Lives you can save by Pawciu

[raw]
made by Pawciu for Ludum Dare 47 (JAM)

Strategy game about striving for gobal wellfare

Introduction: Gap between poor and rich is getting bigger. What can be done to turn back from this path. The struggle is the loop.

In this poor country called Hardland lives a family. Head of the family is Abu. He is good and honest. His wife is Fara. She suffered a lot in her life but after meeting Abu she have someone to cheer her up. They have four children. The eldest son is Davu, he wants to be a football player when he'll grow up. Next is Hasina, she wants to be a teacher. Her youger sister Zuwena wants to travel the world. The youngest Kazi only wants to play and climb the trees.

On the other end of the world lives John. He recently finished college and got a job. People say his generation will change the world. Let's see about that.

Goal: Play both as family living in the poor country and as young man in developed country. Make decisions to achieve highest world well-being.

v111 (fixed after LD submission) - added some tooltips - characters panel reworked UI (energy bar and hp bar) - reworked game buttons (added permanent acces to turn summary) - added buttons for DrinkAll, EatAll - fixed bug with adding diseas if immune or already sick

v110 (fixed after LD submission)

  • overlapping music fixed
  • added new diseases
  • added John decisions
  • turn summary panel (event log)
  • death (characters can die)
  • diseases arent drafted globaly but for each person
  • score points for alive characters
  • music on death
  • added character descriptions
  • disesas immunity working
  • disease spread

still missing: charities, animations and graphic

v108 (LD version) What should be working: - Basic stats (Energy, Health, Food, Water) - Datasheet panel - Decisions panel - Next Turns - Game ending - Penalty for salary in poor country for women - Chance of major dises (2 malaria, polio) - Diseases dont have chance to spread but they are global(everyone catches them), they dmg health - Available decisions should be working (including charges)

What is missing: - John decisions (entertainment, looking for partner, looking for job, hobby, etc) - Giving funds to Charity Organizations that when goal is achieved provides useful Perks in Hardland - 10 more major threats (diseases, accidents) - Minor threats (lesser diseases, accidents etc) - Buffs duration - Research - Emigration - Work variations (different salary, and effects on person) - Some disesas can spread with different rates on people with different age - Pogressing Education (Each education level up selected education path) - Stats: Happiness, Prestige, Physical Capabilities, Mental Capabilities - Leveling up Country (progression to Developed country) - Unlocking bonuses on the path to development - Building structures that improves life quality - Death - Online highscore - Animations, portraits, graphics - Tutorial - SoundEffects and more music - Better graphics

PLEASE POST YOUR HIGHEST SCORES IN COMMENTS!

How to play help001.png 1 - Funds avalable to use for whole family (after working increase in the next turn) 2 - Food available to use and food required by the whole family (you have to make decision to use it) 3 - Water avalable to use and water required by the whole family (you have to make decision to use it) 4 - Country Panel for Developed Country

help002.png 5 - Open/Close panel with DataSheet 6 - Basic info about selected person (Name, Age, Gender, Country, Description) 7 - Selected person attributes and needs 8 - Selected person perks, buffs, debuffs 9 - Panel with all characters

help003.png 10 - Open/Close panel with decisions 11 - Panel with available decisions 12 - Energy Cost of a decision 13 - Available Charges (how many times this action can be performed by this person 14 - Money cost of decision (CMD = Commmon Dolars)

Ratings

Overall 1560th 2.75⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1499th 2.568⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1342th 2.786⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1472th 2.773⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1495th 2.091⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Audio 963th 2.795⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1116th 2.2⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1281th 2.886⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 23🗳️ 12🗨️

Feedback

vcasadei
06. Oct 2020 · 20:37 UTC
I realize that the game is supposed to be difficult, however, I had to try several times until I could not kill everyone in just a few iterations. The music keeps repeating and there are too many variables to consider. However I like the idea. I just don't exactly see the correlation with the "stuck in a loop" theme.
🎤 Pawciu
07. Oct 2020 · 00:50 UTC
Hey @vcasadei thanks for the feedback. "The loop" was meant to be a life struggle.
I've just added fix v110 - now games feels closer to the idea i had. The LD version v108 was missing many core mechanics. Please try fixed version v110.
Cheers!
Emkani
23. Oct 2020 · 11:37 UTC
Fine idea, but there is almost too much to manage to get a feel for the gameplay. The game seems very tough (which might be the lesson).
Cedric86
23. Oct 2020 · 11:43 UTC
Well i made it to trun 25 but only 2/7 survived :-/
Sometimes ther is just nothing you can do. YOu send them to bed with full HP and fully feed and the next morning they are dead.
For some reason 1 of the caracters was completely broken in my game. There where no options in the decsisin menu and and some point he just died. Te one at the very bottom.
Interesting approach though seeing the cycle of life as the loop.
Overall great idea. The implementation is also very good imo. The music loop gets a bit annoying after a while :-).
Overall very good entry.
🎤 Pawciu
24. Oct 2020 · 18:40 UTC
@cedric86 @emkani Yes, currently it is pure luck to survive. The game is missing functionality of charity organization that John can contribute to. That could apply vaccines, buy malaria nets etc. The main idea was to show that by donating small amounts of money to effective charity organizations you can have huge impact on quality of life and can be even livesaving.
Thanks for your input guys!
pedrocoden
24. Oct 2020 · 19:16 UTC
Nice game!
HisHighness
24. Oct 2020 · 21:12 UTC
I liked this one. It was a bit confusing at first, but it seems like I figured the game out. Creative idea, polished 👍
KallThar
24. Oct 2020 · 21:44 UTC
I got confused at the beginning as well ... so many controls :D this game could use some tutorial. However, as I got used to what i have to do, everything became clear. I like the idea of the game, do not consider it much stuck-in-the-loopish though. I do see, however, the meta-thought of the struggle being the loop. I appreciate that the game is basically finished and nicely playable. Thanks for the experience.
MidoriMelody
26. Oct 2020 · 02:59 UTC
I really like this game. I was able to push it and had 3 people left. Really cool game.
adhesion
26. Oct 2020 · 23:07 UTC
Great concept, though taken just as a game it feels pretty difficult and arbitrary. I had 3 of the kids die right off the bat, which was pretty frustrating and sad, but I guess it just reinforces the theme of the game. Was a bit hard to understand without a tutorial, it took me a few minutes to read through all the info and make sense of how the turns worked, but eventually I got into it - though it was still hard to understand things like how long things like elementary/secondary education would take.
Peace Of Cake Games
27. Oct 2020 · 03:54 UTC
Spectacularly made! I managed to kill off two people in the first two turns, oops! After 9 turns I had to stop to give my PC a charging break. This is really well-made, and I love the hand-drawn looking graphics! (I've made it known that I have a soft spot for games with a hand-drawn look)

"Lives You Can Save" - how about "this game, we can save!" You just need one more rating! (Whenever mine go through...)
noakishere
27. Oct 2020 · 04:11 UTC
So I really like the idea. Usually management/sim games are my favourites. The thing with your game is that I think it requires a lot more love and care. It reminds me a lot of games like Democracy which is a really good thing. The game needs to be a lot more balanced, which is understandable because you had not enough time to implement all of your ideas. Music sounds really cool, I would love more variation to it tho. Overall the concept is really cool ! Good job :)
MrchickenBoy
27. Oct 2020 · 04:44 UTC
I really love it!