Financial Depths by joh
Reach new depths of depts in this strategy(?) survival game!

Use your credit cards to pay your bills... then use the credit cards to pay the credit cards. How long can that last? That's up to you!
NOTE
Didn't have time to add some limitation; I dont recommend taking all credit card. selecting stuff will be hard

| Link | https://johgames.itch.io/financial-depths |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/financial-depths |
Ratings
| Overall | 913th | 3.516⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 746th | 3.452⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 37th | 4.323⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 40th | 4.435⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1373th | 3.21⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 14🗳️ | 18🗨️ |
As far as usability, it took me a couple losses before I figured out quite how the game worked. Also, I was a bit puzzled when I made my credit card payment (full balance) 1 week early, and get charged interest on my next month's balance. That was a bit of a surprise.
Congratulations on your very clever take on the theme, and for making a game that makes for an interesting intellectual juggle. I really love this entry!
@matt-swieboda Thats a great idea, was totally intended but got lost under the cut-cut-cut pressure of jam time limit xD
@superpokeunicorn thank you, that was the intent and im glad it landed.
@silas-reinagel Haha! this is totally not representative of real life. It was for simplification purposes but somehow ends up weird in "real world parralele". Interest is applied on all red portion regardless of when it came from. Although Now that I think about some more, maybe I could have made use previous session balance! Good point!
The clever or at least "different" take on the theme was very intentional, but perhaps cost me too much time xD I am glad the inttelectual juggle could reach people as I did feel it might have ended up too deep. (pun not intended)
@jaiden-gerig Now you remind me of the discalimer I intended to have from the very start of this idea. "Nothing in this game is representative of real life nor should it be used as financial advice" Too bad I forgot about that :laughing:
Great work with great meanings!
You should be able to streamline the interface. It shouldn't take more than 2 clicks or a click-and-drag to choose a payment source, destination, and amount.
Nice jam game though. I think the arrows look great, and I like having the entire background be your net worth.
@zuwu thank you!
@blue-pin-studio that was the intent xD Although I was scare of "What if someone plays so well they dont get in depth?!" With the way the campaign is set up I'm pretty sure its impossible.
@roboolet Thanks for the kind words. I think its a bit confusing at first, I quickly threw instructions together but even I'm not convinced those are clear.
@kapa6uh I like that term. Used it in a post, It really does carry the true essence of the game.
@yahay @yamzho @itsisaac Thanks everyone!
@madbarron Very interesting, yet probably true. At the start that is definitely the case; thats a subtle way to teach the basics and also easy balancing. However you do have choices, they just have minimal impact until later on. You dont HAVE to accept every card, but since they dont really have downsides until later on, its an obvious choice.(later ones have fees and higher minimal payment).
Quite honestly real challenge starts at week 25, once its no longer curated to be possible by me and just random.
You are absolutely right about the double click. Payment click exists doe to an other option that was cut (Reward aka Skill), should have removed that button. Pay Full/Pay min makes sense when both options are availble, but doesn't when only one does. small oversights -.-'
Thanks I like the arrow too, I actually saw it in a game during another LD and asked the dev how the made it. And I like the background idea too, though I wish it was a bit more alive. Thanks for the feedback!
I would like a mini tutorial and maybe more effect to make the game more juicy. Maybe add more dilema like : "Invite you girlfriend to restaurant and get more debt or keep your money and loose your girlfriend :smile_cat: "
Good job :thumbsup:
And I did have such activity plans but didn't have time to add them. Although it wasn't choices per-say, more like choices through paying. If you failed to pay dates, you would get dumped. if you failed to pay hang outs you would lose friends etc. (Back then not every bill missed would lead to game over)
@ninsky I guess I wasn't clear on thar, my bad. But thanks for giving it a chance and figuring it out!
@simex Wow this is super impressive, I'm surprised that you reach a safe state, but I did code some difficulty ceilings so maybe that's why. Did you ever reject cards? I know some cards could potentially get hard to pay (fees/high mininal payment). I had more gameplay in mind, although they are more on the make game easier side: Cashback rewards, Travel points (skip weeks) & manually asking for cards. But yeah, perhaps relaxing the difficulty ceiling; higher bills, more bills, shorter pay times. Would also be wise.
Thanks a lot and congratulations!
@6smith Thank you!
[Gene Cycle](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/gene-cycle) was one of my surprise favourites from the last _Ludum Dare_, so I was really looking forward to trying out this new puzzle-like game from you as well! Needless to say, just like your former entry, this one takes a very specific sort of themes, and tries to adapt them to interesting mechanics and I think the game successfully achieves just that! :raised_hands:
The interpretation of _Deeper and Deeper_ as going further and further into financial debt, especially with the line in the background showing your ever decaying net worth, is a genuinely curious one! Micromanaging and continuously stacking new cards while paying off the debt and old cards felt like a tip-the-scales sort of situation and a considerable exercise. Like some of the previous comments, it took me a while to notice that, in addition to the cards, you also had a small bank account. I possibly would have made the bank balance a button at the beginning of the queue just like the rest of the cards to make the feature more obvious to starting players.
I assume that it isn't possible given the theme, but it'd have been curious to see if there was a way to carry the game with a positive net worth until the end somehow. Maybe through extremely rewarding play. :thinking: I also know you're not being rated in audio, but I think some slight background music, even if royalty-free would have a nice addition!
At the end, after having played the game, I have to ponder. Are we all doomed to unpayable debt and credit? To see our bank accounts plummet endlessly downward as capitalistic mega-corps and the government cash-us out from all of our hard-earned cash? Or am I just being exaggeratively nihilistic for the sake of ending a comment in a funny ironic tone? One has to ponder. Cheers! :whale:
I had problems with the UI so everything looked really tiny on my screen. This could have been nicer, but overall, loved the idea!
@jorgegamedev Hey! good to see you again! It feels good to have cross jam recurrent encounters. especially when they lead to high expectations. I feel like I made the same "mistake" as last time with a seemingly too deep/complex game (although when you get it it really isn't that complex). Thanks a lot for the feedback; while fixing the browser resolution problem, ive attempted to increase emphasis on bank account and payments.
I do not believe it is possible to remain the positives, It is by design and for the theme, but initially it was something I "feared" because I had planned more ways to have "positive" income: Cashback, Job promotions and skipping bills without game overs. Unfortunately, since I didn't have time to add these, I dont even need to worry, you cant stay in the positives. :rofl:
And yeah, music was a time thing and although I did fix some things, i do try to remain in the "spirit" of the initial jam entry. Perhaps post-jam? or maybe If I need to do another quick fix, musicless is certainly dry; hope it wont hurt too much.
Thanks for all the feedback and your nihilistic take! You're game is pretty impressive, so you are certainly not doomed to see your bank account(s) plummet :wink: cheers!