Roll your Dough by ancient-pixel | LudumData

Roll your Dough by ancient-pixel

made by ancient-pixel for Ludum Dare 47 (COMPO)

step into the shoes of a bagel factory worker, amidst the BGL-47 and a political crisis. Stand up early, eat your bagels and roll your dough!

The game was inspired by some unrelated bagel making during the theme announcement. So it was a perfect fit, if i may be so superstitious! I used phaser.js as a framework and the game is controlled only by mouse.

This time, i finished right in time, but of coursse I had to drop some features i originally wanted to have. Like getting a promotion at the bagel factory from rolling to packing until you eventually get to be the CEO of the corporation. Although i started with sound in mind, because the alarmclock was the first thing i coded, it was the only sound that remained in the game, as i couldnt fit all the sounds i wanted in time into the game.

some inspirations were: The Westport Independant Papers Please cutting fish in What Remains of Editth Finch

additional funfact: you can break the loop in several ways, try to oversleep or get evicted for example

ATTENTION - TUTORIAL I didnt communicate clearly how to do things, so to roll dough you have to hold your mousebutton down and move up and down over the dough, slowly but surely it will roll into ...a roll. Similarly on the breakfast screen you need to open up the bagel to butter it and close it up an move to advance. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Have fun and thx for the feedback in advcance :)

Youtube	https://ancientpixel.itch.io/roll-your-dough
Youtube	https://ancientpixel.itch.io/roll-your-dough
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/roll-your-dough

Ratings

Overall	500^th	3.042⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Fun	532^th	2.694⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	206^th	3.528⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Theme	309^th	3.583⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	400^th	3.181⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Humor	162^th	3.074⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Mood	350^th	3.069⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Given		36🗳️	49🗨️

Feedback

05. Oct 2020 · 08:49 UTC

I could not figure out what to do with the dough. Fun idea though. I liked the game idea.

05. Oct 2020 · 11:39 UTC

Cool idea. I would suggest have a bit more of a readable font if you want the player to read a lot. The lower case "g"-s in particular are very straining. Could not get past the second screen though. A bit more hints as to what to do would be nice.

🎤 ancient-pixel

06. Oct 2020 · 17:42 UTC

@henrik-ganard Thanks, i ran out of playtesters that didnt already know or have seen how to roll, so tutorialisiing this was an complete oversight. Ive added that in the description :)

🎤 ancient-pixel

06. Oct 2020 · 17:45 UTC

@p0l4r Thanks for the feedback, i bounced between fixing the font, using a different one or making everything uppercase, but i ended up doing nothing due to time. As for tutorialisation ive added something in the description, this also was an oversight that i couldnt let playtest thoroughly :(

06. Oct 2020 · 18:22 UTC

Interesting concept! The resolution was perfect for web which is an issue I've ran into with many LD games, so Props for that! Played a few loops, the rolling was bit janky at first, but I got it down in the end.

06. Oct 2020 · 18:25 UTC

Hot dang, bagel facts! It took me a while before I found out you could turn the dough into bagels, maybe make the process a bit faster? Cool game, and great work on the art!

🎤 ancient-pixel

06. Oct 2020 · 18:27 UTC

@holtzzy223 @blobo Thx :)

infinitestatemachine

06. Oct 2020 · 18:30 UTC

Couldn't quite figure out to roll the dough but we've been learning to make bread lately so we appreciate the schooling on bagels:D

🎤 ancient-pixel

06. Oct 2020 · 18:33 UTC

@infinitestatemachine Ive added a disclaimer in the description, bc i didnt tutorialize that part of the game, thanks for playing :)

06. Oct 2020 · 18:45 UTC

Really enjoyed this! Instilled a sense of dystopia AND learned some fun facts about bagels and gerrymandering, everything you could ask for from a game. Enjoyed the writing and the artwork was pleasing. Impressed at your ability to do hands. But yeah, I think I only knew what to do with the dough because I've made bagels before too

🎤 ancient-pixel

06. Oct 2020 · 19:01 UTC

@noahw haha, thx :D yeah as stated above, i ran out of playtesters and didnt even think about tutorializing it, i hope it doesnt catch some people on the wrong foot

06. Oct 2020 · 20:42 UTC

Felt a little bit like Papers Please, with the dystopian text and bills/paycheck! I think I got a glitch where dough was being thrown onto my breakfast table! I enjoyed the controls with the mouse controlling the hand :)

06. Oct 2020 · 22:38 UTC

finally i managed to find another game themed after a torus shaped wheat product.
We were talking about bagels, but settled with a donut :D

Had no problems rolling the bagels, i even perfected the process by rolling multiple at once ;)
just as @a4x8e6 there was dough thrown on my butter; but I think that was supposed to happen.

Overall really cute game. Font was kinda hard to read. Disabling the cursor could add to the mood.

06. Oct 2020 · 23:00 UTC

As others have said, struggled to work out how to make the bagels. really cool art though, and some cool nice ideas. really enjoyed buttering my bagel to reveal more text, this is such as nice way to do expository scenes with text!

06. Oct 2020 · 23:11 UTC

Very interesting take on the prompt. I liked the factoids and after you got a handle on how the controls worked it was a pretty fun little game. :)

07. Oct 2020 · 14:02 UTC

Very different game. I like it. It has interesting mechanics. Congratulations.

🎤 ancient-pixel

07. Oct 2020 · 15:36 UTC

@a4x8e6 thats wasn´t a glitch, that was your company sending you some work to at from home^^ Thanks for playing! :)

07. Oct 2020 · 17:02 UTC

This was very fun. The font was a little hard to read. This could be a very nice relaxing game with a some more polish and some nice music. Great job overall! :)

07. Oct 2020 · 20:55 UTC

Neat idea! I loved the bagel facts and found myself reading them and slowing down my bagel rolling. The alarm clock sound and scene was painfully accurate and it was great that you could snooze it.

🎤 ancient-pixel

07. Oct 2020 · 21:14 UTC

@twobitjen Thank you! :D

07. Oct 2020 · 21:21 UTC

Cool pixel art graphic style. That bagel factory simulation is fun :p
I wish to see a bit more variation in minigames though...
Nice job !

🎤 ancient-pixel

07. Oct 2020 · 21:30 UTC

@wegpast Thank you! Yeah, I wanted to offer promotions to the player; eg from rolling to packaging and eventually getting to be the CEo, but ultimately having to do one and only thing each day and feeling stuck in your job. Due to time it is only the rolling departement now^^

07. Oct 2020 · 21:46 UTC

Oh. It is difficult for me to judge this game. I like the execution of the game and what you've used phaser.js. (It is not Unity after all. I've used Unity, btw, and I like when someone are having courage to do all from scratch). I like the graphics, they definitely reminds me Papers, Please as you've mentioned in the description. I like the gameplay, but only when you do it first time after that it is too repetitive. But I don't like to read much, it is definitely not what I like in games and feels boring for me. But nevertheless you did a great job of making the game. I like how all fits well and working as a whole. And I like that you've created the game that allows to experience something new.

07. Oct 2020 · 22:03 UTC

what a strange idea ! Thank you for your game

07. Oct 2020 · 22:28 UTC

Really great entry. Somehow, I didn't have problems with a tutorial - everything in the game felt intuitive for me, even though I never seen a bagel.

Very atmospheric, very modern. Thanks for sharing it with me, I really enjoyed it.

07. Oct 2020 · 22:37 UTC

Also, forgot to make honorable mentions:

1. Breaking the cycle by getting late to job or using butter knife is cool. I'll definitely dig into the game again to actually explore all it has to offer.
2. Painful silence is only destructed by exploding noise of alarm clock. It feels very in place, even though you just didn't have time to properly add more sounds.

Some problems:
1. Font is sometimes unreadable. The game is heavily based on a reading. I see the conflict there.
This is not what I expect from a jam game (furthermore, my game doesn't have ANY sounds at all), but to give you future directions: Atmospheric sounds and music would actually be amazing, otherwise game feels empty. This fact is both upside and a downside in a game. I guess, you can make silence as an effect, that would help to build atmosphere in moments where it needs to be.

🎤 ancient-pixel

07. Oct 2020 · 22:42 UTC

@vlandemart Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. If i improve on the jam version ill definitly use a different font and be playful with sound/atmosperics, although I also and want to preserve the silence before the alarm. I really enjoyed seeing you playing and reacting to it, thanks again :)

GuaranteedTrainwreck

08. Oct 2020 · 12:30 UTC

Hey @ancient-pixel !

Nice work on the art, I like your style a lot.

I had some trouble getting into the story as I was struggling a bit with the actual gameplay, I feel like maybe tweaking the hit/trigger boxes and making them a bit larger would help a lot (hard to know which part of the hand grabs the alarm, same thing for rolling the dough, since you have to do it multiple times I feel it deserves to be a little bit less pixel perfect and trigger the rolling even if your not exactly on it).

I did get the hang of it after a while though and could enjoy some well crafted storytelling.

Great job, keep up the good work !

Feel free to check and give me you opinions on my entry

Cheers

Damien

08. Oct 2020 · 14:06 UTC

Now I want a bagel :(
Nice idea but could not get what to do with the dough

🎤 ancient-pixel

08. Oct 2020 · 16:13 UTC

@guaranteedtrainwreck thanks for the feedback :)
the in particular has a "fatigue feature" that randomizes where to click it, like just patting your hand all over it. For an update Ill definitaly work over the hitboxes and rollingspeed/area :)

10. Oct 2020 · 10:57 UTC

Nice interaction with the mouse and the environment. I didn't really stop to read the text because I was busy clicking around. Maybe it should be located somewhere else instead off to the side of the screen.

TheCakeConsortium

11. Oct 2020 · 01:01 UTC

Nice game, reminded me of Papers Please. I like the political commentary/satire with the morning breakfast scene (mmmm breakfast bagel, yum). The core gameplay of rolling the dough is kinda wonky, I couldn't get it to work until I figured out you have to move your cursor up and down. But all in all, good work!

🎤 ancient-pixel

11. Oct 2020 · 06:39 UTC

@thecakeconsortium Thank you! Especially good to hear from "The Cake Consortium" ^^

15. Oct 2020 · 19:26 UTC

Cool concept, you definitely got the dystopian vibes going with the repetitive "wake up, go to work" cycle on repeat. Now that I've mentioned it, I realize there are two 'loops' going on -- the daily routine and the bagels. I didn't have trouble figuring out what to do but I will admit I didn't finish the game because I'm playing on a touchpad and all the rolling was wearing my finger out, LOL. I liked the graphics quite a lot. The alarm sound is, well, alarming. And the bagel facts were great. Nice game.

Peace Of Cake Games

15. Oct 2020 · 20:30 UTC

Hmm, how do you get past the alarm clock? I just snooze it and when it should be 6:00 it jumps to past 9 and I'm fired.

🎤 ancient-pixel

16. Oct 2020 · 07:07 UTC

@ruthiepee Haha, thx for the feedback and going through the troubles of rolling all the bagels on a touchpad :D I tested it on a phone and there it wasnt that bad, but the surfaces are quite different for sure.

🎤 ancient-pixel

16. Oct 2020 · 07:09 UTC

@peace-of-cake-games Oh too bad^^ You have to pick up the clock and throw it away or let if fall again (from height) to wake up :)

Peace Of Cake Games

16. Oct 2020 · 12:55 UTC

Thanks @ancient-pixel ! The first time I played I managed to grab the clock, now I know I'm supposed to do that.

Peace Of Cake Games

16. Oct 2020 · 21:46 UTC

Once I managed to figure out you have to turn off the alarm and *then* grab and drop the clock, I had fun making bagels and getting fired!

26. Oct 2020 · 15:11 UTC

Triple bagel power!

![firefox_oUGPV3VAxE.png](///raw/519/z/3a7b5.png)

I'm all up for political games, satires and the like, but here I had to compromise and forego of reading most of it since I was too busy making the best bagels in the world. The presentation is top-notch and the best part of the game was buttering up the bagel. It's genuinely well crafted in that aspect.

Gameplay wise though, my arm was hurting a lot by the time I realized I could stack bagels and make them in a single go. And even then, I had to pause for a while to recover from intense mouse dragging. Fewer repetitions to roll them or using keys for it would be nice if you update it.

Lastly... the alarm clock. That thing actually gave me jumpscares. It fits well with the somber ambience of the game, but it really got on my nerves. This is mostly a me-issue since I react badly to loud sounds.

Still though, it's good to see games that actually have something to say. Spread the message, one bagel at a time! :whale:

26. Oct 2020 · 15:16 UTC

Actually a good entry! I really like the mixture of themes here, with the monotony of the repetitive tasks and the events unfolding in the world. Really poetic in a way.

Also quickly found you can roll out multiple bagels at a time by lining them up vertically! :smile:

26. Oct 2020 · 16:07 UTC

What remains of Edith finch? More like what remains of this bagel when I put it in my mouth

26. Oct 2020 · 16:34 UTC

Cool entry, very unique atmosphere. You went with a similar interpretation of a "loop" as we did, and, funnily enough, a similar approach to breaking out of it ;) Aside from that, I found a bug (see img). At one point the game started supplying me with dough during the breakfast screen (accompanied by a 2nd floating, uncontrollable arm). Not sure how to reproduce it, sorry.![asdf1234.PNG](///raw/251/f/z/3a7bf.png)

🎤 ancient-pixel

26. Oct 2020 · 21:28 UTC

@hoichael Thx :) thats no bug, its the escalation of the game^^ The bagel factory demands you working from home before working at the factory and there is a secret to be found with the arm ;)
Ill definitely check out your game!

🎤 ancient-pixel

26. Oct 2020 · 21:31 UTC

@moski Thx for the feedback and the kind words, i see you got quite far into the game :)