LudumData

The Last Headline by Helgust

[raw]
made by Helgust for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

The Last Headline is a political journalism simulation game set in 1980s in the Republic of Karavia, a fictional totalitarian state. You are a junior journalist suddenly left in charge of a state #1 newspaper for several days.

Your job: receive raw news drafts from reporters, choose three stories per day, and frame each one with a tone. Every decision affects four factions — the Army, the Apparat (party bureaucracy), the People, and the Intellectuals.

Keep the paper running, Earn your salary. Keep the population content. Do not attract the wrong kind of attention.

Code: Helgust Artwork: Ivanfromthetab Music: Andruxioid! Screenshot 2026-04-21 023941.png Screenshot 2026-04-21 023951.png Screenshot 2026-04-21 024026.pngScreenshot 2026-04-21 023913.png

Link https://chaletgames.itch.io/the-last-headline
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/the-last-headline

Ratings

Overall 351th 3.667⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 590th 3.119⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 412th 3.405⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 540th 3.5⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 88th 4.457⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 234th 3.725⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 445th 2.706⭐ 19🧑‍⚖️
Mood 356th 3.75⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 23🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

🎤 Helgust
Apr 21st · 01:01 UTC
During the export of project bug was occured
Upadted version now on itch.io https://chaletgames.itch.io/the-last-headline
VerttiXPertti
Apr 21st · 12:19 UTC
I didn't play too far but the graphics were great and it seemed like there was a lot of content. What worsened my experience was the font. To me it was difficult to read and in a game like this it made me quit. Maybe a skill issue on my part though. I'll give good scores though cause the game seemed very polished.
FadingDreamStories
Apr 21st · 12:59 UTC
Really interesting idea - there have been a few games out in the world that have tried to do the newspaper publishing angle, and I think this really nails it. It doesn't feel like something that was done over a weekend plus change, and I think that says everything. Did find the font a little obstructive for reading as well, but loved the whole "Newspapers Please" angle
metalim
Apr 21st · 13:02 UTC
Very moody, nice correlation to "Papers, Please". Great graphics, but font isn't very readable. Also parallax works the opposite way, I think
Kenoshka
Apr 21st · 13:04 UTC
great visuals, but had problems getting past day one, probably i poorly read the instructions, but feels good anyway
🎤 Helgust
Apr 21st · 13:15 UTC
@FadingDreamStories @metalim @kenoshka @verttixpertti
Thank you for your ratings and feedback! I'll try to change the font to a more readable one soon!
Kenoshka
Apr 21st · 13:18 UTC
@helgust feel free to ping after that, interested to retry the game
🎤 Helgust
Apr 21st · 23:18 UTC
@kenoshka @metalim @fadingdreamstories @verttixpertti
Uploaded a new versions with updated font. Now should be more readable then before!
Haoxuan
Apr 22nd · 08:26 UTC
visuals and mood very good the the instructions are a bit confusing
Rinzu
Apr 22nd · 15:21 UTC
A cool style, the in game graphics are really good.
Dylan Shumway
Apr 23rd · 01:27 UTC
Very impressive project for this jam! The theme and the writing are really interesting and definitely pulled me in. Managing the different stories/trying to figure out which framings were correct was stressful, but definitely a fun jaunt! Well done! :)
Zwi Zausch
Apr 23rd · 01:34 UTC
hEY THIS IS VERY COOL! I like the srt and music as well as sound design!
I had to fail a few times until I understood the UI, I think coloring the unfitting framings in orange is a bit misleading and I found it a bit hard to understand which fit to which news. It's alot to grasp at first, but very cool and well done for the shrot time!
Glory to Arstotzka!
Link270
Apr 23rd · 01:34 UTC
Cool art style and great mood. Very Papers Please feeling. The gameplay loop wasn't entirely obvious, so that could use a little work and maybe a little simplification. It might be good to start off super super simple and slowly introduce new parts to the game. Great job overall though!
Kenoshka
Apr 24th · 10:50 UTC
wish to see that kind of game released on steam, so much potentional)
Pavel Goncharov
Apr 24th · 16:51 UTC
Nice idea to use the keyboard for releasing the paper! The pixel graphics look good. Maybe it’s just me, but I wish there were more onboarding at the beginning.
IRKAR
Apr 24th · 19:51 UTC
Very cool art style and animation also i like parallaxing effect. Good job!
VenomousMouse
Apr 30th · 08:23 UTC
Very nice art, good overall mood and mechanic. And as was said before, needs other font, this one is hard to read and a simple tutorial could be nice.
fluffyou
Apr 30th · 08:32 UTC
Very cool graphics and ambiance! I found the gameplay difficult – hard to please everyone, but that's the point.

I'm not sure if it's a bug, but I can't find the directive cards. I have Temporary Measure as a framing card but not temporary adjustment...

![screenshot.png](///raw/a43/d3/z/72f77.png)

There's another little bug somewhere where it says (days) instead of the number, but I can't find it again right now.

Thank you for making this.
🎤 Helgust
Apr 30th · 16:31 UTC
@fluffyou thanks for feedback, yeah the bug with {days} is know bug. Will try to fix it in Post-LD version of game! Stay tuned!
Thank you for playing!
anete ainjärv
Apr 30th · 18:44 UTC
wow the graphics are incredible!! The game is very well put together and the audio design is also wonderful. Same as other commenters I also had a hard time with the font but other than that this is such a great game, especially considering the short amount of time you had to make it
InkyH
May 04th · 08:07 UTC
impressive, remind me of Papers, Please :)
The Big Lost
May 04th · 11:14 UTC
There's clearly a lot of potential here. I loved the idea, writing and aesthetics (the pixel graphics are *absolutely amazing*!), but didn't really gel with the gameplay. There's a lot to take in, but no tutorial or explanation. Also, found some parts of the UI (e.g. the typewriter) quite unintuitive and confusing.