Loop-E-Mart

fc85057 2020-10-05 23:55

A very interesting take on the theme - planning a loop in advance! At the moment, I can't recall a game with such a mechanic. I had a lot of fun with this. Also, even without a tutorial, it was easy to pick up and get going and you quickly learn to adapt and build a strategy. A couple of small details: a way to exit the game since you can currently only pause (or at least I didn't see a quit function). It would also be nice to know at what point you are in during the day. It's unclear when it is going to come to an end and when it does, it happens rather abruptly.

matchaflavor 2020-10-06 02:26

Good take indeed! It's a very unique approach to being stuck in a loop. I enjoyed this one and other than what FC had to say, I don't have anything to add as far as critiques or suggestions. I hope you continue working on this one!

mikew 2020-10-06 02:29

really clever game! took me a while to figure out exactly how it worked but once i did i really enjoyed it. Nice graphics and nice music too.

firebelley 2020-10-06 02:34

This was an enjoyable management/sim game. I think you could explore adding ways for the player to interact with the store while the loop is running.

lamossus 2020-10-06 08:25

Cool concept, cool execution. I wish it would also show how often certain clients would appear that day, since without it, it became a guessing game some times on what you should and shouldn't refill. Also seeing how much of each product you have left while choosing a loop would be convenient

shortbread 2020-10-06 08:27

Boy does this bring back some memories! Great game and well done for coming up with a unique take on the theme.

bot12313 2020-10-06 08:57

Nice music and good game. Spend about an hour playing it, but seems like "Miles Jake" is little bit broken (he stucks near the fridge).

castrolol 2020-10-07 03:50

The game take me some hours playing, is awesome! good job, it's a kind of game I wanna play!

iron-leonem 2020-10-07 03:52

A really nice concept, but this needs a bit of a design pass. For the first couple of runs, it was fairly easy, and then I was not at all able to keep up with demand. A fourth time slot, or the ability to cheaply purchase the fourth time slot, would have made it more playable. That being said, the graphics and audio were good, and I really like the idea, it just needs some implementation adjustment.

simon-rahnasto 2020-10-09 08:50

This was really addictive, I played it a few times and each time I found small ways to optimize profit. That's one of the coolest parts of this game, that at first glance it seems fairly straight forward: Look at your customers and just stock what they like. The game however is deceptively strategic and , the order in which you do your tasks can often deicide if you make those extra few bucks that makes you able to pay rent.

The characters each have a unique look and fun names, the overall style of the game is neat. You managed to make a game about being "stuck in a 9-5"-loop fun. Those darn customers getting angry when you are not there to take their order... because you are literally on your knees cleaning up their mess, or ninja punching milk because.. haha

The audio is also great, I liked the chill music and the sound effects fit perfectly. The difficulty curve was quite steep, but that was also part of the fun. When you actually managed to survive and pay rent it felt a lot more rewarding each time.

Great entry!

koolruz 2020-10-10 15:27

The core idea here is really neat, and even with just one character to control, and three actions per day, you already can have a good amount of strategy in how you lay your day out! There were a few minor things that were confusing (Eg: Does one slot of "cashier" let you be a cashier for one customer, or for as many customers as come to the register while you're standing there?), but nothing that ruined the experience.

There's a lot of room for expansion of the core mechanics too, if you wanted to make a post-jam version, which is really cool! I could see a new version where you are able to hire on additional workers (but you need to spend your hard-earned money on them each day), or purchase more slots for your loop, but even with just one worker, and 3 tasks per loop, there's already a surprisingly deep amount of game here! Great job :)

mcovert 2020-10-10 17:43

Felt like the three actions quickly became too limiting for what the game wanted me to do. If I restock both milk and snacks, then perform a cashier action, half the time the people who are trying to buy chips don't get a chance to pay me. If I don't restock milk, I end up with a bunch of angry customers wanting milk, though I make better profit at the beginning of the day. If stock was big enough that it could persist between days it'd solve the problem, but I'm earning a total of like ~45$ over 4 days, which just feels frustrating given I needed to spend 10 on unlocking snacks and another 10 on unlocking cleaning - which, speaking of, I have no idea how I'm supposed to fit in the schedule.

Honestly if using the cash register actually let me get money from the 4+ dudes standing by it waiting, it'd have relieved a lot of the frustration, or if the starting stock values were high enough I could concieveably go a day without stocking them and creating a large customer backup.

jvolonte 2020-10-11 14:33

@fc85057 "I can’t recall a game with such a mechanic." - We can't either! When we thought about it we weren't even sure if it was gonna be fun. A way to exit, an hour display and a less abrupt way to end the day seems like good additions. Glad you enjoyed it! ^^

@matchaflavor Thank you!

@mikew Thanks! We aren't too fond of making "tutorials" and we wanted the first days to be kind of an introduction to what you can do without guiding the player.

@firebelley Defintely! We tried to keep the day short so there was no need for something to do while the day goes on. If we had to entertain you with something to interact then it means the game was not actually that fun. We thought about finding spare change or things to tap while you wait but discarded it because of the reason above and time (of course ^^)

@lamossus A way to see your shop and stock while you plan your loop would be useful indeed. The idea of the clients was to guide you a bit on which ones were coming but leaving the amount and time they come randomly. Maybe it was too much! Thanks for your feedback :)

@shortbread Haha! working on retail memories? Thank you for the kind words :)

@bot12313 Thanks! Did you unlock milkshakes? Miles Jake only wants milkshakes, if you didn't purchase them or are out of stock he will wait near the fridge until they are restocked or leave.

@castrolol Thank you :)

@iron-leonem Oh it definitely needs some work on design. Being the developers + lovers of hard games it was particularly difficult for us to balance it. We tried to tone it down, but it seems it was not enough! That and reaaaally little time to play test it ^^. Optimizing is fun indeed. If we make an update I will keep this in mind! Thank you

@koolruz Glad you liked it! The cashier lets you charge two customers at once. We had it at one on the beginning but it was waay too punishing and charging them all seemed too easy. The original idea was to hire more people and customize their loops too! It would have been too much though! Glad we didn't in the end, but I might consider it for a future update. Thank you!

@mcovert Such is the life of the loop-e-mart clerk! I see what you mean. The difficulty curve is steep and as I said previously we tried to tone it down but it still needs some tweaking!

junber 2020-10-14 13:38

Planning your day like this is a really cool mechanic. The game really nails the balance to make everything seem super stressful because you can't ever afford what you need and you never have enough time to do everything you want to. The punishment for not making rent being completely starting the game from the very beginning felt a bit harsh though. A way to speed up the days would have made that at least a bit less cruel and also seems like a good quality of life feature in general. I still had a lot of fun and enjoyed the clean style of the graphics. Great job!

pedrocoden 2020-10-26 01:44

Nice game!