LudumData

Sons of Vanity by nkrim

[raw]
made by nkrim for LD 43 (COMPO)

Maintain your "beautiful" appearance by selectively breeding your sons.

As the years go by your original photo begins to fade, and you must rely on memory to keep your lineage looking as good as their original ancestor.

Consider head shape, feature size and appearance, and skin color, when selecting the most similar son, but if you venture too far from your gorgeous forefather, then there's no going back.

GAME LINK

SoV ss.png

Full Rules/Explanation:

You start with a good look of the magnificent ancestor of the family, and you must attempt to keep his good looks alive. The children of each generation will be slightly different in appearance to their parents, and you must choose the child that most closely resembles the original beautiful patriarch. You have a photo for reference, but it degrades over time until it is unrecognizable, and then you must rely on memory.

The features of a child are split up into head shape, skin color, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Along with these, the size of all the facial features (everything excluding head and skin color) can come in small and large forms. Every difference impacts the overall appearance an equal amount, so keep that in mind (going from the original nose to a smaller version of the same nose is equal in change to going to a different nose of the same size, for example).

How many generations can you make it through before you squander the beauty of this pure family.

Tools Used:

  • Engine - Unity
  • Art - Photoshop

My first ever submission to Ludum Dare, and my second ever game jam, there was a lot more balancing and polishing that I had hoped to do (including adding music, sound effects, death effects to actually show the "sacrificing" of the other sons), but I'm just glad it works. I hope you enjoy it!

~ Noah Krim!

HTML5 (web) https://pastapig.itch.io/sons-of-vanity
Source code https://github.com/nkrim/ludum-dare-43
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/sons-of-vanity

Ratings

Overall 151th 3.628⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Fun 211th 3.351⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 11th 4.152⭐ 48🧑‍⚖️
Theme 249th 3.489⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 157th 3.628⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Humor 55th 3.596⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Mood 215th 3.217⭐ 48🧑‍⚖️
Given 46🗳️ 46🗨️

Feedback

numeralien
03. Dec 2018 · 05:09 UTC
Managed to get a 57 by choosing one feature and only clicking guys that had that feature (like "square head"). Neat game, though, fun concept, and the art is horrifying in an endearing way. Well done!
FussenKuh
03. Dec 2018 · 05:30 UTC
I really like the concept. Though, I only made it though 18 generation before my bloodline ran out :/ It's kind of awesome that with just a few different permutations on face features, you could generate so many different heads. I also liked the subtle touch of the photo fading away as the generations went by. Great job
wdelvi
03. Dec 2018 · 05:31 UTC
A suuuper fascinating concept. I wish there were a little more to it. And you definitely needed some tutorialization. But well done!
artbohr
03. Dec 2018 · 23:23 UTC
Got to 29 generations. I really like the idea and the gameplay is pretty fun and unique, good job.
mrnyarlathotep
03. Dec 2018 · 23:39 UTC
60 generations of hereditary ugliness before they got rid of my genes!

Fun little entry - simple concept, well executed, nice take on the theme.
okuar
03. Dec 2018 · 23:51 UTC
It's really cool concept. A bit brutal but still lovely. I agree there is some tutorial is needed. Well I'm bad only 15 generations.
Zayah0_0
04. Dec 2018 · 03:48 UTC
& generations..... i got them weak genes lol ..... loved the concept
frosty
04. Dec 2018 · 05:29 UTC
I've always wanted to try making something evolution-related like this. Neat to see your take on it. :) I really like the art style, though the gameplay felt kind of random. Most of the time I ended at 2 generations, but my highest was 18. I couldn't really tell why I did better than in other rounds.
mrspeaker
04. Dec 2018 · 06:25 UTC
How very "wilde"! (tee hee). Great idea - bit of a thinker, and surprisingly addictive! I'd like to see a "before vs after" or a family tree at the end.
Jimbly
04. Dec 2018 · 14:51 UTC
I made it 40 generations before my family line got bored and moved on to another game ;). I also was starting to forget what I looked like. Interesting concept, but needs something else to make it more engaging, maybe some reason you would intentionally choose a child with less resemblance - perhaps you know how many grandchildren they each have or how much wealth they add to the family fortune. I liked the art.
🎤 nkrim
04. Dec 2018 · 20:36 UTC
@mrspeaker that family tree thing is a great idea, wish I would've thought of it / had the time to implement
jhell
04. Dec 2018 · 20:39 UTC
This is an AWESOME concept, and a great idea. Kudos. The execution could have benefited from more work, like, the rules are not super clear on what defines resemblance, so it becomes mostly guesswork and luck. Maybe with more explicit rules and a timer?

But apart from that, really cool :) I think my favorite part was the picture of the ancestor getting progressively destroyed.
Takayamushi
04. Dec 2018 · 22:13 UTC
This was amazing! My evil inside was satified. Good job!
🎤 nkrim
04. Dec 2018 · 22:19 UTC
@jhell you're right, I put a section in the LD description with a more well-explained version of the mechanics, hope that helps!
Maksim Chugunov
04. Dec 2018 · 23:08 UTC
So yeah, great game, but once you figured out how it works, it's really hard to lose
![Screen Shot 2018-12-05 at 02.08.01.png](///raw/9ca/31/z/1eeae.png)
dob
04. Dec 2018 · 23:10 UTC
What a fun little game. You must have had to do a bunch of art to manage the different traits. I'm not exactly sure how people are getting to those very high generation numbers - I had a lot of drift in each new set I got, and it was hard to keep it close. Very good work.
🎤 nkrim
04. Dec 2018 · 23:34 UTC
@maksim-chugunov if I had just a _little_ more time I would've added a timer to get some pressure in there to make it harder as it goes on, because yeah otherwise if you just remember the features then it's a little trivial to go on forever. Thanks for playing for that long though lol! :smile:
incobalt
05. Dec 2018 · 03:05 UTC
This reminds me of the genetic algorithms section of a PCG class I once took, but you did far more with it than anyone in the class did. It was amusing to see the facial features get smaller over time. I got to 60 generations before I started to lose interest, but it's a nice take on the spot the difference kind of puzzle. I wonder if the sacrifice mechanic could be made more impactful by using animations or maybe having PCG data about each child (like "likes kittens", etc.), but that's just me thinking wildly about things. Good job!
jerripo
05. Dec 2018 · 03:14 UTC
The mechanics are simple, and the art is funny and does what it needs to do. The story ties it together perfectly. The game is very elegant in its ensemble. It also fits in the theme nicely because, even though you don't see the other sons being sacrificed, you are sacrificing certain facial features for others.

What I wish for, but know that it was due to time constraints:
-more genetic drift as game progresses to amp up the difficulty. I was pretty excited the first time when completely foreign options came up, and I thought it was about to get hard. But then, I easily brought back the forefather's appearance :( Being too easy takes away from any sense of achievement.
-counter so I can at least track progress
-not super clear what the bar on the top of the game tracks

I also like that it tracks your highscore.

Fun concept, hope to see you expand on it!
arkinrev
05. Dec 2018 · 04:51 UTC
I really liked the concept. It was unique and it was a lot of fun trying to keep my random face going on. Nice work, and I like the replayability and the number of permutations of faces. Fun entry!
kddressel
05. Dec 2018 · 05:30 UTC
made it to 66. i agree with some others that a timer would make this even more fun. i kind of sped up at the end to see how i'd do and it was more fun because of the lack of caution actually haha. really love the idea, it has an almost profound feel to it because of the subject, and the art is great!
shulololo
05. Dec 2018 · 07:01 UTC
That's a lot of art you did. I made it up to 70 and thought the game is pretty nice. Great job!
BoopsGames
05. Dec 2018 · 07:44 UTC
Interesting game. I played it for a long time before it got redundant. Well-done though!
Maksim Chugunov
05. Dec 2018 · 10:31 UTC
@nkrim I actually had a mental timer, because I've played for so long, I wanted to challenge myself and finally lose, so I gave myself only like 2 seconds for a decision. It was around 100 points I think :)
honey
05. Dec 2018 · 21:32 UTC
Impressive idea! However I did not manage to crack the way it chooses the closest ressemblance. A bit shame that there wasn't enough time to add some sound, but the art very much compensates for it - it is very nicely made, on point and hilarious! I enjoyed your game very much, thank you for that!
EatAtJoes
05. Dec 2018 · 22:59 UTC
Great concept. A little audio or other sfx and timer would have been perfect.

Very funny idea, and a great twist on matching memory games.
wheatleyscience
06. Dec 2018 · 00:47 UTC
i think that 44 is cool but now i see other scores... i guess this is natural selection... good idea, fun game :)
Slashee the Cow
06. Dec 2018 · 01:04 UTC
I don't know if this is true, but it seemed like the faces that appear have more to do with my success than my ability to pick them. First I got 4 generations. Then 2. Then 112. Shame you didn't get around to sound effects (it's alright, neither did I) but it's a great concept and a good job if this is only your second game jam.
Pennycook
06. Dec 2018 · 01:11 UTC
As others have said, sound effects and music would really make this feel more complete. I highly recommend something like [sfxr](http://www.drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html) -- it literally takes a few seconds to generate good sound effects, so doesn't take much time away from the rest of development.

I made it 219 generations in the end, although the last 20 or so of those were just me randomly clicking in an attempt to lose on purpose. Does the game get more forgiving as the generations go on?
🎤 nkrim
06. Dec 2018 · 02:03 UTC
@pennycook was down to the wire this time so sadly couldn't throw in the sounds i made (in bfxr nonetheless :laughing:). I also didn't really have time for balancing/playtesting, and I think I could have done more to ramp up the difficulty, and I now realize that adding more options as time goes on makes it easier, which is the opposite of what I wanted lol, but once you get all 7 choices it's the exact same loop until you lose, nothing else behind the scenes except randomness. I would have liked to make it more difficult, but my time management isn't that great lol.
Wizard.Exe
06. Dec 2018 · 04:45 UTC
Really creative game idea. I had not expected to see a memory-style game in a LD, lol, let alone one that had me continuing to play. Kudos.
Tornoz
06. Dec 2018 · 13:02 UTC
Really nice concept but i ended up loosing a lot without really understanding why.
smbe19
06. Dec 2018 · 15:21 UTC
Awesome, creative concept! I found it a bit too easy and it got a bit boring after like 20 generations. But with some polishing and fine tuning this game could become really great!
christina-antoinette-neofotistou
07. Dec 2018 · 00:37 UTC
Very nice idea *and* execution! Cool core mechanic and lovely presentation! You should be proud!
beats
07. Dec 2018 · 07:41 UTC
Really creative concept, I made up to 68 generations
elysiagriffin
18. Dec 2018 · 20:56 UTC
Hey Pasta_Pig! Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my livestream!

If you'd like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/346057870?t=05h12m51s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin
Tim Eriksen
31. Dec 2018 · 05:21 UTC
Whoa, where did this idea come from? Interesting game! A job well done :thumbsup: