Council of Smiles by MatthewHolland

[raw]
made by MatthewHolland for LD31 (COMPO)
It's a sort of visual novel government sim, set in a nation of smiley faces.

The game plays in a few minutes; playthroughs are slightly randomised so please have a second go if you could tolerate the first.
(It's quicker if you want to click through the 'animations' or use Ren'Py's fast forward feature, which I'm assured will only skip text you've already seen.)

If you're interested in the source you'll find the game logic in script.rpy and events.rpy, in a curious mixture of Ren'Py and Python proper.

Full disclosure: I'm employed as a designer (and previously a sort of programmer). If you want to take that into account you can.

Ratings

Coolness 45% 1550
Overall 3.30 436
Audio 1.88 888
Fun 3.11 521
Graphics 2.18 1086
Humor 2.91 300
Innovation 3.56 263
Mood 2.96 523
Theme 3.41 794

Feedback

tomdeal
08. Dec 2014 · 19:59 UTC
the game could use some more graphics. I like the smiley faces, they provide good feedback.
ViliX64
08. Dec 2014 · 20:01 UTC
That's one well made game. I could see this become a bigger game. You've got 5/5 from me :)
qleonetti
08. Dec 2014 · 20:03 UTC
Promising ! A bit hard to guess what they want, but the concept is interesting
PTSnoop
08. Dec 2014 · 20:06 UTC
Intriguing game idea! I'd have liked a longer game, though, so you have more of a chance to get to the smiley faces and learn to predict what they'll like and what they won't.
Ulydev
08. Dec 2014 · 20:07 UTC
Interesting concept !
Spacemyname
08. Dec 2014 · 21:09 UTC
graphics could be better, other than that not bad
mogwai
08. Dec 2014 · 21:16 UTC
Really enjoyed this, good job.
Also scarily familiar since I'm from Sweden and the governments budget didn't pass here recently :)
bobombe
08. Dec 2014 · 21:21 UTC
I played 3 times ^^, it's interesting ...
psychomonster
08. Dec 2014 · 21:23 UTC
Nice Idea. Tricky questions :D Love this creative idea... maybe with a little more graphics and some sounds (speech) it would be much better.
Catwheel
08. Dec 2014 · 21:53 UTC
I enjoyed it. Could do with some graphics and audio that help set the mood of the game.
LethalyGuy
09. Dec 2014 · 00:30 UTC
Very interesting idea. But really hard to understand what they want for me.
caryoscelus
10. Dec 2014 · 13:59 UTC
Well done!

// caryoscelus
BoxedMeatRevolution
11. Dec 2014 · 06:28 UTC
Smooth execution, but it felt a bit sparse.
gene-z
11. Dec 2014 · 20:53 UTC
Poor, but cool
rfgpfeiffer
12. Dec 2014 · 16:52 UTC
Interesting idea, and I like the simple represenation with smilies. If work on this continues there should, in my opinion, be more feedback about smily opinion, for example some interesting ways to question the smilies what they want, etc., so if feels more like negotiation/player has more control. - Tilman (from compo account)
edve98
12. Dec 2014 · 17:38 UTC
Very interesting game!
maxmetallica
16. Dec 2014 · 16:06 UTC
nice dude
rjhelms
28. Dec 2014 · 20:41 UTC
Cool idea. I don't think I've ever seen a government sim done as a Ludum Dare game before - good job!