I have the same feeling on holidays!

Having friends is stressful, but a solidly entertaining game!

Nice game you have! What I liked the most was the semi-3D gameplay. I like it! :)

Wow this is a seriously addictive game. Very fun! Would love to see you continue developing this game post-LD! Already see some strands of cool features and would love to see that grow. So far up to Year 12 and it's getting really hard! ahha

EDIT: I just beat the game! Wasn't expecting it to end honestly, I would've kept going! haha

I really like the graphic style, very cool!

Congrats with your game! Nice touch that you can use your Ludum Dare user name to get my profile picture. :)
At first I ignored the upgrades, but once I discovered and started to use them, it got more interesting. Also it was not clear at first that I should give people presents in the right color. I still don't know how it affects what they think of me if I give hem nothing or the wrong color. What would you think of displaying the bar of what they think of you above there heads? Or should I remember it for all my friends? ;)
Also, it wasn't clear to me if there was a winning condition ( although I see from the comment by @arrigo that there is). I stopped in year 20, after I tried to not give any presents and see what it did (my friends didn't like it, but I still got presents! :P). At that time, the prices were getting double digits, which made them harder to read. I think some christmassy music would had added to the mood. ;)
Overall, good job!

Am I the only one to not understand anything. I accepted three friend requests, bough three presents at the store then the clerks disapeared and I could not do anything. Even the timer gone to zero without nothing hapening. Some clearer instructions would be welcome.

@arrigo "I just beat the game! Wasn’t expecting it to end honestly, I would’ve kept going! haha"

I am a proponent of "ethical" game design (whatever that means ^_^), and as such wanted the game to have a few features, namely: __natural break points__ (the next year screen, it should also save your progress there, but that doesn't work on my desktop... strangely), and __an ending screen__ that suggests the player stop playing if they've been going too long. I'm glad you liked the game!

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@papaver "What would you think of displaying the bar of what they think of you above there heads? Or should I remember it for all my friends?"

This was something we thought about a bit while making the game, but **didn't have time to test much**. Ultimately I think our idea was that to fit best with the theme **it should get harder and harder to manage**, and maybe you could try to remember special instructions for a friend or two, but for the most part just ignore individuals as your friendships become less personal.

"I still don’t know how it affects what they think of me if I give hem nothing or the wrong color."
- **no present hurts** your friendship
- the **wrong present** has **no effect**
- the **correct present** has **positive effect** on the friendship
- and of course a **_lava lamp_** will **grow it even more** ^_^

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**Ending Hint:** It doesn't have much to do with your friends, if they are getting to be too much to manage. ^_^

@sgadrat "Some clearer instructions would be welcome."

We went for an **explore to learn** style of tutorial. The key piece is that you can go back to your house, and **sleep in the bed**. That will advance the game to the next year, where you will get presents from your friends, and more friend requests. When the timer reaches zero the store simply stops making presents which makes it harder for you to manage large friend lists!

Thank you for your feedback though, it helps us to find points of friction for players. ^_^

Awesome game! I had raelly fun playing it!
Even made it on the scoreboard I think

This is rather enjoyable. Can be a bit confusing at first, but it's pretty easy to pick up on things as you play, so that doesn't matter too much, haha.

At Year 11, was still swimming in money with alot of my friends loving me, my strat was : always buying the cheapest presents possible. I had some times waiting for the right price to appear, and bought everytime all the bonuses possible.

I was getting a little boried by the infinite list of presents (I didn't want to finish a year without getting to 0 $ ) , so I was thinking about quitting, but then I saw tere was an ending. So I tryharded : and honestly, the 2 last years were a real struggle, as an factory worker simulator, I didn't even looked at the price of the gift.

So here's my score : https://gyazo.com/f3e9e9bb5708d597a698aedba82ec2d3

For a jam agme, it's really really good. It makes you wanna play more, and more, the graphics and camera are a real good idea, it respects the theme, the controls are really intuitive and you can quickly become efficient, no, you did really well, you deserve full points on alot of things.

But as a game alone, I think that the end is maybe a little far, as I was really suffering while rageclicking to add friends, sell all presents, but everything, to see the endscreen. Will not spoil about it tho, so other people too can work to see it.

Good job.

Edit : goddammit I didn't put my ludum username, I won't even be in the highscore after all this endeavor

@lautregars "So I tryharded : and honestly, the 2 last years were a real struggle, as an factory worker simulator, I didn’t even looked at the price of the gift."

Yea, in testing I rarely got above 100 friends, and when I did I typically skipped buying the bulk of them presents. Good job being a good friend ^_^

"Edit : goddammit I didn’t put my ludum username, I won’t even be in the highscore after all this endeavor"

Thanks to your highscore picture I was able to add you Ludum Dare name to your SQL rows in my database, I hope that's okay!

Really well done! The way you incorporated so many polished elements within a two-room architecture made this feel like a full, complete game. Some additional feedback on when you're spending money to buy gifts would have been helplfull (I eventually figured it out, though).

Good work on this. Definitely nailed the feel of a Christmas rush. Things felt nice and polished (although I wish there were sounds/music). The art style and camera controls were really well done and it felt like you put a lot of effort into making the game scale in an organic way. Things definitely started to get hectic the more friends I had, so you definitely nailed the theme.

I really love the bold graphics. And the overall idea is heartwarming too, great work! :)

Nice graphics!

I was a bit confused at first game. Then I understood the gift system.

Good job. Just some feedbacks can be great. ( My game also lack of feedback due to lack of time )

The horrors of social network and christmas shopping! Simple and fun game. Was a bit confusing to start and could have helped with some easing into it. Then it got easier to understand. Never quite got why there was a second conveyor belt in the other room. So perhaps simplify that too in the beginning. Didn't quite understand if there was any benefit in giving someone nicer/more expensive gifts or if it was all about spending as little as possible on as many as possible so that you got more loot to sell after christmas. Fun premise though.

Interesting game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 40 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26D5qtoYgoQ

simple and nice idea, need more work but Im glad you are already making progress... Keep it up !