Sample X by Frederika
This is an idle game where you try to multiply alien biological samples in the lab on your ship. You're trying to get your Ph.D. in Xenobiology and you need these samples! Don't screw it up!
Note: I wasn't able to extend the game very much, so there isn't much to it passed a certain point.
| Youtube | https://frederika13yahoocom.itch.io/sample-x |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/sample-x |
Ratings
| Overall | 2515th | 2.421⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 2508th | 2.132⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 2353th | 2.526⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 2459th | 2.553⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 2298th | 2.132⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 648th | 3.361⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 2291th | 2.474⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 11🗳️ | 10🗨️ |
I was a bit confused when I started the game, but when the LabTech private messaged me instructions, I knew what to do. I've now ascended.
Wonderful humor, as always.
Early in the game, it's difficult to make out how the sliders affect the rate one can click on the samples. I found that by making more, it helped me gauge how the sliders changes the values. To me, that implies that similar to the freeze sample command, it might be a good idea to actually hide the sliders until there are, say, 10 to 20 samples that the user can see effective changes in how the sliders affect the numbers.
I get that the objective of the game is to deliberately lose samples. This wasn't well communicated in the beginning, however, as the moment I started seeing that number, I instinctively stopped freezing samples from losing more. It might be a good idea to either swap the numbers around a bit, having the host number show up first before the missing samples so a connection can be made, or to have clear instructions to freeze more, with some sort of tongue-in-cheek dialogue that it's OK to lose some samples that you've made.
I definitely like the slow-crawl of the story slowly revealing itself, and making the player rethink about their own actions. I feel some of those information could have revealed itself slightly less antagonistically, so as to motivate the player to continue playing and see how the scenario ends. As it is now, I felt the pacing was slow because I ended up taking a careful route, and avoided experimenting with the numbers.
Interesting investigation of community space and workplace etiquette. I feel like everyone is bombarded with these kind work emails. The generic emails from your supervisor are mixed in with ones you actually have to read.
You create a humorous science fiction spin on the ethics of labor too! Many companies, especially during this time, risk the health and mental well being of their workers for a stronger profit/outcome. Some companies act like nothing is wrong when people get injured or die. Sorry if my political response is off base! Great Job! I enjoyed playing your game!
Temperature and density controls were interesting, but I'm still not sure why and how they impacted the sampling (I guess density controls how many samples are ready to split, but then I don't know why you would ever want it anywhere lower than maximum).
It was cool how freezing samples was encouraged by the narrative and eventually impacted it.
Would be cool if there was more to do and the announcements where actual audio.