Hometown Helper by DWink

made by DWink for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

What is best in life? To put off important tasks, and do small ones instead, falling deeper and deeper into the endless minutiae of your hometown...

https://play.unity.com/mg/other/hometown-hero

INSTRUCTIONS
Use your mouse to select quests from the right menu, when you find one that sounds good, hit start!
The items you have may help complete these tasks, but make sure not to lose everything you have...
And as you complete quests, you might find that you get pulled deeper, and deeper into the happenings of this town!

(the left quest button attempts the quest with no item, the right allows you to then click on an item to bring with.)
(If you use the correct item, success is guaranteed, but any item is more useful than none!)
(But, taking an item into a quest can mean losing it. You'll get a new item if you're successful.)

Using music from [vgcomposer] (thanks [vgcomposer]!)
https://itch.io/profile/vgcomposer
Intro: https://soundcloud.com/vgcomposer/cave-bgm
Main: https://soundcloud.com/vgcomposer/action-rpg-music-11-forest-bgm-2

Link	https://github.com/msilvprog7/ldjam48
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/hometown-helper

Ratings

Overall	1774^th	2.809⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Fun	1684^th	2.686⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	1202^th	3.014⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Theme	1665^th	2.868⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	1773^th	1.786⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Humor	373^th	3.443⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Mood	1676^th	2.697⭐	35🧑‍⚖️
Given		32🗳️	49🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 0

27. Apr 2021 · 15:49 UTC

I saw the inventory screen after the first two dialogue options and got stuck. It sounded exciting!

SlingShot

27. Apr 2021 · 16:11 UTC

I get stuck after going to the village. Is it a bug?

Arttu Halonen

27. Apr 2021 · 16:14 UTC

I too got stuck in the inventory after going to the village. Hope you get the build issue sorted out! Keep it up!

crucknuk

27. Apr 2021 · 16:18 UTC

I get stuck on the inventory screen too :confused:

Delequesce

28. Apr 2021 · 00:19 UTC

Sorry everyone! The game had a bug but is now fixed for your enjoyment.

🎤 DWink

28. Apr 2021 · 00:23 UTC

Hi all! (Do you get notified when I comment here? I hope so...)
The build has been fixed and the game is now playable! Thank you for giving it a shot even in its broken state, and we hope the working version entertains you!

BarelyEvenGames

28. Apr 2021 · 00:34 UTC

Sorry man, I really couldn't figure this one out :/

Quin2

28. Apr 2021 · 03:33 UTC

I loved the concept, and the quests were all pretty funny. I just wish there were some graphics, or at least the interface was polished a little more :( Good work!

Andreia

28. Apr 2021 · 03:41 UTC

Some of the results of doing the quests are funny :) Very interesting to play a game that relies in the narrative more than anything else. This could be a good start for a quest system in a bigger game. Congratulations!

windfall890

28. Apr 2021 · 03:49 UTC

I love the theme of dealing with these random tasks with the structure of an epic adventure.
The writing worked well, and the concept of trading and upgrading items from quest to quest is cool too.

The hyper minimalist UI would probably work well if it was polished enough to make a statement and progression was more clear, instead it falls a little extra flat.

ultimately I think there is not enough cohesion to make progress, and no indicator if what the player
is doing is working or not working. It feels so close to working too! A few more UI elements pointing the player in a new direction, or a more concrete understanding of what rewards do and how to use them correctly would turn this into something very neat.

Nice job for getting it done and and really clever use of the theme (from someone who literally made a game about going down a hole...)

Dobrila

28. Apr 2021 · 09:05 UTC

very funny! cool idea!

Traffle

28. Apr 2021 · 14:58 UTC

the writing was good, and the tasks were all rather funny. gameplay wise though, it often felt like i was basically randomly selecting items that seemed somewhat related to the task, and was often somewhat confused by the result.

aTinyBean

28. Apr 2021 · 19:43 UTC

The gameplay loop was interesting and the writing was good (high score on humor!) That was an interesting take on the theme too. I would love to see a larger-scale polished version!

RexGame

28. Apr 2021 · 20:25 UTC

Think to upload a cover image it is more attractive !

ardorugus

29. Apr 2021 · 03:02 UTC

A bit complicated with these two-sided clicking and some story in the center. Weirdly, felt too much text for me, although I'm always into some good novel. Still, an interesting approach.

Yword

29. Apr 2021 · 17:02 UTC

Very interesting content and unexpected idea, and quite addictive too! Nice works!

xpoho

30. Apr 2021 · 01:36 UTC

Сделай то, сделай это, сходи туда, сходи сюда... Да это же то, о чем я мечтал! И в конце спасти королевскую семью. Если получится. Пора приниматься за дело!
Спасибо за интересную текстовую игру ^_^

retrome

01. May 2021 · 08:35 UTC

Interesting text game with innovative decision making mechanic! Nice color palette, so eyes feel fairly relaxed. Pretty funny texts.

Some remarks:
1. Quest Log can contain multiple copies of the same quest. Expectation: Quest Log contains unique quests only.
2. Game is silent. That could be intended, but expectation: click sounds are playing on clicking buttons and background music is used to support the mood.

Nice entry!

oramun

01. May 2021 · 09:13 UTC

Music was great and i really liked the concept. Story elements were funny and it was enjoyable to play. The UI is the main focus for this type of game so i think if you were going to continue development it would be nice to add some more colours or visual elements. For example one of the items just showed as COM and i did not know what it was.

SubMan

01. May 2021 · 11:26 UTC

It could have been an exciting adventure, but it lacks music and a little more interface refinement

mrosegreen

01. May 2021 · 11:33 UTC

Fun concept :)

Marcari

01. May 2021 · 20:33 UTC

Interesting concept, although I think some graphics would have helped to support the idea and transport the mood.

Tim77

01. May 2021 · 22:15 UTC

Definitely one of the "weirder" entries! Weird in a good way! ;) I liked the quirkiness of it; I found myself wondering - what was going through the dev's mind as they were creating this?? Yes you had a time constraint, but even minor tweaks to the graphics would have improved things greatly. Overall, interesting text-based game with great potential. I imagine a future version with images of the various characters and scenarios - could be quite an amusing way to go! Well done!

NvrSkipGameDay

05. May 2021 · 10:55 UTC

This game was hilarious. I had a quest to run somewhere and took a bucket to be a contrarian jerk like "har har bucket, laughing inside." I wasn't expecting it to be like "Wow, you're really fast! What's with the bucket?" That actually made me laugh out loud. You accounted for so many variables in this, somehow I caught butterflies with a hoe and impressed the Day King with my magnificent hammer. Honestly I loved it, a lot of love went into the wording and setup here, awesome entry.

LDJam user 222495

10. May 2021 · 00:40 UTC

Unique and amusing

ruthiepee

17. May 2021 · 14:22 UTC

Oh, I won! That sort of surprised me because I'm not sure what triggered it, haha. I really liked all the dialog and figuring out which items would help me on each quest. I don't mind that there aren't any graphics, but the UI should feel more responsive (i.e. give some sort of feedback when the user takes actions). But I love the concept and all the writing -- it was definitely worth a play and made me laugh.