Is There Enough Space? by chipolux

[raw]
made by chipolux for LD 42 (COMPO)

icon.png

People always need stuff, and that stuff takes up space. How much can be done before there is no more space left?

Try and keep up with demand, but there isn't much space to work with...

Controls

You are painting a map, tile by tile, trying to keep up with the 'desires' indicated by the bars in the top right.

Choose colors from the palette on the left, and once you've filled up every pixel you can save your tile and it will go towards fulfilling demand. Then you can click on the screen again and start painting a new tile.

If you want to take a screenshot of a map you've drawn you can press the H key to toggle the bars. I'd love to see screenshots of what people draw!

If you want to re-draw existing tiles you can press the F key to toggle freeplay mode, which also let's you save partially completed tiles.

The R key will reset the game. So be careful of it!

You can also trigger the end game animation by pressing the G key, though it will only play once per game.

Concept

"Running out of space" made me think of the finite space we've got here on earth and how basically everything we need takes up some space and we have to balance out those things. I also really like cartography and wanted to see how much detail you could get out of very few "pixels". I also wanted to try a kind of super minimalist theme, with basically no text or anything, not sure I pulled that off super well. My goal was for a relaxing kind of ambient game, and I do enjoy just painting in it, I hope you do as well!

Wishes

I wanted to add in some simple sounds when you place/paint certain colors, and maybe some soft ambient sound based on the amount of certain colors since we've already got that information. Unfortunately I wasn't able to even start on adding sounds.

I also wish I had time to add some more animations to maybe gently draw attention to the progress bars as they filled up more and to indicate how each tile feeds the desires.

Ratings

Overall 707th 2.444⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Fun 710th 2.111⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 359th 3.194⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Theme 585th 3.028⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 662th 2.278⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 575th 2.25⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 15🗳️ 8🗨️

Feedback

13. Aug 2018 · 03:13 UTC
I got it after a while. After I saw the end screen I understood. If the end screen were at the beginning I would understand the game much better than I did.

Simple graphics, it all blended together. Though I suggest adding music and sound effects. Good job!
WongKongPhooey
14. Aug 2018 · 20:13 UTC
Would it be possible for you to add a set of instructions to this jam page? I really didn't understand what I was doing! I think if I did understand it could be really fun, as it does seem well put together from as far as I got, in terms of drawing maps and placing the tiles around.
🎤 chipolux
15. Aug 2018 · 01:35 UTC
@wongkongphooey I've added some instructions and details! I was shooting for hyper-minimalism but it was harder to pull off than I thought. Thanks for the feedback!
Beelzeboss
15. Aug 2018 · 08:50 UTC
As other people pointed out it is a bit hard to get at the beggining. It has a polished feel and evrything worked. :)
Derek Volker
15. Aug 2018 · 10:35 UTC
I tried but i didnt understand the game. Sorry.
mao
16. Aug 2018 · 01:47 UTC
This composition symbolizes my thoughts as I played the game:

![idontknow.png](///raw/e09/z/19ea0.png)

I like the minimalistic feel, but I think there should be some additional constraints or objectives to make the game a little more game-like. Some guidelines to give some direction to the player's drawings could contribute to the message of the game, without adding too much complexity.
ShaggyFox
16. Aug 2018 · 07:16 UTC
A very unusual game, but it works :smiley:
Kruemelkatze
20. Aug 2018 · 21:50 UTC
As others mentioned, it isn't quite straightforward, what you are supposed to do, even after reading the (new?) instructions. I know I have to fulfill the demands as being indicated by the bars, but I do not know how my tile placement affects them. :/

Still a very interesting idea!