LudumData

Hard Decisions by vortex

[raw]
made by vortex for LD34 (COMPO)
Note: Your choices get stored anonymously. I wanted to make an evaluation like in Life Is Strange, and I might still get around to doing that, so please make serious choices to get better results...
In this game you play the role of the president of a country, that is in a sort of cold war situation, that stopped being cold.
You are currently in a bunker, and communicate with the world by pressing one of two buttons.

Controls:
Read the text, and press one of the two Buttons...

Tools used:
Unity
Paint.Net

Bug Fixes:
14/12/15: Support all screen ratios; Added exit button; Sending the amount of times you played(to get statistics that don't involve goes where you replay and just press red to see what happens)
17/12/15: Added post compo version with analytics at the end of the game
Windows https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/74467175/LD34/HardDecisions_Data.zip
Post Compo with Analytics https://www.dropbox.com/s/k9grmlugtkmzzta/HardDecisions%28PostCompo%29_Data.zip?dl=1
Post Compo Analytics only https://www.dropbox.com/s/hy5rwqk8b8qlf3u/HardDecisions%28AnalyticsOnly%29_Data.zip?dl=1
Source https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6_hq-KId0nseGZySUZ2MDU5V1E/view?usp=sharing
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=36386

Ratings

Coolness 84% 2
Overall 3.64 192
Fun 3.25 407
Graphics 3.28 386
Innovation 3.45 292
Mood 3.74 91
Theme 4.23 80

Feedback

Falkreon
13. Dec 2015 路 23:53 UTC
That was a strange experience. The game only had one resolution available for fullscreen, and when I started it up, the button hitboxes were located as if the view was centered. Problem is, the actual graphics were at the top of my screen. Worse yet, when you finish the interview, there's only a green button to restart. I had to tab out and quit it while it was backgrounded.

The game itself is vaguely reminiscent of Papers Please and Please Don't Touch Anything. I like that, and I like that the questions here aren't easy. Some bugs to iron out, but keep up the good work.
pluberski
14. Dec 2015 路 16:21 UTC
Really captivating for having been made in such a short period of time! :)
馃帳 vortex
14. Dec 2015 路 17:53 UTC
@Falkreon Thanks for your feedback :). The problems didn't occur to me, because the background is 16:9, and I wanted to lock your Window only to be 16:9 too. That's where your first problems came from. Since I opened it in windowed mode, I didn't need a quit button, since I just used the red X.
These small bugs are now fixed! :)
velddev
14. Dec 2015 路 19:30 UTC
Neato. i blew myself up.
Max Amaden
14. Dec 2015 路 20:06 UTC
Awesome little text-based game! I really like the UI and the way the text appears gradually on the terminal screen.
Wevel
14. Dec 2015 路 20:07 UTC
BOOM, nice game interesting idea of controlling things you are only being told about so you don't really know whats going on
dmecke
14. Dec 2015 路 20:32 UTC
Nice story, I felt that I was too often asked the same questions maybe (different questions actually, but the same meaning). After all very well done!
peterthehe
15. Dec 2015 路 16:01 UTC
Very interesting
Reccy
15. Dec 2015 路 16:24 UTC
Awesome little game. I kinda got a War Games vibe from it. :P
n00basaurus
15. Dec 2015 路 18:38 UTC
An interesting concept. I would highly recommend seeing nuclear crisis movies from the 1960s like Dr. Strangelove or more importantly, FAIL SAFE.

Some minor programming issues: No 'esc' to easy quit/exit
Text would shrink when too much would appear on the screen at once. Greatly jars the player out of the immersion.
Could either make the in-game "screen" image bigger to accommodate your larger paragraphs, or condense your wording to prevent shrinking.

No "quick appear" for large blocks of text.

I did like how different this game was for the theme of two buttons, though they might have been better mapped to different sides of a keyboard than mouse pick events.
Si1ver
16. Dec 2015 路 18:41 UTC
I liked it =)
Is it possible to overcome the enemy?
馃帳 vortex
16. Dec 2015 路 19:17 UTC
@Si1ver No... It isn't.
I didn't want you to be able to win because that would result in there being a definitive "correct" path, that would be a weird combination of choices...
thedashdude
16. Dec 2015 路 21:54 UTC
Fun, but where is the data you said you would be collecting? I would be curious to see it.
馃帳 vortex
17. Dec 2015 路 12:49 UTC
@thedashdude right now the data is just sitting in an xml file... I will probably post it somewhere once I got the time to actually put it into some nice diagrams
ViKing Games
17. Dec 2015 路 21:46 UTC
Played the post-compo version, since the only difference is the stats at the end. However, the stats said I chose to allow teenagers to be recruited, even though that's not what I said.

As for the rest of the game, I liked the tone of the game, and the choices were all well-written. The graphics fit the game well, and the flashing towards the end was a nice touch. It could be even better with some ambience and button noises, though.
IAmSpencer
18. Dec 2015 路 08:52 UTC
I liked the aesthetics, and the atmosphere was spot on!

I did find it slightly disorienting when the message text would show up and start re-sizing itself while I was reading it, but other than that, nice game! :)
aare
18. Dec 2015 路 10:51 UTC
Nice idea, but the story and decisions I took felt very disconnected. In one moment I was deciding about one thing, and at another about something completely different.
Warboys
18. Dec 2015 路 11:38 UTC
I guess I won and lost at the same time? Played a few times doing negative and positive reactions and then a mix of both, I suppose there's no way out of being blown to smithereen? ;)

Really like the art style and mood (it would have been extra nice with some audio), and the subject matter is compelling... if the options were a little binary. I really hope there isn't a system of responding with only A or B with access to nukes!
SK16 Games
20. Dec 2015 路 00:53 UTC
Very nice game! :) I love the ending(s), even though it's a bit frustrating not being able win the war or end it peacefully
andrewkennedy
21. Dec 2015 路 21:21 UTC
It looked like the best way to win was just pressing the green button a bunch? Regardless, it was a pretty cool "choose your own adventure" kind of experience.
MercuryXGames
27. Dec 2015 路 19:47 UTC
I launched the nuclear missile and it felt good!
camlang
27. Dec 2015 路 20:35 UTC
Nice game with several ways to play. I like this type of games. It's very funny to investigate all branches of story. Very good entry! Well done!
EvanEGibbs
28. Dec 2015 路 07:46 UTC
Cool game! The choices were really hard and I really liked how they could come back and really bite you in the butt. It really makes you pay attention to what you are doing. Awesome job!
EternalCastleStudio
29. Dec 2015 路 11:29 UTC
Ey, very good entry. I love text-decision-games and this has a very interesting plot. Good job!
Tselmek
29. Dec 2015 路 18:00 UTC
Nice experience, I don't if there was a good ending but I could never reach it. Definitely missing some sfx for a best experience. Nice take on the theme.
Somnium
02. Jan 2016 路 15:52 UTC
Loved the game, great writing!

I liked how previous decision could come back to haunt you several "choices" later.