Coldman by NightJolt
Survival mini-game where you have to take care of your hunger, hydration and heat.


| Youtube | https://nightjolt.itch.io/coldman |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/coldman |
Ratings
| Overall | 1319th | 3.463⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1010th | 3.423⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1601th | 3.096⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 436th | 4.038⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1106th | 3.712⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 1129th | 3.135⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 1765th | 2.32⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1134th | 3.442⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 31🗳️ | 4🗨️ |
I'm a bit stuck in the game though, how am I supposed to get more firewood? I tried planting the trees but interacting with them just gave me more seeds. I tried interacting with it with the _saw_? (or is it a _sickle?) and it didn't do anything.
Also, it was hard for me to understand what the red dots were, the sprite can probably be reworked to make it clearer as to what it is.
The pixel art was great, but I feel like it could be a little more consistent in terms of the pixel sizes. The tent has huge pixels, which makes it really stand out against the other sprites in the game. Some of the sprites were also a bit unclear to me as to what they were (the dirt pits in particular took me a while).
As a side note, when I ran out of Hunger I didn't lose any health - I'm not sure if you intended for the game to lose only when all three important stats ran out but I thought I would bring that up.
I do really like the design of having different mechanics that the player has to manage though, it takes away the repetitiveness of the gameplay loop.
Overall, I had a lot of fun playing - great work! :)
Really involved gameplay and really atmospheric, but, I don't know whether it is intentional, I had no idea of what I was doing. Somehow I planted a tree, eventually I found out how to get some wood for the fire, of course I stayed HYDRATED at all times, but then I died.
I'm not too much of a survival game connoisseur though, could actually see fans of the genre really fall in love with this! Great job!
-It was confusing at first what was going on and what interactions were possible. For example, if I've thrown my axe away, is that it? Do I need to restart the game? Also, I couldn't figure out how to get more wood. I would guess I'd use the axe on the trees after planting them, but nothing seemed to happen.
-The moving using energy mechanic was really weird to get used to. I thought it was just buggy movement at first, but then I realized that there was an energy bar tied to it. You're basically punishing the player for doing anything. I would suggest having a walk/run mechanic instead.
-Gameplay is mostly just waiting around it seems. Maybe add something that is more active and keeps the player engaged. I think it would be fun if you had to micro-manage the camp with urgency, but right now every thing is really slow, so most of the time you're just standing around.
Good jam game though and it would be a cool idea if worked on further.
I can see the potential but since I couldn't figure it out , I didn't have as much fun.
Great Jobu! :smile:
**Glad you didn't make a tutorial** about what you can do with what, because that would **decrease the fun** factor of the game by a lot. **Exploring** the **world** and the **possibilities** makes this game **feel good**.
**Some elements/interactions** are **straightforward**, but some are **misleading**: For example plating the seed, and THEN watering it, destroys the plant. There could have been also an axe for chopping trees, so you wouldn't have to "quickly grab the acorn, put it down somewhere, and run back, so you could get a log before it grows leaves again". But I think that you had this in mind, but you were out of time.
For me, the **berry sprite was obvious**, but the **log sprite** was a bit **"hidden" on that trunk**, maybe better **contrast** would have helped.
**Great entry, had fun**, which is a rare thing for me with these jam games! Thanks for the experience!
Here are my playthrough experiences in detail, maybe it's useful to you:
**First playthrough:**
Didn't really know what to do with the acorn, maybe I can catch a squirrel with it. Grabbed the hoe, sowed the fields planted those red seeds and watered it, and also drank some water myself, the game is pretty intuitive. Then I started doing nothing, so had a look around and found the log, which made me a bit warmer. I tried getting some more seeds from the grass around, but they did nothing.
Then I realised that maybe I can plant the acorn as well, so I tried, and I could. I planted a new acorn, and burnt the log again. Sadly a grabbed the tree before it would spawn an acorn, so after a minute of trying to figure out something, trying to walk out of the map, or into the tent... I restarted the game :laughing:
**Second playthrough:**
Now I see, that those red seeds weren't seeds, and when I "planted" them, I ate them. Now I can't "plant" them, because I'm not hungry enough. I sowed and watered the fields again, but don't know what should I plant there. I planted lots of acorns, so I got no problem with warmth. But sadly my hunger increased and increased, I tried cooking the berries, the acorn, but nothing happened. Then I ate my only food, so I died after 5 and a half minutes maybe.
Now let's check what I missed :laughing:
Okay now I check the screenshots, and obviously, there is something planted in the soil.
**Third playthrough:**
Found out that I have to water the soil FIRST, and then I can plant the seeds. Previously when I planted the seeds first, I destroyed them by watering them after the planting. Now I can survive forever (I think), so after 2 minutes, I quit.
Nice menu, also nice transition from it to game.
Wish there was menu/restart key or button when you realize you messed up and death is inevitable.
Figuring stuff out for yourself is ok (if you dont want too many instructions), but it would have massively benefited from highlighting interactables - I have eaten the berries instead of planting them way too many times (if carrying seed near tilled and watered soil, highlight the soil, else highlight coldman).
After figuring out the mechanics, there is that feeling that everything is done and you can survive forever, even though after a while it becomes really difficult to manage everything, but somehow doesn't give that push to really try hard. Maybe removing the energy limitation, water refill timer and adding progress bars on dying plants might help smoothing things out (feels like energy and water refill timers are more realistic, kind of, but take time to implement and don't really add much to gameplay - maybe could have omitted them in favor of polishing other content). Don't actually know, just throwing things out there.
Overall, liked the game, especially the sounds and visuals. Good content, figuring out the mechanics was fun, but difficult to keep playing after. Smoothing out some mechanics and adding access to menu/restart might have helped.
The only thing is that this high-agitation state couldn't be mantained for too long, so if you'd want a longer playtimes, you might need to add some breather rest periods and maybe some kind of higher-level progression, like unlocking new tools / seeds / inventory logs / ground patches.
### What I liked
The graphics are very good for the most part, and the snow effect looks great. The sounds are nice, but I think this game could use some background music. I also love how the UI looks. The game is pretty fun until you figure everything out.
### What I didn't like
For a jam game, it's a bit odd not to have any player animations. The energy bar is pretty annoying and doesn't serve much purpose. Maybe there should be a way to beat the game, because after I figured out everything there wasn't much else to do. Also, there should be a way to restart the game, because right now it seems like you have to quit the game, then re-launch it to try again.
**Overall I think this game is great, and maybe if done right, it could be turned into a very interesting game if you decide to work on a post-jam version. Nicely done!**