Within a second or two of getting control of the character, just walking around near where the character spawns (I'm playing the version embedded into the page you're reading this comment on)

@cheesepencil I caught that halfway through submitting and I guess the fixed version hadn't been uploaded yet. It should be fine now. To be extra safe, you can try the linked versions, as they definitely have the fix.

I will come back to this when ratings open up <3

Very cool, I'll be back to rate once I've submitted my Jam entry. Great work with the dialogue. :v:

Well-written dialogues and a well-developed plot for such a game!

Nice game, the story was really well thought out. I liked how even if you picked the annoying and rude people it still ended well.

Some voices are too loud that I had to reduce volume. But anyways, nice short game about limited space. I can see the idea here being story based game.

Cute way to tell a story with PICO-8!!

At the end of the epilogue, as soon as the fade-out completes on the rocket the game crashes with:

I played the version on lexaloffle. I had Franklin, Caitlyn, Scarlett, Denise, Alice, and Terry on my ship (if it matters).

Don't forget to play and rate other folks' games!!!

@cheesepencil That's a known issue that's fixed in the other versions. Always good to know who people chose, though, so thanks.

I've been busy this week (and will continue to be busy for a little while) but I'll make time to rate everyone's games, don't worry!

I'm surprised more people haven't played this yet, the graphics make it look inviting. I played till the end and thought it was alright, I see it was for Compo. I was almost expecting someone was a murderer or something like Among Us, like some kind of extraterrestrial twist (try and not bring the back guy). The game is pretty simple and straight forward, best thing that's neat is how the ending tells each persons story, I think it even had 2 of my crew mates getting married (which was a neat touch).

@beeb-gamecodecompany I imagine the lack of plays is down to me a) not having played anyone else's games yet, and b) not advertising it. I haven't had time to do either, but I'm gonna rectify the first one this morning.

Nice narrative game. Was a bit dissapointed that you cannot refuse everyone. Also there are too little information on characters prior your decision, would love to ask them more questions to know them better. But I like that there are several outcomes for each. One we've made a [similar game on LD46](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/field-hospital), so I sympathize yours :smiley:
Good job!

@n-feofentov I specifically thought ahead and made sure you couldn't refuse everyone. I didn't want the game to be *that* cruel. I agree about the dialogue, and would have loved to implement something like dialogue trees, but I just didn't have the time (or cart space).

Totally love concept of this game. Also i feel harsha reality even after reading game description. Great entry!

This is a great game. Reminds me of the story games I keep replaying looking through the IF tagged games on my favorite game sites. No specific critique. I supposed you could have added some background music, but the game did not desperately need it and the silence (outside of conversations) might even have better fit the mood.

Edit: just favorited it on Newgrounds.

@kobato-games Yeah, that was my thinking: the silence fits the mood better than music would have done. Thank you very much for the kind words, and for the favourite! :D

Perfect. This has been my favorite LD game I've played, ever, (and I've been doing this for a while.) Powerful, short, to the point. No fluff or excess. Excellent.

@untitled-studios Wow, that's very high praise! Thank you so much!

Really interesting game, I enjoyed it. I wish there was some short period of time after clicking where input wouldn't be accepted. I think I accidentally double clicked to let in someone I didn't want to (poor grandpa passed away soon after anyways!) Alternatively the option to make them wait could be the first one.

@kasmilus Technically there is, but it's only half a second. It may be worth cranking it up, but I don't want to crank it up too much in case people think the game isn't responding. Glad you enjoyed it though!

Nice game. I like games where there is no right answer. I also loved to read the end text, which explains faiths of the survivors. Great game! Additional props for using Pico8

What a hidden gem i found going through all games today.
Congratz of finishin the compo title!
Really liked the idea and minimalistic gameplay.

Thank You for submitting that one!
See ya on the next jam!



I love how this little game makes one think about themselves.
One of my main hobbies is classic menswear so the gentleman was accepted right away. One of my main dislikes about humanity is religion so the religious woman got rid of right away as well, and religion in its entirety with her.

This is a great entry. I really enjoyed it. I especially like how even the combination of certain characters has an effect. Well done.

I can see how this game is working, mechanically, but as a player, I want to do more meaningful choices and see the consequences of these actions.

In this game I can see the consequences, but the intro dialogues look like a generic filler in terms of the information. You can learn some of the facts about the person, sometimes. But it doesn't mean that you can make any assumptions with the consequences. For example, there is a k-pop fan that is probably easily distracted and your first instinct is that they're probably not the best candidate for the crew as this whole internet culture may not even exist outside of the Earth (space wi-fi?). But I took them anyway and they turned out to be OK and became a singer.

Since this is a LD game, I can only suggest a simple solution to that: add some kind of a bio page for every person. Some profile page that would give you a couple of hints what may happen if you take them. For example, a person X may dislike food A, another person Y likes to cook and their favorite dish is A. If you take both of them, there is a potential for a situation where Y is going to be a cook and their dish of choice is something that the other person dislikes. It's a simple example, but that would make some drama at least a little bit predictable. It doesn't have to spell of the important facts and connection, just enough to make the choices feel meaningful.

It would be also nice if you could pick less than 6 people. Although this would mean that you have to write more "endings". Why would it be a good thing to have? Because I enjoy the gamey part of the games more than their narrative. For me, having an option to choose less people means there are more choices and combinations. In narrative-heavy games it's hard to find a way to incorporate an actual gameplay and not turn it into something else. In this particular game, adding more freedom to the selection part would add this extra bit of gameplay that could make it a better game in my point of view.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against this kind of games. But I think they can be better and simple mechanical things can add some depth to their gameplay.

I played this game 2 times and got somewhat different results. I may try a couple more runs to see how varying the endings can be. :)

@quasilyte Yeah, I thought about ways of making the gameplay a little more involved, like adding dialogue trees, but I didn't have the time or PICO-8 cartridge space to include any of them, so I had to make do without them. You're not the first person to suggest having the ability to take off without selecting all six people. Honestly, that idea simply never crossed my mind, because I didn't think anyone would actually *want* to do that. Clearly I was wrong!

@jesus-gonzalez That was part of the idea: I was curious as to what kind of reasons people would find for saving certain characters or turning away others. I'm not judging anyone for their selections, but I do find them fascinating.

@f1krazy I didn't know about the pico-8 cartridge space limits. :D
Fascinating.

Great entry. I like thought-provoking games in general and this one definitely did the trick.

What's funnier - I believe our games share some striking similarities. Feel free to give it a try!

@chii I will! I make a habit of playing and reviewing the games of everyone who reviews mine, so yours is on the list now!

Man this was great. I was unsure going into it, the premise sounded more stressful than fun, but I'm glad I played it. Very well written, you have a knack for providing *just enough* on all aspects - premise, characters, reflections - and not letting the game get bogged down at any point. The concluding scenes were deeper than I would have expected from a compo game, and I was surprised at how cathartic the end was. It left a good feeling.

Also, I'm left wondering how much order matters: if different players take different paths through the crowd, would they be more likely to pick different people? How much would placing people randomly at the start of the game impact the experience for each fresh player? Developing it further with more characters to shuffle in for different playthroughs and giving each character a few different sprites so they aren't instantly recognizable would make this a good game to replay. This is the sort of game that makes me very curious to see stats on player choices.

Very neat, a lot to think about both philosophically and in terms of game development!

@oter I was wondering much of the same. Randomized positions wasn't something that occurred to me, but it actually might be interesting to try. I thought about making a Survey Monkey quiz or something and putting a link in the description, but never got round to it (and it'd be a bit too late in the day now). Glad you enjoyed it so much!

I picked 5 nice people and one complete a**hole. Because everyone has a purpose. But really great work, I especially like the after-report. And graphics. It takes skill to create so much out of so little.

Very cool game, and suits the theme super nicely, well done! Only little issue I had is that I wanted to talk everyone before deciding anything, but then couldn't quite remember the details about people. :D But I think I ended up with some good people.

What a great little compo game - while we might want to know more about the characters, knowing so little and only seeing them in their desperation adds to the reality of the situation, there is no easy or right choice. Excellent work!

I got all the babes on board and dipped we up

Nice work! I really like how the ending tells each person's story, which made me played three times to see different results. One thing as others mentioned already was that I couldn't remember all the dialogues when making my decision...

Maybe it would be nicer to push or kick whoever I want to go. Talking to one by one and going through the dialogues is not very fun

@nuin I knew someone was going to.

@octahedron I'm not sure how to approach that. The ideal solution would be the ability to repeat the initial conversation, but I'm not sure whether that would detract from the realism. Glad to hear you played it multiple times!

@lincolnsalles Yeah, it's not the most exciting game in the world, I'm afraid. Physically dragging the people into place could work, but I'd have to think about how to implement it.

Very interesting

I really like the take on the theme here!

The story is interesting. At first I tried to get the characters I found the most worthy, then I played a few times to see how every character ends up. Really liked the dialogue and the realism

Very good little game!

Surprisingly moving!

I think sometimes I didn't really have enough information to make a proper decision. It's like, a doctor? Easy decision. Just some impatient guy? Idk. He could be an even better doctor for all I know.

Could be more meaningful if you could ask them more questions, and sort of do a bit of detective work to make a decision.

Still, it was very cool to see the story sort of play out based on who you chose. The dialogs and the conclusion narratives were nice to read, and well written considering how concise they needed to be.

@tetracold Sorry for not getting round to rating you back! I had stuff to do this evening and just barely ran out of time for it. I'll still try and take a look at your game anyway. Thanks for the feedback!

**Hello there, these are notes I took while playing.**

- I know Pico surely has limitations, but I would like other colours beside usual vivid.
- Too high-pitched voice for women
- Also Pico may not a right choice to tell the story since the sprites are not enough to convey how unique each person is...
- Also having a number would be nice. It's a shame I forgot how many people I got on board.
- Bug when arrow appearing above the personal
- (Okay, I'm in rush and does not take the time to fully appreciate the game.)
- Frustrating since the most important is the dialog, however you can't skip when you replay. And there are bonus dialogs with who you pick. (I know, it's weird to be completionnist at this kind of thing.)

@aaln That's some very detailed feedback, thank you so much! PICO-8 does indeed have limitations, including a fixed colour palette, so there's not really much I can do about the colour scheme, I'm afraid. I am working on a post-jam update that fixes some of the voices, though.

Can you elaborate on the bug with the arrow indicators? I can probably fix it in the update but I need to know what I'll be fixing first.

It's not a big thing. When you go near someone, there is a white arrow/triangle appearing above them, since you can interact with them. However these triangles also appear with the NPCs standing near the stairs (well, there are not stairs but you understand).

@aaln That's not strictly a bug, since you can interact with those NPCs as well (or rather, you *should* be able to - if you can't, that's a more serious bug). You can't invite them on board, but I don't know whether it's worth giving them a different triangle to indicate that.