The Bystander Effect by Blarfnip
A same-room casual multiplayer game in which players participate via web-browser (NOTE: only desktop chrome confirmed) in a psychology experiment displayed on the common screen. The game features the bystander effect. In an emergency with only a few people around, people will quickly take action as they feel responsible. However, just like the theme of LD40, the more people around, the less likely they are to act.
To play:
Download the game to play on the common screen from the downloads section.
Each person goes to http://be.saulamster.com using chrome and enters a name and the roomcode.
**Chrome on android seems to break the server. Try playing with PC chrome clients
This game was our first Ludum Dare! It was probably over-ambitious but it was a huge learning experience.
| Windows | https://dubthink.itch.io/bystander-effect |
| HTML5 (web) | http://be.saulamster.com |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/the-bystander-effect |
Ratings
| Overall | 1088th | 2.694⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1092th | 2.475⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 704th | 3.026⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 877th | 3⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 903th | 2.861⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 588th | 2.806⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 693th | 3.132⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 24🗳️ | 4🗨️ |
Lot's of fun
But once I'm actually in game i'm not sure I really understand what I'm supposed to be doing. I enter the alleyway and just sit there. Clicking does nothing, none of the keys do anything, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. If "doing nothing" was the point, then I'll give you that, but there's no indication of how many people are in the room so I don't know whether or not the fact I'm not able to do anything is a sort of force bystander effect because there are a ton of people in the room or if it' just a bug and I'm the only one in the room. It's just not very fun.
Also to the Anonymous user, as of submission you can enter the game without having any players in the room. To interact with the game make sure to go to the companion website be.saulamster.com and enter the room code provided in the menu.
@elitegoliath Thank you! All the art was made by us. The rigged character I had made before the jam, and the animations aren't ours. But all the other models were built during the jam. To be honest, having all the separate systems allowed us to compartmentalize work better. It became easy to divide the work between the two of us.
@malero @fluffi The server code is a little messy. We always had issues when trying to connect from chrome on android or firefox, so I heavily recommend only playing with chrome on PC. If the application gives you a room code, then the server is running.
@the-dankasaur Thanks! We realized it might not be as fun as we wanted by the time we submitted, but we were super proud of what we got done with the systems we put in place.
@local-minimum I'm sorry that you couldn't connect. I just checked myself and the servers are still up. The room is joined by using the code that is given to you by the application. You use that code in the website to join the room.