Theme - The Game by Cubeeo
For LD40, the final round of theme selection voting included the following possible themes: Floating Islands; The more you have, the worse it is; A single resource; Limited Space; Expanding; You are not the main character; Tiny Machines; Only three colors; Broken World; Start with nothing; You control the scenario, not the character; One level, but constantly changing; Death is useful; One minute; Into the unknown; Everything is connected.
All but one theme needed to die, so there would only be one theme remaining:
"The more you have, the worse it is."
So, I present to you my entry (my first ever LD entry) for Ludum Dare 40, simply titled:


| HTML5 (web) | https://cubeeo.itch.io/theme |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/theme-the-game |
Ratings
| Overall | 1152th | 2.149⭐ | 113🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1146th | 2.072⭐ | 113🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 984th | 2.659⭐ | 109🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1117th | 2.302⭐ | 108🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 531th | 3.014⭐ | 110🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1059th | 2.27⭐ | 104🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 127🗳️ | 143🗨️ |
And by the way, the font in the game isn't like what is in the screenshots, just so you know.
Here's a screenshot just in case:

Sorry, but either way, I don't think it will make you get worse ratings, but you should still fix it (obviously).
Jokes aside this game took me by suprise. It was definitly interesting and wacky, but it made me chukle a few times.
I made peace with the rainbow and we became mates. That was the end of my journey, as I had nowhere to go and didn't want to leave the side of my new friend :)
Interesting, fun and cool game, good job!
Also, I love your apt description of your experience.
@eldogg I love it!
Great game for a first jam! Different from most entries which is a big plus!
Wow, @neecko - the person that made "I took too many drugs" is calling my entry "trippy." Now, THAT is trippy.
@refinedsalt How far did you get?
What I was hoping to achieve was the following: I get brilliant player who knows lots and lots about games. They come to my little game and "click" early on, as they are told. And, they enjoy Act 1 - The Start Page. Then, they are given a "player" and are forced to realize "oh, this is actual game." I tried to make that part as obvious as possible with the name of the "player", starting that jet thrust sound and having the "player" move. I then hoped my brilliant gameplayers would then count on their wits - I've played games before, what do I normally do with character? Do I move it? Sure. Ok, good. Let's go... And off we go...
I understand that some people never made it to that point, but I also wanted my brilliant gameplayers who beat the game to feel rewarded, like they accomplished something, because they did - they are brilliant! YAY!
5/5 Theme :D

I really appreciate this game. It is clear that you are dedicated to your craft.
I think the real fun to be had in this game is just discovering what will happen when you click the right thing. The whole mood of it just felt "right" in some strange sense. I think some sort of "ramp-up" to the confusion would be good to help those who can not intuit things well(like a quick assortment to clicks to introduce the "mechanics" if you can call them that). Many people who rate your game will not be very intelegent/able to figure things out/work through problems. Many others will figure things out very quickly and will become uninterested if you do not challenge them. The best ludum dare games design for both of these crowds in mind when designing their game. I have not mastered this myself, but I think this is what one should strive for.
Overall, definitely weird and unlike any other game I have ever played. For better or for worse.
I wish there was a was to see if/when anything had changed and become interactable, because I restarted it once and noticed things did not immediately become clickable.
@ronanrorry Yeah, it's short, I just hope it's enjoyable. It's not just my first LD, it's also my first jam and first time uploading a game to itch, so I wanted to start the upload process several hours early, and I'm glad I did because it actually took me an hour or two to get the upload to work here (because my game was titled "Theme", which was an issue, but I didn't realize it at the time.) It was much more comfortable to "have upload issues" several hours before the deadline, then right at the deadline. Hopefully, next time, I'll make something a bit longer. Though, I'm proud of this. It was fun.
@blubberquark
I totally understand that. It makes perfect sense, I'm just not sure how to do it without being like "Hey, click/look here!"
The idea is funny but it require a little to much "mind reading" :-) Some hint could improve drastically the game
@pvtroswold I agree, as has been stated before. (Nice icon.)
Well... There is definitely a good example of old LucasArt quests, with counterintuitive quests, when you often have to resort to clicking everything because you have no clue how to progress.
Also... I'm still not sure if I progressed through the entire game or not...
And by the sound of clicking on "me" I really thought it should take off upwards rather than fall off...
EDIT: Yay... I finally figured where the GAME is... :)
"And by the sound of clicking on “me” I really thought it should take off upwards rather than fall off…"
Yeah, it does (or can... actually will need to / be forced to when you drive into a wall) but I guess you figured that out in the "EDIT"
@ajayajayaj Yeah, thanks, so like 14th worst? :nerd: I gotta say while I fully understand people not knowing what to do / click in many instances I'm still baffled about people not figuring out the space bar (there's a wall of text that says Space). It initially says "Limited Space" but once you drive through it Space remains perpetually (at the exact moment when you finally need to press space). Frankly though, I think people are confusing the need to press the space bar with the arrow keys.
My next entry is definitely going to have no guessing about controls though.
Thanks for the feedback.