Starting From Nothing by sorlok

made by sorlok for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

Content Warning: Suicide

We wanted to make a game for players to understand how some people have to cope with daily struggles to keep themselves alive. We often feel the need to help fix people's problems, but sometimes those people are not looking for solutions from us --just understanding. Hopefully this game helps you empathize with its characters while they work to stay alive and achieve their goals.

Controls: Mouse

Click on buttons to do things. Click+Drag the ball back to fire it forwards. Each ball represents an Action in someone's life; line up 3 or more to match them. But be careful --each match you make might have a strong positive or negative impact on the person you're helping, and may affect their Suicide Risk meter.

Ludum Dare Stuff * Art & Music are not ours; see Attribution.txt. * We've wanted to make this game for a long time. We apologize that it doesn't fit the Theme exactly.

Known Bugs * Game may crash. Sorry! * Emotion & Risk bars may sometimes disappear. Keep playing --they'll come back * Lifelines may not always active. (Don't worry, they will always save you at Risk Level 3.) * Music sometimes double-plays. Restart the app (I've only seen this once.) * Zoom on HTML5 for mobile devices is wrong. * Audio buzzes on Android. (Keep volume low or use headphones.)

Screenshots

Youtube	https://bitbucket.org/sethhetu/ld45/downloads/LD45_Windows64.zip
Youtube	https://sorlok-reaves.itch.io/starting-from-nothing
Youtube	https://bitbucket.org/sethhetu/ld45/downloads/
Youtube	https://bitbucket.org/sethhetu/ld45
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/starting-from-nothing

Ratings

Overall	1002^th	2.882⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Fun	1043^th	2.515⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	745^th	2.941⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Theme	1079^th	2.279⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Humor	852^th	1.963⭐	29🧑‍⚖️
Mood	718^th	3.147⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Given		39🗳️	37🗨️

Feedback

Stefanie Leitch

09. Oct 2019 · 00:03 UTC

Interesting concept. I'll be honest, the gameplay was a little slow -- having to click a button between each shot of the bubble got fairly painful after a period of time. But again, interesting and unique concept.

niborious

12. Oct 2019 · 02:27 UTC

A lot of detail in the writing! never thought a bubble game could be used this way haha.

design-wise, I was a little confused

and for me, the connection between "Suicide Risk" and and the bubbly gameplay felt a little ... misappropriated

Other than that, the visual and audio affects in the gameplay felt really nice, and I loved the music

tohubohu

12. Oct 2019 · 02:37 UTC

I liked the gameplay. Reminded me of games like Puzzle Bobble or Bust A Move. I felt like the narrative added another dimension to the gameplay, as if each "bubble" were an event in their life or some stress building up, and it made me want to succeed for more than just getting past the level. A difficult subject that is rarely (if ever) discussed in games and I think it was well done.

ketura

12. Oct 2019 · 02:55 UTC

Game gets reeeally laggy, and I'm not sure making the player hit "action" before each throw is a good idea, it messes with the pace a lot. The actual gameplay is as solid as any bubble bobble clone tho.

Cedric Matheus

12. Oct 2019 · 03:02 UTC

Nice art and sounds.

Raphiell

12. Oct 2019 · 03:51 UTC

The mechanics were good and the inspect feature was a great addition.

I found the gameplay quite slow and it took a long time to get through any amount of story.

Well done, and bravo for tackling this topic!

DrGrognak

12. Oct 2019 · 05:36 UTC

I'm totally into the idea of adding story rpg elements to a match 3 game! Inspecting your character was really cool. The gameplay itself fell a bit flat for me, I found myself wishing the game was faster paced, although I understand that a faster pace might conflict with the sort of meditative theme. Nice entry on a challenging subject.

Fictions

12. Oct 2019 · 08:21 UTC

I like the game, you made the bubbles animation suttle but it felt amazing... Also the music complements the theme realy well. I would have liked, if you didn't have to click each time you needed a new bubble because - bubble aiming was the main gameplay feature :)

I also like that you chose such a topic that is often not spoken in our society. If you do use such topics, please add a disclaimer like: If you suffer from depression or suicidal thoughts, there are a number of people who can help you. Here's a list of number that can help you https://ibpf.org/resource/list-international-suicide-hotlines

MrsTari

12. Oct 2019 · 13:08 UTC

I like the game :) it feels a little slow but thats okay. The music and the art are great. Nice job

LadyVardoula

13. Oct 2019 · 12:57 UTC

When I opened up the Web player, the whole game was confined to a little corner on the bottom left. That made the game a bit slower and a bit more challenging than it otherwise would have been intended. But the idea is very heartwarming (or heartbreaking as it may be the case), and the writing steps up to the challenge. Put up some more screenshots and make a blog post! It's a very nice game, it deserves to be seen.

stamestratagem

13. Oct 2019 · 15:58 UTC

It seems to be a bit oldschool. I don't think combining story and chakachaka games is a nice fit.

pkenney

26. Oct 2019 · 19:59 UTC

I like the ambitious goal of anchoring a sort of familiar purely-abstract game form into something emotional and human. I like the writing and the generosity of spirit that kind of shone through behind it. But the screen was really tall and didn't really fit right on my monitor, and the stats zone below the play area wasn't that easy to see, and this kind of broke the connection between the concepts, and I was terrible at aiming the balls, so as a result I think for me it was a sort of a miss... but that doesn't make this a bad entry, I appreciated the attempt even if it didn't exactly click together for me personally. Keep going for this kind of stuff, because when it works it can be really powerful!!

Finlal

27. Oct 2019 · 02:11 UTC

Очень милая музыка, и медетативный геймплей

Knatt

27. Oct 2019 · 17:43 UTC

The music and sounds were good, had a really calming atmosphere.
But I don't see how this matched "Start with Nothing"

Anion_Z

29. Oct 2019 · 05:58 UTC

Lol suicide and bubble game XD
You know what I thought, Ludum Dare 43 had a theme "Combine two incompatible genres"
That would fit that theme sooo well. Otherwise the game is alright, Im not particularly enjoyed bubble game but I understand it was not the main focus unlike keeping the suspect alive

zuf

29. Oct 2019 · 12:43 UTC

I liked the art and music. And you made the bubbles work with the serious themes. Good job.

That second level was brutal. Couldn't even get close to 12. But the other levels were doable.

simXple

29. Oct 2019 · 18:44 UTC

Nice game, didn't finish it though because its not my kinda game, but nice backstory/intention and lovly art

pleyad

29. Oct 2019 · 19:17 UTC

Creative entry! Thank you for acknowledging mental health, video games are a powerful medium :thumbsup: I found it a bit distracting to click the buttons all the time, maybe it would've been a good idea to have display of the bubble-informations as a hover-event.

🎤 sorlok

29. Oct 2019 · 19:38 UTC

Thanks so much for all the well-thought-out feedback everyone, and it means the world to us that you took time to enjoy and appreciate our game. We're definitely going to redesign based on the feedback that we got, especially (1) the dislike of being forced to click "Action" every time, (2) the difficulty of controlling the game for some people, (3) the screen orientation and size (we were sort of targeting phones, but I think we can make it work for desktop users as well), and (4) the difficulty curve vs. storytelling. Thanks so much!