FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD49 → Hang in There Until Meetings Are Over

Hang in There Until Meetings Are Over

By junjunlowpoly

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2893.4420
Fun3253.2520
Innovation1823.6120
Theme3843.2520
Graphics893.9720
Audio3972.5020
Humor973.4720
Mood1833.4420

Comments

darthdeus 2021-10-04 02:13

I like ducks, but the cats got me fired when I was at 90 duck :duck:

listonos 2021-10-04 07:39

I got promoted by :cat: people! Really cute game, seem pretty polished. Some of the anti-social answers were pretty funny as well. Art of the animals is amazing. The only thing I can think of to note is that there didn't seem much of a system. I basically :two_hearts: almost all cat meetings and if other animals were politely greeting me I would try to give 1 :heart: if I could. It would be really cool if different animals react to different style of questions differently and you would have to learn it. For example ducks would get really angry if you refused to help, and squirrels would love to talk about hobbies. Hopefully this not actually already a case and I am just dumb for not noticing it :smile:

ghost-wave 2021-10-04 20:55

Fun game, I got promoted thanks to the ducks !

Wish they were some background music.

federico-giorgi 2021-10-05 00:06

Nice game, i got promoted by the cat. I guess it's a real simulator of a work place XD

junjunlowpoly 2021-10-05 03:25

@listonos Thanks for the nice suggestions! I like the idea of making each kind of animals have different dialog choice preference. Probably assigning different dialog pools to different animals would make it more interesting as well. Currently there is a lot randomness in the difficulty of one run due to card deck randomization. Potentially I could make dynamically generated random events to counterbalance it.

2021-10-06 00:19

"It's too real, Roy. It's too real."

marvix 2021-10-06 12:52

Overall a nice experience. I liked the pixelated graphics. Didn't manage to get promoted, I got fired by those cat people **sad noises**

jonah 2021-10-10 07:06

This was a great concept and well executed! Really great art.

Surprisingly realistic gameplay!

Good job

anaxie-studio 2021-10-10 07:52

I couldn't help but click once I saw the duck! It was fun to choose how to use energy and I like how many different conversations there are. Gaining a heart back after using none is a clever mechanic. Good job specially for only being made in 2 days! I wish I could talk to them all!

splitpainter 2021-10-10 07:54

This is so good. My favorite game in this LDJam so far. It seems like it was made for me...

Boots up game... **"Remaining meetings: 60"**... *Goosebumps, heart starts jumping of my chest*

**"I don't care what company I just want to not starve"...** - the corporate world is so full of bullshit, you captured it correctly. I don't understand how companies still ask those questions when hiring, because they now everyone just fakes it. I had a startup once and I hired a lot of people, I NEVER EVER asked those stupid questions.

**"Could not put up with your arrogance."...** As an autistic, this is so spot on. **I really dislike social norms and having to compliment people for the sake of it**, I really dislike having to wear masks, having to fake smiles, having to lick balls just to be seem as a nice professional person. When I want to do it, it's because I really mean it, I don't do it for the social norms.

And yes... due to that I was seem as arrogant my whole life, but I'm just... me.

But then I disagree with your game description.. it's not being rude... it's being authentic. If you like something, you really like it, and you don't fake it :)

If you like, I will invite you to play my game of the previous Ludum Dare (from April), where I made a game about autistic traits and there are two rooms about what you talk about in this game (masking and meeting exhaustion). This is not self promotion, it's an authentic request!

kr4ft3r 2021-10-10 13:15

Thought I was doing great, though I failed to spot that I need 100 relationship with a community to actually win, oh well.

The graphics and the idea are just great, and the game describes reality of a large work place quite accurate. Negative answers are just hilarious.

Don't forget to give me two hearts..

junjunlowpoly 2021-10-10 21:32

@splitpainter Thank you for your comments! This kind of game would not appeal to most people so I'm really glad that you like it this much and resonate with what I was trying to express with the game. And you're absolutely right, those zero-heart responses are just being authentic self (that's why you gain heart back by choosing them); "Spending hearts in a conversation" corresponds to paying effort to say something that pleases the other party.

I played your LD 48 game and it definitely hits the spot. I never seriously think I'm autistic (I just thought I was an introvert). But while I play that game, I just see so many traits that match me now I feel like I should go talk to a doctor or something...

The part about small talk and masking depicted in your LD 48 game is definitely what this game is trying to depict as well. Nowadays in big companies there're even employee trainings on "communication skills", where small talk is taught as part of a recommended framework for business communication. I just can't understand. When I say something, I mean it. I can't just say something to follow a framework. If someone asks me a question (e.g, "how was your weekend", "what do you do in your leisure time?"), and I feel like they're just trying to have small talk, rather than really being interested in my answer, I don't want to answer them at all.

Your LD 48 game is very effective in making people explore the world of Autism with an interactive virtual museum approach. I tried to take an approach where I don't directly say what I wanted to express and let the player find out from first-hand experience on the game mechanism. But I feel like a lot of people would not really reflect on their game experience and try to see a meaning out of it (that's not a common expectation from games anyways), versus the case where they are told this is more like a piece of interactive storytelling media from the beginning.

junjunlowpoly 2021-10-10 21:33

@kr4ft3r Thank you! You win 3 hearts for liking this game!

ardorugus 2021-10-11 10:44

Hard to please everyone, like in real life. Maybe it could be more fun in a text way, though.

pdotjpg 2021-10-11 17:23

I looove the look of this, the art is so cute and good-looking. Theme is funny too. The gameplay is simple but surprisingly strategic, I was hooked! Veery RNG-heavy, though. The spacing of the breaks can just doom you sometimes. Got there in the end, though. Fantastic work!

sslees 2021-10-12 05:02

Soo close! I was 5 away from being hired by the squirrels, but the cats got me... Thanks for making this. It was unique and insightful. And personally, it reminded me that the effort I spend trying to please people at work has just as much an effect on me as it does them, if not more. Sometimes I have to remind myself to be authentic.

The artwork is fun and adorable. And I liked the funny conversations and responses. Thanks for sharing this game!

talia 2021-10-12 07:17

Lovely art style and good take on the theme. I quite enjoyed your game. It's hard to decide which group to work with because they are all great :)