The Reign Abates by James Greenleaf

[raw]
made by James Greenleaf for LD 39 (JAM)

An interactive fiction game in which you, the King, must arrange for your Heir to escape before your traitorous Archduke enacts his plan to usurp your power. Time is running out!

This is my first LD. Created during the 72-hour jam by a single developer.

splash.jpg

intro.jpg

gameplay.jpg

Ratings

Overall 325th 3.5⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Fun 405th 3.167⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 589th 2.767⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Theme 268th 3.733⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Humor 418th 2.407⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 168th 3.7⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Given 32🗳️ 16🗨️

Feedback

Jeremy Ryan
01. Aug 2017 · 02:15 UTC
Pretty neat game. At first I tried to do the super-evil-at-all-costs route but quickly found out that probably isn't such a good idea.

There aren't a whole lot of this kind of strategy game for Ludum Dare. Well done.
Traincraft
01. Aug 2017 · 02:19 UTC
Interesting game! I like the idea to base it on old text adventures. I only play one time four weeks but if there are many people to judge the game can also be interesting for mobile.
willvasco
01. Aug 2017 · 02:23 UTC
That bastard Archduke killed me but my heir got out ok! Nice little self-contained story that was just as long as it needed to be and a couple of the choices actually made me weigh the odds. Well done!
ALeal_Dev
01. Aug 2017 · 02:24 UTC
Nice interpretation of the jam theme! No batteries, no fuel... no power bar at all and it fits perfectly! I tried ir a couple times but I didn't get a good ending :(

Good job!
Dast99
01. Aug 2017 · 02:24 UTC
Nice game. The take on the theme was quite creative. And the text was well written and conveyed a real sense of consequence to your actions.
Carraka
01. Aug 2017 · 02:25 UTC
I was so glad to find something on political power! Well done! Just the sort of game I like to play. I wish I could've known more about this heir that I was working so hard to protect!

There might be a bug when playing music somehow decreases the amount you are loved? The resulting text seems to say that the music was well received, but then the love meter goes down.
🎤 James Greenleaf
01. Aug 2017 · 02:32 UTC
Thanks @carraka, and good catch on the bug! It's fixed now. I'd love to add more backstory to the game, but ran out of time :)
leesoar07
01. Aug 2017 · 02:42 UTC
Great game! The Power here shows a different meaning.
mahalis
01. Aug 2017 · 03:49 UTC
This is really well done! I had a similar idea, though I was thinking more in the direction of trying to abdicate. Tried a couple of different trajectories and got to the same ending—guess my choices were consistent, huh? :)
Thorneto
01. Aug 2017 · 05:44 UTC
Great writing! It would have been nice to see some fancier visuals but I cant hold it against you. I always seemed to end up with a lot of money but not much of anything else. I had fun with it and it was something different so great job.
WalterP
01. Aug 2017 · 08:09 UTC
Good concept, reminds me of Reigns on Android and iOS though. Neat story, keep up the good work.
Matoux42
01. Aug 2017 · 15:54 UTC
I expected more action, but that's a good game :)
TyGuy
01. Aug 2017 · 21:38 UTC
This is the first full screen web game I've seen the whole day which was actually very refreshing! It had me contemplating every choice! One thing that I kind of a liked and disliked at the same time was that most actions didn't tell you how much gold you would be spending. On the one hand I couldn't min/max on the other hand it made me care more about the action and less about how much gold I was spending. I would love to see this made into a table top card game played with a few friends! Great job!
atomicdad
02. Aug 2017 · 00:10 UTC
Good to see some good ole text based games. I have a special place in my heart for them. Thanks!
Togis
02. Aug 2017 · 06:24 UTC
I uploaded my gameplay of this game on youtube, you can find it here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29vP4CC-7fM

Thanks for being part of the stream :)
🎤 James Greenleaf
02. Aug 2017 · 06:38 UTC
Thank you for playing and reviewing it, @togis!
Tero Pulkkinen
02. Aug 2017 · 07:01 UTC
Images you have are pretty neat. A little static images, but guess it would be difficult to animate them properly. It went forward all the time, so nice progression in the game.
Fabian G
03. Aug 2017 · 12:54 UTC
Hey! Good writing, it was fun to read.
Also nice and effective idea to use old paintings for the graphics.
Nice work overall!
Sadly I didn't make it, but my heir survived :)
KabalaTrance
04. Aug 2017 · 21:24 UTC
I spent countless hours playing Reigns, so was more than surprised when I stumbled across this gem.
Twist on the jam theme is more than a fitting, only thing that I would like is a bit more UI work.
Congratulations!
bombjack
11. Aug 2017 · 21:21 UTC
Interesting concept