good idea... the sound was realy annoying tho i had to turn sounds off on my pc because the way it loops is just annoying and there isnt enough variation either.
also at the start i found it difficult to find what controlls i had to use.. maybe its just because i tried the arrow keys and for some reason they didnt do anything tho... what do i know.

I'd call your submission more a work of art (social critique, perhaps) than a game. I can enjoy it as such, but I can't really see it as a game per se. It is well done. Nice graphics. Sound fits well (repetitive, which makes sense in this case). Certainly moody.

@lmb,haha,you are entirely right : One of the team member is an artist, and as such we probably focused more on the felling it would create to the player, rather than making a fun game. For example, most player will never know if there is a proper end...
@frederikja sorry for the annoying music... There is dome reason it is so annoying, but we did it in the last hour. So maybe it could be improved. I might add some more info about control.

Nice entry with good graphics and great mood.
This experience (it's not really a game) drives me crazy, especially with the music ^^

Good job team !

@harusame "This experience drives me crazy" : Job done ! ;)

very good graphics, and i also like the mood. I could play this during hours ^^.

I like to think that there is only 1 doll in this game!

This is really great! I have to say though, "compo" games are supposed to be single developer... if this is a team effort, it should be tagged as a "jam" game.

I really like the artwork and the concept here! It's fun commentary.

Very nice. I like the mood and the message. The character art is gruesome but endearing. That audio drove me crazy but it's meant to, isn't it? I like how it builds in layers as you continue. Great experience playing this.

@woowoo : We like to think that too..... ^^ Thank you for your comment !
@grostonton : We hope you won a lot of dollars !! :)

@randomnine : Thank you and I will ask Flap to place us in Jam,
@fluidvolt : yes it is, also layers and sound loops are connected. The character is "zombie inspired" ^^ thank you for your comment.

Sadly Flash doesn't work in my browser. :sad:

@randomnine your right! I must have missclicked the selector sometime during the page edition. It should be back to "jam" now.

Thanks for reporting that error!

@woowoo indeed! In terms of programmation, there is only one doll, has the same object is being teleported from one side to the other.

Storywise, this is undetermined yet. ;p

I really liked the graphics, music, and the mood that the game sets. My only problem is the lack of gameplay elements, maybe adding some variation of movement, or penalties, and it would turn this entry into a real gem.

Good job.

thanks @rmc. hmm, should we add more interactions ? That's a really good question. Actually thinking of it, I'd rather go for "pseudo interactions", which means stuff happening which make the player fell that he is doing something different, when he is actually still doing the same thing.

@vfabien21 That would be great, I think it fits right on the theme or mood of the game, and would add to the message itself.

Yep, we'll see with @rature. I know that he is keen on improving it. But, hey, we'll see what real life(tm) allows us to do !

But thanks for the support and suggestion !

Nice graphics and audio, though a little repetitive but I guess it's the point of the game isn't it? Make me think of the sci-fi "vicious cycle" short film ( ?v=9k5RKDxs2RA )

@gistnoesis: yeah "Vicious cycle" is great, we didn't think about it while designing our game, but yeah it's the mood. And Indeed, the audio is repetitive because of the purpose of the game, the audio was quickly made in Reason, and graphics in InkScape.

As a "nonJeu", it does hit the mark. I didn't play it very long, but I might come back to it at some point while I go through some boring and repetitive tasks at the office (Now isn't that meta ?).

Incidentally, there may be some similarities in the underlying statement of both of our games, although I went for a far more classical approach.

@exnihilo We should definitelly create a club of "nonJeu". Here is another nice once : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/statues

I'll test yours !

I think I may have RSI now :(

That was an interesting submission... I can't honestly say it was particularly FUN specifically but as a social commentary its pretty effective. Add to that I liked the mechanic of the scenery and music building up as you made money, that money symbol ticking up, the commentary implying oooh yay money for you, meanwhile you being able to do nothing with it and the factory getting bigger and bigger...

I would honestly have liked some sorta thing to happen when you DO stop working but nothing seemed to. It would either enforce the commentary with a get back to work! or maybe give closure if you're offed for no longer being of use.

Or am I just getting too dark now?

@juri very good idea. We could have pilling dolls for example (or just commentary as you suggest)

(double post)

An interesting game, the only winning move is not to play.

I only "played" until I risked physical injury to continue. (So... pretty long!) I liked the social commentary of it. I'm actually still listening to the music because ~~I'm a broken person~~ it's so good.

This ties into an interesting discussion I was having with someone the other day about games as art, and how, as an art form, we kind of limit ourselves when we say a game "must be fun" or "must be entertaining."

@epb9000 : thank you for your interesting comment. As a team made by an Indie Game Fan and a Contemporary Artist we ask ourself "what is a video game?" and try to answer with this entry. I'm glad you like the music, maybe you are a Steve Reich fan too ? ;)

Really enjoyed the concept here! Gameplay was simple and worked well for your message. I didn't make it to the end... was wondering if there was one! Great overall atmosphere.

The graphics are really sweet. The music annoyed me pretty fast do be honest. The concept is nice, and I did enjoy it for a short time as the changes intrigued me, but I wouldn't really call this a fun game. It is just enjoyable seeing what compliment comes next and what scene changes are coming next.

The art is amazing, best art on ld40 I've seen so far :D
Kept playing up to $510 but got unmotivated due to not knowing if the game would end or not

Overall solid entry, congrats!

@rombus, hey thanks. $510,that's a lot of motivation already...

@ramza, is there an endind? Well, maybe. But really, the more you have, the worse it is... So I wouldn't advise you to try to reach it : After a point the game mixes far too much with real life ;)

I agree with the others who *loved* the art!!! Wished for more of a challenge, but fit the theme perfectly. The music was part of what got to me after a while but again fits the theme.

I think this screenshot better describes this game than any word.

@lereveur Yeah, good one ! We didn't event think of adding a text line there.
But, 666... That's a lot !

I got till 200$. Nice little idea and nice game.

I could only last until 200. Nice art style! It was almost more like a visual novel that you advanced by moving left and right.

Flash? Oh snap. I thought this was cute and pretty amusing but eventually ($100) I stopped because things weren't changing rapidly enough.

Rather repetitive and unrewarding.

@csanyk, ha yeah, repetitive. That's the word... ;)

@eli-delventhal we used "stencyl" actually, which exports into flash. Yeah I know, it is kind of deprecated...

@vfabien21 I was playing your game. Its seemed to me more like expressing a thought than a video game. But really nice artwork though. :)

@roxter "that game is a thought..." nice way to describe it. Thanks

That's what I call the essence of a game loop. I like the serious take on the theme and like the art and music choice. As I like to create music loops it didn't annoy me that much and added to the overall atmosphere. Great job!

Really enjoyable game, well executed too :)

@satyre : I'm glad you like the sound, yeah music producers are used to loops, thanx :)
@cayleblucas : thanx :)

> Things are interesting until 250$, or maybe 450$

Oh good, I don't feel so bad for giving up after 260$ then.

Since one of the only thing which keeps the player going is to see what's the text box is going to say next, the fact that this text fades away so quickly is quite frustrating. I missed a few because I was looking at the art, but I sure as hell ain't playing it again to see what I missed. In fact, the whole time I was thinking "what a stupid game, why am I playing this", and the answer is "to see the entire game, so I can judge this submission more fairly". Now that I realize that there isn't an ending and that we are supposed to give up at some point, I think this game is mean to its players, and as a result, I no longer feel like it deserves to be be judged fairly. 1 out of 5.

Hey @gelisam, even if you did not like the experience, thank you for your comment (and sorry for the bad experience). But you raise a really good question : do all games need and ending ? Or do they always need a -rewarding- ending ?

Here, the game is a story, about a situation which is definitelly broken. A situtation of alieantion : the character is expecting a great reward, which really never comes, while its situation keeps getting worse. The purpose of the game was create a mirror effect to the player, who himself gets to realise that he is in the same situation, even though (or because) there is always litle bit of hope that there might be something great later (who knows what we might have added later ?)

The player does not get into this story through its lore, but through it is own experience : the purpose is not to be "mean" the player, but to create an experience, which might be more powerfull that simple text. And here, I fell that we reach the essence of video games.

But I reckon : doubt and desillusioned expectations is part of the experience. And it is a great thing that most games are focused on fun.

(double post)

@gelisam "I think this game is mean to its players" ... yeah yeah, life is sooooo cruel... thanx for your 260$ ;)

Wicked but interesting entry, which makes us think about time, concentration, meaning of life and things like that!
You could have so many interesting to say with the text in the top of the screen! Sadly it's saying me something that the gameplay already tells me.

I've known harder jobs: you just have to run and take some stuff in one place to put it in another place. That's a good training for relay race!
And I can think about something else since my task doesn't need from me to concentrate :p

That said, it's I nice "game essay"!

This is a nice game, the narrator sounds very enigmatic and ominous, fun to play for maybe quarter of an hour.

This was an interesting piece. Liked the repetitive nature of it all and how that was part of the message so it helped emphasise this. The music also changing as you progressed along was a nice touch and liked how things slowly came into focus around you. Made me play longer just to see what would show up. Got upto 200 and something before I stopped playing. The art in this was also fantastic I really enjoyed the feeling it gave the game and how it added to the message.

@rature Sorry I missed your comment - I actually had no idea who Steve Reich was until I read your comment. I've got a website dedicated to his work bookmarked so I can check it out more later. Maybe I am a fan and just unaware?

I ended up playing again to show someone the game a few days ago and the person I showed was confused. Conversation went something like this:

Him: "What are you doing?"

Me: "I'm picking up that doll and putting it over there."

Him: "Why?"

Me: "Precisely!"

Him: ...

Me: "Can you believe I performed this very action 613 times last time I 'played'?"

@epb9000 that's the kind of discussion during which you can wreck your reputation... :-o

Sorry for those side effects.