A fantastic text game with interesting characters!

Wow, lots of content! Great job with all the writing and storytelling, that's no easy feat in a weekend.

It took me a minute to figure out the UI and how to progress, so maybe with updated graphics or buttons that could be made more intuitive. Great work!

I liked the writing and the music. The way the music changed as it progressed was cool. The UI could use more cues about what things I should click on.

I enjoyed this game and so far I haven't seen anything else like it. As stated by others I think there should be an improvement to the UI, but other than that this was a really impressive game and has a great storyline.

A fun game! It is very interesting to explore, and with some great music. I did find the convserations became predictable sometimes, however, and I would have loved to see a clearer connection to the theme.

I liked the characters. I'm not sure why, but the names of the religions made me laugh, so thanks. I actually enjoyed the game. My only note is that when actually playing, when I checked the dossiers and came back to the screen with the nobles, I wasn't able to click on them anymore. I would suggest not allowing the player to go back and look at the dossiers once the game starts.

Overall, this was fun!

Hey this turned out quite nicely! You could turn it up a notch by having animated characters, and maybe some kind of resource system that would enable actual negotiation instead of simple flattery. Also consider adding more characters. This one is just a what if: you could move their portrait cards around to sit them next to people they find favorable or disfavorable, and that could affect their stats.

What a clever take on the theme!

The Game has a good story and nice details. To me it seems to only marginally fit the theme.

Thank you all for the praise! Jake did all the writing, so I'll pass it on.

It was my first Ludum Dare, so I definitely learned a bit about prioritizing my time. I've talked to a few people and already had some of my own ideas on how to improve the UI with more time.

@patrick Good catch! I just tested it and it'll get caught in a bad state if you check the Dossier mid conversation, but not if you check it at the beginning/end (when the advisor/robot is talking). I'd say that's a feature..., but it's definitely not. I added the dossiers in there as I figured it'd be better for quick use during Ludum Dare, but I had a few ideas of what could be done in a more rounded out game.

@artur-hawking, @sylver-kovy Yeah, it's a bit of a different take. We're saying the more nobles you invite, the harder the game is at it means remembering more information and an increased possibility you may get someone to turn against you and make it even more difficult. Right now it just means setting your own difficulty, but with more of a campaign the timing of swinging particular nobles could be important.

I really liked the lore and attention to detail in this game. For the most part (except some cut off text in buttons) the UI was nice and the graphics charming. The sliders indicating military strength and disposition were particularly cool. I liked the inclusion of music, although the soundtrack didn't loop well and the victory music was a bit random. Link to the theme was a bit tenuous although I could kind of see it. I thought the gameplay had the potential for significantly more depth. With so much lore there's a lot of potential for interesting mechanics. It also wasn't obvious why some characters stopped responding to my clicks sometimes. It kind of felt like a quiz on the game's own lore sometimes, like a simple memory game. But for that end it was well executed.

I was more engrossed by this than 90% of the games I've played for this jam! Once I did manage to break it by clicking "Dossier" during a conversation - when I came back none of the buttons worked anymore. But the music was a nice touch and the graphics were charming in that vector-lo-fi way.

I found it interesting to learn the dossiers to not have to gaze at them while discussing, I don't know if it was minded for, but the characters are sufficiently separated that I got a big army and win the (easy mode) game. You made a diplomacy game with lot of background content, and took the time to make great arts too, so, well done!