{"author_link":"\/users\/acartlidge","author_name":"ACartlidge","author_uid":1415833,"comments":[{"id":1195618,"author_name":"Stalemeat","author_uid":"stalemeat","epoch":1776758994,"text":"This game has a good presentation. Very, cooperate 80's. This game will be great for a person who is into this kind of thing. Nice work. (Looks like something that would be on Adult Swim)","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1207538,"author_name":"Pimeko","author_uid":"pimeko","epoch":1776896424,"text":"Haha the mood is on point \ud83d\udc4c Very nice artworks (love the hand), kind of struggled with the controls at first but it was nice :)","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1207553,"author_name":"msipp27","author_uid":"msipp27","epoch":1776896567,"text":"not my cup of tea, but seems fun!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1207564,"author_name":"TobaccoLeopard","author_uid":"tobaccoleopard","epoch":1776896753,"text":"I haven't really managed to buy and sell stocks yet, but the atmosphere is incredible, and the 2D characters in the 3D world work really well. But, maybe there is a bit too much tutorial text at the beginning; maybe it could be replaced with an in-game tutorial to guide us through the buying and selling process? Thanks for sharing the documentary the game is based on; I think it's great that you did that.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1207566,"author_name":"Wizard","author_uid":"wizard","epoch":1776896767,"text":"Really dig the 80's vibe. The stuff coming from your mentor was peak too. Shame about that bus full of orphans. Once I got the hang of things everything started working well. The only bit I was confused about was being out traded. If that was explained a bit better or introduced once the other mechanics were understood then it would have been perfect. Awesome game though, would love to see a later iteration with some of the cutting room mechanics, like punching other traders.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1207571,"author_name":"Nordus","author_uid":"nordus","epoch":1776896838,"text":"Very interestring concept! Grewat job!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1207609,"author_name":"Erilhir","author_uid":"erilhir","epoch":1776897373,"text":"It took me a while to figure out what to do, and I had a bit of trouble with the controls. I don\u2019t know if it was my mouse, but I really struggled to turn around to look at the different people.\nThat said... the atmosphere was really cool. The theme is well executed AND original. The \u2018trading frenzy\u2019 bit, with the music and sound effects, had me in stitches too \u2013 you really went all out and that\u2019s brilliant. I didn't know anything about that world at all, so it was quite funny to see that \nFor the post-jam, I think a short tutorial (not a long text to read, but more of a very simple, slightly guided first task) might make things easier :)\nAnd perhaps also checking the controls to make things run more smoothly (though maybe it\u2019s just my computer!)\nGood luck for the post jam version ","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1207672,"author_name":"ACartlidge","author_uid":"acartlidge","epoch":1776898550,"text":"@wizard @erilhir @tobaccoleopard definitely heard on the tutorial and explanation lacking!  I should know better but I just got whooped by the time constraints this time around.  I'm pleased you could make some sense of it even if it was under-explained, thanks for playing!\n\nPS an out-trade is what happened when the buyer and seller recorded different trades after a misunderstanding.  At the end of the day when everything got settled they'd find the discrepancy and the trade wouldn't go thru.  There's a story in that youtube video about a new trader losing millions of dollars from messing up the quantity on a trade.","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1211387,"author_name":"FadingDreamStories","author_uid":"fadingdreamstories","epoch":1777003372,"text":"The atmosphere and the idea in general are great. I had trouble getting a trade to happen, and then running between the phone guys and the traders, and trying to keep track of things. Chaos! I made $11 though, so not a bad day's profit.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1212003,"author_name":"Accelerate0814","author_uid":"accelerate0814","epoch":1777029532,"text":"Up until now this is my favorite game of this jam, incredible work in this short time frame.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1212116,"author_name":"recursor","author_uid":"recursor","epoch":1777033175,"text":"Hilarious idea, and the art, sound and, music combine to make a chaotic and immersive experience. ","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1212460,"author_name":"Raininm","author_uid":"raininm","epoch":1777043678,"text":"Man this is abstract&crazy which I like it so much lolol","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1213470,"author_name":"NiceKot","author_uid":"nicekot","epoch":1777074672,"text":"How is this so absurdly funny and educational in the same time? Amazing work and so complex too! Very very good!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1215173,"author_name":"LDJam user 279233","author_uid":"279233","epoch":1777159963,"text":"Clever game! I love the theme and 80s aesthetics like the previous commenters. I also want to take a minute and thank you for the devlog! Knowing how other people make games is one of the main reasons I do LudumDare and I wished everyone talked a little about how the sausage is made. Your cutting room ideas sounded very thematic and fun. If drugs-induced fist fights on the trading floors are not 80s, I don't know what is!\n\n","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1216862,"author_name":"daniel","author_uid":"daniel","epoch":1777248080,"text":"One of my favourite takes on the theme so far, very cool idea. Appreciate the write up for the dev log too, a challenging concept to convert to gameplay. Maybe a lot of controls and rules to keep track of in the context playing through multiple jam games in 1 sitting, but on it's own very manageable and strikes a good balance between gameplay systems and fun for the player.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1217601,"author_name":"KeySole","author_uid":"keysole","epoch":1777311056,"text":"Cool application of the theme and fun to play, I guess the only things I didn't like is that the default sense is too low and camera jerks sideways when you're making a trade, I'm not sure if that's intentional.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1217602,"author_name":"KeySole","author_uid":"keysole","epoch":1777311056,"text":".","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1217603,"author_name":"KeySole","author_uid":"keysole","epoch":1777311056,"text":".","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":1219794,"author_name":"JamieOK","author_uid":"jamieok","epoch":1777574572,"text":"Took a hot minute for me to get the loop but then it started to make sense. I had a few out-trades that felt incorrect, possibly as a collision issue? Many times that I was attempting to make a trade, all of the traders faces were flashing red as if I was highlighting them all in sequence.\nThe gameplay is definitely unique and impressive for a jam. I like the interpretation of the theme too. Even the mid-day dialogue had me cracking a smile. Great work!","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":1222754,"author_name":"cedaoan","author_uid":"cedaoan","epoch":1778021375,"text":"Very interesting and unique game! a very stylish one haha! it does reminds me of the old market and wall street and all, fun! I like how you interpret signal in the game","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":1224232,"author_name":"Hazel C","author_uid":"hazel-c","epoch":1778238014,"text":"It was such a pleasant surprise to see how much thought, background story, and real-world reference the creator put into this game!\n\nHow fun is this game? Fun enough that I even watched the 21-minute documentary. It was really interesting to learn from zero about a background story I had never encountered before.\n\nIn terms of gameplay, it did take me a little time to get used to it at the beginning. I even refreshed the page and restarted three times because I couldn\u2019t find a retry button or anything similar at first.\n\nOverall, it\u2019s really well done. I like it!\n","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"}],"format":"md","images":["ld59\/wayback-placeholder.png"],"links":[{"url":"https:\/\/acartlidge.itch.io\/outcry","text":"Link"}],"metadata":{"g_key":"72721","g_author":"1415833","g_event":"LD59","g_eventkey":"113","g_subevent":"JAM","g_urlkey":"309660","g_title":"Outcry","g_status":"WAYBACK","g_place":"515","g_commentcount":"21","g_site2_node_id":"426025","g_hide":"N","g_has_icon":"Y","g_rqueue":"0","g_random":"0"},"nds":{"n_key":"426025","n_urlkey":"309660","n_parent":"424249","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/outcry","n_slug":"outcry","n_type":"item","n_subtype":"game","n_subsubtype":"jam","n_author":"415833","n_created":"1776164816","n_modified":"1778748745","n_version":"1371660","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD59","removed_author":false},"_superparent":9,"_trust":1,"author":415833,"body":"Play the role of an \"Open Outcry\" trader on the floor of a commodities market.  Use their special (real) hand signals to fill your clients' orders in a crowded loud trading floor.!\n\n## How to Play\nEvery day you get orders from clients and have to fill them in the trading pits.  You get money for every order filled properly, plus you get profit if you fill the order for a good price.  Your goal is to make $1000.\n\nTo get an order, click on anyone talking on a phone.\n\nTo fill an order\n1. First note the side (buy or sell), the price, and the quantity.\n2. Go to the correct trading pit and watch for the price to match your target price\n3. Set up the right hand signal with Shift to swap buy\/sell, and mouse wheel to change quantity.\n4. Hold RMB to show your signal and get traders' attention\n5. When you see a trader who matches you signal, and you're happy with their price, click their face to make the trade\n\nIf you mess up the trade, either by clicking the wrong hand signal or buying the wrong thing, it is labeled an OUT TRADE and you dont get any money!\n\n![howto-ezgif.com-optimize (4).gif](\/\/\/raw\/958\/56\/z\/72987.gif)\n\n![Screenshot 2026-04-20 191309.png](\/\/\/raw\/958\/56\/z\/719cd.png)\n\n![Screenshot 2026-04-24 124537.png](\/\/\/raw\/958\/56\/z\/72989.png)\n\n\n## Controls\nWASD & Mouse - Movement\n\nSpace - Jump\n\nMouse wheel (or number keys) - select trade amount\n\nShift - Toggle buying or selling\n\n## Credits\nNo AI was used for art, music, writing, or thinking.  I used Claude and Gemini for research\/debugging.\n\nArt - tracing my hands and historical photos, level modeled in Blender\n\nSounds -Free sounds from Pixaby \n\nMusic\n\n- https:\/\/pixabay.com\/music\/synthwave-synthwave-retro-80s-491697\/\n- https:\/\/pixabay.com\/music\/synthwave-a-hero-of-the-80s-126684\/\n\n\n## Discussion\/Devlog\nThis game was wildly hard to make fun.  I think I learned a lot about game design from just trying and failing at so many different approaches.\n\nIdeas that didnt work\n- Market has a price and all the traders are rapidly flashing signals for prices spread around that - overwhelming\n- Traders are already flashing quantity signals and you have to go fill an order.  Initially too easy because you could buy from anyone (partial orders were allowed).  Then too hard, because you were hunting for both a good price and the right quantity, and you might just be stuck\n- You need to match the exact quantity but you can punch and kiss the trader to make them sell more or less - mentally overwhelming\n- Call and response minigame to make an order - not fun\n- Keep your mouse in the circle minigame to secure an order (simulating getting traders attention) - super not fun\n- No orders, just buy low and sell high - created opportunities for turbo arbitrage by just selling among members of the pit\n- Same but with a bid\/ask spread built in - suddenly boring, nothing to do\n\nSo many ideas ended up with just sitting there waiting, or with 100 symbols flashing in your face and taking way too long to parse out.  The thing that helped was relaxing my attachment to the real life subject (so many hand signals) and letting the hand signals be more of the \"fiction\" or fantasy of the game instead of the core mechanic.  I rewatched the videos of the traders and thought about how what really feels cool is slinging hand signals, not parsing other peoples'.  That's the motivation for this last iteration of the game.  I really did want to add a mechanic where you can get in fistfights with traders when you have an out-trade.\n\n\nThe other big thing was taming randomness.  I feel like I had a bit of an epiphany here!  Games are fiction!  They have only the rules we say they have!  Initially I used perlin noise to simulate the stock moves and traders randomly picked quantities.  That was very very bad, you could have a bunch of orders where all the prices were too high, or no traders offering the trade you wanted.  Then I realized I could bring the market to the player: when the player picks up an order, the market's baseline price moves towards that order price.  It still varies, but it is varying around the order price now.  Same for the traders.  They know what you're looking for, and there's a 50-50 chance they will offer the side (buy sell) you need plus a further 50 50 chance they will offer the quantity you need.  Between them all the probability of not seeing the trade you need is quite low (not zero but oh well).\n\nCutting room floor ideas\n- Ability to punch other traders if they made an out trade\n- Some kind of rivalry system, if a trader keeps getting the better of you they become your rival\n- Going to the bathroom to \"powder your nose\" for some kind of slo mo powerup\n- I wanted a much more bustling trading floor, with lots of faces, palette swapping the clothing colors and skin tones\n- A house that filled up with all your purchases (eg ferrari in the garage)\n\n\nFor Nerds: Documentary on open outcry at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=F0DxNDU1xW8","comments":21,"comments-timestamp":"2026-05-08T11:00:14Z","created":"2026-04-14T11:06:56Z","files":[{"author":415833,"id":50182,"name":"$$embed-50182.zip","node":426025,"size":32526786,"status":64,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-21T01:34:14Z"},{"author":415833,"id":50195,"name":"$$embed-50195.zip","node":426025,"size":32526786,"status":64,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-21T01:35:55Z"},{"author":415833,"id":50216,"name":"$$embed-50216.zip","node":426025,"size":32526786,"status":64,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-21T01:38:08Z"},{"author":415833,"id":50260,"name":"$$embed-50260.zip","node":426025,"size":32526678,"status":73,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-21T01:42:17Z"},{"author":415833,"id":50265,"name":"$$embed-50265.zip","node":426025,"size":32526678,"status":73,"tag":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-21T01:42:31Z"}],"files-timestamp":"2026-04-21T01:42:31Z","grade":{"grade-01":27,"grade-02":27,"grade-03":28,"grade-04":27,"grade-05":27,"grade-07":26,"grade-08":26},"id":426025,"love":0,"magic":{"cool":109.54451150103,"feedback":26,"given":27,"grade":26.857142857143,"grade-01-average":3.46,"grade-01-result":515,"grade-02-average":3.3,"grade-02-result":474,"grade-03-average":4.077,"grade-03-result":59,"grade-04-average":4.24,"grade-04-result":117,"grade-05-average":3.7,"grade-05-result":455,"grade-07-average":4.021,"grade-07-result":69,"grade-08-average":3.708,"grade-08-result":374,"smart":1.1681122941894},"meta":{"author":[415833],"cover":"\/\/\/content\/958\/56\/z\/7181a.png","grade-06-out":"1","link-01":"https:\/\/acartlidge.itch.io\/outcry","link-01-tag":[42336]},"meta-timestamp":"2026-05-14T08:52:25Z","modified":"2026-05-14T08:52:25Z","name":"Outcry","node-timestamp":"2026-04-24T17:20:12Z","parent":424249,"parents":[1,5,9,424249],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/59\/outcry","published":"2026-04-21T01:05:57Z","scope":"public","slug":"outcry","subsubtype":"jam","subtype":"game","type":"item","version":1371660},"text":"Play the role of an \"Open Outcry\" trader on the floor of a commodities market.  Use their special (real) hand signals to fill your clients' orders in a crowded loud trading floor.!\n\n## How to Play\nEvery day you get orders from clients and have to fill them in the trading pits.  You get money for every order filled properly, plus you get profit if you fill the order for a good price.  Your goal is to make $1000.\n\nTo get an order, click on anyone talking on a phone.\n\nTo fill an order\n1. First note the side (buy or sell), the price, and the quantity.\n2. Go to the correct trading pit and watch for the price to match your target price\n3. Set up the right hand signal with Shift to swap buy\/sell, and mouse wheel to change quantity.\n4. Hold RMB to show your signal and get traders' attention\n5. When you see a trader who matches you signal, and you're happy with their price, click their face to make the trade\n\nIf you mess up the trade, either by clicking the wrong hand signal or buying the wrong thing, it is labeled an OUT TRADE and you dont get any money!\n\n![howto-ezgif.com-optimize (4).gif](\/\/\/raw\/958\/56\/z\/72987.gif)\n\n![Screenshot 2026-04-20 191309.png](\/\/\/raw\/958\/56\/z\/719cd.png)\n\n![Screenshot 2026-04-24 124537.png](\/\/\/raw\/958\/56\/z\/72989.png)\n\n\n## Controls\nWASD & Mouse - Movement\n\nSpace - Jump\n\nMouse wheel (or number keys) - select trade amount\n\nShift - Toggle buying or selling\n\n## Credits\nNo AI was used for art, music, writing, or thinking.  I used Claude and Gemini for research\/debugging.\n\nArt - tracing my hands and historical photos, level modeled in Blender\n\nSounds -Free sounds from Pixaby \n\nMusic\n\n- https:\/\/pixabay.com\/music\/synthwave-synthwave-retro-80s-491697\/\n- https:\/\/pixabay.com\/music\/synthwave-a-hero-of-the-80s-126684\/\n\n\n## Discussion\/Devlog\nThis game was wildly hard to make fun.  I think I learned a lot about game design from just trying and failing at so many different approaches.\n\nIdeas that didnt work\n- Market has a price and all the traders are rapidly flashing signals for prices spread around that - overwhelming\n- Traders are already flashing quantity signals and you have to go fill an order.  Initially too easy because you could buy from anyone (partial orders were allowed).  Then too hard, because you were hunting for both a good price and the right quantity, and you might just be stuck\n- You need to match the exact quantity but you can punch and kiss the trader to make them sell more or less - mentally overwhelming\n- Call and response minigame to make an order - not fun\n- Keep your mouse in the circle minigame to secure an order (simulating getting traders attention) - super not fun\n- No orders, just buy low and sell high - created opportunities for turbo arbitrage by just selling among members of the pit\n- Same but with a bid\/ask spread built in - suddenly boring, nothing to do\n\nSo many ideas ended up with just sitting there waiting, or with 100 symbols flashing in your face and taking way too long to parse out.  The thing that helped was relaxing my attachment to the real life subject (so many hand signals) and letting the hand signals be more of the \"fiction\" or fantasy of the game instead of the core mechanic.  I rewatched the videos of the traders and thought about how what really feels cool is slinging hand signals, not parsing other peoples'.  That's the motivation for this last iteration of the game.  I really did want to add a mechanic where you can get in fistfights with traders when you have an out-trade.\n\n\nThe other big thing was taming randomness.  I feel like I had a bit of an epiphany here!  Games are fiction!  They have only the rules we say they have!  Initially I used perlin noise to simulate the stock moves and traders randomly picked quantities.  That was very very bad, you could have a bunch of orders where all the prices were too high, or no traders offering the trade you wanted.  Then I realized I could bring the market to the player: when the player picks up an order, the market's baseline price moves towards that order price.  It still varies, but it is varying around the order price now.  Same for the traders.  They know what you're looking for, and there's a 50-50 chance they will offer the side (buy sell) you need plus a further 50 50 chance they will offer the quantity you need.  Between them all the probability of not seeing the trade you need is quite low (not zero but oh well).\n\nCutting room floor ideas\n- Ability to punch other traders if they made an out trade\n- Some kind of rivalry system, if a trader keeps getting the better of you they become your rival\n- Going to the bathroom to \"powder your nose\" for some kind of slo mo powerup\n- I wanted a much more bustling trading floor, with lots of faces, palette swapping the clothing colors and skin tones\n- A house that filled up with all your purchases (eg ferrari in the garage)\n\n\nFor Nerds: Documentary on open outcry at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=F0DxNDU1xW8","title":"Outcry","wayback_recovered":true,"wayback_source":{"capture":{"original":"https:\/\/api-jam.ludumdare.com\/vx\/node2\/get\/426001+426002+426003+426004+426005+426006+426007+426008+426009+426010+426011+426012+426013+426014+426015+426016+426017+426018+426019+426020+426021+426022+426023+426024+426025+426026+426027+426028+426029+426030+426031+426032+426033+426034+426035+426036+426037+426038+426039+426040+426041+426042+426043+426044+426045+426046+426047+426048+426049+426050+426051+426052+426053+426054+426055+426056+426057+426058+426059+426060+426061+426062+426063+426064+426065+426066+426067+426068+426069+426070+426071+426072+426073+426074+426075+426076+426077+426078+426079+426080+426081+426082+426083+426084+426085+426086+426087+426088+426089+426090+426091+426092+426093+426094+426095+426096+426097+426098+426099+426100+426101+426102+426103+426104+426105+426106+426107+426108+426109+426110+426111+426112+426113+426114+426115+426116+426117+426118+426119+426120+426121+426122+426123+426124+426125+426126+426127+426128+426129+426130+426131+426132+426133+426134+426135+426136+426137+426138+426139+426140+426141+426142+426143+426144+426145+426146+426147+426148+426149+426150+426151+426152+426153+426154+426155+426156+426157+426158+426159+426160+426161+426162+426163+426164+426165+426166+426167+426168+426169+426170+426171+426172+426173+426174+426175+426176+426177+426178+426179+426180+426181+426182+426183+426184+426185+426186+426187+426188+426189+426190+426191+426192+426193+426194+426195+426196+426197+426198+426199+426200+426201+426202+426203+426204+426205+426206+426207+426208+426209+426210+426211+426212+426213+426214+426215+426216+426217+426218+426219+426220+426221+426222+426223+426224+426225+426226+426227+426228+426229+426230+426231+426232+426233+426234+426235+426236+426237+426238+426239+426240+426241+426242+426243+426244+426245+426246+426247+426248+426249+426250+426251+426252+426253+426254+426255+426256+426257+426258+426259+426260+426261+426262+426263+426264+426265+426266+426267+426268+426269+426270+426271+426272+426273+426274+426275+426276+426277+426278+426279+426280+426281+426282+426283+426284+426285+426286+426287+426288+426289+426290+426291+426292+426293+426294+426295+426296+426297+426298+426299+426300+426301+426302+426303+426304+426305+426306+426307+426308+426309+426310+426311+426312+426313+426314+426315+426316+426317+426318+426319+426320+426321+426322+426323+426324+426325+426326+426327+426328+426329+426330+426331+426332+426333+426334+426335+426336+426337+426338+426339+426340+426341+426342+426343+426344+426345+426346+426347+426348+426349+426350+426351+426352+426353+426354+426355+426356+426357+426358+426359+426360+426361+426362+426363+426364+426365+426366+426367+426368+426369+426370+426371+426372+426373+426374+426375+426376+426377+426378+426379+426380+426381+426382+426383+426384+426385+426386+426387+426388+426389+426390+426391+426392+426393+426394+426395+426396+426397+426398+426399+426400+426401+426402+426403+426404+426405+426406+426407+426408+426409+426410+426411+426412+426413+426414+426415+426416+426417+426418+426419+426420+426421+426422+426423+426424+426425+426426+426427+426428+426429+426430+426431+426432+426433+426434+426435+426436+426437+426438+426439+426440+426441+426442+426443+426444+426445+426446+426447+426448+426449+426450+426451+426452+426453+426454+426455+426456+426457+426458+426459+426460+426461+426462+426463+426464+426465+426466+426467+426468+426469+426470+426471+426472+426473+426474+426475+426476+426477+426478+426479+426480+426481+426482+426483+426484+426485+426486+426487+426488+426489+426490+426491+426492+426493+426494+426495+426496+426497+426498+426499+426500?authors&parents&superparent"},"object":"objects\/sha256\/1e\/1e2861ae1da743894cd41eafe36fd9dfa29219b56ac4a41d6ded75b721b3f3fc","record":"shard-3\/json-live-urgent-v3\/records\/07e8715576cecc4bbf5d92dc584ff2b40ca2db360702407acb97ff59f3af98ac.json","sha256":"1e2861ae1da743894cd41eafe36fd9dfa29219b56ac4a41d6ded75b721b3f3fc","source":"https","stored_at":1784022513}}