Pinokio and Juliet 2113 by kibertoad 2013-08-27T10:07:00
Please note that despite download called "windows", it actually will run on Linux (and possibly others), since this is Java game. You just need to run "java -jar run.jar".
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → caryoscelus
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 54 | Limited Space | roadtrip | compo | 348 | 2.61 | 2.01 | 2.86 | 3.61 | 3.00 | 2.94 | 2.26 | 3.00 | ||
| 2017 | 38 | A Small World | đź‘Ą | Power Department | jam | 718 | 2.64 | 2.35 | 3.17 | 2.38 | 2.27 | 3.29 | 2.24 | 2.87 | |
| 2016 | 37 | One room | For Whom The Bear Roars | jam | 720 | 2.94 | 2.53 | 2.88 | 3.82 | 3.11 | 3.31 | 39 | |||
| 2016 | 36 | Ancient Technology | Second Chance | compo | |||||||||||
| 2015 | 34 | Two Button Controls / Growing | Dystopian Orphan | jam | 608 | 3.22 | 2.75 | 2.75 | 3.62 | 2.34 | 3.66 | 100 | |||
| 2015 | 32 | An Unconventional Weapon | dis | jam | 794 | 2.88 | 2.61 | 2.74 | 2.92 | 47 | |||||
| 2014 | 31 | Entire Game on One Screen | Chess Chatter | jam | 468 | 3.24 | 2.63 | 2.59 | 4.26 | 3.74 | 2.65 | 3.72 | 72 | ||
| 2014 | 29 | Beneath the Surface | The Day After | compo | 745 | 2.98 | 2.86 | 2.48 | 2.81 | 2.98 | 2.78 | 2.97 | 3.03 | 76 |
Please note that despite download called "windows", it actually will run on Linux (and possibly others), since this is Java game. You just need to run "java -jar run.jar".
Cool!
Note that the game won't run properly on most filesystems due to UI/ directory being referred as ui/.
Dreii, most likely you had this problem. If so, you can just rename assets/UI to assets/ui and it will work.
Fun idea. Also, i like the bubbles :D
Nice gfx.
Tip: put that describing text into the game so that players will definitely read it :D
Cool little game! Gfx is a good example of how to make limited pixelart look good.
I think i'm going to like this.. As for rules - i think you should've put this into jam category and it would be totally fine.
Thanks for comments!
Spelling - yeah, shame on me, haven't checked before publishing. Updated now in post-compo version.
Note that if you want to see different endings (or different branches, whatever), you can use skipping feature of renpy: holding ctrl skips through text you've read.
VictoryGarden, yeah, there are many parts that weren't worked enough and which are thus look completely unrelated. I'll be working on this when i get back to text editing (right now more busy with gfx stuff).
As for dream making sense - i'm afraid there can't be proper explanation of that unless lots of mystics involved.
Well, actually i'm gonna make it all have rational explanation ^_^
GrooveMan, are there really still that many errors in post-compo version?
Anyway, i'll proofread after finishing extending and rewriting.
Well, rules allow fixing typos and i wasn't doing more than that in terms of spelling in that post-compo version uploaded.
Anyway, i don't really worry about LD judgement at this point. I learned from it to do better next time, but more importantly i have something to work on now.
So i'm more interested in people wanting to play final version than having high rating per se.
Couple comments:
Gameplay: not enough dynamics; ocean is big and fish is rare. Also no visible progress apart from going into 'bad' state (which is too relaxed as well, i haven't managed to die..)
Graphics: it's too dark (esp. when fish is in 'bad' state) unless you turn brightness of screen. Other than that, it's pretty atmospheric.
PS: indirect links are evil
Looks fun. It's a pity i can't run it.
Destructive fun! Is there some goal which you must accomplish before timeout?
Well made as oldschool-styled game (both gfx and weird gui :D ). I guess it's just not my genre though. If controls would be simpler (e.g. moving without M, casting auto-aiming), it would highly increase playability.
Awareness: play other games and comment. Make a blog post.
Porting: not really the answer to your question, but you may want to look at https://love2d.org/ next time so that you have crossplatform game out of the box.
Also, apparently you haven't included main source or some kind of project file (main.lua have no signs of exporting sdl functions..), if you'll do that, there's more chance for porting.
Well, now it compiles and runs just fine!
Here's command i was using:
gcc `sdl2-config --cflags --libs` `pkg-config --cflags --libs lua5.1 lua5.1-c++ libpng` -lSDL2_image -lSDL2_mixer LuaSDL.cpp main.cpp
Bug/glitches aren't a problem: the problem is lack of gameplay. For the next time i recommend preparing for ld: testing your dev environment, making something playable, maybe building some kind of engine.. So that you can actually make a game in 48 hours then.
I just keep going bankrupt :/
Oh well, it's pretty unbeatable.
Fun idea.
Impressive.
PS: only third time managed to save some sanity :) (interactive part is a bit hard to understand if you're trying to read the messages)
Great game. Really polished and fun too!
Funny. Probably one of the funniest I've played in this jam.
Had more fun with it then with Goat Simulator. Then again, always thought that watching paint dry is more fun then playing Goat Simulator.
lonely2012
Thanks for comments!
"I'm not sure how it fits to the current LD theme." - in sorta "literal", there's a game and there's a screen.
"(I was so hoping to watch a game, too! ^.^)" - that was planned, but i postponed it too much and didn't have time to finish. Will be in post-jam soon, though.
// caryoscelus
A competent top down shooter. Nice mood.
lonely2012
You got me on human flesh.
At some point it seems to glitch making me swim only around the raft with no way to walk.
lonely2012
You did good job making it informative. With an interesting and clearly defined arena, better shooting effects, animations in general and slightly more responsive movement controls it could be quite fun.
lonely2012
Great idea, but gunplay and movement need polish. Also at times it's difficult to understand what the hell is going on because of the graphics. Everything is just too small and too grey.
lonely2012
Brilliant cover art. Cool idea, but gameplay could use some variety and polish. Narration starts to feel patronizing rather quickly. One-screen thing doesn't add anything, except for pain in the ass when you start covering the edges. I get why it's done, it just doesn't seem very elegant.
lonely2012
Looking past simplistic graphics, it's a cool little game. Get yourself an artist and don't make the movement that slow, you might achieve great things.
Also, why not pause time during simulations?
lonely2012
A great game with bad controls and confusing perspective. Loved it, but it hurts. Tough loving game.
lonely2012
Don't have any friends at hand.
lonely2012
I like the idea and atmosphere.
There's a bit too much of forcing screen anology near ending and final resolving is too easy for protagonist..
// caryoscelus
Great presentation, both graphics and audio. Dig the concept. Had problems figuring out controls. Also it would be a good idea to place fighters in the middle of the screen, kinda easier to watch.
lonely2012
Awesome concept and presentation. One of the best voiceovers in any jam entry ever. Not sure about combat balance. Having the spitting thing appear from behind with two enemies in front sucked balls. Could work better if you'd allow player to move while blocking. Also jumping. Jumping would be good.
lonely2012
Nice minimalistic atmosphere!
Well done!
// caryoscelus
It looks really interesting, but knowing the rules would definitely help.
lonely2012
Simple, straightforward, working, fun.
lonely2012
Beautiful game, simple and elegant mechanics. Fits the theme perfectly. But for some reason it runs really slow on my laptop.
Great music and effects. pretty scary snowman.
Could use at least some exploration. The house is the most interesting part of the map, why would I go out, if outside it's mostly just invisible walls? I have no objects to collect, no real strategy to hide, and I know it's slenderclone, so what's coming hardly scares me.
lonely2012
Great ambient game, but a bit too frustrating to be a great shooter. Still, stunning visuals.
lonely2012
I like this.
Story comments:
Self-referential humor always works for LD, and it's implemented great here.
Lots of things are kinda oversimplified, but given time constraints that's ok. The most unnatural thing was probably how everybody praised themselves in the end :)
Also, details like mentioning proprietariness and console irc client added a lot to story immersion for me.
Engine comments:
Keyboard controls (space to continue, at least) would be nice and not hard to add.
Rollback (at least in form of text-only backlog) and some basic settings would be nice too, but IMO the most important thing is skipping read possibility to check branches without additional troubles.
Played in Firefox, btw. Couldn't see the difference with Chromium.
// caryoscelus
That's not a visual novel. That's just unfunny joke. Well, at least there're voiceovers.
Hmm, yet another underdeveloped VN engine? Even if it's convenient to create, it still hurts gameplay experience (no rollback, no save/load => replaying isn't convenient). Not to mention weird bug with string stopping displaying.
That aside, you already know the story is underdeveloped. I would recommend you to concentrate on one aspect at LD, so for story-based game on story.
Thx for comment.
Changing screenshot - yeah, perhaps i'll do it after making sure i won't touch the game (i half consider adding missing gfx & sounds for post-jam).
slowfrog, great to see someone playing not just for voting :D You can get jam version after getting an ending, though.
Traumendes_Madchen, thanks for detailed comment!
I can't reproduce the crash, so i would appreciate if you post some details on it. Maybe it has something to do with persistent data, in that case latest update should work better. I forgot to record green ending in persistent, so that caused another -1 to ending count.
Connection to the theme is in the red ending. It's pretty straightforward really even if not accentuated.
Red_Fan games, i only use free/libre software, so that's for granted :) (i'm not going to make platform-dependent BSD or Haiku game, hehe and i tend to stick with ren'py lately anyway)
f7f5, will perhaps provide more choices or even some gameplay next time, but this time i really had no time so decided to put it all into writing. I hope you understood the meaning of reference :D
Traumendes_Madchen, that's quite mysterious given that persistent.endings should become set() right before register_persistent call.. But if it doesn't occur with new version and persistent cleared, i guess i'm not going to investigate.
This was quite intriguing, but finding out small clues when there are more obvious ones (like secret passages - i actually thought one of them was used by murderer and guessed correct culprit by accident) and rereading text over to find differences isn't that interesting. Still, good work.
I liked the bit how you can't guess the weapon :D
And just a small note: "right - center - left" is counter-intuitive order :)
Too much (repetetive) gameplay to actually check out different endings, but good to hear they do exist.
Graphics+physics gives feeling that everybody using skateboards rather than walking, so i wouldn't call this walking sim.
Also games feels somewhat cruel with annihilating mere bullies and even occasionally innocent people :D
Great atmosphere!
"Fullscreen for optimal mood." <- for optimal mood i also cut out header and footer. And changed colour of links to norm.
I wonder why bother creating two versions when you could just add gfx to twine.. The story itself is too short to comment on it..
Also not sure how title is connected to the story.
Hmm, i presume name choice doesn't influence anything but the backstory and name in tundra ending?..
So yeah, the game is awesome and i can only think of slight technical improvements (like ability to skip for replaying and clickable map). Would be interesting to know backstory of all this, though.
-------------
SPOILER ALERT
For those who're stuck before the code puzzle (i had to look the source for it :/, even though the actual code puzzle seemed pretty simple): bed -> kitchen -> safe -> document -> body -> safe
What can i say? The worst things here were a bit of badly readable text in nvl mode and somewhat annoying fading effect in interactions.
So, really great work! Will definitely check out other endings (i got normal and bad so far).
I wonder how Agathe got the gun, if they took it from her?
Traumendes_Madchen, you can try using outlines ( http://www.renpy.org/doc/html/style_properties.html#style-property-outlines ) for nvl.
Finished all the branches now. Not sure which one i liked better, but Dave branch felt a bit overly optimistic to me :) It's good thing you didn't make him juice robber after all though.
Another minor technical note: repeating ending part can't be skipped for some reason. Perhaps you just copied the text instead of reusing it?
Traumendes_Madchen, probably not the fact that he's trying itself, but that he seemingly starts understanding his daughter and accepting he might have been wrong for so long. People tend to defend their lifestyle and feeling of being righteous more stubbornly, i think.
Skipping feature really helps when reading different branches and when it suddenly stops working you get the impression that you haven't read this text, which then gives alternatives to read the same text over and over or be afraid of missing something new. While it's not a big issue, i think it's better to avoid this. (just in case you don't know about it, simplest way is to use call/return instead of copying; http://www.renpy.org/doc/html/label.html#call-statement )
Interesting idea and nice implementation. I liked it.
Well, it certainly is longer than i initially expected. Can't say it's a good thing though - 6th dimension quest seemed too typical and generally sounded like uninvolved sequence of events to me, so yeah, i liked the first part more.
I really would advise to write less, but more careful/thoughtful. Congrats on shipping finished (if pretty bugged) version though.
Interesting. Please post normal direct link next time, though, it really looks bad like it is now (well, i know it's possible to "show only this frame", but some people might not).
MILD SPOILERS
Got expelling and scroll endings so far. Constant sacrificing doesn't seem to have any effect except for village keeps growing. I wonder if there's some key population value at which something happens, though since nothing happened after 500, i doubt it.
So, what is the endings count? Will check for others, but it's good to know when to stop :)
During this time, -5 people have been born, and 30 have died.
This was pretty fun. Unlike some other commentators, i've read the story, though it wasn't especially engaging. I actually thought at first that unconventional weapon was supposed to be the word-changing buttons, but then realised there were a lot of these weird weapons during the story itself.
Since you asked to fix the minor spelling mistakes, here are some:
Jack deflect*s*
have been *eating* mushrooms
we*a*sel climbs
:)
That's a lot of graphics and sound for a typical Twine game! Which sets a nice atmosphere.
It's kinda fun, but weapon use seems pretty random and thus there's not much control. The game is too short for that to become bothering though.
Couldn't finish it cause it stopped working on second fight and replaying Nth time from beginning isn't cool :/
Wanted to write about connection to theme, but i'll just skip that as everybody seems to have written about that already :)
It could be not completely original (i just wanted to mention a VN built around similar concept, but that would be spoiling it, ha-ha), but this kind of thing is rare enough to enjoy. I really liked it.
Wow, it gets really cool & beautiful on later levels.
Btw, the was a minor bug when gardener got glued below the "flowers" (i had to wait until that tree died out)
Use arrows to walk there.
Cool idea. The growing part, of course. I really hate these controls.
I think there're not enough food+ cards being generated.
Only 64bit windows? Too bad.
Really enjoyed this one! However, without any kind of bad consequences, you start feel too mighty.
Btw, i think there was a bug when i declined video game ban offer, but it appeared as approved next day..
It feels like talking to dummy :D Too hard to get much responses though.
Really nice idea, but too hard, imo.
This was quite fun! Especially liked those non-working buttons.
Is there supposed to be some audio? I don't get any..
Nice game, though it gets too repetitive (like die -> repeat everything and change last step -> again) at later levels.
It's a pity i don't get most of the gfx (bg is just greenish) :/ Enough to be playable though.
"Press A/D to turn left/right" is kinda confusing. It should be more like "Press A/D to turn on left/right engine". When you understand that, controls become pretty simple.
Too hard.
Hmm, this isn't really a VN. Kinetic Novel at best.
Apart from that, the idea could be interesting, but the actual story is pretty weak in my opinion.
Download Twine game? Why?..
Very solid & fun, but at some point it gets a bit boring when all you have to do is watch & wait.
Using unity for this? *Triple facepalm*
Otherwise, it's kind of interesting for something made in 5 hours.
Duh, fake screenshots?
This is so cute ^_^
Soundtrack was a pleasant surprise! The story was quite fun as well, even if too "implausible" to my tastes :D
Cool idea, but the controls are quite annoying.
Well done, but felt pretty pointless. I wonder if there really was any choice except for "close the tab"..
Also the game relies too much on fast connection :/ You should've made offline version or not start game before everything is loaded.
Why 64 bit only? Why no source?
I'd recommend using spell-checker next time, and better yet proofread it as well.
I wish there would be either more interactivity or more depth to the story, cause now it feels more like a script.
Really enjoyable game, but there's balance problem: the most effective strategy is to chop lots of wood and put them all into beacon building, sacrificing a bit of health if needed.
Woah, your great AI computer managed to do something i haven't seen in a while: it made my firefox crash.
Luckily that didn't happen second time, so here are some comments.
First of all, i should mention i didn't like how you published the game - i had to take iframe apart to play without annoying host interface. Then the sound was indeed annoying so i turned it off. And then the screen had bad contrast, but i didn't bother to change that. Also clicking on stuff seemed a bit buggy.
And now for more interesting stuff.
The idea is fun, wish there would be more story and puzzles. "TEH GREAT PUZZLE" could be solved by cheating (that is, even without decoding full message you can learn the answer with a good certainty), but i decided not to try the correct answer before proving it.
I generally like ASCII art, so enjoyed it here as well. Though that trash on the floor does look a bit confusing.
Guess that's all. Good job, would be nice if it would be more polished and complete.
Wow, this is hardcore. And really cool. I got stuck on second food level. Will try to clear it later, i guess. Btw, would be nice to have level selection/saving.
Game becomes somewhat slow when snake eats too much. Also snake can eat itself by unlucky double-turning, which is frustrating.
ladybenko, what build are you using? I haven't tested web (it requires too much webgl or something) and mac version.
Thanks all for comments. I think i'll try to make something of it.
I've just checked it in web and it seems that even intro is not rendered correctly. Please refrain from using web version.
Also you can skip intro messages by clicking/pressing space.
Pretty fun game when you understand how to play it. At first, i thought it was multiplayer and i think it would be really great to implement it.
There is a little glitch when sometimes after you go into free space pressing "shoot" shoots immediately with smallest force.
Beautifully looking demo ^_^ Wish there would be something to do. And perhaps a way to "observe" things (e.g. show some info about them) - right now all those mummies, camels and shrubs feel quite "thin" and not much different.
This isn't ascii art, by the way, it's called ansi art. Doesn't make it any worse though.
Good like finishing it, if you are going to do that. I'd play extended version.
Nice take on theme. I liked the idea and some funny descriptions.
Instead of durability making you lose, you could just count shovels and give a final score :)
I'd recommend making other platform exports too since web might not work for everybody. Being familiar with Godot, i just too data.pck and was able to play, but not everybody will know.
Very cool! Though game/movie names are kind of hard to guess - not enough info. Deciphering quotes was really fun.
Aww, i accidentally entered right code to the only interesting (last) puzzle without actually solving it. Should've thought harder before entering whatever came to mind.
Wish there would be more puzzles, cause the first two feel like only introduction.
Also i think it would be easier to differentiate characters if Rimia would have yellow name.
Anyway, nice to see another VN in LD. Good work.
Pretty solid entry. I liked randomization of gameplay.
Balance was a bit off couple of times (boss appearing when there was no chance of winning) and generally it felt like the game depends more on rng than player actions. It would be good if there would be some choice, even simple "take money or take missiles from the ship" would improve feeling of involvement.
Also zooming effect on messages was a bit annoying.
I don't think it is quite related to theme, but who cares?
Funny little VN. Liked the humor.
I don't think it makes sense to add rare sounds without bgm (since you did jam, you could find some free/libre music anyway).
Really enjoyed this.
// caryoscelus
Another game that relies on autoplay for sound, meh.
But other than that it's pretty nice, though i got out before even realizing what's going on and had to replay to see other more gameplay.
Your game relies on autoplay behavior, so at first i was left wondering "where's the music?" and had to go to "about:config" just to play the game. But the music and concept were interesting, nevertheless.
(it's a pity there's no real penalty for constant clapping during performance, like throwing out of a concert or something)
// caryoscelus
@sP0CkEr2 , had the same problem, figured out the game relies on autoplay behavior which is default in some browsers. You can try changing settings or a different browser.
First of all, a few words on jam entry: ren'py is cross-platform so you shouldn't write as if it's just for windows. Next, indirect links are pretty annoying.
Now for the games itself: congrats on finishing your first jam! Can't say the story is very exciting, but at least there's some choice mechanics and different endings.. Good use of sounds, but the music got pretty annoying by the middle of the week.
Finally, the art has artifacts around character borders - i suspect you're doing something wrong such as drawing on one layer with a solid background and manually cleaning it up later. You should just use at least one separate layer for character with no background.
But above all that, i would prefer more original work to a polished one.
P.S. Don't take my critique too close to heart - i write it in hope that it can help you do better next time.
@LFiddler , you're welcome ;)
Btw, since you're new here, you might not know that playing (and rating) more games means that more people will play yours since people are largely choosing games to play from here: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-37/?action=default and your rating raises when you rate mor.
Lead programmer should properly upload build later today. Or maybe i will be able to hack something together myself before that.
// caryoscelus
Sorry for the delay, hopefully there will be some build tomorrow. Otherwise, i'll just glue the content together in ren'py, so that you can check out at least something.
// caryoscelus
Uploaded jam version for now (meh, dealing with all that java stuff sucks as always), but it really lacks most of content. You can watch intro video separately though.
@ayame9joe , it's not too much meta in itself, mostly supposed presentation is.
@Cerno_b @Uliana Galich , i really hate indirect linking too much for that.
@Sundr0 , thx for your support :) I'm not sure i'm going to produce game that most people will enjoy next time, but certainly i'll be more careful about mixing stuff together.
// caryoscelus
@KappaIX , i'm glad you liked it. I would like to say "hey, we're going to make a proper post-jam version", but i did that too much in the past. I still hope we will, though.
As for gameplay - i don't know much details of what was implemented in the end myself, i didn't participate much in game design after brainstorming phase. Maybe lead programmer will shed some light on it :)
// caryoscelus
@local minimum , the thing is that making a good game wasn't top priority for either of us. Kibertoad was busy with improving his engine and i - with content creation experimenting. Thus the final thing is so unpolished.
The audio isn't in jam version; i made some music on jam, but it wasn't integrated into the game - we didn't have time to properly implement it and nobody bothered to just throw in one or two loops (besides it could've become annoying that way).
// caryoscelus
Nice text adventure. Good use of theme too.
I especially liked that "that doesn't make any sense.. wait, what?" moment.
Can hardly play because some aliens are displayed as black boxes, but atmosphere is pretty nice.
Woah, was surprised to see it's from you - some radical change of style!
Great take on theme.
I'm not sure whether it was intentional or due to implementation complexity, but lack of PC speaking creates some nice alienation effect (and helps to identify with PC cause there's not much forced onto player). So yeah, great entry.
Btw, got a ren'py error when trying to chose "lee didn't invite you, nai".
Well, as far as LD goes, this is pretty original, i think.
Heh, it feels like the theme is a bit of spoiler.
The saving bandwidth excuse doesn't sound very plausible.
A bit of transitions would help to understand how time passes. Without them i sometimes get expression that chatting happens during the lesson, but then someone says good night.
The "revelation" moment feels kinda abrupt. The conclusion doesn't follow from essay unless some part of it is skipped. Password scene makes me cry about how your characters approach security O_o
In overall, it seems to me that such a story would play better if it would be longer - to setup characters and only then make revelations. Still, nice job as always.
It would also help if actions would have some long-time response, but perhaps it isn't highest priority for this story.
The idea is fun, but as others said, having such unforgiving realtime mechanics in a puzzle game can become frustrating quickly. When i first figured out the solution of 2nd level and trying it for a few times i even suspected it's a wrong one and had to check the playthrough and then fight the timing a bit more.
Hmm, i solved the main puzzle accidentally (everything else was pretty easy). A little bit nitpicking: skeleton's voice is cut abruptly which is a little annoying.
In overall, it's a cute little game. Keep up the good work!
Here's visual tutorial if someone gets to play before it's merged into the game: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caryoscelus/power-department-ld38/master/assets/tutorial.png
It's been a long time since i could call this idea original and yet i still find myself amused. I've got to ask my other personalities as to why that happens. But perhaps among other things it's because the story, ridiculous as it is, is still pretty solidly built.
teach's punctuation was a nice touch. Also it's a good thing that you did proper bgs even if it's just filtered photos.
Great idea! I wonder how school looks in this world, he-he.
On my first playthrough i missed the puzzle by solving it too early; it's probably possible to force it by disallowing tv before panda, but that may feel unnatural.
It's a pity that the game is so short (good job adding details like panda bamboo return, though). Also music switching is too abrupt. Raft building can be abused, btw - i had built three rafts without anybody complaining (even panda!).
Finally, couple of typos: "The vestibule and front door can *bearly* be glimpsed" "There are way *to* many shoes piled up here."
In overall, great job. I'm looking forward for your future entries.
Never knew the most dangerous thing in a world travel is people who stand and jump in your way and compared to that people trying to shoot you with all kinds of throwing and firearm weapons are just a little nuisance!
Nice idea and nice graphics indeed. Sound effects are just annoying and the lack of health bar made it really hard to estimate win possibility.
I think it would be nice if the people you meet would say some thematic reason to kill you before starting to attack.
Woah, am i going to be the first to leave a critical comment? I guess it can't be helped (for various reasons; my post is already too long to contemplate on them here as well).
So why did i not like the premise of this game? In short, i think that oversimplified satire is actually harming its cause.
In more details, well, lets see..
(DISCLAIMER: don't read the following if you might be offended by too long text and/or too serious approach to satire, humor, politics and nuking in general and/or this game in particular)
First, what is the message of game narrative?
1. One infamous president is a clinically dumb asshole. 2. Nuking innocent people is bad. 3. Certain country might have little control over its president.
Now what's wrong with that?
1. This sounds like a dangerous overstatement. It is a common mistake to portray your enemies as being dumb and then being taken by surprise when they are not as dumb as you thought. It's just so much easier to make fun of someone you don't like than take some action or at least recognize more real threats. 2. Nothing wrong with this one, when it's taken literally, but.. it seems to me that the real message (whether intended or only perceived that way) is "trying to bring liberty to other countries will actually bring them death and destruction". And this is no better than "don't kill" mantra. Sure, sounds sweet, but what's your reaction when you're faced with armed mass murderer and have a gun in your hand?.. It is very convenient to have "no interference" policy, but it is no more than refusing to take responsibility. Of course, this message can be also interpreted as "way too often, [but not necessarily always,] bringing liberty ends up in bringing death" and then there's nothing wrong with it, but conveying such complicated message through such simplistic narrative is unlikely to go well. 3. I won't dissect this one too much. Same argument as to 1 can be applied here, but to a lesser degree i believe (because much less people would take it literally/seriously).
"But hey, we are just having fun here! Don't take it too seriously!"
No, that's not a good argument. You can have fun all you want, but public political satire is a political statement. This statement is likely to polarize audience and lower the level of discussion/perception. Those who generally agree with you are likely to be encouraged in believing in their position without thinking too much; those who disagree and/or offended by it are likely to be similarly encouraged in believing in theirs and also that their opponents are dumb.
"So what now, satire is bad?"
Not necessarily. Satire is a tool. It can be thought provoking, but it can also be hindering rational thinking. It can bring up morale, but it can also alienate others. It should be used with care.
Finally, i should mention that i was deliberate in not giving you examples to prove my point, because it would take away from the argument. I would be much more happy if you would think about my statements (and possibly find examples that prove them) than blindly accept them just on the strength of example.
And that's it for this ridiculously long comment (yay, length limit is lifted and i can post this in one go!).
looks very promising (i also noted how theme is incorporated twice!), but unfortunately i cannot into this sort of controls so couldn't really appreciate upgrades :/
[here's](https://tube.tchncs.de/w/93nYbi14oNnkhM2YrpBZD7?start=30m47s) me failing miserably at your game :D
@aerial thanks for the feedback! you can change volume in the preferences
> If I understood the game correctly, it plays endlessly on a road and you can stop to get passengers into your car or drop them. Currently, you can’t talk to the passengers and there isn’t any benefit in-game for getting passengers or dropping them. Adding these would probably make the game more interesting.
yeah, i did plan to add all these, but didn't have time. spent too much on little improvements
thanks for the feedback!
@gilborn
> With which program did you make the music?
i use ardour, yoshimi for synths and fluidr3 soundfont for drums. i have lots of lv2 plugins, but in this case i think i've used some guitarix plugin for distortion and calf reverb
more gameplay elements will be added in post-ld versions!
thanks all for playing and comments!
@someone
> Ren’py seems an odd engine choice for this, but hey - if it works…
it's the only engine i know well and i didn't want to spend most of the ludum dare learning instead of making a game. still, i did have to stretch a few things there ;) so contemplating if i should change engine now
@scolondev you can steal luggage though! (but you can't do anything meaningful with it afterwards)
@snekofspice heh, it's a small world ^_^
> also, the day/night transition was really sudden.
fixed that
as for the rest, well, i'm still working on it so come back later if you want to see what becomes of it
there seems to be an issue when trying to run with some nodes being empty, it breaks and never recovers after that
``` Error: node.op_lines[step_idx] is undefined statePlay@LudumDare/LD54/app.bundle.js:578:14 tick@LudumDare/LD54/app.bundle.js:2596:23 ```
anyway, fun little assembler ;)
it's a really neat concept! the puzzles are fun and satisfying to solve (even if easy enough)
i had issues with two levels. level 4 is very hard to do due to several factors: - inertia often making Rectangle to slip into the spikes after a jump - the time gap for jumping over the Square is very small so i often pushed it instead - positioning square over the spikes had to be very precise to be able to jump over level 16 i couldn't complete because the construct was constantly gluing itself to a wall (i'll post a video later)
> I was trying to drop the grey one right in the middle the whole time. After figuring that part out all the next levels were straightforward.
wait, that was exactly what i did (and barely managed after countless attempts)
the proper solution is much more clever!
and here's me playing your game (amongst few others): https://tube.tchncs.de/w/93nYbi14oNnkhM2YrpBZD7 ! see 21:21 and onward for the glitch i mentioned
it's a fatalist game! unless i'm missing something, there isn't any way to influence or deduce crowdiness, which is unfortunate. interesting idea, though. i also like art style. watch me play it in [second episode of my ld54 letsplay](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/cramped-choices-a-lifetime-dilemmas)
cool graphic style and i enjoyed kicking people into the train ;)
there seems to be a glitch where there are no more people left, but the bar isn't full
[here's](https://tube.tchncs.de/w/93nYbi14oNnkhM2YrpBZD7?start=23m26s) me playing your game
one of my favourite games so far! of course, i liked puzzle level the most, but i also enjoyed the shooting part (and didn't even mind dying that much). awesome concept, awesome execution. [here's me playing it](https://tube.tchncs.de/w/hkGynPzBhUuUhD8LNwPYbi?start=17m39s)
interesting concept, but the controls could be improved to just having one click to rotate blocks under cursor. and as @rcxa mentioned, two blocks are enough once you figure out how to use them. still [i had fun playing it](https://tube.tchncs.de/w/hkGynPzBhUuUhD8LNwPYbi)! nice ambience too
i [completed the game](https://tube.tchncs.de/w/vj8GAYsJtfoh3hFX4nQvLr?start=16m36s), but it took quite a lot of time and all the hints (not sure if ship hints helped or not, too lazy to rewatch the video). nice art style, i laughed at some ship designs. the music is creating nice atmosphere. a little nitpick about first puzzle: i'm pretty sure i tried clicking *some* buttons before reading hints, but they didn't do anything so it discouraged me from trying all of them
awesome concept! i wonder if the tracks are changed depending on who plays them? if so, i'm really curious as to how?
any chance you'd make a web or gnu/linux version? really wanted to check this out
hmm, can't get anything to work. camera rotation works, but clicking on anything or keys mentioned in description are completely ignored
very nice graphical effects. shooting seems to be limited only by how fast one can click, is that intended?
nice flashlight mechanics. unfortunately i wasn't unable to figure out the code (was i supposed to get it from the first corridor?). sounds effects are too loud compared to the music
very solid entry! but since you ask for critique, here are some points: - resources seem to be unbalanced towards wood being required too much - i don't think it's intended that two resources can be mined at the same time if you stay close to both - if tentacle monsters would devour their items quicker when the day starts, it would help player distinguish those lost resources from ones that should be salvaged from the next wave
wow, this is like pinball in space! starts out deceptively simple, but then there are a lot of fun maps
there's one bug, though, when i was placing boosters often enough the direction control didn't work and i had to remove and place it again to get it working
also, not sure if it's intended or not, but physics doesn't seem to be deterministic when high speeds are involved
the music is very fitting
didn't manage to get past tutorial: after the girl asks to "return to the start" i run out of time and the game freezes after i click "continue". arcade mode has broken pedestrians who run at the speed of sound and run over the car ^_^ drifting feels nice though
oh, and please, don't add those annoying sounds to imitate speaking :_:
good retro-looking gfx, would be nice for UI/gameplay elements to fit that aesthetic as well
also would be fun if music and rhythm game were somehow synchronized
second mechanic was not very intuitive, but i figured it out in the end. it's a nice touch
i played your game on my [ld54 lets play series](https://tube.tchncs.de/w/vj8GAYsJtfoh3hFX4nQvLr?start=12m09s)
why can't i vote on humor? i thought "the *key* to *escape* is in your past" to be hilarious reference to esc key ^_^