LudumData

Mythical Development Time by jnharton

[raw]
made by jnharton for LD 40 (JAM)

ldjam40_screenshot.png

MDT is a game about how software development time really works. More developers does not equal more productivity, in fact since existing developers have to train new ones and the new ones are not familiar with the exact work at the beginning despite basic skills/talent they are a productivity sink for a while...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheMythicalMan-Month

Get/Play:
* Download Love2D interpreter (zipped file is good here) -- https://www.love2d.org/
* Download mdt.love * Drag mdt.love onto Love2D executable

Goal:
Is there a goal? IDK. The point is to experience the pain of watching productivity decrease when you hire a new developer.

How to play:
h - hire a developer
d - purchase a desk
a - assign developer to first available desk
plus - speed up simulation
minus - slow down simulation

NOTE: recommended to set "speed" fairly high, perhaps 20-50+ (max 100) to avoid being incredibly bored
NOTE2: Love2D console is still enabled since proper notification messages aren't implemented (in case you wonder why you can't buy another desk)

Credits:
https://github.com/camchenry/Love2D-Template
^ a truly awesome template to get started making games. provides a basic menu and state switching plus bundling require'ing a bunch of common libraries.

Source code https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ecs6cNP3aCO6JlteMvI4aCBZqrOmCFuF?usp=sharing
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/mythical-development-time

Ratings

Given 6🗳️ 5🗨️

Feedback

Frozedon
05. Dec 2017 · 05:52 UTC
Crashed in about 10 seconds multiple times.

`states/game.lua:311: attempt to index field 'trainer' (a nil value)`

Also, probably would be better to merge the .love file into an .exe instead of directing people to go download love2D.
ryusui
05. Dec 2017 · 06:35 UTC
Got the same error here. Also, it's not nice not to provide even some basic semblance of in-game instruction. The console kludge also gets a big thumbs-down from me; it's not hard to provide those kinds of notifications in-game (protip: storing messages in a table will allow you to easily achieve an effect similar to a console log).
🎤 jnharton
07. Dec 2017 · 05:32 UTC
Not sure why it's crashing, it was working fine for me (which is frequently the case for a developer). Certainly I
didn't have a lot of time to fully test it myself before the deadline. I wanted to at least submit something.

Thanks for the error feedback, although admittedly without more context it'll be hard to track down the exact problem with just the error message and no info about the context of when it happened. I have very little idea why there would be an issue "10 seconds" in.

I've tried doing the merge with love.exe on other projects, but I've had problems before in the past with getting that right and I can only do it for Windows. The .love file should work with the zip/.dmg/etc for other systems fairly easily. There's not a whole lot I can do if you're intrinsically against an extra download of a single zip/archive file plus a drag drop.

I would have liked to work in some in-game instructions, but I didn't make it to that step.. Also, while storing messages is easy, visualizing things -nicely- inside the game is a bit harder.
🎤 jnharton
19. Dec 2017 · 00:04 UTC
Just put up a zip file containing 32-bit, 64-bit Windows binaries (and the dlls needed) in separate subfolders. It's in the same google drive folder.
hijomo
19. Dec 2017 · 02:35 UTC
You kids these days working your 10 to 3 days, back in my day.... Nice work. I found it more fun to have the console running beside the game to figure out what was going on. It would be nice to skip all the down time. I enjoyed the slow methodical grind of it all. Or did it drive me insane?
adhesion
19. Dec 2017 · 02:49 UTC
I got that same crash my first playthrough very early on (not sure what I did exactly, mostly just tried to add desks and hire people) but never saw it again. Interesting simulation but definitely needs more communication to the player, like I didn't realize if I assigned a person that they wouldn't show up until the next day. Obvious in retrospect, but since there was no responsiveness to my action, I thought it didn't work at first. Also for some reason I wasn't able to assign any more people, even though I had seemingly hired them and had empty desks? It wasn't clear why one dev's productivity was lower than another's too - makes sense in reality, but another thing that confuses the player. Also - if nothing happens during the night, why not skip it?
Parker8283
19. Dec 2017 · 02:56 UTC
I have been experiencing the crash as well. I was able to reproduce it by opening up the game, allowing it to start, and not pressing any other buttons. It happens around 4:00 PM in-game time. I have also experienced the crash upon normal gameplay circumstances (buying desks, hiring employees, etc). I am using the Win64 version provided on your Google Drive page.
```
Error
-------

states/game.lua:311: attempt to index field 'trainer' (a nil value)


Traceback
-----------

> main.lua:151: in function <main.lua:106>
> libs/state.lua:89: in function '__newindex'
> states/game.lua:311: in function 'adjustClock'
> states/game.lua:151: in function 'update'
> [C]: in function 'xpcall'
```