Here's visual tutorial if someone gets to play before it's merged into the game: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caryoscelus/power-department-ld38/master/assets/tutorial.png

Sorry to all Safari users! It does not like our video cutscenes. You can go directly to the game at http://opensourcebatman.com/ludum/038/level1.html

Hey!

Interesting game! I just gave it a couple of plays. "Power company tycoon" sure is an unusual genre and I think I like it :)

I felt like the video cutscenes, while cool, didn't really add a lot to the game experience. I found myself just ignoring them. The levels themselves were interesting. I wish the effort that had gone into the video, had instead gone into the graphics on the level.

There were some UI issues. If I lose a level, I should be able to start again. Currently the game just seems to freeze on me. If an event destroys a line or something, it would be helpful to see where that happened. The interface for building also wasn't terribly intuitive, although once I got the hang of it, it was ok. The SimCity model will be familiar to most users. I'd also like more detail on which generators etc were profitable in my reports, and the ability to undo or delete something I've built. What UI there was could have been better presented as well. Several times I had no idea people were unhappy with me or what the reason was for it. All the reports seemed to suggest they were neutral.

The music was good and suited the format of the game well. More sound effects would have been cool especially since lightning seemed to strike virtually every single quarter. The challenge was very hard, even on easy settings.

So overall, this was an interesting genre that I hope can be polished more! The game has a lot of potential to build on.

Awesome video intro. The game lost me a bit. I quite like strategy games but I feel like I just didn't have enough info to know what I should do or any clear motivation to do it. Interface is confusing with the very small icons having no clear labels. Not sure what the house to power-line icon was about.

Innovative idea! Never seen a power business game like this before. The game got me a bit confused though, with no connection goal given (also what was the house power line thingy). Also I often misplaced a power station/generator, with no way to go back. Audio really fit the theme but the graphics were a little barebones (although it is definitely understandable in a 72 hour jam). Also really liked the intro cutscene - it was well made. Overall an interesting game with a lot of potential!

I have to agree with @saurabh never saw a game about power production before. This music is nice but the graphics are a bit ugly and a little to small. btw. how do you cancel a build or leave build mode? couldn't figure it out.

Interesting, innovative idea and well executed. Firt of all im impressed that you manage to make cutsecene in such a short time. Graphics are simple but are easy to read which is the most important in this kind of game, audio is also allright and match the game. Gameplay has more depth than you could assume at start, to manage to provide electricity to all cities is a challenge and you have to plan ahead and be careful with your finances. In overall really solid game.

I enjoyed this, also because I like strategy games! The intro got me by surprise, and music is cool too. I think some more information about the outcome of your actions before doing them could make the game better.

Neat gameplay, and even the graphics fit quite nicely with the aesthetic of what the game turned out to be...nicely done!

Wow I was not expecting to see a full production intro video at the start! Nice. Good music too.

The opening was certainly impressive! I was a bit lost as to what to do in the game though, as there wasn't much feedback as to how your decisions affect revenue/happiness.

Loved the music and I think this is the first LDJam game I've played with a video opening! I didn't really understand the gameplay though. Why do I need to build depots outside of the cities? Where are areas that need power? What did the second button do when you click on a depot? Also, the lightning strikes were very annoying to repair - maybe they should repair automatically? I feel like I'm being harsh but I still did enjoy trying to figure it out. Good job!

The idea of the game its so interesting and it is a fun game!Maybe improve the graphics, and explain better the intro of the game, its a little confuse and a little bit long.
Good work ^^

Jaja, the intro is really cool!! The idea of the game is also nice, looks a bit like a small managing strategy game. I think it would be more engaging if there would be a few more buildings to choose from. Still, it's a good base where to expand from! :)

Keep up the hard work! :D

Very cool intro!, I like the concept and the idea behind the whole game. I Have few comments that probably could improve the experience. Some feedback in-game about what each icon does would be very nice, I had to go back to the explanation window to see because I wasn't sure about what each icon does. When you put a generator or station some feedback, graphical feedback that makes the player understand very clearly that is going in the right direction or something. With that I thinkthe experience will be much better, nice game anyway!

First off, the video intro? Awesome. I thought it was pretty cool. The between-level cutscenes are good too. Definitely an unexpected amount of polish for a 72 hour gamejam.

Music was perfect for this kind of game. Not intrusive, easy listening, perfect.

Gameplay - it took me a while to get a hang of it, finally managed to beat some of the levels on easy. I like it! Never played a power-simulator game kind of like this. I think the biggest problem I had was figuring out exactly where I needed to build stations to get everyone "connected". It seemed like the strategy was just putting a ton of power-stations in the city areas. I honestly think that a little clearer graphical support of the gameplay and you have yourself a pretty good game. Thanks for letting me play!

The intro, though interesting, was pretty long and I don't really know what it had to do with the actual game. The game itself really needed more visual feedback on how to play it. There was nothing in the UI or the intro or anything to even hint at how to play it, and I think a good number of people won't have the patience to figure that out when going through the games.

What is happening?!?!?!? :)

I actually *loved* the intro, it really hooked me, but like most have said some feedback or instruction mixed into the gameplay would have kept me from flipping back and forth from the game to the tutorial page. +1 on using video, that's a good idea.

I really liked the intro, first time seeing anything like that so far

I'll start off by echoing some others: I really liked the intro and cutscenes! I assume that you filmed and edited everything, which must have been a lot of work, and I think it's really cool that you decided to do this. The writing could have used a little polish, but I appreciated the story that you were going for, and it was quite refreshing to encounter live-action video while playing through Ludum Dare games.

Now, as for the gameplay, I'll say that I only played the first level and got quite bored, so I looked through the javascript to find and watch the rest of the cutscenes. :P The idea of trying to power cities is interesting, but right now there really isn't that much gameplay to keep one's interest after the first few minutes. Essentially, I mindlessly clicked through the first level without much thought or strategy, and the rest of the levels look like the first except N times as large. I think my biggest complaint is that there isn't much variety or strategy involved right now: for example, I might have found gameplay more interesting if there were more possible random events, if there were more strategy in where to place stations, if the map changed over time, if you had a time limit, etc.

Here are a few specific nitpicks:
- The grid was very small, which made clicking on cells to make power lines somewhat finicky.
- When you have >20 powerlines and you're told that one of them went down, it was really hard to find the one that disappeared. The fact that the powerlines are the same color as the city borders did not help. Also, there is no strategy involved in rebuilding the powerline, because you just click two squares, so this random event doesn't really add much to the game in the first place.
- I had no clue how the numbers (revenue, electricity costs, etc.) or the "popular opinion" were determined. Some indication of that would have been nice, and might have also added to the strategy.
- Also, a more specific final goal other than "reach some %" would have been nice.

Sorry if this comes off as too negative; I hope that all this can be taken as constructive criticism, and I do think you have an interesting idea here and the gameplay could have been awesome with a few more mechanics. Oh, in addition to the cutscenes, I also loved the soundtrack, and I might need to go download it from your Github now...

All in all, nice job!