Snake Oil by OrdiNeu

made by OrdiNeu for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

Characters<em>Spash</em>Screen.png

You are Conrad, a steely-eyed conman with a silver tongue, and a crushing debt to Mr. Octopus. After years on the run practicing your craft, you have returned to Schmucksville to con your way to the top and pay off your debt. Armed with only your coat and last bottle of snake oil, you intend to writhe out of the crippling grasp of Mr. Octopus' tentacles. Refine your cons and slither your way deeper and deeper into the city, but be careful to not be caught in the lies you tell along the way!

Characters2 (1).gif

Con your way to the top and press deeper and deeper into the city, but be careful to not be caught in the lies you tell along the way! Snake Oil is a head-to-head lottery game. Make your way through Schmucksville trying to con the residents out of their most precious belongings by beating them at slots.

Collect points when your icons show up in your spin. Get more points than your opponent to win in a best-of-three series. Add an icon to your pool between each round.

Arrows to move, click and space to confirm. Shift to sprint. Tab will show you the suggested order to face people in.

Slot machine mechanics heavily inspired by Luck Be a Landlord.

Link	https://ordineu.itch.io/snakeoil
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/snake-oil

Ratings

Overall	903^th	3.522⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Fun	1326^th	3.065⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	402^th	3.674⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Theme	1814^th	2.543⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	180^th	4.348⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Audio	265^th	3.891⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Humor	132^th	3.935⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Given		52🗳️	12🗨️

Feedback

programming_sock

26. Apr 2021 · 23:55 UTC

super cute game, i loved the art and the crab rave easteregg was funny. great work!

oeschmid

26. Apr 2021 · 23:55 UTC

The art and writing for this game are really fantastic! It all, combined with the music, really make for an enjoyable game. I also liked the slots gameplay - making me think about what to add to machine was a clever idea. Great job!

nate_wec

27. Apr 2021 · 00:01 UTC

I beat Puggsworth but I'm not sure what I won exactly, did I get to keep the tokens? It didn't seem like I was getting any stronger while playing since I played against Puggsworth a couple more times and didn't feel anymore powerful. Some more clarity would be appreciated!

The art on the game was great, really goofy and cartoony, along with the premise and setting. With some more polish and content I think this could be really good!

PookiPoot

27. Apr 2021 · 01:15 UTC

Det. Pugglesworth looks a bit like he's about to sell me drugs (I think that's a plus!) Your art style is awesome and the music is pretty good too. I was never really into slot machine games but this one is actually fun. The point system from squaring off with people with the added addition of modifying your icons is a great touch. When you get an icon added to your pool, does it stick around the entire game or just for that battle? Great job!!

TheDugnutt

27. Apr 2021 · 01:23 UTC

@pookipoot thanks! Yes, after each round, you choose an item to add it to your slot machine. Eventually it caps out if you hit 25 items though and then starts replacing them.

@nate-wec yeah we kinda had issues with time as we did a hard pivot on our concept in the last 20 hours.
But the idea is that Puggsworth is just a starting battle, then you keep moving down your list of targets to con until you eventually face Mr. Octopus.

Each character offers different items(Pugglesworth doesn't offer great items though) facing different people will help you "deepen your cons" and get some better synergies going in your slots.

but the lack of player guidance is mostly because we ran out of time. You can face the characters in an order you want, but the further down the list they are (TAB to open the list) the more difficult they are.

Hope this helps and thanks for the feedback :)

ezgoodnight

28. Apr 2021 · 01:26 UTC

You swung hard with this, and I admire the hell out of it. You did a lot really well, it's gorgeous and you've built a really interesting little world. It's not clear enough imo what is the play mechanic or what to do next, but it's lovely and I like it. One of your devs told me on twitch tonight you rebuilt a lot of it Sunday because you had to pivot, and that's a heroic feat. Altogether you should be really proud of this and I like what you've done here.

Tarcisiotm

28. Apr 2021 · 02:47 UTC

Loved the art style and the animations. Even though it is a jam, it looks like a fully realised world, so good job on that!

LDJam user 251170

28. Apr 2021 · 14:58 UTC

Cute game! I really loved the different characters.
The slots game was interesting and even though it was just a matter of clicking some buttons, I quickly got addicted to it hehe. It was satisfying watching the points you'd score grow as you got more and more upgrades.
Some feedback to show how much credibility you lose would be a nice addition, but I'm pretty confident you already considered that hehe.

If you're going to continue working on this, I'm curious to see what improvements and/or variations you might be able to come up with. Thanks for the entry!

Rawb

28. Apr 2021 · 19:12 UTC

This game mechanic is so great. I love the sort of hybrid slot machine and deck collecting. Also the art is fantastic

eharp

28. Apr 2021 · 20:44 UTC

Really interesting game mechanic. Also love the art style and feel. Not sure I get the theme connection but great entry!

Jinny Kang

30. Apr 2021 · 01:40 UTC

First off, I really love the music and graphics! I could just listen to the music for hours in my daily background! I also do appreciate the time you've put into creating such an interesting game! However, at a certain point, the game sort of got lost for me b/c I felt like I was just clicking 'stop' on the slot mechanic, which felt like it was mostly based on luck and not on skill or knowledge. Great game anyways and congrats on creating 'Snake Oil!' :snake:

yellowsalamander

01. May 2021 · 09:30 UTC

A really fun and interesting idea, something I would love to see more refined, and with a lot more animal stereotypes.

Mighty Mufflon Games

01. May 2021 · 10:03 UTC

The art, music and writing are great, but the slot machine wasn't that amusing for me.
Overall cool game!

patdag

03. May 2021 · 06:21 UTC

There's a lot of fun had with this game. The music also made it a casual play. I spent a lot of time playing!

David Mason

03. May 2021 · 17:24 UTC

I liked the art, but how does this relate to the theme?

Super Hadoken

05. May 2021 · 11:12 UTC

Great graphics and interesting gameplay. Needs a tick or strikethrough for the characters you've beaten. Maybe a map as well.