Break A Leg by jcsirron

[raw]
made by jcsirron for LD32 (JAM)
The time has come: you can finally get rid of those scene-stealing hacks in your theater group. You’ve been setting this up for months. Talking to the folks backstage. Making sure they are willing to drop the counter-balances at your signal. Flattering the other actors, to make sure they take part in the production. Pretending to listen to their flattery, so they aren’t surprised that you are willing to work with them.

In the last few weeks, you’ve been working out the timing. Where you’ll have to be on the stage. How to signal where the sandbags should be dropped. And, of course, how to look good doing it. We wouldn’t want the audience to get a bad show, now, would we? Even if a few of the actors… break a leg.


Instructions

First you must choose a starting position: where you will be at the beginning of the play. Such fine actors as yourselves will of course want to start with your own spotlights, so no one will start in the same portion of the stage.

The play itself will be broken up into a series of acts, each consisting of four scenes. In each scene, you will either saunter across the stage to a new position, or stand in place and soliloquize. You’ve found that soliloquies are a great opportunity to signal your accomplice in the rafters. Unfortunately, you will have to plan out each act before the curtain rises, in order to make things look professional.

For each scene, click on either a portion of the stage to move to, or a sandbag in the rafters to drop on the stage. A tile showing your action for the scene will appear, so you don’t lose track of where you are. If you decide you need to change your action, clicking on the tile will reset it. When you have blocked out actions for each scene (or decide to just wing it, if you want an acting challenge), then start the act with the old standard: “Break a leg!”

Any actors who are hit by a sandbag will, “sadly”, break a leg. They will be taken backstage for the rest of the act, so their remaining actions won’t happen. In the next act, they will come back in the same location where they were injured (“The show must go on!”), but a second broken leg will send them home.


Credits

Brian Williams
Brian Trotter
Thomas Gruenewald
Chandler Norris
Adam Williams

Ratings

Coolness 88% 2
Overall(Jam) 2.19 1077
Fun(Jam) 1.85 1052
Graphics(Jam) 2.50 850
Humor(Jam) 2.63 622
Innovation(Jam) 2.73 725
Mood(Jam) 1.95 993
Theme(Jam) 2.90 806

Feedback

Galan
22. Apr 2015 · 00:42 UTC
Interesting concept, but I couldn't really find a way to strategize. Maybe I'm missing something (quite likely, even), but it just felt like a guessing game.

It didn't help that I had trouble telling whether the sandbag were upstage or downstage.
DiegoEscalante
22. Apr 2015 · 00:48 UTC
The gameplay is a neat concept and overall interesting, but it is not very intuitive. However, the graphics were nice. Having the curtain rise and fall was a nice detail.
nihilaleph
22. Apr 2015 · 01:08 UTC
Great concept! But a bit confusing to play >.< It took me a while to understand how to do things, and still some random sandbags dropped where I was xp
Still good job!
terryg
22. Apr 2015 · 05:49 UTC
Like what Galan said. It felt more like guessing. The graphics are beautiful though, and the story was great. Good job!
Ryusui
22. Apr 2015 · 20:21 UTC
I like the premise, but the interface could use some work, and the connection between my commands and the actual action seemed tenuous at best (why are sandbags raining all over the stage when only set one to drop?)

The lack of sound was a real killer, too, given the whole premise is about dropping things on people. ^_^;
Dagatts
23. Apr 2015 · 15:17 UTC
I kinda felt like controlling some of it but most of it seemed rather random... a beautiful chaotic random. Loved the concept. Could use a better work on the graphics and It was kinda confusing about which bag would fall where.
benmcnelly
24. Apr 2015 · 01:00 UTC
I know you don't want rated on audio, but I think if you had more time it would have been a nice add on. Overall a solid entry!
monkeedude1212
25. Apr 2015 · 00:02 UTC
It's a good idea for a game, but the directions on how the strategy works seem a bit unclear. Wasn't really sure how to actually play, though I knew what I could click on. Fits the theme really well.
jplur
25. Apr 2015 · 19:51 UTC
Nice to see pygame being used!
TeamQuadratic
25. Apr 2015 · 22:40 UTC
Awesome idea, but the gameplay is so convoluted it is hard to tell what's going on and what you're supposed to do. I'd definitely love to see this expanded on though!
Jokerbomb
27. Apr 2015 · 02:07 UTC
Neat game and the graphics were fun. I may just have had a hard time understanding how to play at first.
Deconstructeam
27. Apr 2015 · 13:27 UTC
Nice idea, but I couldn't figure out how to play :/
waveformmodulations
29. Apr 2015 · 02:23 UTC
Liked the idea of the play and stage, little characters were fun
elefantopia
29. Apr 2015 · 04:08 UTC
Really nice graphics (from the set to the costumes on the actors), but the game play was confusing.
tikilittle
29. Apr 2015 · 06:01 UTC
Wow this has an elaborate setup. That's very cool. I want to play, but there's no non-Windows version.
tininsteelian
29. Apr 2015 · 16:51 UTC
I thoroughly enjoyed the WordArt title screen. Interesting game!
Wevel
03. May 2015 · 08:55 UTC
Interesting idea although fairly simple
A Flat Miner Studios
06. May 2015 · 01:52 UTC
IT really felt more like guessing than any strategy, which was a bit frustrating. Great concept, though.
CiderPunk
07. May 2015 · 13:39 UTC
nice idea and excellent presentation but let down by a unintuitive gui and it all feels a bit random.