Running out of Coffee by Triastase

[raw]
made by Triastase for LD 39 (COMPO)

Oh no! You have so much work to do, that you really can't afford to sleep right now. But you're sooo tired... You need coffee. A lot.

coffee-game-3.png

Goal: - Do your work on the computer without running out of caffeine in your blood. - You win when the chronometer is at zero. - You lose when your caffeine level is at zero.

Controls: - Left click on the computer or press W to work (earns you money). - Left click on the cup or press C to drink coffee. - Left click on the coffee machine or press R to refill your cup. - Right click on the coffee machine or press B to brew new coffee (costs money). - Left click on 1UPs to get upgrades for the respective objects.

Ratings

Overall 634th 2.536⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 640th 2.138⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 544th 2.571⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 128th 3.857⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 404th 3.036⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Humor 182th 2.885⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 570th 2.231⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 20🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

🎤 Triastase
30. Jul 2017 · 23:29 UTC
I'm sorry there's no sound, but it would be distracting you from doing your important work at the computer anyways, right? ;)
tuism
31. Jul 2017 · 11:13 UTC
The idea is cute, could make a meta clicker game out of this, I guess.

On presentation: The simple instructions you have really should be *in* the game. Right there on the screen. Just put letters next to items and people could work it out easily.

There's very little visual feedback of what's happening too. The bars are there but the correlation to action, for example the W to work - I thought you kept pressing it, eventually realised you just press it once.

The biggest problem here is that it's hard for anyone but yourself to play the game. The game could be great.

Hope this helped!
🎤 Triastase
31. Jul 2017 · 11:49 UTC
Thank you @tuism for your constructive criticism! :)
TheLukker
01. Aug 2017 · 00:28 UTC
Gets pretty boring after a while. Too repetitive. And sounds would be appreciated.
nintendoeats
01. Aug 2017 · 00:55 UTC
Really needs a reset button, and some sound.

The challenge seems to ultimately revolve around remembering to start working again the moment you refill your cup, since otherwise you would always have enough money to refill the pot and then it would just be "can you press the buttons fast enough." I didn't enjoy doing that, and I'm not sure what could be done to make it more entertaining.

If I were laying it out I would have the keys in a row instead of being the initial of the relevant verb. That way the player could get into a flow with the keys and it would be kind of Guitar Hero-sh. As it stands, this is a game about fighting a control scheme and the arbitrary work state change.

I do like the meters, those are a fun and useful means of presenting information to the player. They work well in context with one another. The money one would have benefited from a mark indicating that the player has enough money to brew another pot.
joemag
01. Aug 2017 · 07:22 UTC
Not very interesting. Absolutely needs a reset button and some sort of feedback. The graphics look fine and I like the bars. But other than the joke that "coffee = work" there's very little going on to critique.
Mvdvelden
01. Aug 2017 · 07:51 UTC
This hits close to home :(.
I like the concept and i had the urge to keep retrying because i felt i was improving. A reset button would have helped with that.

I think the game could really do with some audio feedback, for example when the monitor turns on/off or when the coffee pot is empty.

Overall a fun little game!
Simon Millard
01. Aug 2017 · 08:04 UTC
Not my favourite game I have to say; too repetitive, and I didn't really understand why I kept not being able to refill the coffee machine despite working to earn money; not sure what I was doing wrong. Tried it a few times, but it didn't really work for me, sorry. Lack of sound and music really hurts the game as well (since it's so repetitive you really need some music and sound to get in the rhythm of the game I think).

On the flip side I really like the graphical representation, so good job on that :)
pklaschka
01. Aug 2017 · 08:10 UTC
The idea is interesting and has some potential, but I think it …
- … is to hard (maybe, it would have been easier if the controls were side by side on the keyboard as thinking about which key did what in the game is to slow for the fast pace the game has – and clicking also was a bit complicated, as then, one has to look to the bars on the right and the cursor).
- … needs sound, because without sound, it's too hard, as there is only visual feedback (and even that is insufficient, as others already mentioned) telling you if you need to brew new coffee (which is too complicated for the fast pace of the game).

Thank you for sharing.
Dragojt
01. Aug 2017 · 08:59 UTC
The concept of being careful of all meters for this jump is great put the mechanics were a bit confusing. Great work anyway!
Sivael
01. Aug 2017 · 10:59 UTC
Works nicely!
Seems like coffee runs out terribly quickly though.
TheFlyingKeyboard
01. Aug 2017 · 11:43 UTC
Nice idea, but the game is a little to hard. I think that energy drains too fast.
Samuli Salonen
01. Aug 2017 · 12:41 UTC
Haha!

had a great laugh trying it out.
AmigoPadilha
01. Aug 2017 · 13:21 UTC
Nice game and really hard.
I think things should be more responsive, maybe giving more feedback on what is happening. Really hard to play but nice concept. If it had a reset button I would've played a lot more!

Great work
Kthulhu1947
01. Aug 2017 · 13:48 UTC
A bit hard to play more than 30 seconds, but good ;-)
Keep moving forward.
Mathiouza
01. Aug 2017 · 13:58 UTC
Nice idea, but too hard to play a long time :/
It lacks sounds too, that's an important point of a game.
I like the way you display the different jauges and the 3D art is quite good though.
Keep coding ;)
Michael Feldman
01. Aug 2017 · 16:04 UTC
A few things I really like about it are the UI setup on right, and the concept. The vertical arrangement of the meters and color selection work well together. The concept of having to work work work, drink drink drink, is funny as hell to me. I found the game very, VERY challenging and wasn't able to beat it but haven't given up yet. Also props on going the 3d route. Nice models, and nice little meta egg of having the screen display game-dev stuff ;)
nokusu
02. Aug 2017 · 12:09 UTC
Haha coming from a team named : @caffeinated-psychics i can totally relate that coffee is power :p
I like the concept, it has some flaws though

**Positive Things :**
- The concept XD
- The graphics, while simple are well done, so that always gets some points :)

**Negative things :**
- The lack of sound, at least a little music in the background would have been nice
- A bit hard managing your time to play longer, you run out of money or coffee a bit quick i.m.o :(

Regardless it's a nice little game that's still well made despite its flaws :) especially since it's a compo entry good job !

Silly award giving time :p , you get the HomeBrewed award for making a game about coffee XD