Elevator Operator by Evan Charfauros
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



| HTML5 (web) | https://herwin.itch.io/elevator-operator |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/elevator-operator |
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🗨️ |
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!
It would still say it and I couldn't continue, and I don't know what could have caused it!
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 :)
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
Overall it feels good so there's nothing that really stood out as bugged or anything.
Good job!
Congratulations !
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 ! :)
Good job!
(ノ・∀・)ノ
We also have an entry if you want to play it and rate it. Would love that!