Date Night

wheffle 2021-04-27 03:35

Not sure why my boss wanted 6 coffees in a row, but I won't ask! The tasks are weirdly satisfying to do, so great job on that. The audio is really crisp and the visuals are satisfying. Sometimes the pathfinding would mess up when I clicked more than once on a task, and I couldn't figure out the email task (it said to press enter at the end but nothing seemed to work). Overall though, was a pretty cool little game. I especially liked the view of the boss from the printer. Cool entry!

lawrence 2021-04-27 08:52

It's a nice game, the tasks kept piling up faster than I could complete them and I couldn't figure out how to complete the email task. But the atmosphere is nice. Usually games like these where you have to do tasks in time are stressful, but I found the experience to be very relaxing. :smile:

togis 2021-04-27 10:01

@wheffle Hooo thanks, I spotted the issue now. There is a error in in initial "Tips" displayed on the computer screen. I will correct that as it's a very minor change that may be game breaking for the experience.

You need to type the text displayed on the screen first before pressing Enter.

Thanks a lot for this comment

togis 2021-04-27 10:20

@lawrence Thanks a lot for testing our game! Sorry for the email task, one text was wrong and made it super confusing.

It should be fixed now:

Untitled.png

dobrila 2021-04-27 10:29

loved the game ! brings back all kinds of traumas tasks are fun and makes you want to play to see them all

anchorlight 2021-04-27 11:18

@wheffle Honestly, that coffee order sounds about right.

pnkvrt 2021-04-27 11:44

Fun concept! I like the blocky art style a lot, the music is nice and I like that there are volume controls. I think the game might be a bit too difficult for me as tasks pile up super fast :D Had fun, you did a great job!

burchyn 2021-04-27 12:10

@pnkvrt Thank you for your kind feedback ! It is indeed challenging, personally I was fired plenty times but after playing a couple of times and knowing the game a bit better I managed to finish the game. Yeyyy !! :D

wheffle 2021-04-27 16:15

@togis Oh, that makes sense. I'll have to do another playthrough!

@anchorlight :laughing:

@burchyn I felt the difficulty was alright, it was hard to make it all the way to 3 minutes which feels about right. But in my experience with LD, difficulty level is the hardest thing to reconcile with all types of players.

peace-of-cake-games 2021-04-28 04:58

Very fun, and nice and hard to beat! I like the variety of different tasks to do, if my boss would stop making me make several coffees in a row I would probably get to do most every task in 3 minutes.

imzary 2021-04-28 08:06

Pog game, i love how simple & hard it is at the same time, it deserve 4 stars

I would say the normal mode is a bit too hard, maybe try after the jam lowering the amount of tasks giving at the same time ?

togis 2021-04-28 11:31

@imzary Only 4 ;) Hehe just kidding, it's an amazing score! Thanks!

Balancing was complicate indeed, I think you are correct: we made the normal mode a bit too hard. If we continue to develop this game in the future we will have to simplify it.

imzary 2021-04-28 12:54

@togis :D

mpetrus 2021-04-28 18:36

Very good, I had a lot of fun playing congratulations

keithswanger 2021-04-28 21:37

Really fun! I could see a post-jam version of this game being expanded in so many cool ways! Great job.

adamphoebe 2021-04-28 23:16

really fun to play, i played it while you were streaming. i had a lot of fun, and would really love to see this same concept extended.

2bitcrook 2021-04-28 23:31

Wow, what a really polished and neat game!

I loved the low poly artstyle, it worked really well. The music was great too, it was chill (for an otherwise stressful experience haha!) It's both so simple but so stressful the more jobs that get added on.

I love the different tasks you had, they were all super easy to understand but also once you layer them on top of one another, and tweak them via decaf vs regular, sugar or no sugar, milk or no milk, and the types of emails you had to do were really solid.

It also made me really hate our boss and I think if ludum dare had a horror category you would get 5/5 for that because this would make anyone who used to work in an office get horrible flashbacks haha! It's also funny that the repetitive tasks work PERFECTLY for the situation, because I can imagine a boss saying go get them a printed out paper, and then another one right after. "Didn't I just do that" you may think, but you have to do it again, and again, and again!

I can see this game getting fleshed out to have increasingly difficult levels of tasks (more coffee options like syrup or sweetener instead of sugar, or with a pump of cream) and emails you have to send contain special characters like @ or ; and just longer stuff. Has real potential to be even better! (and it's already great!)

Excellent game, felt really polished and look forward to seeing what you work on in the future =]

scruffylooking2121 2021-04-29 00:41

As someone who in real life has sent the "Leaving Now" text to his wife, I can totally relate to this game! I was fired, then scored 90something and then 108. I started anticipating where to put my mouse for the next click. Nice job on the sound. The music was pleasant to listen to but not too distracting - perfect for an office setting! I started to really hate the boss. Is he married to Charlie Brown's teacher by chance? I wonder if you could give the player some options to risk doubling up some tasks. For example, print a document but go back to the desk and hope to print more, then make a single run to the boss's desk to deliver 2 sheets, or swing by the printer with a cup of fresh coffee in your hand? Just a thought. Had a great time playing your game, so I wanted to send you this feedback before I meet my wife. (I hope she's not too mad.)

bizmasterstudios 2021-04-29 02:10

Super fun game! I had a blast! Really neat concept, and wonder where you could take this.

tyler-roberts 2021-04-29 03:15

Very fun! I had a blast and enjoyed the art style and music a lot. Very good Jam game!

anchorlight 2021-04-29 05:10

This is a bad joke. I'm sick of constantly being used like a tool for an emotionless machine that just keeps piling more papers on my desk and expecting me to keep up the pace at 120% efficiency 24/7 for no meaningful reward. Somehow the only answer to this is to make it even harder? What, you think I like this kind of constant stress, like I just want to burn out on menial tasks *every second of my life?*

---

Oh, right, the game, sorry. It took me a while but I finally got around to playing it, and... yeah, you did a pretty good job. The graphics/color palette and audio both get the job done in a clean and charming way, and the gameplay has a solid loop where you start to prepare yourself for every button press just to save every millisecond; it's a neat idea. I feel that your printer minigame needs more feedback, and I'd like to see a better button highlight or a better animation on said printer. I like the little decorations and the typing game was probably a highlight since it works so well in practice.

It's a funny take on the theme I didn't think of, and executed well in practice. You start to dread that muffled voice blabbering on about having even more work to do, especially on Hard Mode when you already feel like you're doing everything you can just to keep your job.

As for flaws, I had a similar issue to Wheffle. If you click twice, you'll find another route, which can potentially lose some time; I would maybe add a quick check to make sure your new destination and your old one are actually different [and that the player is moving faster than 0, in case you *need* a new path] as a quick fix for this. I also like keyboard controls for games like this personally as they're more tactile, but that may make the game too easy.

I do wonder if the hard mode is a little *too* hard, but maybe that's the point. I got a score of 89 and survived the shift on Normal the first time, I think my score was in the low 70s on Hard and the mood at date night got spoiled by a pink slip.

It's an easy 4+ star rating, great work! You also get credit for one of the single most menacing antagonists I've seen this jam, next to DrunkardWolf's "creature."

p0l4r 2021-04-29 20:18

Great visuals and a lot of game here, impressive. Especially liked the visual of printing out a huge block of paper. Great job!

As a sidenote: This inspired me to really consider using blockbench for my next jam. It gives the game a nice sense of style and consistency that is hard to get for a non artist like myself. How was it to work with? Is it quick?

burchyn 2021-04-29 22:56

@p0l4r Heyy, thank you for your feedback! I am a bit of fangirl for Blender normally but this jam I wanted to be more open and challenge myself. So I used Blockbench for the first time and I am really impressed with the results. I managed to create this environment during the jam, as it is very easy to learn and use. I 100% recommend it :)

thebooksnail 2021-04-30 03:03

6 coffees in 3 minutes? Can relate. I noticed you can click things before they finish (coffee and printer). I assumed it was intentional but I failed a coffee run missing sugar and milk, which I assume was do to clicking too quickly? Very humorous and fun jam entry! Loved the sound, graphics, and gameplay. Solid all around!

togis 2021-04-30 07:55

@Scruffylooking2121 Thanks for your review and great idea to add a risk-reward opportunity! 108 is an impressive score, congratulation!

togis 2021-04-30 08:01

@anchorlight

Hehe Sorry to make to relive your post-workatic trauma :smile: :smile:

You instinctively nailed the difference of polish for each mini-game. The typing one was the one we spent the most time on, the printer one was a last day addition. We can feel the difference.

For the pathfinding: "I would maybe add a quick check to make sure your new destination and your old one are actually different ". I wish I had that clever idea during the jam. It would have solve many issues. Simple and effective

Thanks for the detailed feedback! This is really appreciated.

togis 2021-04-30 08:13

Thanks for your feedback @p0l4r ! In addition to what @burchyn already said about blockbench, here is my coder opinion. Blockbench only export in .obj and and .gLTF. Unity is not supporting any natively. I have an old custom import pipeline for .obj file in Unity that I used a lot and that works great but I wanted to have all packed into a single file (texture, model, animation). As a preparation for the jam, I searched how to import .gLFT into unity easily. I found this great github project that made 90% of the work: https://github.com/Siccity/GLTFUtility (there may be other that are better) I had to make some tweak to it to allow choosing which animation should loop on not before import, and some other minor things that are blurry for now. All my changes are available in: https://github.com/sboigelot/LD48/tree/main/Date%20Night/Assets/Plugins/GLTFUtility-master I will make a proper fork of the initial project with my improvements later. As a last tip, the package rename all cube without name with a random Guid during the import process. If you change the model and re-export the gLTF, this randomization of Guid will break the link between a newly re-imported prefab and your instance in your scene, making a real mess. I advice you to give a unique name to all cube instead of leaving the default 'cube' name. I will try fix that later in the importer. This will make more sense once you try blockbench.

But overall, the experience is super fun and easy. I hope this helps!

kuviman 2021-04-30 13:15

Could not finish the hard mode, the printer got me

burchyn 2021-04-30 13:35

@kuviman Okay,boss ! :D Thanks for playing our game live and for your valuable feedback!

behdad 2021-04-30 16:22

It is nice game, but you may want to choose more stressful song, I was taking my sweet time, and the time just ran out :))))

burchyn 2021-04-30 17:32

@behdad oh boy ! :D We thought the boss was annoying enough hahah Thanks a lot for your comment !

fabula-rasa 2021-04-30 19:09

So that is why I never got an office job!

Screenshot_4.jpg

The core gameplay is well-made and as there is not much variety of tasks, it really does feel like a soul-crushing office job :wink: - great representation of the chosen topic. The game is challenging, but gets easier as you get to know the office better. As it should be. Graphics are pleasant and clear.

Music didn't really fit the rush of gameplay. Maybe something more upbeat and hectic would be better. Your music track is just too pleasant and relaxing ;)

An improvement I would suggest is an ability to navigate the typed e-mail text, to go back fast and correct that one damned letter you mistype and notice too late.

lillybyte 2021-04-30 19:22

This game is super cute, I love the color choices and artstyle. The music was an interesting choice; and I can't decide if it was perfect for the game, or not. :D

burchyn 2021-05-01 12:38

@lillybyte Oh thanks a lot Lilly UwU Indeed the music can be more upbeat, if we continue making this game a thing! :D We followed you on Twitch, it will be interesting to see your game evolve too! See you on the internets ! :D

vesper 2021-05-01 13:06

Well someone is a coffee-holic, lol. Nice little task management game.

I couldn't stick with it for too long because the WEBGL version was giving me hassles with the cursor swinging around all over the place and making it impossible to select the things you wanted (likely just a computer issue on my end, everyone else seems to have managed just fine). But what I did manage to play was very enjoyable, with fun sounds, and a nice element of challenge (finding the right balance for these games is hard).

Well done!

togis 2021-05-01 13:44

@vesper there is no coffee-holic here! shuuuuu :smirk:

I'm so sorry you had issue with the webgl version, thanks for letting us know, I will keep an hear open and try to figure out the issue if this happens more.

Could you tell me which OS and browser you use? This may be helpful in the future

vesper 2021-05-01 14:22

Haha, during a Jam I think we all find the coffee-holic within.

I'm using Windows 10 with an Opera browser. It's a borrowed machine, and not my usual setup so everything is very creaky. I think sometimes the webgl just sends it into a panic, so don't worry too much. :wink:

ithebredor 2021-05-01 14:39

Cool game. Hate doing something for my boss at the end of work but here It was fun. I was surprised when game asked me to type, haven't seen this in games for a long time, thanks a lot)

2021-05-01 15:35

I'm seriously worried about my boss' coffee consumption. I got a score of 114! Wish there was more variety in tasks but honestly it's a pretty cute little game.

ciaranw 2021-05-01 15:47

Nice, I especially liked the audio, that coffee machine made me want a coffee :P The music is really nice and relaxing. The graphics were nice - although simple, they fit the game. Gameplay was pretty simple, but as it was short it didn't get boring.

efeckk2 2021-05-01 15:58

Didn't really like making coffee for my boss, since there is no tea for me :D

Jokes aside, it was pretty good. My only complaint is about the way you get input from keyboard. I never thought it could happen since I change the language settings on *my pc* and the game is getting input from *my keyboard.* I even checked the language settings once. However, this issue did not affect the gameplay that much for me as I am using a Q Keyboard.

There were several types of tasks so I really had fun playing it. Congrats!

kripakov 2021-05-01 17:10

Very very cool! I love this game. The boss's voice is simply gorgeous :) Cool graphics and music. The email writing assignments are very creatively done. Quite a good challenge, only once in the fifth it turned out to go on a date. Good job! Well, this boss loves coffee very much :)

togis 2021-05-01 18:55

Thank you all for taking your time to test and review our game. We would like to return the favor and for our last stream (or two stream max) we decided to play your games live starting now.

Feel free to join us and say "Hi" in chat, but don't worry, if you don't catch us, we will send you your game video in a day or two :v:

https://www.twitch.tv/tobugis

@lawrence @dobrilla @anchorlight @pnkvrt @peace-of-cake-games @imzary @scruffylooking @bizmasterstudios @kelvination @kuviman @behdad @vesper @ithebredor @ciaranw @kripakov

PS: we couldn't play any of them as we had too much suggestion but I will still play them later and send you the video. Sorry for the delay

charliegray 2021-05-01 20:11

What a cool game, and a neat idea as well. It feels really stressful to try and finish as many tasks in three minutes as possible. :sweat_smile:

I also really enyoed the artstyle and sound effects as well.

imzary 2021-05-02 10:20

:)

cannashblue 2021-05-03 03:46

This was a fun challenge! I just wish this guy walked faster. :rolling_eyes: I got fired the first time. Score of 110 the second time. I love the art and sound effects! Good job! I also liked the unique take on the theme. Thanks for making it!

krammetje 2021-05-03 12:15

Interesting game. I just skipped the coffee tasks since that just took the longest. :sweat_smile:

I don't really see the theme in this game, but still quite enjoyable.

harrison-dunn 2021-05-03 13:11

I played this game as I would in real life... Just sit on facebook for 3 minutes. Any job that will fire me for the difference in 3 minutes of work is not a place I want to work at anyway :P

Great job on this. Clean graphics, unique premise. I like it!

monninen 2021-05-03 13:28

Very fun game! I liked the artstyle, and mumbly voicelines. Gameplay is oddly addicting, and I just can´t stop playing again. Good work!

scowling-pastry 2021-05-03 15:45

The gameplay loop in this game was great even with it's simplicity, and I loved the blocky art style and the calming music. Highlighting the text on the coffee tasks was a good design choice since it made reading the tasks a lot quicker and thus less frustrating than it could have been.

I'm not sure if this was done already but I might weight the score a little bit differently depending on the tasks, or increase the walking speed of the character. I found it a lot easier to blast through the email tasks since I didn't have to wait for any animations, which made the score seem a little more RNG based than anything else. I would also recommend keeping the size of the typed and untyped letters the same for the email task. I found that the changing alignment of the text was somewhat distracting when trying to type out the emails.

Overall unique take on the theme and fun casual game. Good job.

drskort 2021-05-04 09:36

This game had really solid sounds, music and graphics. I liked the idea of the game and it was fun to solve all those little tasks. I think the difficulty might have been a little bit too high. I really don't know how I can complete those print or coffee tasks quick enough to not get fired by my boss. All in all the game was really solid, fun and well made. I also really liked the small details in the level design like the posters or how good every model looked like. Really good job on this entry :)

mololo 2021-05-04 15:04

Very fun little game and the graphics are nice. Also an interesting idea, but I think I found a bug.

When you print papers, you just have to press the print button and then you can spam click the papers to get them quicker and not let them finish printing, I don't know if this is intentional or not.

Overall great game, good job.

etrealjunior 2021-05-05 02:26

Congratulations on the game, your art and animation are very beautiful, the Game Dev Tycoon reminded me a lot, a super hug to you both, Ludum Dare is fantastic because she gives us the opportunity to get to know the work of such great people, once again congratulations,sorry for my bad english, but with a good heart. .

tris250 2021-05-14 22:22

Ce jeu est très marrant et divertissant, le concept est très original, je n'ai vu aucun jeu qui y ressemble de près ou de lien pendant le ledum.

Les graphismes sont jolis et font penser immédiatement aux célèbres jeux Minecraft. La mécanique est (selon moi) de faire des tâches, de plus en plus profondément, ce qui rend le jeu très amusant. La musique est très bien, j'ai bien aimé le bruitage du patron et de la machine à café, la musique de fond est également fort agréable.

Quant au message à la fin, il me fait penser à un célèbre (ancien) président en Amérique du Nord qui a fait beaucoup parler de lui dans le monde.

This game is very fun and entertaining, the concept is very original, I have not seen any game that looks like it closely or link during the ledum.

The graphics are pretty and immediately remind of the famous Minecraft games. The mechanics is (in my opinion) doing tasks, more and more deeply, which makes the game very fun. The music is very good, I liked the sound of the boss and the coffee machine, the background music is also very nice.

As for the message at the end, it reminds me of a famous (former) president in North America who has made much of himself in the world.

saintchristopher777 2021-05-15 15:52

Charming game! Love the art style, and the background music is nice. Great entry!

cr1stal 2021-05-16 21:05

Cool visuals, great voice acting and interesting mechanics.