I put out a quick-fix (v1.0.1) which fixed a critical memory leak, some typos, and a setting which made it unwinnable. The game can now be beat without crashing your browser.
Also there's a post-compo version which features properly-moving merbals, and some graphical enhancements, but no real gameplay changes.

Maybe I'm no good at these types of games but I could never get the water to stop rising continuously so it was very hard to play for long. Still, it was an interesting concept and well executed. I liked the backstory of fighting pollution and the humor of the political strife in the backstory.

Is it me... or just turning off all coal factories at the start is a winning strategy? I mean solar plants are rather useless since by the time they're built there's already like 3000 pollution reduced at -3/sec... vs 200 pollution at the start at -3/sec. And you don't need to build houses if the sea level doesn't rise... so you don't actually need to build anything?

I don't know if that means the game is broken or if it has a moral about how to deal with actual climate change...

Still, it's the most humorous I've seen yet by far... those merbals being the main culprit..

EDIT: Anyway, some actual feedback: You might want to mention somewhere you can move around with the mousewheel, I didn't know until halfway through my first playthrough.

I quite liked the sprites you made; the merbals being the stars, but the buildings are really nice on their own too. The way they're built is also cleverly designed for a jam. I did enjoy it, and the exploit (?) I found was until my third playthrough, so it isn't obvious. All in all, there's some great work done!

I got so sad when my little guys started drowning. Capitalism... Heavy :laughing:

This was a fun one! Needed some more direction, but strong LD contender :smile:

This game was fun while it lasted. Once I realized you could move the game, and I turned off all the coal factories, the game was basically over. You win by not playing :( Also, I may be missing it completely, but I don't see where the number of boxes you have is. Like I was able to purchase and build things when my boxes said "0/0". I like the idea of the game though.

By the way, what benefits are there to increasing happiness and housing if you win regardless, once pollution is cleaned up?

Thanks @agecaf and @jerripo - I added your suggestions to the tips section. I don't expect players to win on their first try. It's definitely a morality tale. :smirk: Increasing happiness isn't necessary to win, but 100% happiness would be a super-win. :trophy:

I kinda like the idea that, basically no matter what, humanity is doomed. Haha. Great idea.

I like the concept, is funny, a great way to take the theme, nice entry!

I can't really decide how to judge this. As a game or as an enviromental message.

As an enviromental message it says that we are all screwed if we wont build enviromentally safe power sources right away and shut down all the pollution sources, but it does not reflect any of the difficulties of the process even it simplest ways. In this world you can just shut everything down and nothing bad really happens. Happiness is not going down, people are still considered employed even if the factory has stopped working.

As a game though it lacks any gameplay at all. You just turn off all the factories and wait for two minutes untill the polution drops to zero. And if you want your happiness meter to rise, then you just shut all the factories except one, have enough resources to build a single solar plant and then just use that to build additional houses and solar plants.

And this game would be so much better in both aspects with only one simple change - if people would considered unemployed when you turn off the factory. This would cause a happiness drop and you would feel the hardship of switching to a right enviromentally-friendly way of living both in terms of real life message and in terms of gameplay. And this change could even give way to extending the game and adding new mechanics and events that happen on lower happiness levels. Like people doing riots and crushing everything or something else of that kind.

But honestly speaking the obvious strategy to play comes to you only on the second try. On the first try you are screwed almost 100%. And maybe the message is that if we wont do something right now, we are doomed and there will be no second chance to make things right like in this videogame.

Damn, this rules are hard to follow. At first i even forgot that i need to reduce the pollution rate, and was trying to max out Happiness\Housing\Employment stats by building coal factories all over the place. But figuring out how the game works was quite fun for me actually.

Right now this game lacks building variety. Maybe some anti-pollution building would have been nice to have, and add some pollution build up to big houses, so you need manage more carefully the amount of houses you build.

But overall i was quite pleased with the experience. If you tweak thing up a little bit and add building variety it could become really solid city management game.

Hey deathray I really enjoyed the concept, the theme is very fitting running out of space and conveying a relevant message. After my first play I found maybe i just switch off all the coal plants to stop the melting but sadly the sea levels kept rising haha. I wish i had a way to make more of a difference in the world by simply building solar and deactivating all coal plants but maybe I just didn't learn how to play properly hehe. Neat small game well done!

it lacks something to lengthen the game because we find ourselves a little under the water can do nothing

@t8kk @dimesto52 - You always start with some pollution, so even if you turn off all the coal factories right away, then it will take a while for the pollution to get naturally cleaned up, and the water to stop rising. But unless you have an unusually flat island it should always be winnable.

Nice one! Finished with Happiness: 84%, Housing: 94% and Employment: 83%. The story at the start was great and I really liked the theme.

Perhaps more of a (relevant) statement than a game, but it has some cute graphics and interesting mechanics. As a statement it works as it is, as a game I would have enjoyed more functions or options during gameplay, perhaps more types of buildings and technologies. Still, well done in the limited time given. :)

The game is enjoyable, but the mechanics are very simple, and that makes it rather uninteresting past finishing it one time. The graphics are nice, but the lack of sound makes it a bit boring. Also, it took me a while to discover that the map extends past the viewport and you can drag it - this could be explained on the title screen.

This is definitely the sort of game that I feel is really ambitious for Ludum Dare, especially for the compo. There's always a risk of either completely missing the ideal balance, or just not having enough content to really have a game - so having a compelling "hook" to the game is essential, and I think you've got that here.