FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD52 → 9CELL

9CELL

By binroot and HFSEvans

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4353.4677
Fun5623.0978
Innovation2543.5476
Theme3483.7977
Graphics5263.3477
Audio2733.4275
Humor3213.1170
Mood1563.8775

Comments

constantine-pallas 2023-01-09 21:59

This game has a pretty interesting, unsettling aesthetic! I think it works well with the theme, and the audio adds a lot. Good job!

boostas 2023-01-09 22:32

Loved the creepy vibe! Graphics fit the mood you were going for, but I would look into harmonizing all the assets so that they fit each other a tiny bit better. I also liked how frantic it got in the later days, but I would look into developing some sort of a win condition. Good job!

scidev 2023-01-09 22:38

This game is so unnerving in just the right way, way to build a mood. I think it's the dissonant vaguely upbeat creepy music, those end of day splash texts and the apparent willingness of those sacrifice things to die. Nice work and good luck in judging.

tanguylcr 2023-01-09 22:38

I loved the purpose of harvesting little peoples to feed our family. It's creepy, that's what i like ahah

procrasteroid 2023-01-09 23:31

10/10 for mood, it was depressing and I felt like I couldn't win, just slow down my inevitable failure. I loved it!

2023-01-10 00:12

My record is Day 22 with all 9 Cells open. COME AT ME!

dan-whiffing 2023-01-10 00:37

Very moody game. Really enjoyed the atmosphere and fun figuring out how the game works. Good job!

yubs 2023-01-10 02:07

That first "harvest" was so off-putting, love it! The music and mood is really well done, very unsettling vibe, well done!

iminsoftware 2023-01-10 05:00

Just wow... I was not expecting the sound effects. It some how combines paper please, with tamagotchi, with an aim trainer reaction game, and is pretty fun to play. I made it to day 40...

jackypark9852 2023-01-10 05:06

Did not see that harvest animation coming at all :O Love the atmosphere of the game. If tamagotchis were real animals, this is how humans would treat them lol

hfsevans 2023-01-10 05:11

@iminsoftware DAY 40! That's intense, you're amazing! I got no where near that lol. Appreciate the love!

medow 2023-01-10 05:19

On my 4th day I decided to treat my family. They'd been so great for the past couple days. So I splurged and fed them all the way to the max and everyone was happy. I was low on cash after that but had a warm feeling going into the next day.

What I didn't realize was that I didn't have enough money to buy hot dogs and harvest another dude. I tried to feed the dude who was closest to being ready but it was in vain. I ran out of money...

Then I had to murder a member my family who I loved so much in order to keep going.

I love the concept of this game. Well done, you monsters ;)

t-c 2023-01-10 05:52

Great game, great atmosphere. Only day 35, didn't unlock any cell past the 7th, but it was pretty fun! Very good submission!

hfsevans 2023-01-10 05:58

@t-c We made it to Day 22 and Day 26. You crushed it!

elmikosch 2023-01-10 07:05

A little morbid but i like it. The family screen is giving me papers please vibes.

tomssuli 2023-01-10 09:32

What a strange game, I liked the dark mood with the musics and pixelart but eventually there were many musics playing at the same time and the cacophony was a bit too annoying. Also I quite didn't get what you had to do in order to survive... I made it to day three befor emy family died of starvation.

I loved the moment where you first harvested your tamagotchi "hmm... what does this button do? Whatta!"

pusheeneiro 2023-01-10 11:03

Tamagotchi with extra steps XD Great submission

nyxkn 2023-01-10 11:30

Great game! On my first playthrough I had not realized how to do my job properly so my only avenue for making money was harvesting my family. Needless to say, it was a VERY dark experience. Then I played through again and learned how to work, which was fun for a while, but once you figure out the optimal clicking strategy it gets very repetitive and you can generate money indefinitely so it's just a matter of deciding when to stop playing. So overall, I actually liked my first clueless playthrough a lot more, as it gave everything so much meaning and gravity. Anyway, overall a very well made game. Using the default godot buttons makes it feel a bit cheap (and it's a very quick fix if you just slap a flat style box on them). But great work!

phillip-scott 2023-01-10 13:17

Wow so dark, I could not keep up with my family demands

image_2023-01-10_131735754.png

pat-cleaver 2023-01-10 13:23

What a vibe! I liked that the game revealed itself over time, first thinking it's straightforward tamagotchi, then discovering the harvesting, then the family meta layer. I also liked the soundtrack, it's VERY minimalistic, but creates the sense of unease you're going for really effectively. A very good submission indeed, congrats!

ben-toosey 2023-01-10 13:45

I never thought I'd see a tamagotchi-esque game that;s so depressing, it's great! Great work :)

cannibalgirl 2023-01-10 16:38

LATE CAPITALISM TAMAGOTCHI SIMULATOR :two_hearts:

nice experience, it feels like an unholy baby of "Papers, please" and tamagotchi. I enjoyed trying to keep my family alive (and craving for more), thank you for making this!

I encountered one "bug" where I harvested a creature during last seconds of the "working day" and did not receive the money ;(

My body was asking for more quick action like with clicker type games, to make the "working day" more intense

nice submission and a nice creative way of interpreting the theme, respect!!!!

efilheim 2023-01-10 17:11

I really like that game. As a fan of Papers please and Not for Broadcast, I really enjoyed finding this vibe here !

minakorii 2023-01-10 17:20

I was thiking about Paper Please, idk if it was a reference or not Cool and Addicting game lol alos, why do they eat so little, i'm fighting for them

jormarysky 2023-01-10 17:23

Graphics could do better with more consistent pixel size and/or at least adding grain to everything to make it all more unified. That said they serve their purpose in weirdly fascinating programmer art way. Mood is this entry's strength, it is moody for sure.

raynalddantigny 2023-01-10 20:29

Okeeey, worth the time to understand the game. At my first harvest, when I saw the 100$, I directly tried to find patterns to optimize my gains! Maybe we could have more than 3 slots of people to grow? like a big grid! Overall, very cool game, I loved it

hfsevans 2023-01-10 20:35

@raynalddantigny If you keep playing it eventually increases to 9 Cells (a big grid) as you earn more money. Keep your family alive by clicking their apples and keeps going! Thanks for playing!

raynalddantigny 2023-01-10 21:15

@hfsevans indeed it become to be super quick, love it, good job!

accatosh 2023-01-10 21:27

Well. This was an extremely dark game. I made it to day 11. I didn't expect that I would grind the Tamagotchi while they smile happily. This is probably one of my favorite games in this jam. Good job!

Positive: - The audio is good. It has simple but good music. - Cool and interesting way to use the theme - Clear and good goal - Good atmosphere - Simple and easy to understand

Minus: - You can't harvest the Tamagotchi if there is poop on the floor, which is annoying. - The pixels in the pixel art have different sizes in different images. This can make some art look weird. For example the character portraits and the apple have different sizes on their pixels.

Idea: - You can harvest the Tamagotchi whenever, but harvesting a tamagotchi with full stomach gives more money.

cactusdan 2023-01-10 21:38

This game was so good. I made it to day 11. I think a split second decision for which tamogachi to feed on day 10 ended my run.

sammi-bear 2023-01-10 21:48

Screenshot_20230110-214105_Chrome.jpg

Day 69! Took about an hour and a half and now my wrist hurts, but I'm oddly proud of myself

deathbysnail 2023-01-10 21:48

Interesting take on the theme, but the setting and mood, and particularly the discordant music isn't my thing, but I guess that's somewhat the point of the game. Nice job!

hfsevans 2023-01-10 21:51

@sammi-bear That's mathematically the highest possible level you can achieve in the game! You should be proud lol. Thank you for playing for so long!!!!

boxedmeatrevolution 2023-01-10 22:20

Great atmosphere and addictive gameplay! I found a strategy that felt like it could go indefinitely. I only ever focused on 3 prisoners at a time, and made sure they always had food by mashing their hotdog buttons. That meant they could never poop (cleaning costs money! no poop allowed!) and their happiness increased with maximum efficiency. I was able to consistently harvest 6 to 9 people a day with that strategy. My home life involved keeping only the wife alive, and giving her money as quickly as possible before immediately going to sleep. But, with only a wife, I made it to day 33 with $3225! I ran an efficient people harvesting business, and turned many a Crumptop and Buzzly's into delicious hotdogs for other Crumptops and Buzzly's. Great game!

hfsevans 2023-01-10 22:51

@boxedmeatrevolution Thanks for playing!!! And interesting find! We definitely need to balance everything, it was just so much math in such little time haha.

mnocenti 2023-01-11 00:18

Great game and great atmosphere !

You made me hate myself for what I did, but you kept me playing, very well done !

The first time I saw the Harvest button on the family was a gut punch, but I love that you made it so the best way to save money is to get rid of the kids early. You monsters.

minidavid 2023-01-11 00:33

cool game; very unsettling though

slush 2023-01-11 04:02

how did you get my headphones to try to kill me?

stefan-laimer 2023-01-11 04:41

Great game! Only made it to day 11 so far but I will definitely go and try hard this game later. Good job!

jonqs 2023-01-11 12:53

Really creepy ! I have to harvest the little guys for the family !! Nice joob on the overall mood.

afe 2023-01-11 15:05

Great Game. At first you dont really know whats going on. But starting with the third und forth baby I felt like i should train my multi-tasking skills a lil more haha

marcoming 2023-01-11 16:47

Tamagotchi meets the binding of Isaac! ahahah Very nice game though, I loved the gaphics and the story behind the game. Very good job!

cody1712 2023-01-11 18:02

My family is so expensive!!! Great but really creepy game!

smeljey 2023-01-11 21:43

Kinda creepy but nice game! Made it to day 20. It is funny that you can escape poop by feeding your tamagochis as much as you can!

olddog 2023-01-12 01:29

nice game mood and great game feelings ,,,, while it is always hard to choose ,,

cloistered 2023-01-12 10:59

Cool game. When my family filled full,why cant i harvest them:)

sean-esopenko 2023-01-12 18:21

One of the most unique games in the jam, nice job. It's not apparent at first that there are phases so I spent all the money making him happy only to discover that everyone else will starve to death. Oh well, he's happy.

deimos 2023-01-12 18:28

damn. Great work. Only made it to day ten on the first attempt. It really is addictive and fun just like Tamagotchi, in a darker and more realistic way. And the gameplay loop reminds me of Papers, Please and This War of Mine, all focusing on choice making while you work to feed the family while having this kinda more and more desperative mood as you proceed. The harvest option on my family member surprised me. good game good game.

hfsevans 2023-01-12 18:34

@mnocenti @minidavid @slush @stefan-laimer @jonqs @afe @marcoming @cody1712 @smeljey @olddog @cloistered @sean-esopenko @deimos Thank you so much for playing our game!!!!

jumpirate 2023-01-13 03:50

It's an amazing game... The theme is very special and dark, but it is very complete, and it makes me want to play and see what happens. I'm curious what it will look like if you continue to develop...

hfsevans 2023-01-13 06:57

@jumpirate I think we plan too! We really want to try and include and entire narrative experience in such a simple play style. Calendar event, random escapes, more moral dilemmas (such as how you can sacrifice a family member if you run out of money atm), maybe a trader would be fun. Gonna be a lot of math lol

hayricakir 2023-01-13 15:58

Very impressive atmosphere with high tension music and art. Well done mate!

theothersamp 2023-01-13 18:33

This is weirdly evil. Very dystopian, a little Papers Please.

I'm bad at it, I never made it past day 10. Well made though! It seems very well balanced, I never managed to accumulate more than $250 at once, it always felt very tight. The graphics are pretty, although the humans look like a slightly different art style. The game seems to get a little easier if you simply kill off two family members, because there's fewer mouths to feed - that's a little weird, because the gameplay is pushing in the opposite direction to the narrative there.

lomby 2023-01-14 03:29

Thanks for submitting your game on the stream! Here’s the start of your game if you wanted to re-watch initial thoughts youtu.be/qbBq_nBKk5k?t=20634

Loved the gruesome harvest animation! Congrats on the great entry!

hadik 2023-01-14 19:15

At first glance, the game seemed like it would be an interesting and fun experience. The mood and atmosphere of the game are fitting and well done. However, I had trouble seeing how the game relates to its theme. The graphics in the game are quite average and could be improved. I would suggest trying to use sound generators in combination with the game in the future to enhance the overall experience. Although the game was not as enjoyable as I had hoped, I believe with some improvements it has the potential to be a great game. I look forward to seeing how it develops in the future.

lookleftstudio 2023-01-14 20:46

This was quite fun to play! I ended up having over a grand and 9 cells of little Tamagotchis to harvest. Two of the family did die in the process though. This was a neat game and I was pleasantly surprised when more Tomagotchis appeared to feed.

ategon 2023-01-15 00:20

Very interesting concept that worked really well with the theme. The mechanics are simple but they don't get old and the struggle of trying to make enough to feed your family was a nice goal. The vibe of the game got built up really well as well as the slow introduction into the fact youre harvesting the people youre feeding

rocktavious 2023-01-16 21:31

This is a real interesting concept and a great take on the theme. It was a little too unsettling for me but I could feel the Tamagotchi inspiration so great work!