Elevator Operator by Evan Charfauros

[raw]
made by Evan Charfauros for LD 42 (JAM)

Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a bellhop? Probably not. But perhaps you've confused a sea cucumber for a moldy pickle or wondered about the romantic life of an octopus. For our first ever Ludum Dare, our two-person team made a puzzle game where you play as a bellhop on elevator duty in a strange hotel. You arrange guests to deliver them, keeping in mind that your stubborn guests will refuse to move from their assigned spots once the elevator moves to another floor. And you might just learn a little bit about the guests in the hotel as you aim to be the most efficient bellhop!

We hope you enjoy, and we appreciate any kind of feedback! We're both currently Computer Science students in college pursuing game development, and this was a very fun (while admittedly sometimes stressful) first game jam for the both of us! :•)!

Follow the link to play Elevator Operator online! http://herwin.itch.io/elevator-operator

Screenshot (402).png

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Ratings

Overall 668th 3.315⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 599th 3.222⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 705th 3.074⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 403th 3.722⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 813th 3.093⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Audio 638th 2.769⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Humor 193th 3.442⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 695th 3.019⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 27🗳️ 22🗨️

Feedback

ROBOWARRIOR1982
14. Aug 2018 · 19:58 UTC
I had a little trouble understanding at first, the drawing of the elevator being from above the representation is not obvious! But the view is perfectly adapted to the game mechanics and the respected theme! very good idea! Music is nice! Graphics are cool! (i see a siren!) But there is an ending? in any case I like the idea beautiful work!
netguy204
14. Aug 2018 · 20:08 UTC
I loved the colorful descriptions of each guest. Neat concept.
AFlatThrasher
14. Aug 2018 · 20:23 UTC
Once I got the hang of it, great and somewhat addictive. Liked the little touches of descriptions of the guests. I played 4 times all the way through, or as all the way as I could. For whatever reason, even though it says the goal is 50 guests delivered, I never was able to get 50 to spawn. It was 47 most times, once I got 49. Other than that small issue of never officially winning (I just considered it a win if everything was delivered and moving around did not spawn any more), I loved this.
mdacoffee
14. Aug 2018 · 20:34 UTC
This is a neat puzzle game - nice visuals, a decent concept and some good jokes.

The only problem I have is that I can't seem to get past 45-ish animals delivered, because animals stop spawning around 40 deliveries? I'm not sure if this is intended, but if it is, it could potentially be a bit clearer.

Despite not being able to finish the game, I managed to sink more than half an hour into playing this; it's pretty fun regardless. Well done on your first entry!
🎤 Evan Charfauros
14. Aug 2018 · 20:43 UTC
Hi guys, thanks for the feedback! To clarify, exactly 50 guests are supposed to spawn. We're working on fixing the bug where they stop spawning early.
Bentekiller
14. Aug 2018 · 20:48 UTC
Great puzzle game, and looks really good, and it actually required alot of thought which was nice. Though I had to restart the game twice because it said I had overlapping guests and even if I removed all the guests
It would still say it and I couldn't continue, and I don't know what could have caused it!
🎤 Evan Charfauros
14. Aug 2018 · 21:32 UTC
Alright! The game should now spawn 50 guests and allow players to reach the ending screen. We're looking into the other mentioned bug about overlap.
Baconinvader
15. Aug 2018 · 01:31 UTC
Great game concept and execution for the most part, but I had problems with supposedly overlapping guests not overlapping at all, oh well. The graphics and descriptions of the different elevator guests were really cool, and added a lot of character to the game!
15. Aug 2018 · 05:05 UTC
this is such a cute game. It's confusing at first to figure out what's going on-maybe a tutorial level demonstrating the ordering in which the user must move things into the elevator would help a lot? I also didn't figure out until pretty late that guests would disappear once they reached their desired floors. is there a pattern to the way guests spawn, or is that entirely random?

anyway I love the little descriptions for each of the characters. the music is cute and not in any way annoying. The simplicity of the game's mechanics still allow for a frustrating amount of challenge. There's clearly inspiration taken from so many great games here. Honestly, an excellent job, especially for a first time :)
Autumnotopia
15. Aug 2018 · 05:35 UTC
This is one of those games that clicks with me super well - low pressure, good jokes, and more-or-less sea-life themed. I didn't run into any bugs on my playthrough so that's also good. Well done!
dmtroy
15. Aug 2018 · 05:47 UTC
I like the look and the music and I think the gameplay is pretty solid too.
One thing I think might help is knowing where guests will want to go before they actually get on so you can try and get as many as possible done in the same trip.

I also did have two bugs, the first was that I kep getting overlap messages even though I couldn't see any overlap.

The second was that sometimes I'd pick things up but not be able to move them properly they'd only move a small amount and then go back
Heidi
15. Aug 2018 · 05:55 UTC
Thanks everyone for the feedback! We should have definitely made it clearer that pieces 'overlap' if any parts of 2 different pieces are in the same box on the grid, even if their sprites aren't overlapping. We'll definitely take your suggestions into account and edit the sprites to make the game more intuitive and overlaps clearer; thank you!
JSD
15. Aug 2018 · 06:58 UTC
Music was great, gameplay simple yet adicting and graphics were nice too.
Overall it feels good so there's nothing that really stood out as bugged or anything.

Good job!
CNB
15. Aug 2018 · 10:42 UTC
Cool idea, would have liked to hear a "ding" noise for arriving at a destination, otherwise good effort!
karmafarm
16. Aug 2018 · 08:01 UTC
Made me laugh. Multiple times. good job =)
sebbernery
16. Aug 2018 · 08:01 UTC
Original idea, I like it ! I think you should polish it a little and put it on a webgame platform focusing young audience, it would done a fun game to learn stuff (mouse handeling, space representation, ... it has plenty of educational qualities without being boring).
Congratulations !
TheFunAttic
17. Aug 2018 · 18:56 UTC
This is a charming entry ! Its concept is well thought out, and it does look like something programmers came up with :)

The idea of the elevator itself is quite a nice justification - I don't really understand its connection with animals, but it does fit together nicely in the end. The universe draws from the absurd anyway (which comes particularly from your dialogues), so it doesn't really matter - on a purely esthetical sense, everything worked pretty well. The music is also catchy enough to not become boring after a full game, which is definitely a plus.

About game design, it does seem like there is a lack of punishment if the players wastes too many "rounds" - someone could complete the game one animal after the other, and get more or less the same feedback from the game. I ended up with a score of 38 : did I suck ? or was it a good score ? I feel like the game would really gain from indicating the quality of one's effort.

This is a really nice idea and a effort to go along with it~ Congrats ! :)
Frank Gevaerts
17. Aug 2018 · 19:24 UTC
There are a lot of inventory tetris games, but this one felt different. Nice game!
ChicoDeLosMates
18. Aug 2018 · 18:42 UTC
It was entretaining, but it lacks an objetive. The art is nice.
Good job!
Haberworks
18. Aug 2018 · 19:24 UTC
that was a cool entry and take on the theme! i played until the end, the puzzles were challenging. i didnt know that was exactly the objective, but once i figured out the numbers on the right meant what floor the creatures wanted to go to i was doing the best elevator bellhop guy thing i could do until all of the creatures were gone. fun game!
Norris Eldridge
20. Aug 2018 · 05:33 UTC
Nicely done! Really liked this game. Took me a second to understand what floors animals were trying to get off at but after that it was quite a fun and challenging game. Really like the audio overall and I liked the simple cartoony art style :)
Joloujed
20. Aug 2018 · 11:07 UTC
Nice game, I was playing and it crashed, but what I played was enjoyable but the dificulty didnt raise up much, I didnt have problems with the space.
prinfrexita
20. Aug 2018 · 22:29 UTC
Hey I enjoyed a lot picking up and delivering animals. After a while it stopped working (I couldn't select the floor to move the elevator). I think space is not an issue in this game, I mean, how can the player lose the game? Music is very accurate! Good job!
(ノ・∀・)ノ

We also have an entry if you want to play it and rate it. Would love that!
Heidi
21. Aug 2018 · 17:50 UTC
@prinfrexita The player needs to have closed the elevator doors to move the floor; is it possible your doors were still open when you tried to select a floor? Otherwise thank you for taking the time to play and leave feedback! :)