Game of Life by StaNov

made by StaNov for LD 39 (COMPO)

TLDR: Everything is explained in the game. Just play it already! :)

Welcome to my game about life! The goal is to Would you rather to live a healthy relaxed life or would you rather work from sunrise to sunset? Would you start a family or live alone? You can make your choices as you want :)

I wanted to create a simple game - no graphics, just some buttons and recomputing and progress-bars, just for one afternoon. Whoops :)

You may find it a bit hard to understand, but I believe, if you play it several times, you get a grasp of it :)

Have fun, all feedback is welcome!

Post-compo version

I am also working on more balanced version of the game with public leaderboard. You can play the current state here, but rate me by the original one linked below :)

Post-compo WebGL: http://games.stanov.cz/ludum-dare-39/beta
Post-compo Windows: http://games.stanov.cz/ludum-dare-39/GameOfLifepostcompoWin.zip

About me

I am a (former professional) game developer from Czech Republic.

My previous Ludum Dare profile: http://ludumdare.com/compo/author/stanov
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StaNovStandaNovak
https://www.youtube.com/standanovak
https://www.twitch.tv/stanov
My personal website (in Czech): http://www.StaNov.cz
All my games (in Czech): http://games.StaNov.cz

HTML5 (web)	http://games.stanov.cz/ludum-dare-39
Windows	http://games.stanov.cz/ludum-dare-39/GameOfLife_Win.zip
Source code	https://github.com/StaNov/Ludum-Dare/tree/master/Ludum%20Dare%2039
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/game-of-life

Ratings

Overall	259^th	3.429⭐	30🧑‍⚖️
Fun	158^th	3.517⭐	31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	292^th	3.172⭐	31🧑‍⚖️
Theme	282^th	3.586⭐	31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	643^th	1.818⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Audio	181^th	3.25⭐	30🧑‍⚖️
Humor	89^th	3.346⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Mood	296^th	3.037⭐	29🧑‍⚖️
Given		8🗳️	7🗨️

Feedback

shashwat

31. Jul 2017 · 05:31 UTC

I like the concept. I didn't like the pace of the game that much, because I had to keep track of too many things in too little time. Having said that, I liked the variety in actions.

Mad_Fizban

31. Jul 2017 · 05:50 UTC

This is very good! I managed to make it to 220 years old before my partner decided to start earning us negative income. Just like real life =)

Maybe declare incomes as a long int.

Mad_Fizban

31. Jul 2017 · 05:50 UTC

This is very good! I managed to make it to 220 years old before my partner decided to start earning us negative income. Just like real life =)

Maybe declare incomes as a long int.

IgorsGames

31. Jul 2017 · 21:17 UTC

The idea is great! But I constantly run out of money, probably because the indicator is separate from the others, and so I forget about it :/

Xarras

01. Aug 2017 · 15:28 UTC

This is a very cool interpretation of the theme! I gave it a few runs and also ran out of money, It's hard to keep track of it since it doesn't have a bar like the rest haha
Good game!

Rikoclon

02. Aug 2017 · 09:09 UTC

Hey I like how it came together! it would be good for a mobile device. Its a little too easy. I was making like 200,000 every time I went to work. I decided to have a family at 120 years old. at about 200 years old I was pretty bored. Heck of a life tho just going to the spa all the time, my partner didn't need to work. just take the fam to the water park. work every few years or so to remind myself how rich I am... lol It was fun! I killed myself the first time I played by hitting the spa button before having the cash. should just say you don't have the funds.

ursagames

02. Aug 2017 · 11:39 UTC

Interesting entry. It's amazing how addicting keeping the bars full can be, well done! The audio is pretty fitting as well.

BinarySpark

02. Aug 2017 · 13:01 UTC

This was pretty nice, quite simple with mechanics but nice to play. I think that the UI could really do with a little bit of polish, such as button textures. The variety of things to do is nice, and I like that new buttons appear every now and then.

I'll be honest, the music was getting on my nerves after a while. And it appears that you can click a button to override your current action, even if it isn't finished yet.
But overall, nice work.

Robber

02. Aug 2017 · 13:02 UTC

I took the easy road i think, but did start a family in the end until i aged 80..Fun concept, and idea to start out a gamejam, starting with the mechanics. Had a fun life..

Robber

02. Aug 2017 · 13:03 UTC

Also the game was quite clear, explained itself.

Rahtainka

02. Aug 2017 · 14:45 UTC

Nice little game. I love the music. It's really catchy! The idea is cool and the game is fun and addicitve. Well done!

nokusu

02. Aug 2017 · 15:00 UTC

Just tested it fresh after seeing it on stream, it's simple but fun

**Positive things :**
- A nice take on the theme
- The interface is clear and easy to understand eventhough there are quite a lot possible actions
- Don't know if it was intentionnal (if not no offense it's funny in a good way !) but the "i'm done" after completing an action cracks me up every time :)
- Dat catchy tune that will stick O_o but quite honestly it's a good loop and i like that it changes when you're in "danger"

**Negative things :**
- maybe a bit repetitive
- too bad that it's just some text menus, although i guess this help not to clutter the interface and finding actions easily ^^

So overall well done :)

Zeriver

02. Aug 2017 · 17:29 UTC

Whoaw this is a really complex game but surprisingly easy to get grasp on. There are a lot of buttons / actions but are neatly organized in categories and are intuitive (like if you smoke to get your happiness up then you know that your health will go down). Audio is pretty nice and gives the whole game this silly / fun atmosphere. Gameplay is pretty engaging and you constantly thinks about your next move although game might get too repetitive after two playthroughs. Graphics are the weakest side of the game but they are really not that important in that kind of game. Pretty interesting game in overall.

LERPish

03. Aug 2017 · 10:23 UTC

Really interesting game i liked it

daneestar

03. Aug 2017 · 20:36 UTC

I really liked this game! In the third playthrough I started to understand the numbers but I also had fun in the first 2 playthroughs in spite of the sudden deaths :)

The music is good but gets repetitive...

Didactylos

04. Aug 2017 · 01:06 UTC

I, too, eat a meal every two years or I die. Pretty sure that's what would happen. But I don't take any risks!

hhsaez

08. Aug 2017 · 21:36 UTC

I think the game has a lot of potential, but it might need more polishing on the options. For example, "Play a hobby" could be changed for "Play the guitar", "Draw a painting", etc, each of them with slightly different stats. I hope you get to work on it after the compo.
I do like the fact that your stats decreases with age, like energy. That's a nice touch.
Great work!

Split82

09. Aug 2017 · 13:44 UTC

Perfect music and interesting gameplay! :)

Pavel Kouril

12. Aug 2017 · 13:58 UTC

I like it, but I have some feedback:

- The music in the background has a cut when it ends and starts looping. Some crossfade or anything would be nice! :)
- Maybe having more tracks and playing them based on your energy would be nice as well?
- Option to add at least on item to queue, or at least not make it cancel the current one (so not allowing to misclick and cancel actions)! :)

oakus

12. Aug 2017 · 15:38 UTC

I like the balancing and I agree that it can be hard because real life is hard, but I cannot agree with mechanic that your happinnes goes down when you sleep! It's the other way around! :D

zgragselus

13. Aug 2017 · 20:20 UTC

The game seems to ultimately let you run out of energy. I did like it - died few times which I consider success! In my opinion it was lacking some additional graphics representation (this way it was just some buttons and progress bars).

I didn't like the music too much, it didn't feel matched to the theme (although that will be highly subjective).

Also I saw you on twitch!

LeviDSmith

20. Aug 2017 · 08:38 UTC

Nice concept! The music was great. First time I played, I started a family and only made it to my 30's. The second time I made it to 94 years old! I died a single, wealthly old man! The meter bars seemed really well done, and I could tell that the game was well balanced so that you couldn't live past a normal person's life span.

Jupiter_Hadley

07. Nov 2017 · 15:57 UTC

Challenging game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 39 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr1O4LytQqQ