A Tale of Two Megacities by GAFBlizzard

[raw]
made by GAFBlizzard for LD30 (COMPO)
This game is a story about two space-age cities -- one on a planet, and the other on an artificial moon.

You play the role of a government official on the planetbound city.

As usual, I thought of an idea that was about 3 times too large for me to make. I had hoped to have more gameplay mechanics (such as trading between the planet and moon in the second half of the game), along with a lot more events to handle, and more political maneuvering to change your rank.

I also hoped to make an entire second mirror half of the game, perhap featuring an estranged brother, who is trying to work their way up in the moon government.

What I ended up making is silly and simple, but winnable and self-contained. Thanks in advance to anyone who pokes around at it!

*edit* I made one change to the upload at 12:49 a.m. EST, 08/25/2014, to fix a typo on the victory screen. I messed up alignment by 2 characters in the same fix, but that's life and I decided to leave it that way. :P

Ratings

Coolness 81% 2
Overall 2.97 788
Audio 3.49 142
Fun 2.59 943
Graphics 2.71 806
Humor 2.46 471
Innovation 2.68 903
Mood 2.92 613
Theme 2.39 1035

Feedback

alvarop
25. Aug 2014 · 03:42 UTC
I had hard time understanding what I was supposed to do and there didn't seem to be much of an objective.

I still lost, somehow!
superjoe
25. Aug 2014 · 04:12 UTC
I didn't get past the part where it asked me a bunch of multiple choice questions. I wasn't sure what the goal was or why I was doing it.
cardboard
25. Aug 2014 · 04:50 UTC
The character sprite is super blocky compared to the other artwork, so he sticks out too much, but this could be symbolic of his being a simple man who just wants to live in the country in a complicated society. The music was very nice, albeit a bit short, although it didn't get annoying during my 8 or so minute playthrough. There weren't enough scenarios during the second part of the game, but you mentioned this in the description. The pixel art for the first part is solid and blends well together, and the UI is clear. Nice job. :)
ClownAround
25. Aug 2014 · 07:50 UTC
This was actually kinda cool. It was confusing at first, but after another play through, I got it. Would have liked to see more variety, but it was still interesting.
Gunn3rboi
25. Aug 2014 · 08:26 UTC
good game i understood what to do at the beginning but then at the multiple choice questions i wasn't to sure of the goal but overall i liked it.
Ervin
25. Aug 2014 · 20:08 UTC
Nice atmosphere - cool music.
duncankeller
26. Aug 2014 · 00:57 UTC
Voiceover was great, I enjoyed that part a lot. Not a lot was explained in-game (unless it was in the cutscene I couldn't figure out how to play) so general goals, and the drawbacks of certain buildings was unclear to me. I liked the vibe of it, though. I liked the music a lot, too.
Cad
26. Aug 2014 · 01:57 UTC
Not bad, but I had a hard time identifying the objective
Pheonise
26. Aug 2014 · 02:13 UTC
Some more information about how each structure affects the numbers would be nice, and revisiting that mechanic would have been nice.
Overall, the game was pretty good; the theme would have connected better if you managed to get that mirrored moon-life done, but such is the way of the Dare~
Joe Williamson
26. Aug 2014 · 03:42 UTC
That was quite relaxing. :)
Joe Williamson
26. Aug 2014 · 03:43 UTC
That was quite relaxing. Simple but fun, and with nice music. :)
C_Walden
26. Aug 2014 · 07:47 UTC
Once I noticed the Help button in the city planning phase, everything fell together, and I enjoyed the short 6 minutes I spent with this game from start to finish. Quite amusing. Lovely music.
Pavel
26. Aug 2014 · 09:18 UTC
Interesting idea. It is simple with good atmosphere.
Franklins Ghost
26. Aug 2014 · 09:24 UTC
Nice game, I'm impressed at the amount of detail you were able to get in. Liked the building aspect at the start with the objectives of growth and the voiceover and music worked really well with the context of the government.
vulpineblazeyt
26. Aug 2014 · 17:53 UTC
Thank you for the vote! I wish you had more time to get more features in, this game was really enjoyable.
Lissar
26. Aug 2014 · 19:43 UTC
Interesting take on the theme! Also, very relaxing.
HellBlazer
26. Aug 2014 · 19:53 UTC
Very nice little game, and even with voice acting! I was pretty confused at first, but then noticed the help button and that made things clear. Obviously it could use more depth and diversity, but of course this is Ludum Dare so it's expected. Very good effort for the limited dev time.
WetDesertRock
26. Aug 2014 · 20:09 UTC
The music matched the mood, I liked it.

Overall I like the game, but you could've used more time to flesh it out and make it easier to play. I enjoyed the voice acting. Perhaps your help screen should be the first thing the player sees?
robbiehunt
27. Aug 2014 · 00:45 UTC
I had this game queued up to play but I wasn't happy about it. I think I was just grumpy last night. Anyway I got around to playing it today and it's a charming little game! I really liked it!

I liked the guitar. It doesn't necessarily 'match' the game ... but the longer I played the more it grew on me. Nice work!
lekochen
27. Aug 2014 · 02:25 UTC
I now retire to the countryside and feel so relaxing. Good game.
Super Hamster
27. Aug 2014 · 04:01 UTC
Really interesting game and the one mission thing is quite difficult but if you go by rows that can help a lot. Good job! :D
PeteGrammarman
27. Aug 2014 · 04:48 UTC
The objective wasn't clear and it seemed pretty simple. But everything else was pretty solid and could definitely be expanded in a fun way.
Crefossus
27. Aug 2014 · 07:25 UTC
I had fun trying to figure out how to reach the goals once I read the help. There is a lot going on here between the citybuilder, music, story, voice acting... I'm definitely impressed.

Strangely what bugged me the most is the presentation of the game in the browser window. It could be spaced a bit more, as there is no padding above the flash object.
🎤 GAFBlizzard
27. Aug 2014 · 07:28 UTC
@Crefossus thanks, that's actually a good point about spacing above the game. Next time around I'll try to put a little spacing so it isn't jammed against the top.
Oxeren
27. Aug 2014 · 09:06 UTC
Good game with it's own atmosphere. Liked the music, though wish the loop was a bit longer.
ceosol
28. Aug 2014 · 03:35 UTC
I don't know if you meant to do a batman voice, but that was awesome. I had no idea what I was doing at first. After looking at the help menu, it almost became too easy. Nice work on this. You have two separate games going on to complete the story.
jprogman
28. Aug 2014 · 05:07 UTC
Playing the two parts concerns me. If you lose at the second part, will you restart the entire game? Granted I have finished the game, but I would have been devastated if I were to go back to part 1 after playing one part for a while. Just a word of caution.
Interesting Sim City parody with extras.
ripter
28. Aug 2014 · 05:34 UTC
Im guessing the game logic is based on the relations of neighboring tiles, but the main data points update independently of tile placement actions so it's hard to discern what the effect is. Otherwise its a nice challenge.
🎤 GAFBlizzard
28. Aug 2014 · 05:44 UTC
@jprogman, I think I actually ran out of time before I made a way to lose in the second part. So once you get there, you won't go back to the first part.

@ripter, I think I originally considered neighboring tiles, but that would have been more logic so I went with the simple global method. I tried to give an idea of what the tiles do in the help screen, but there's room for improvement.
shashwat
28. Aug 2014 · 08:20 UTC
I wasn't really sure of the objective of the game. I went down from Mayor to Associate Chef? That's not someone who should be making decisions about money anyway. And I still won :-\
havana24
28. Aug 2014 · 10:03 UTC
Cool music, I liked the acting!
SelfishGenome
28. Aug 2014 · 10:59 UTC
Same as alvarop, I didnt quite understand what was going on. I filled every tile and was on my way to 100 billion but got a little tedious waiting for it.
pjimmy
28. Aug 2014 · 11:38 UTC
nice, very interesting
mrexcessive
28. Aug 2014 · 12:27 UTC
Hi,.. Game would not start Chrome/W8.1
Ariake81
28. Aug 2014 · 14:25 UTC
Found it a little confusing but could be the start of something more interesting.
🎤 GAFBlizzard
28. Aug 2014 · 14:41 UTC
@mrexcessive, sorry to hear it -- I only have Firefox/IE on Windows 7 to test with. It should just be normal Flash.
PaperboxStudios
28. Aug 2014 · 14:59 UTC
This is a solid entry for the short amount of development time. The objectives of the game were a bit unclear, the graphics and audio were ok additions to the game but the voice over was a nice touch.
RHY3756547
28. Aug 2014 · 16:13 UTC
Cool, I beat both worlds! The music was pretty good for being written within the time frame. I liked that you voice acted the characters too - you don't see that often with Ludum Dare. Only problem is that it's too easy to win right now... Otherwise, Nice work!
Tanser
28. Aug 2014 · 19:26 UTC
Amazing, i love it! :)
royvanrijn
28. Aug 2014 · 20:47 UTC
I liked it until the discussions with the mayor...
ming_tea
28. Aug 2014 · 23:04 UTC
I thought this was pretty neat. The inclusion of a help screen was much appreciated.