ANSWER ME! by Viliar

[raw]
made by Viliar for LD 39 (JAM)

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ANSWER ME! is a game where player races against the phone battery to send as many messages as possible. Game represents several people in conctact list. Each with a completely different style and theme. Once the player receives the first message in the chat he has to choose from three possible answers. Longer the answer gives a better attitude with a person you are talking to. After choosing the most convenient answer player has to type it with a keyboard. Main character phone is defective though. Battery level will fall quicker once the player started to type. So you have to choose wisely whether you maintain good relationship or send as many messages as you can. Eventually battery will hit zero and you will see stats with sent letters, scores and resulting character relations based on your performance.

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Ratings

Overall 380th 3.422⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Fun 256th 3.422⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 62th 3.913⭐ 48🧑‍⚖️
Theme 280th 3.705⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 531th 3.227⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Audio 550th 2.237⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Humor 70th 3.756⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Mood 447th 3.178⭐ 47🧑‍⚖️
Given 50🗳️ 24🗨️

Feedback

Sun-Wukong
31. Jul 2017 · 09:33 UTC
Билд-то собери.
Brolton
31. Jul 2017 · 11:38 UTC
@sun-wukong Все будет. Пока еще не готово, прост)
Angela He
01. Aug 2017 · 01:38 UTC
haha, I love it.

It has a unique mechanic. I've never seen typing games used like this - used to tell a story almost.

It's a really interesting take on the theme, and one that I can relate to; I have a crap phone myself.

I especially love how the main character switches their personality to accommodate the person; e.g. you're more professional with the boss. But you still have the choice to be blunt and rude (the short responses make me lol so hard).

My advice is to make the directions more clear. It took some time for me to understand how to play, but after I got it, I had a lot of fun. Maybe, after clicking a response, a prompt with "now type that response - quick!" appears. Overall, it's quite awesome :)
🎤 Viliar
01. Aug 2017 · 07:36 UTC
Thank you so much! We have a big plans for it. If we get enough ratings and feedback there is chance we will continue project with more contacts, different dialog themes for each contact and maybe even a separate game mode without a timer. It can still be useful as an exercise=)
shootinputin189
03. Aug 2017 · 19:23 UTC
Awesome game! Like it a lot :)
shootinputin189
03. Aug 2017 · 19:23 UTC
Awesome game! Like it a lot :)
Dariusa
05. Aug 2017 · 08:46 UTC
Funny ! I made so much bad choices ahah
n.feofentov
05. Aug 2017 · 08:49 UTC
Very good game! And clever design. I wish I had some penalty for a mistake instead of not being able to send message. And how to quit you game?

Nevertheless, great job guys!
Linus
05. Aug 2017 · 10:58 UTC
Seems like a fun game but please provide a Linux build, I can't play it otherwise. Doesn't work using Wine because the text is not visible.
KunoNoOni
06. Aug 2017 · 03:33 UTC
This was an interesting game. Purely one of a kind. I played it twice and I will admit I didn't know I needed to type the responses. I was just clicking them and a solid red box just went into the chat. Not sure if that was a bug or not.
Phlip45
06. Aug 2017 · 06:52 UTC
![Capture.JPG](///raw/68a/3/z/8b36.jpg)

Good game, I played it twice! The first time I underestimated how much time I would actually have. Second time I went for the last answer every time and still finished with a bit of time left. I think the best things to add would be some music and sound effects (just light typing sound effects and like a ding when you get a message would be great). One thing that I would consider a bug is that it doesn't end once you've answered all the dialogue trees. I would recommend having the end screen once there is no actions the player can take.
🎤 Viliar
06. Aug 2017 · 08:47 UTC
@n-feofentov we've considered a score penalty for sending wrong message but it worked out as a timer instead. Thank you for your feedback! It's really nice to see a player considering smth that was actually discussed in the development process. Seems like we are heading the right way=)

@phlip45 yes, the end screen is needed ofc in your case. We will imnprove overall logic and balance if this project will seem interesting enough for players on ludum. Btw we couldn't imagine someone will actually beat all dialogs with longest answers in time 0_o Imo it's because english is not our native=) Thanks for the feedback! Also nice score, man =D
🎤 Viliar
06. Aug 2017 · 08:49 UTC
@kunonooni if we continue the project after ludum, we will definitely implement step-by-step tutorial. It's essential to make a game fair and challenging.
Syl-WhatsUpDesign
06. Aug 2017 · 11:09 UTC
Big work on content on this game, well done ! I love the idea to take the phone as subject, is that based on a true story ? haha
🎤 Viliar
06. Aug 2017 · 11:25 UTC
@syl-whatsupdesign partially yes=) Especially the temporal paradox part if u saw that ending ;) Thank you for your feedback!
MarkWolf
06. Aug 2017 · 11:43 UTC
The interpretation of the LD39 is really unexpected. It is a fun concept that deserves to be developed. For the ambiance music and sound effect would be nice.
wdebowicz
06. Aug 2017 · 11:45 UTC
Mom - 100
Girlfriend - 140
Boss - 105
But at least 15% battery left to play some games! I had a lot of fun, that was innovative!
Antiwrapper
06. Aug 2017 · 11:53 UTC
Wow, really fun game! The concept is great and is well executed. It's basically just a typing game but it tells a story which I love. I actually don't have anything big to complain about except that I like to see more of this in the future! Awesome work!
Zirrrus
06. Aug 2017 · 12:29 UTC
Cool, novel concept!

The graphics are pretty simple but fit very well. The writings pretty funny, although I have to say, I actually got tripped up by typos and weird smileys in the messages a few times.

At first I had NO idea you actually had to type, I thought the red circle was just how long it takes to input the message so I was just waiting and then an empty red box appeared. Once I had figured that out I got a lot more done. But nearing the end the timer got far too quick for some of the responses.

Well done overall, only improvement would be some music, maybe some light sound effects for new messages popping up etc.
Freedom Is Slavery
06. Aug 2017 · 12:50 UTC
Now that's a really funny, innovative game. Just sometimes the whole text gets selected when I press enter, even though I have written it correctly
Richard Jedlicka
06. Aug 2017 · 14:07 UTC
Very original :-) It was fun. Only the lack of sound. And the score at the end has no meaning (I had no idea if it is a good result or not)
Yetman
06. Aug 2017 · 15:00 UTC
That is nice game. It relates to me well, since I take a lot of time to reply, but now there no time to waste :D
TheFlyingKeyboard
06. Aug 2017 · 16:58 UTC
Very nice game, but needs some polishing. Amazing idea, it would be fun if the hamburger menu would actually do something.
Peter Sheehan
06. Aug 2017 · 18:12 UTC
Pretty nice game, but it could have used more juice to really get me to keep playing. I liked the dialogue options and the humor of the game was fun too. Also, I disagree with what @angela-he said, it was pretty simple to understand. I think you could have made the art assets a little more interesting too, all in all, polish would have done this typing game well. Nice work.
DDRKirbyISQ
06. Aug 2017 · 20:05 UTC
Hehe, fun. A few things:

- I finished with plenty of battery life to spare even after choosing the most difficult option and couldn't be bothered to wait for the battery counter to slooowwwwlllyyy tick down to get the game ending. The game should either continue until the battery meter depletes (more content or randomized conversation) or end when you finish all of the dialogue trees.
- Needs sounds! Also, if you don't have any audio, please opt-out of the Audio category.
- Having to switch back between mouse and keyboard over and over and over was a pain.
- Pressing enter on an incorrectly-typed line of text ends up selecting all of the text you've typed. Which...means if you press backspace to correct a mistake you made at the end, you end up erasing everything you typed =( You also can't undo this via Ctrl-Z. =(
🎤 Viliar
06. Aug 2017 · 21:01 UTC
@ddrkirbyisq one of the most useful comments so far! Thank you a lot. First two points are WIP and will be ready soon. We will consider your feedback and work on the other two parts.
SaraMartins
07. Aug 2017 · 02:12 UTC
Hi, funny game this one! It was really hard trying to write that fast, but somehow I didn't miss too many. Just lacked some sound effects, cellphone related, like typing, message received and batery depleting. It would also be nice to know in the how much from the total I scored, I don't know if my score was good or not. But I did have fun playing it :)
Mars
07. Aug 2017 · 20:38 UTC
Nice little game! I tried my best to type fast, but with a Norwegian keyboard all the damn symbols took too much time. I needed to switch between alt and shift clicking all the time, it made things take so much more time than necessary for me.


I think the sound was a little bit lacking, but otherwise the presentation was fine. The graphics were alright, your take on the Running out of Power theme was interesting too. I also realize you probably didn't account for the fact that keyboard layouts are different all over the world, so I won't hold it against you. Programming with a Norwegian keyboard is a pain too, because all the symbols used in programming were used because they were easy and accessible keys. Not so much on our keyboards, where pretty much anything outside of letters and numbers has us hold shit or alt =P
vkmicro
07. Aug 2017 · 20:45 UTC
**First of all:** Thank you for your feedback and for checking out my game. Appreciate it! (p.s. Не ожидал русских тут увидеть, хотя чего удивляться. Но коммент оставлю на анг чтоб народ мог нормально прочитать.)

**Overall game impression:** Took me a bit of time to realize what the filling up circle was all about. Overall pretty fun game. Very simple and entertaining, reminds me of texting my boss, gf and mother as well...except I also ended up sending messages that were meant for my gf to my boss..... lol :D I enjoyed the game, good job!

**Suggestions and comments on improvement:** Add sound effects of some kind. And maybe add some kind of hint for the red filling circle, something like- "Sending" so it's more obvious what it does. I thought that's how long it'd take to receive a reply at first.
Jason200101
07. Aug 2017 · 21:04 UTC
I liked it a lot! The idea is nice, and you made it very well! The music is great, the game mechanic is well made, and there are a lot of different outcomes that can happen just by typing different things! I really liked it!

The only thing that I would like changing, is at the end. You don't have enough time to properly read all of the text that one person sends, so you just start typing! I don't suggest giving more time, but instead, at the end of the game, make it possible to see the text dialoge that you send with each person, and maybe add a scoreboard system? Even a local one that just remembers my previous score would be nice!

Overall, Very nice game, the story is rich, the music is great, and the game is fun **and** rewarding as well! Well done!
KiiroHanabi
07. Aug 2017 · 21:04 UTC
Always happy to see narrative games here. And in this one you have to type half of the story! The gameplay is nice and the story is funny. I didn't want a girlfriend anyway :D

Graphics look good and there's not many bugs, I think I got stuck at a message for a few seconds because there was a space after the final dot that I immediately guessed right with the battery pressure coming on me haha.

Good job! ;)
Steing
08. Aug 2017 · 02:32 UTC
It's funny we had a really similar idea ! :D
But you executed it differently ! It was nice anyway, i totally loved the neatness of your game, it really looked like a Facebook conversation.
Maybe i would have shorten up the answering time still proportionnally to the length of message of course !
I liked the music, and the cover image too !
Well done guys ! :)
xqwzts251
08. Aug 2017 · 15:47 UTC
- good idea, I won't think about theme just like you :D
- innovative gameplay
- cons:without reading your description I didn't know what to do, no audio :/
- overall: nice :)
Lamm
14. Aug 2017 · 01:17 UTC
You did a great game congratulations.
Sugiuro
15. Aug 2017 · 09:07 UTC
The idea of the game is very interesting, loved it!
hadesfury
15. Aug 2017 · 09:46 UTC
Good job :) some good art from you cover in the game would have been a plus :)

The typing stuff is great and increase the stress :)
bellatrion
15. Aug 2017 · 10:06 UTC
Nice take on the theme, very innovative game !
carlosvVk
15. Aug 2017 · 11:17 UTC
I liked it very much! Different approach to the theme. It would be better if I could read the entire conversation, with a scrollbar or something like that.
🎤 Viliar
16. Aug 2017 · 07:26 UTC
@carlosvvk we're considering it as a separate mode=)
sampointoh
17. Aug 2017 · 03:37 UTC
I loved the concept! Dialogue was engaging and I wanted to see what happened next. Some context for the relationships before playing would maybe have been nice? Really enjoyed what you did with this!
gamepopper
21. Aug 2017 · 19:45 UTC
Fun entries. I like the suspense of picking what to say, although I don't understand how the waiting system work. I definitely enjoyed the music and the fun dialogue though.
neowhoru
21. Aug 2017 · 20:08 UTC
First thank you for your feedback.
So i played your game and i really love it.
It reminds me to "SMS Race" on a browsergame called Jobfight which exists in 2008.

It is really funny to answer as fast as you can lol.