Insufficient Data by lord-bobyness

made by lord-bobyness for LD 38 (COMPO)

This is a bit of an experimental game on my part. I try to tell the story of Isaac Asimovs "The Last Question" in game form. Everything else is explained in-game.

And yeah, I know the timescales are a bit messed up near the end, I simply didn't have time to fix them!. Just imagine a million years is like, a trillion years, and it will make sense :)

I realized after the deadline that the camera controls may not be intuitive to everybody. Basically, when you zoom in the camera moves towards the cursor, and when you zoom out it moves away from the cursor.

Windows: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwqhc8vAbHGFQlRCM1RHNVFja3c/view?usp=sharing

Linux: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwqhc8vAbHGFLV92eldQNFRCZzg/view?usp=sharing

Source: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwqhc8vAbHGFanVENnE1TTJBQ0U/view?usp=sharing

P.S. Due to the narrative nature of this game, I respectfully request that you only rate/comment if you actually finished it. Thanks.

Original URL

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/insufficient-data

Ratings

Overall	445^th	2.87⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Fun	430^th	2.696⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	189^th	3.364⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Theme	266^th	3.409⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	530^th	1.818⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Audio	405^th	1.667⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Mood	243^th	3.174⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Given		34🗳️	26🗨️

Feedback

Jupiter_Hadley

28. Apr 2017 · 13:17 UTC

Neat game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation [video series](https://youtu.be/KYlBGlHp4vY), if you’d like to take a look :)

ashdnazg

11. May 2017 · 20:33 UTC

I enjoyed that!
I like the Asimov story and your take on it was neat.
Zooming out from the local systems to the entire galaxy was cool, and when I've finished to colonise it, I was thinking: "The story doesn't end here, right?". So I was jumping up and down with glee to see the game zooming out to the entire universe
The ending was brilliant as well.

I think the "tap random keys to type" was a bit unnecessary.
Also, music. In my opinion a crappy minimalist music on low volume is better than no music

DragonZlay

12. May 2017 · 00:26 UTC

The ending was amazing. The meta of "shutting down" was amazing. It was really cool and was honestly really meaningful.

Extra Brownie Points for Opting out of Humor. The only complaint I have is how high pitched the computer respond sound was.

icecheetah

12. May 2017 · 16:25 UTC

I love "The Last Question", and so I didn't expect the ending (though I don't know if I had just played so bad at the colonising the universe bit that I got the technology stuck at 99% and thus I got a bad ending or if it was meant to be like that).

The colonisation mechanic itself is cool, and I liked the progression even if it suddenly got really hard to keep up energy supply with the rate of consumption (and me wishing I could use the masses of banked energy I had to fuel technology).

Also, the game crashed in the "Solar System Colonisation" stage. Something about an access violation.

Skruffye

12. May 2017 · 21:17 UTC

Really cool little sim. Although there wasn't very much gameplay, I still found the expansion mechanic somehow cathartic.
The sound was somewhat irritating and I don't think that the keyboard entry mechanic was particularly necessary, but overall I definitely liked it enough to see it through to the end. Everything ran really smoothly and I didn't have any trouble with the zooming (although a way to pan without zooming would have been nice). :)
I've been an Asimov fan for quite a while and, having read The Last Question, I was expecting a slightly different ending, but hey, what you went with worked too. ;)

Keep it up!

-Skruffye

Skosnowich

13. May 2017 · 13:37 UTC

I like the game idea very much and it plays well. The story idea (I don't know "The Last Question") reminds me of our own game. :) I think this game could need more challenge and some background music would add much to the mood. Good job!

Takusan

14. May 2017 · 12:56 UTC

Ok, you got me with the first screenshot - The Last Question is one of my favourites by Asimov, it just shows the scale and the problem so well.

Good job on capturing and conveying the scale to the player. Though the game itself (game-design wise) is more an interactive experience (not a challenge), I see what you're getting at. It's the part of Asimov's story from the mankind's viewpoint (and I can't even imagine what would be needed to convey the rest of it visually for example).

Good idea with commandline input. On the whole it's actually surprisingly immersive, and that's really good for the story you tried to tackle.

Are you thinking about expanding this? Polishing up the UI, continuing the story? Because I'd personally LOVE to see the whole Last Question in this format.

Cheers, and stay awesome!

rjhelms

15. May 2017 · 03:43 UTC

Very cool. I'm not familiar with the Last Question, but I have some Asimov anthologies around here so now you've got me curious.

Even though there's not much of a gameplay challenge here, the experience is really compelling. An intriguing way to tell a story, that's for sure. Well done.

impiaaa

15. May 2017 · 04:03 UTC

Neat idea, and good use of mechanics-as-message. Though considering you asked me to finish the game before rating, it took way too long to get there and to master the mechanics well enough to play quickly. We have hundreds to get through! :)

DiegoCTorguet

15. May 2017 · 21:55 UTC

I like a lot the first writing part and when I zoomed out for the first time I was amazed of the size of the galaxy. Altought I have to say I wasn't able to finish the game despite I wanted to. I didn't make it until the end because everything was too slow and cold.
Anyway, this entry has some good intentions and ideas and we are here for them, so, good job in that part and keep working on it to get a more user friendly experience.

Bomb-X

16. May 2017 · 00:09 UTC

I actually freaked out by the end of the game, don't really know why, i would just say the mood was pretty scary !
Good job, i would point out things that are causing problems with your game (like camera controls) but you seem to already have aknowledged these.
I loved the narrative aspect, and above all else the twist of "congratulation for your colonization of the galaxy here are some 8 trillion more to do", i was totally caught.
Only thing that is regrettable is graphisms, and all the Unity UI which i found personnally a bit ugly but anyway, that did not took over the great experience i had.
Good job

adhesion

16. May 2017 · 02:28 UTC

Wow! Really, really cool experience. Great use of mechanics to tell the story. Gameplay was pretty basic but strangely compelling to me for some reason - the big zoom-outs were awesome moments. I think my only criticism on the gameplay is that I didn't feel the pressure of having to expand to survive until I hit the galaxies phase, so maybe some balance tweaks in the beginning section of the game might help accentuate the point. Camera-wise the zoom felt fine to me, but some easier way to pan would help a lot - taking a page from RTSs and panning when your cursor hits the edge of the screen would probably be good. I'm a big fan of the original story and while the end was a bit of a shock, I certainly appreciated the message. Awesome work! :D

TacomaBert

16. May 2017 · 04:47 UTC

Nice unique concept. Unlike @ashdnazg, my favorite part was the “tap random keys to type” aspect of the game. Really liked how the game started small and then got expansive. I just sped time up and spawned everything quickly. Only got my technology to 15% or so. Not sure if it matter. The ending was awesome. Loved how the computer sounds slowed down as it died.

Thought the game was humorous, would have liked to rate it high for humor.

sgadrat

16. May 2017 · 08:30 UTC

Am I the only one having "E" printing infinitely after pressing "enter" on what seems to be a console where I typed a question? Or did I missed something? I tryed all keyboard and mouse keys and waited for 3 minutes. Was using the linux build.

🎤 lord-bobyness

16. May 2017 · 15:49 UTC

@sgadrat
Hmm, might be a bug in the linux version? That's really weird... Thanks for trying anyways.

Cyberwiz

17. May 2017 · 15:48 UTC

This was a very interesting game. I'm not a fan of the typing mechanic in the console side of the game and there might have been a more creative way to provide that information to the player, but overall it's a very interesting concept that I'd like to see be explored more.