguity, but some of the early feedback we received was that it was annoying so we streamlined the feeding process, introducing the ambiguity as a tradeoff. Please don't hesitate to let us know if you have any suggestion to make the feeding UI easier to understand! We accept suggestions with open arms!
Nice game! The graphics, UI and theme match well together, I played it for a while. Overall quite solid entry!
I really love the idea the graphics and the quite somber music. I just.... I want to name my people. Please! unless that was in the post jam version, if so tell me then i'll play it and be happy about all the people I sacrifice.
Nice game, graphics are great and UI was clear and easy to understand. Gameplay was fun at first but got a little repetitive after a while. Difficulty didn't feel that challenging, I didn't feel like I was going to run out of resources as I could always just sacrifice someone if I was getting low which only happened a few times. Background music was good and fit the mood but got repetitive.
Wow, it is a very good entry. At first it looks fun, but further you play the darker it gets.
First I sacrificed the less valuable member of the tribe. When deer ran out I started to sacrifice hunters who were the most valuable ones before. The same day I realized that meat of specialists contribute to eater's parameters. I stopped feeding those who I were willing to sacrifice next... At the end there were only four priests who pray the whole day before ascendance.
Great job!
I played both versions. It is always interesting to see the differences between a jam and a post-jam version and you did make some notable improvements with the presentation and the outro especially. First, some words on how it went.
In the original I ended up sacrificing 4 people and ascended.
In the post-jam version I hatched a plan not only to keep the flame alive, but also to keep each villager alive. It took some tries (including one where a single resource was missing thus dooming URSAG. This broke the outro wording as it was in plural), yet I managed it in the end with a few tricks.
The god was puzzled: 06b2_FlamaradariePurpose.png
The tricks then. Spend many days collecting resources, there is no need to reach the next fire level quickly. Get to 39/40 and then put nearly everyone on praying duty. Overshoot as much as possible. Do this again when going past the second level. Lastly, spend as few days on level 3 as possible and on the last day **everyone** worships, because the fire cost is not paid when ascension happens. That felt a bit cheap, but I'll take it.
Trying to sacrifice everyone (but one) should also be possible as most of them can be sacrificed on the last night, but I'm yet to try that. Will be fun no doubt, despite the gruesome setting.
---
Now some criticism too. The UI is a major annoyance and while tweaked in the post-jam version, the big issues persist. Simply put, too many clicks to get things done is a waste of time and energy.
Toggles are good in UI design. If the user sets on option one way, then it should stay that way in the future, until changed by the user again. Resetting is the opposite of this. Both the task assignment system and the feeding system work on the *resetting principle*, which results in a lot of unnecessary clicks.
The UI should by default show the previous turn's actions for each character. Then the user can change them if they want to, which in most cases is faster than resetting everything. The daily tasks are easy to visualize with dotted lines or by showing the target bush/tree when the character is selected.
Food assignment is more difficult to fix due to the *"mystery meat"*, which is sometimes available. The easy way is to stick with the *reset principle* and add a *"everyone eats apples until 50%/75% full"* button. Sacrifices and special decisions can be taken first and then the manual feeding labor is condensed down to a single button press.
Some kind of a drag and drop system where the amount of food to be eaten is shown below each villager on the map might work, yet using the *toggle principle* here might be a bit too complicated given what you already have. Worth thinking about, though.
So, this is an interesting concept well put together. UI design is important, but it doesn’t ruin the challenge, just makes it slower than it should.
Good job!
*PS. To make this even longer, [here's a somewhat similar jam project](https://huvaakoodia.itch.io/divine-indulgement) I was involved in some years back. Take a look if you have the time.*
@n-o-games that's actually a good idea haha
@huvaakoodia wow, thank you for playing both version. It's nice to see someone took their time to get both ending. There's no extra ending for sacrficing all of them right now, I've planned to, but haven't got the time.
Also thank you for the detailed feedback. Some of them, like the previous day action for character, is not implemented just because i'm lazy, lol. I should also added multiple selection like in your Cake God simulator (love the humor). As for the feed menu, I'm still struggling with that. I'm thinking to show all action button (Feed Fruit, Feed Meat, Sacrifice For Food, Sacrifice For Fuel) on each character's panel. But it might get too cluttered. I didn't think about toggle principle before, i've updated the game to improve the UI a bit, so now the food/sacrifice selection is not gonna be reset if player select other character while the window is open. And I think I've managed to highlight the goal of the game a bit better now uiUpdate.PNG
Interesting take on the theme. I love it. Really makes you think about "needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." I believe the UI could be approached differently as one might think there is a lot going on when they start playing, other than that great job!
The UI is easy to navigate through and the graphics look great as well. I liked how the game gets gloomier the longer you play it. This is one of those games that is simple, yet can be played for a long time.
Pretty cool game .. well done :) I liked it :) perhaps a bit of ux polish could help :)
Very cool game, and well polished, it misses just a little bit of possibility it's a pity, and I have the impression that it is necessary to play a lot before being confronted with the difficulty
Graphics and UI was really good! I found the game got quite repetitive after some time. If things started going wrong I could just sacrifice someone so I didn't feel the difficulty was very challenging. But overall this is a nice entry, quite addictive!
Hey, this was pretty nice! I played the jam version, as I wanted to rate your game and seemed like post-jam changed too much to be suitable for rating. But I will play the updated one now, because I want to see the ending!
I loved the cannibalism twist (reminded me of Rimworld) and figuring out who is the most worthy sacrifice to eat. I even got my favoire pawns that I decided to keep alive no mater what (and buff up with tasty tasty friend meat ;)). Graphics are fine and animations are simple. More detail to the world (like you have done in the updated version) is exactly what was needed.
I loved the atmospheric music, great choice.
Interface is indeed not very good. There is a looooot of clicking around just to feed your guys. I wish it was done by clicking some icon on the "portrait" of the character instead. Like an icon for meat and a separate icon/icons appearing if you have tasty somebody to eat.
At the beginning I was playing a bit wrong, focusing too much on resources and not enough on praying to the fire. But I soon caught on and managed to pick up the pace of my fire worship.
Overall, it is a nice jam game! Just work on the interface and you really have a nice spin on the fire theme here.
@fabula-rasa didn't know that rimworld has cannibalism mechanic, will check it out. Also thank you for playing, hope you get the ending :)
Are there any errors occurring at my computer?
I can only feed, sacrifice and make the day go by. I can't get more stuff and new features.
PS: I will do the analysis, then I will play the post Ludum Dare version to compare and appreciate the result. :)
Just Dead.png
BEFORE.png
@gustavo-christino I think you miss some interaction. The UX and the goal of the game is not quite clear in the jam version. I tried to fix it in the post jam.
Análise...
1 - Mecânicas, Aprendizado e Fluxo: Tomar a decisão de quem vive e quem morre, canibalismo como ferramenta de sobrevivência e ciclo de dia e noite. Foram as mecânicas que eu consegui apreciar durante minha sessão de jogo. Eu não entendi exatamente como eu morri, acredito que tenha sido por falta de fogo (seria interessante adicionar à condição de derrota o motivo da morte (lembrando que eu ainda vou jogar a versão pós-LD). Aprender a jogar ficou comprometido no meu computador (ao que entendi). Pois não vi formas de ir atrás de mais recursos (os dias passavam e o meu povo não caçava sozinho e eu não conseguia indicar que eles caçassem); se houver alguma forma me diga (joguei na versão Windows). Sobre o menu de navegação entre os recursos, eu demorei um pouco, mas consegui enxergar a seta (eu que sou meio ruim de ver, creio). Sugiro que na primeira vez deixe a seta emitindo contornos vibrantes para que o jogador saiba que aquela interação é possível.
2 - Gráficos, Áudio e Narrativa: Os gráficos ficaram muito bons (gostaria que houvesse um pouco de animação nos cervos e nas pessoas, só por questões de polimento). O áudio ficou muito bom também. A narrativa eu não consegui entender totalmente, pareceu-me que seria necessário manter todas as pessoas vivas, o fogo vivo (que também manteria as pessoas vivas), talvez eu perdi alguma referência a mais. De qualquer forma eu consegui sentir algum apego aos personagens (mesmo na versão original, com poucas interações e tudo mais).
3 - Cultura: O jogo parece falar sobre antropofagia (canibalismo), mas fiquei um pouco confuso. Alguns povos do meu país (de antes da colonização) comiam carne humana, mas era com o propósito de absorver a força e as capacidades dos demais. Nesse sentido, o jogo mistura sobreviver com a carne daquelas pessoas e essa referência cultural (dada transmissão de capacidades). O jogo é sobre sobrevivência em grupo, então ele tem potencial para experimentações sociais diversas (talvez aplicação na Psicologia, inclusive). Por conta das escolhas que as pessoas podem fazer nele.
4 - Monetização: Eu dei uma olhada rápida na nova versão (depois jogarei com mais calma) e achei que o jogo está avançando bem, creio que ele poderia ser vendido no itch.io. Estou tentando imaginar como ele pode aumentar no quesito "voltar e jogar mais" para o mesmo jogador. Ou se ele teria uma mensagem-objetivo e seria publicado em cima disso.
Analysis...
1 - Mechanics, Learning and Flow: Make the decision of who lives and who dies, cannibalism as a tool for survival and day and night cycle. It was the mechanics that I was able to appreciate during my game session. I didn't understand exactly how I died, I believe it was due to a lack of fire (it would be interesting to add the reason for death to the condition of defeat (remembering that I will still play the post-LD version). Learning to play was compromised on my computer (as I understand it). For I saw no way to go after more resources (the days passed and my people did not hunt alone and I was unable to indicate that they hunt); if there is any way tell me (I played on the Windows version). About the navigation menu between the resources, it took me a while, but I managed to see the arrow (I am a little bad to see, I believe). I suggest that the first time leave the arrow emitting vibrant contours so that the player knows that that interaction is possible.
2 - Graphics, Audio and Narrative: The graphics were very good (I wish there was a little animation in the deer and people, just for polishing reasons). The audio was very good too. The narrative I could not fully understand, it seemed to me that it would be necessary to keep all people alive, the fire alive (which would also keep people alive), maybe I missed some more reference. Anyway, I managed to feel some attachment to the characters (even in the original version, with few interactions and everything).
3 - Culture: The game seems to talk about anthropophagy (cannibalism), but I was a little confused. Some people in my country (from before colonization) ate human flesh, but it was for the purpose of absorbing the strength and capabilities of others. In this sense, the game mixes surviving with the meat of those people and this cultural reference (given the transmission of capabilities). The game is about group survival, so it has the potential for diverse social experimentation (perhaps even in Psychology). Because of the choices that people can make in it.
4 - Monetization: I took a quick look at the new version (later I will play more slowly) and I think the game is progressing well, I think it could be sold on itch.io. I'm trying to figure out how he can increase the "come back and play more" for the same player. Or if he would have an objective message and be published on top of that.