Root Maker by Joe Bustamante

[raw]
made by Joe Bustamante for LD 44 (JAM)

Welcome to Root Maker ©, the world's greatest currency exchange software.

You have just been hired as a currency trader. Congratulations! Currency is now your life. Root Maker © will guide you to unprecedented success in your new career. Money is the root of all good things, and Root is the best type of money there is.

Instructions

  • Buy and sell currencies to gain more Root.
  • Exchange rates tell you how much of that currency makes up 1 Root.
  • On the Buy screen, enter how much Root you want to spend to buy that currency.
  • On the Sell screen, enter how much of that currency you want to sell back for Root.

Rumor has it that Root Maker © rewards high performers, and that if you make enough Root, you may end up with some extra options...

Screenshots

Screen Shot 2019-04-29 at 4.17.59 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-04-29 at 4.20.13 PM.png

Credit: - @joe-bustamante, @dtkelch, @andyp, and @jason-porritt on programming - @jason-porritt on the audio - @kyle-harris-ao on the interface and design

Built with Phaser 3.

Ratings

Given 52🗳️ 34🗨️

Feedback

SynysterCola
30. Apr 2019 · 02:58 UTC
Addicting. Things did go a little too quick for me. The simplistic graphics did help.
Madbarron
30. Apr 2019 · 03:32 UTC
Neat game! Didn't notice the second tab for too long. Late game options seem to do nothing? Keypad support would be great.
Shaolin Dave
30. Apr 2019 · 04:34 UTC
Ah, "your life is currency" == "currency is your life".
I checked it out for a bit. It was a bit difficult to get into, my numbed wasn't working so I was having to play with the regular number keys. I think it could benefit from some on-screen controls, allow players to use mouse only.
But aside from timing your buy/sells to get the highest numbers, is there really anything else to it?
Jomiak
30. Apr 2019 · 04:39 UTC
Really great game, gets stale very fast though, and while the "Influence options do help to change up the gameplay a bit, the game only held my interest long enough for me to unlock "Spread rumour" which I'm not even sure what it did. But overall the production quality on this is amazing, very clean and it both looks nice and sounds nice. Great Work!
🎤 Joe Bustamante
30. Apr 2019 · 12:26 UTC
@madbarron @shaolin-dave @jomiak thanks for the feedback! It's much appreciated. Keyboard support is definitely something we'd like to add support for soon, and some on-screen controls/making it easier to interact with in general, but we just ran out of time during the jam. But yes, if you make enough Root you'll eventually unlock an influence tab, and after that there's even the option to start a cult - but it takes a bit to get there. We'll keep working on tuning the rate of progression so unlocking things comes at a good pace and you can do more than just currency. Thanks again - really helpful stuff for us to hear!
Narrenschlag
30. Apr 2019 · 14:01 UTC
I like it. Feeling like a broker on a commodore64 ^^
Game_Coder28
30. Apr 2019 · 17:56 UTC
It took a while to get into and mouse only support is needed, but overall, great game!
AkirAssasin
01. May 2019 · 02:34 UTC
Interesting take on the "currency" part of the theme, love the aesthetic and music too! Would be great if it had stuff like "sell all" or "autosell at certain price", since there were times where I missed a great opportunity while typing out the exact amount I had to sell.
🎤 Joe Bustamante
01. May 2019 · 12:27 UTC
@akirassasin @game-coder28 thanks for the feedback! Having an "autosell at price" ability is a really interesting suggestion - definitely something I think we would like to add.
Dudum Lare
01. May 2019 · 14:37 UTC
What a game, interesting. I made some money for sure. Imagine having a machine running nothing but this software. What a feeling.
Hare Software
02. May 2019 · 00:25 UTC
Nice take on the theme. Graphics are good and everything seems polished. A bit hard to play though, feels more like actual work than a game at times. Still had some fun, well done!
red
02. May 2019 · 00:44 UTC
Really cool idea, I like how it fits with the theme.
Matthew Hrehirchuk
02. May 2019 · 00:52 UTC
the music was so good! the game moved a little quickly in the beginning, but once the hang of it, the game was really fun. the only thing i found a little frustrating was using the mouse to select the currency you are buying/selling. great work!
EatAtJoes
02. May 2019 · 00:53 UTC
very solid concept. we had a similar idea and really like how y'all figured out exchange rates and real time changes in prices.
Jason Porritt
02. May 2019 · 01:19 UTC
@hare-software @matthew-hrehirchuk Thanks for the feedback! I'll take the "feels like work" comment as partial compliment, but yeah the usability still needs some work. The switching between mouse and keyboard leave a lot to be desired. That's definitely on our radar for post-jam improvements.
webthingee
02. May 2019 · 01:25 UTC
fun. Would have loved a sell all, buy max button. I was unable to 'influence' not sure it that feature made it in, but I was intrigued.
Ransom
02. May 2019 · 01:39 UTC
Neat idea. I like the clean interface, and the music was pleasant.

Other people have mentioned more mouse support and numpad support, which would be good. On top of that, I feel like "buy all" and "sell all" buttons would be helpful. Similarly, if you try to sell more than you own, it would be good if the game just sold everything instead of requiring you to input an exact amount.

Maybe it was just my luck with the RNG, but I don't feel like there was much incentive to buy or sell at any particular time. You've got nothing to do with your money except buy more money. There's no reason to get impatient. I bought as much of one currency as I could when it hit 99, then just waited for a few minutes for it to drop to 1 and sold it all. I made my fortune 99 times bigger just like that. In fact, I just did that same strategy again while writing this review. After that, the currencies all hovered at a really unfavourable exchange rate for a long time.

If there was something else to do with the money that required immediate attention, you could have a decent risk/reward mechanic.

Also, I tried all of the influence options but couldn't tell if they actually did anything.
MaggardJosh
02. May 2019 · 01:52 UTC
Ha nice, "your life is currency" is a good way of looking a the theme. The music was great, but the gameplay just isn't for me I think. I made a bit of money but not really on purpose :)
sylvie
02. May 2019 · 02:23 UTC
Lots of waiting around doing nothing, but I found it weirdly compelling nonetheless and played for a long time. If there's an ending, I didn't manage to reach it even with over 1 billion root.
Mertios
02. May 2019 · 02:24 UTC
I really like this game! An early concept I had during the jam was about cryptocurrencies, but the game itself failed. So far, _Root Maker_ is the only other Ludum Dare game that has to do with financial stuff that I've noticed. Great work!
Yubs
02. May 2019 · 03:18 UTC
I really liked this. I played it until it couldn't fit in the boxes anymore
![Root.PNG](///raw/12e/31/z/24464.png)
FlashViper
02. May 2019 · 23:30 UTC
This is a little too addicting. Add in a button to speed up and slow down time, and I'd be set. You guys are great!
GenTel
03. May 2019 · 02:55 UTC
The chill atmosphere on this game was very addictive. I managed to come out ahead which was fun. More generally I liked analyzing the trends in the market and seeing what to buy and sell. Those extra side benefits and having a cult was pretty funny as well.

To improve, I found it hard to see any connection between the influence system, the news system, and the prices. And the prices seemed to bottom out at 1.00 which made certain things too predictable.
Calzep
03. May 2019 · 02:57 UTC
Little complicated at first and then this game began to teach me how the actual stock market works and I had a lot of "OHHHH" moments. It was a very unique experience. Good style for it too.
falak
03. May 2019 · 12:38 UTC
It is difficult to understand what is happening. But once you understand the game becomes really good. The style reminds me of old economical games, such as a roller coaster or a transport tycoon. Good luck!
🎤 Joe Bustamante
04. May 2019 · 00:06 UTC
@ransom @sylvie @gentel thank you all for taking the time to leave some feedback and comment on the game! It's much appreciated. Some really interesting ideas in there, like speeding up the simulation or making the connection between events/influencing and currency prices a bit more explicitly. Additionally, that's a good point - there often isn't much incentive to sell right away when you can instead just wait for currency to drop to 1.0. Some ideas we've talked about for this include capping different currencies at different points or implementing trade fees. Thanks again for the feedback and for playing!
🎤 Joe Bustamante
04. May 2019 · 00:08 UTC
@maggardjosh @yubs @mertios @falak @calzep @flashviper thank you all for the feedback, and for taking time to play the game! Glad you all enjoyed it. Also @yubs that's an insane amount haha, well done. We're planning on fixing the text box issues soon.
GerardB
04. May 2019 · 00:37 UTC
I feel like the wolf of wall street! I had a lot of fun.

I inmediately understood what was going on and what was my gameplan but the UI made it a bit hard on me. A way to sell all would have been nice, the num pad didn't work, maybe a way of adding money with premade buttons of fixed values. I don't really know, but there is a lot of unused screenspace that could be used for other stuff. Maybe even plotting some values.

Well this is me just giving some random ideas in case you feel like further developing it.

Again, I really enjoyed it :D
davidsheadgames
04. May 2019 · 01:42 UTC
It's somewhat sadistically enjoyable jumping on a currency when its at its low point and then watching the money explode like that.

It was then that an hour had passed and I was deep into forming my own cult that I realized I should probably take a break from it for a while.

Well done!
JSD
04. May 2019 · 08:25 UTC
Found it a bit confusing at first but then got the hang of it for a bit. Fits the theme properly and I liked that chilling tune :)
Caleb
04. May 2019 · 17:47 UTC
Cute concept, but I think the missing QoL features pushed me away. It was not clear how the exchange rate worked (bigger number means cheaper in this game) and my backspace key kept moving me to a previous webpage. I wound up leaving my buy/sell amounts at a static amount and just mashing the button.

On-Screen keyboard would be a great help -- can't wait to play the director's cut!
Swen
05. May 2019 · 21:05 UTC
Really enjoyed this one, although I couldn't seem to buy the items in the cult tab.
bitdecay
06. May 2019 · 05:40 UTC
My team almost took a similar direction in choosing a Forex theme. Though we couldn't figure out how to make a game of it. This ended up being very charming. I was able to get up to a decent amount of money. Looks like there's some patterns you can exploit slightly. Overall a nice take on the theme. Not sure where the game could expand from here, but it's a fun little game you made.