LudumData

EYAM by donvermo

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

Screen Shot 2017-07-31 at 22.21.58.png

ABOUT

EYAM is a game about a small town of the same name. The town has been hit with THE PLAGUE and the people are suffering. As the major of this town it is your job to keep the population alive.

Try and spread out the population, build and upgrade HOUSES to help grow your population but keep in mind that the more people you have the higher the chances of infection.

GAMEPLAY

Screen Shot 2017-07-31 at 22.21.58.png

HOUSES are initially EMPTY, RESIDENTS migrate from ADJACENT houses (Not diagonally) Build and upgrade HOUSES to create more space for your population to live.

Screen Shot 2017-07-31 at 22.21.58.png

GRAVE sites gather corpses from HOUSES automatically, this helps contain THE PLAGUE. Because of their nature GRAVE sites cannot be demolished.

Initially each building type costs a fixed amount, each consecutive upgrade of the same type will increase the specific capacity for that building but will also its cost.

WIN by getting your population cap as high as possible LOSE by having nobody left.

PLANNED FEATURES

One of the initial mechanics that was also supposed to tie into this game was an UNREST mechanic. High UNREST would cause the population of the town to kick you out (and lose the game).

Demolishing buildings or not cleaning up the dead fast enough would increase unrest.

Additional building types: Church / Tavern / Crematorium would have varying amounts of influence on this mechanic and others to create more varied gameplay. I might still consider these for another POSTJAM release.

CONTRIBUTORS

Design: Donvermo

Programming: Donvermo

QA: Cr0VV

NOTE

Gameplay SPEED can be adjusted in the options menu (press escape) This game was originally planned as a desktop release but I decided to build it for web instead to make it easier for everyone to enjoy it. I did not create the 3D models or any of the AUDIO. That super sexy developer art in the UI (which I never got to replace) is all by yours truly however ;)

HTML5 (web) https://donvermo.itch.io/eyam
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/eyam

Ratings

Overall 653th 3.375⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 876th 2.925⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 486th 3.25⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 442th 3.575⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 654th 3.35⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 195th 3.763⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 23🗳️ 12🗨️

Feedback

cjuan94
06. Dec 2017 · 15:08 UTC
wow, a biggest idea, unfortunately i cant play so well in my old notebook, later i come back to play again in other pc
phi
06. Dec 2017 · 19:45 UTC
Sounds like a cool, simple and effective concept, and it's not too difficult to keep track of the population with this map size. It took me some attempts until I finally managed to keep my population from dying out, but with the instructions, it was quite well comprehensible. Even though there aren't a lot of parameters (which I like, makes the game very easily understandable), I had a hard time estimating what the best moves were. Maybe some kind of visual/audible feedback when and where people are dying would be useful, so the player can react accordingly and learn from mistakes.

The UI could be a bit prettier, that's true, and having to click the floor and not the houses feels a bit weird, but overall, it works really well and provides a great mood. I also like the interpretation of the theme with the population balancing aspect. Nicely done!

Also, you hid that "game speed" setting really well... ;) But it's great that it's there!

PS: If you didn't create any of the audio, you shouldn't take credit for it, which probably also means you shouldn't allow people to rate your game in that category. It's good that you mention it in your game description though. :)
Britt Henderson
06. Dec 2017 · 19:46 UTC
I enjoyed the spoopy tunes that came from the game. It's mood was impecible. From the name to the daunting plague, it was really well constructed.
I felt the gameplay was inhibited by the lack of speed and the inacuracy of clicks. At the begining i really wanted to speed things up, so maybe add a fast forward feature. It would take me 3 or 4 clicks to actually select a plot, but asside from that it would feel better to just not have to click at all to see plot info by just displaying the info if the mouse is over the plot. When i then click the plot would be when i could start construction. These problems in game play were somewhat frustrating, but if they were resolved it could be a more polished game.

Definitely a good twitst on the town simulator idea- thank you for making the game :)
talisra22
06. Dec 2017 · 19:58 UTC
W-O-W
CREEPY
🎤 donvermo
06. Dec 2017 · 20:27 UTC
@Phi Thank you so much for playing! Thanks for mentioning the Audio voting bit, I changed the setting. As for the feedback on the gameplay, I had similar thoughts but alas the time prevented me from implementing everything. Maybe a postjam version van fix that ;)

@britt-henderson Thank you for the honest criticism, If you hadn't noticed you can modify the gameplay speed in the options menu. Just to be sure I have modified the readme to make mention of that.
Yetman
08. Dec 2017 · 18:30 UTC
The creepiest game and soundtrack of the jam. I think a faster pace would be nice. Overall, The game and the mood is great and the visuals are good. Nice Work.
rplnt
10. Dec 2017 · 19:55 UTC
I liked the idea, unfortunately I felt like I have no control once I supplied enough graves. Also would like to know the status without clicking the building. Otherwise a good start.
naali
10. Dec 2017 · 22:14 UTC
I like the idea and thought it had a good mood. One thing I wasn't sure about was the direction of what to do. I kept upgrading my houses and graves but didn't know if I was going to a specific end or goal.
🎤 donvermo
12. Dec 2017 · 06:31 UTC
@rplnt, @naali Thank you for the feedback, my original vision was to implement a high score system to drive the player to create an as large as possible population that would only be achievable by carefully managing the population growth. Unfortunately I didn't get around to it but I will see what I can do for the postJam version. I hope you still enjoyed it!
megabrutal
24. Dec 2017 · 14:00 UTC
Great game! At first I failed immediately, but the I managed to build 4-5 houses and many graveyards. Is there a winning condition or you're expected to fill everything with buildings? It wasn't clear for me what is the point of upgrading a house or a graveyard. Increased capacity, maybe, or increased efficiency?
🎤 donvermo
24. Dec 2017 · 16:02 UTC
@megabrutal Increased capacity, I didn't manage to implement a good tooltip system but I'm working on that now to get it done before Christmas as a postjam present :)
StratosKakalis
24. Dec 2017 · 16:23 UTC
Nice and interesting concept! I saw this game earlier but had to skip, I'm really glad you shared this with me because i gave it a shot and it was lovely. All the constructive critisism i have is it was a little slow.... but then i found a game speed slider, so all's good!
keckles
24. Dec 2017 · 17:07 UTC
very cool it was a bit slow but other then that good job
cxsquared
24. Dec 2017 · 17:20 UTC
The atmosphere is really great and I like the gameplay. I think it would be cool if you could see some of the residents moving about and working. With some more buildings this could be really fun. Nice work.
justinooncx
25. Dec 2017 · 04:56 UTC
Yyyyeah, I tried, but I didn't quite get this game. There was very little to go on, and I found myself lost and confused as I built houses and graveyards. All I had to go on was the stuff that was written outside the game, so I just built the graveyard at the far end, and the houses on the other. Then I... watched the numbers go up and down, seemingly at random. I'll poke it a little more, perhaps, but for the time being, the game is lost on me.
furet
26. Dec 2017 · 01:15 UTC
This is a neat idea, though even with the game speed all the way up, it felt like a lot of time was spent just waiting to get enough currency to build another thing, while the town deteriorates. I understand the art assets were limited, but it'd be helpful if an upgraded item was indicated somehow (highlighted maybe?) so you don't have to just remember it.
🎤 donvermo
28. Dec 2017 · 22:26 UTC
@furet, glad you liked the idea, if you are still interested I just uploaded a POSTJAM version which fixes that particular issue as well as some balancing. Thank you for playing and if you do end up playing the POSTJAM version please let me know what you think.

@justinooncx, the POSTJAM version I just released includes additional tooltips that should help clear up the mechanics. If there are things you still find confusing please let me know and I will see what I can do to make the experience more enjoyable.

As for anyone that played my game and didn't leave a comment or if I didn't address you specifically: Thank you all so much for playing, I hope you enjoyed the experience and that my next iteration will only be better because of all of your input.