LudumData

Franz Kafka's A Hunger Artist by monika

[raw]
made by monika for LD29 (COMPO)
Hello!

Postmortem! http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/?p=354138

There are a few buttons to click on, but most of the game is controlled by hovering your mouse - hover over characters to see their stats, or hover over the action buttons to perform those actions.

Volume can be controlled by - and +.

I didn't get saves working, and if you manage to keep the Impresario happy, the game takes about 20 minutes to play. If you want to end your game earlier, you can do it by making the Impresario concerned. Some ways to do that include resting too much, trying to sing or meditate when you have no energy, or simply never doing anything.

Some people have asked me about the Kafka short story it's based on.

Story text:
https://records.viu.ca/~Johnstoi/kafka/hungerartist.htm

Recorded version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z6hwfcHMYI

Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hunger_Artist
Web https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23884082/hungerartist/LudumDareBuild/HungerArtist.swf
Source https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23884082/HungerArtist.zip
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=29124

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 2.50 1136
Audio 2.61 637
Fun 2.04 1189
Graphics 2.79 800
Humor 2.49 512
Innovation 3.12 510
Mood 2.71 801
Theme 1.93 1218

Feedback

micdoodle8
28. Apr 2014 路 06:54 UTC
Nice, I like the pixel art and the music. I can't say I understand how this relates to the theme though.
LewisW
28. Apr 2014 路 07:15 UTC
Nice graphics and interesting setting. Game is a bit bare bones though. Unless new mechanics get introduced later (I only got to day 12) there isn't really much gameplay.
馃帳 monika
28. Apr 2014 路 07:18 UTC
:) My idea going in was that it's based on a Kafka short story. The story, like all of Kafka's work, is deep and dark and full of metaphors and stuff. This game is just the surface of that. (It's a little backwards, I know. I should have taken a shallow story and made a deep game.)
CustomPhase
28. Apr 2014 路 07:35 UTC
This game has some potential, but at current state its pretty shallow. I liked graphs at the end of the day though. And yeah, wheres the connection with the theme?
Reinkout
28. Apr 2014 路 07:42 UTC
I like the characters, nice when theres not too much details on them. :)
Pietro Ferrantelli
28. Apr 2014 路 15:35 UTC
Great concept for this theme with perfect mood ! Top notch pixel art ! Congratulations !
kmakai
28. Apr 2014 路 16:30 UTC
I got about 18 days in, I think most of the "events" disappear too quickly for me to read them the first time, but they didn't have a very big impact on things, at least where I was in the progression.
philip_sinclair
28. Apr 2014 路 16:39 UTC
quite bizarre. which i like! at first i wasn't sure what was going on. if the main character was animated, or at least had a different image for each activity it would be more clear. really like the concept.
sprawl
28. Apr 2014 路 17:26 UTC
Its a interesting concept, but not very fleshed out. There's a lot of waiting because of that.

However, i liked the graphics a lot. Nice job.
GiveMeAllYourCats
28. Apr 2014 路 17:30 UTC
Great graphics and good innovation. I lack a bit of a challange though.
Maek
28. Apr 2014 路 17:31 UTC
Interesting concept! But it's boring ,because you don't have to do much. Grphics are good.
Conchlab Games
28. Apr 2014 路 19:18 UTC
These characters look amazing!
AnnaGavaldaKedavra
28. Apr 2014 路 21:12 UTC
it's nice but lack some challenge. I now do want to read the novel though.
馃帳 monika
28. Apr 2014 路 21:34 UTC
@Anna, here you go.

https://records.viu.ca/~Johnstoi/kafka/hungerartist.htm
terraco
28. Apr 2014 路 23:51 UTC
Not really sure what it's about
Two Scoop Games
29. Apr 2014 路 02:01 UTC
I liked the art, but I wasn't sure how I was controlling the game, if at all. I liked seeing all the people come and go.
rnlf
29. Apr 2014 路 18:15 UTC
I really like Kafka. So disturbing. I haven't read this one yet, will probably do it soon, but then in German :-)

Sweet pixel art!
ioboi
29. Apr 2014 路 20:11 UTC
I love Kafka and of course this game :D
howieV (binarygirl)
29. Apr 2014 路 20:29 UTC
NOO idea what i was supposed to be doing haha.. but i liked the pixel art :)
badlydrawnrod
29. Apr 2014 路 20:43 UTC
I enjoyed that and made it all the way through.

I love the pixel art and characters as they really set a mood. Any time I made money the Impresario would spend it on a fantastic advertising campaign at which point I just wanted to smack him, but I was too busy resting or not sneaking food.
GrooveMan
03. May 2014 路 07:28 UTC
I like the ambitious approach to the theme, but from what I understand, a lot of what A Hunger Artist tells is as much the artist's reaction the the crowds as the crowds themselves. But since the game character doesn't emote, and there's not much information to put ourselves in the artist's place (beyond watching how tired and thin he gets), I finished the 40 days somewhat passionless.

Which may even be the point, I suppose.
馃帳 monika
03. May 2014 路 08:55 UTC
@Groove :) Working on it for a full-featured version. Thanks!
Oddly Shaped Pixels
04. May 2014 路 20:32 UTC
You need to put some feedback on those buttons cause I don't know if my actions have had any impact on the course of the game...
rincewind_cz
17. May 2014 路 17:27 UTC
Pretty different than most of other games. I actually didn't read this particular short story yet so I'm unsure how to rate in the Theme category. Game itself definitely needs some polish - like now the controls are very confusing, some text are unreadable when that day-window pop ups and so on.. But it has some really weird and unique mood -- so if you are working on some expanded version I just hope I'll be able to play it ;)