LudumData

Ludum Meta by Exevalon

[raw]
made by Exevalon for LD 44 (JAM)

Here's my entry, Ludum Meta. You have 48 hours to make a game! But! You have to balance out life and health, if not, you'll find finishing a game will be the least of your worries!

All you need is a mouse to play. I'm looking forward to your feedback, don't be shy about it! Your feedback helps me build better games!

INSTRUCTIONS - You assign points or hours into GAME and LIFE. Balancing the two out should allow you to complete the game before Time runs out! If you're not careful though, your health will run out if you work too hard on game with no life in between! If you work only on Life, your progress bar will add up slowly, but time may run out before you can complete the game!

BUGS - There's a bug where the progress bar does not add up fully even though you get a win condition. This is because the maximum value of the bar is set higher than 100%. I had to do that to get around a bug I was not able to fix on time for the jam. Rest assured, even though the bar does not look complete, you are technically at 100% if you get the win condition.

Let me know if you spot any other bugs!

Screencap.png

Windows https://drive.google.com/open?id=10Yx1WqYx5IIjfn7S9JS7F1kZbMSdjz7z
Source code https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dQAd2nBfBMinKeV23MK4qFyz_E486Z6m
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/ludum-meta

Ratings

Given 16🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

Pyrian
30. Apr 2019 · 20:45 UTC
Game desperately needs instructions. Frankly I still understand the interplay of real time and allocated time, nor why I get text that says I completed a game when the progress bar hasn't finished. Also, I got a crash dialog the first time I played. Found out you have 12 hours to allocate only by experimentation. Not sure if I was supposed to change those in real time as the game/game progressed and events happened.
shubart
30. Apr 2019 · 20:45 UTC
You could add a sort description of the gameplay. I didn't really figure out how to play. Thank you for the entry
🎤 Exevalon
30. Apr 2019 · 20:51 UTC
Will certainly add a description/instructions on playing! Thanks for trying the game out! @pyrian that might be a bug which lead to the crash, sorry to hear that happened. You should have up to 48 hours to allocate between Game and Life. The reason the progress bar doesn't appear as full is because its max limit is higher than 100, I had to do that to work around a bug I didn't have time to fix. Technically, the progress bar is reaching 100% when you complete it, even if it doesn't appear as fully complete.
josefnpat
02. May 2019 · 05:10 UTC
Interesting - I see where you were trying to go with this, but I don't understand what assigning and unassigning hours to the "gamedev" is really doing, from the gameplay mechanic.

I really love the art though! I want a cozy gamedev corner like that. Good job!
🎤 Exevalon
02. May 2019 · 05:18 UTC
@josefnpat thanks for playing! The idea with assigning and unassigning was to allow the player to pivot in their time allotment to account for the status updates which can affect you while also trying to stop health from further decreasing. So in a way trying to balance gamedev and life. Conceptually, it tries to make a mechanic Henry David Thoreaus' quote, "the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it." I forgot to add that quote, so that'll be in a future iteration.
Thenerdster
02. May 2019 · 05:19 UTC
Well damn, I worked myself to death a lot. haha Took me a minute to understand the mechanics, but I eventually got there. Nice game I enjoyed it!
LiauJ
02. May 2019 · 05:25 UTC
After a few tries, I finally made a game, but only after adjusting values so quickly and quickly depleting/replenishing each bar. The game finishes quickly that way, and I don't see any other way to win.

I'm not sure if that was the intended way to play, but it makes for a somewhat lackluster experience if so. It's an interesting concept, but I'd like to see it done a little differently!
🎤 Exevalon
02. May 2019 · 14:33 UTC
@thenerdster Glad you enjoyed it!

@liauj You can play a little less frenetically and still pull off a win. But yeah, the game certainly could use some finetuning! Thanks for playing!
Lomna
03. May 2019 · 09:14 UTC
Yes!! I made a game on second attempt.
🎤 Exevalon
03. May 2019 · 17:11 UTC
@lomna awesome! Thanks for playing!
Josh Powlison
05. May 2019 · 12:35 UTC
I really like the concept, and the text when you start failing is funny. It is fun to work in and experiment in, and try to beat the game faster.

It seems a bit odd to me that I can beat the game in a few minutes; it feels like the goal of the game isn't reallocating hours, but setting them well to begin with. After you set the amounts well, it seems like there's not really anything to do; I never found deallocating hours to help.

I ran into a few glitches:
- The bar would fill about 75% and I'd win
- The buttons for assigning hours would seem to randomly gray out (this didn't seem based on hours allocated, and would happen before I lost or won)
OddSocks
06. May 2019 · 07:48 UTC
Awesome game. A few bugs in there, but that’s expected with a game made in 72 hours! I liked the general feel to the game, and the pixel art visuals were pretty nice. Congrats 🙌