FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD49 → Unstable Society

Unstable Society

By glaikunt

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4992.8934
Fun5112.5634
Innovation3773.0634
Theme3313.4033
Graphics4083.0634
Audio4062.3833
Humor1033.4234
Mood4212.7533

Comments

ludokultur 2021-10-04 08:48

Cool take on the theme with nice graphics! :)

zarkonnen 2021-10-04 08:51

Tixerb means Tixerb!

iluvatar 2021-10-04 09:12

God damn Tixerb! Haha!

Pretty fun game. Note to self: Always read description BEFORE playing the game. I thought I had to run aways from those agry people, only to find out I am the one chasing THEM.

Cool concept with a lot of replayability. Like the graphics and sound effects :)

picttarge 2021-10-04 10:43

Ooft the level with 2x tin foil hat wearers - too tough for me :smile: Good fun and the random movements means a different game each time. :thumbsup:

zackavelli 2021-10-04 15:09

Awesome take on the theme, with great presentation. Very funny message and a bit deeper theme interpretation then most games I have played so far. From a gameplay standpoint, I would have liked to see a bit more varied gameplay and some more feedback. Sometimes it felt like there was just a random chance that someone might aggravate someone else. I fully recognize that may be intentional to fit the overall theme of the game :smile: Nice work and solid entry!

skleembof 2021-10-04 23:37

I think you should add some sort of visual indicators to show how unstable the NPCs are, not just happy or angry. Like maybe a progress bar on their heads, or different animations for different states of luncay.

The concept has a lot of potential. A larger scale version of this where you have a city full of unstable lunatics that you have to calm down before they tear the city apart would be interesting. you could experiment with different mechanics like sources of panic that you have to destroy, and tools like broadcast messages that affect large groups at a time.

Good job putting this together in 48 hours

hiko-game 2021-10-05 13:27

I love the concept. I run to calm down people.

But, I don't know why people get anger again.

glaikunt 2021-10-05 14:38

@hiko-game It depends if they are both angry or if one is happy. The tin foil hat peeps will always make everyone angry :smile:

2kah 2021-10-05 21:14

Very funny! Took me far too long to notice what Tixerb means :sweat_smile: Some music would be nice, and maybe a way to break up the fights if you get to them in time

quite-good 2021-10-05 21:38

I played the game for the title cause I thought it was pretty funny! Good sense of humor in this game. The mechanic of calming people down could use a bit of work or interaction rather than just hold a button, but i liked the way the characters would calm each other or stress each other.

maggardjosh 2021-10-06 03:54

Good take on the theme and loved the graphics. Chasing people down got a little repetitive though, could use some other mechanic or something to spice things up. Good job getting this done in 48 hours!

potatolain 2021-10-06 06:12

This is a really unique concept and a great take on the theme! Nicely done.

As some others have said, the gameplay is a little bit repetitive, and a sort of progress bar over characters might have helped. I found myself kind of lost as to how I was doing at times. I had to give up on the level with the 2 tinfoil hats unfortunately, I just couldn't find a way to make progress. I guess society is doomed :sweat_smile:

Two other things - first, it might be nice to allow skipping cutscenes - they're amusing, but after the first one you kinda know what's going on. Also, something that might be kind of cool if you ever decide to expand this, it'd be fun to have some way to separate people off from the rest, so they can stay happy. (or keep their literal tinfoil hat conspiracies to themselves!) Maybe a way to build walls or something.

I always try to provide some constructive feedback like the above, but overall I quite liked this. Thanks for a fun entry.

luhuchiha 2021-10-07 00:20

Fun game with a cool art, great job!

chillertyp 2021-10-07 08:24

I like pixels.

kumber 2021-10-07 11:57

Good concept! It was like herding cats :laughing:. I also liked how the characters are drawn.

solah 2021-10-07 12:54

Cool concept! It becomes quickly complecated to calm down people, I think more mechanics and events would make the game funnier! Nice graphics! Well done!

amkingtrp 2021-10-07 13:01

"Running out of petrol after tixerb".. too on the nose there.. ;)

Don't often see political satire in games these days (the 80s were full of them), so this was a refreshing change. Although I'm surprised that the main character wasn't a blond mop haired buffoon cheering people up with the power of banter. :)

The game itself was very enjoyable with excellent mechanics and a good difficulty curve (the 2 tin-foil hats were a nightmare for me).

pdotjpg 2021-10-07 21:38

What a creative take on the theme! I've never seen this kind of word-of-mouth/public opinion gameplay mechanic, really original. And it's fun to see the little characters having conversations. Visuals and audio are cute too. Very nice overall.

binaryprinciple 2021-10-07 23:49

Good idea and clear implementation. Maybe in the future add boyd dynamics for a group hug.

megastrons 2021-10-08 03:47

The concept is really cool, but I think the stages take longer than they should and have few visual effects to hold the player's attention, other than different enemies.

fluffygamedev 2021-10-08 21:12

I love the idea! In a way, it reminds me of *You are what you watch*. The game was a bit hard (couldn't go past level 3) but I still enjoyed playing this game. :)

zubspace 2021-10-10 20:14

I like the concept, but I think it's a tad too hard. I felt kinda helpless and out of control while playing the game, but maybe that was the point :) The intro with the tv and how you zoom into the action is rad though! Good job!

negator2vc 2021-10-20 13:22

Nice game with good visuals and a very interesting use of the theme! Great job!

shuimen 2021-10-20 15:16

Interesting use of the theme!

lilkrit 2021-10-20 15:16

Maybe I don't get it but I just couldn't stabilise the people :(

pcmaster 2021-10-20 16:44

That tinfoil hat - ROFL :D I love how the paranoia spreads. A very simple and straightforward game. Clean. Oldschool as fuck. Maybe too minimalistic (I didn't finish it yet). Not sure what to add, great job :)

glaikunt 2021-10-20 17:58

@shuimen thanks for playing!

@lilkrit Sorry to hear. Maybe a bug. You just run about talking to people basically. Once they have a happy face that's good :smile:

@pcmaster Thanks really appreciate that & thanks for playing! I wanted to add more around communicating & personality. sadly I didn't have enough time.

pcmaster 2021-10-21 06:27

@glaikunt I feel you, with the time running out, we totally feel you :)

lcstark 2021-10-21 10:27

I like the interpretation of the theme. It feels like I'm playing a hack&slash or a top-down shooter, but instead of actual combat I'm calming people down. There's three things I think this game could use:

1. Some explanation of game mechanics at the start would be nice. It's pretty easy to figure it out on your own in a minute or two, but a quick instruction screen would allow the players to immediately engage without that trial and error. 2. A more precise indication of each person's stability. The random movement of everyone makes it difficult enough to complete each level, knowing how stable everyone is could give the player enough information to actually make a proper decision instead of just randomly encountering closest people until you are done. 3. I often found myself in a situation when two or three people were close enough to each other so when I approached to talk to one of them, the game force locked me in a conversation with the other. When encountering two unstable people that's fine, but often I approached two people, one of which was stable and the other wasn't. Instead of talking to the unstable one, the game locked me on the already stabilized one. This might just be a controls issue, but I think it would be better if conversations with already stable people were disabled - no need to interact with elements already fixed (as long as they remain fixed).

I didn't finish the final level. Best I could do is to stabilize both tin-foil hats before one of them approached an angry person and destabilized again. I liked the overall idea, and the tixerb theme was a funny idea. Well done!