Better Tomorrows

Interesting way to add story to an idle game. I enjoyed this a lot. Rocket sounds a bit loud imo, some sounds were a bit sudden and loud but that's nitpicking.

An incremental game with a touch of mystery and a "Papers, Please" vibe to it. Very well executed! :)

This was really cool! Idle/incremental games are always a great bit of fun. Marrying that with the narrative of a war torn communist country was often funny at times. Requiring my resources for the war effort.
One thing I found confusing was being told to look around the map, but there wasn't really much to look at or interact with. I tried following the ufo and missiles, but they only led me to some rubble.

Great Work!

Very nice... I didn't think too much of it at first, at some point I almost quit thinking it's not really a game but the ending is well thought out. Simple and effective.
I also really like this interpretation of the theme.
Good job!

The letters gave a nice balance to the idle game elements. Likewise adding stuff to do in the forest while waiting for the money to come in kept it engaging. I like the art style, nice work :D

I did not sign-up for this ride of emotions, great game!

I try to read the least about it, so I started by thinking this would be yet-another-click-game. I collected most of the forest stuff early, thinking I could make some updates faster, but I just discovered later that it completely borked my chances of getting the $100, though I doubt that was ever intended to happen.

I slowly realised that something was not right when I noticed that the warning of the letter was not really effective, sounded more like propaganda and FUD. It was when the letter read "For you own safety" that I knew some shit was about to break.


This game is a very realistic take on the theme "Unstable". I felt for some moments like I was in the mid of the conflict, and probably how most people must feel, helpless. Thanks for sharing that!

Thank you all for your feedback!

@guessimluna you are definitely right. I think the issue is with multiple rockets hitting almost at the same time. Should have kept them more apart.

@ludokultur @syg thank you very much for your kind feedback! I am super glad you liked the game!

@draperdanman you’re correct. I originally thought the map would be more interactive, but I eventually found out that I would not have enough time. Then I figured out that I could at least use it like this for the ending.

@fabernull you can’t imagine how happy it made me to hear that you found the game balanced. I spent several hours trying to balance all elements together, so I am glad to hear that it was worth it!

@debone Oh yeah, it was not intended at first. But I assumed most of the players wouldn’t bother picking stuff up too much, because once you buy two or three upgrades, money is flying at the pace when picking stuff up did not seem worth it. Let’s pretend it was intended as an environmental message. :)

I rated all of your HTML5 games back, because I am stuck on Mac until the Friday. I will rate Windows-only games over the weekend. I won’t forget about you, I promise. :)

Lovely little idle game! I especially like the dialog, not easy to write that in a short amount of time! Good work!

awesome game for LD, this is why I hate paying my taxes

I love how the game turn our to really not be an idle game but the story endup being the most important thing of it!

I was 20$ short to win the game at the end...

I guess I was not considerate enough of the forest. 🙄

@elastic glad you liked the dialog! It is always my favorite part!

@shp don’t we all?

@dekajoo just 20 $ short of freedom! Life is not fair!

Thank you all for the feedback! I rated all your games back. :)

Nice take on the theme, I managed to get the 100 bucks just in time~

Love the mood of this game. I wasted all the resources from the forest at the beginning, so I couldn't get the 100 bucks at the end :_) I completely bought that the ecological message was intended!

Solid aesthetic. I actually almost thought the game had no ending and the lumber business seemed to escalate quickly enough that I never bothered with berries or mushrooms until the end when I had plenty.

I love the take on the theme and the feeling of being thrown in the middle of a dangerous and escalating situation without any control over it. The comedy of the letters and the "don't mind the explosions, just keep cutting wood" attitude made the game very enjoyable, and as much as it draws parallels to something like Papers Please in the setting of the game, it's also very much it's own thing and feels quite different and original. It does also give that sort of uneasy feeling, as it should considering the setting, and I think it treads the line of dark satirical comedy and the fear of war brilliantly. Good job!

I thoroughly enjoyed this - very well written, and it really drew me in as a player. I felt the art style was effective, and the sound design really contributed to a gripping atmosphere.

Great game, it's one of the few that I've played all the way through!

Thank you all very much for your feedback!

@pandore glad you were able to collect 100 $. Now let’s see where the destiny takes you!

@alareo we can surely pretend it was!

@ruruie glad you liked the aesthetics! I wanted to go for different kind than I usually go, glad you lked it! And I figured out that most of the player wouldn’t bother picking them. I bet it paid off (literally :) ) in the end.

@eyedromeda thank you very much for such a detailed feedback! I can see parallels with Papers, Please - it is about a similar settings, but I wondered how would it feel if the player was kinda helpless. Super glad you enjoyed it!

@thesedatedprince glad you liked the artstyle and sounds! Like I said, I tried a new artstyle instead of the pixel one I usually pick, so I am happy for these sorts of responses. :)

@schuster what a coincidence, I played your game all the way through as well! Glad you enjoyed mine!

Rated all of your games btw! Except for the Windows-only ones, because I am stuck on Mac until Friday. I will rate Windows-only games on weekend, I will not forget. :)

Hah, this is probably one of the best experiences I have played thru this LD. The story was excellent, and because I got most of the berries and mushrooms before I would have needed them, I could not escape :smile: The letters were so cool, plus i definitely loved the graphics and the athmosphere the whole thing had. Very nice game. Congrats.

@hotaloca thank you for your super kind words! I am glad you had such a great experience! I will rate your game tomorrow when I am back on Windows. :)

I have some mixed feelings about this one, tbh. As for me, it lacks actuall gameplay, as it is just ONE POINT clicker, and it is not very entertaining for me. And the actual controls are a bit weird... I mean exploring thing. But the humor side helps a lot :) Anyways, nice submission.

This game is just amazing. I had to replay the whole because I picked too many mushrooms and flowers, but that just allowed me to see both endings.

The minimalist black and white art looks great and provides a nice atmosphere, the sound effects are very good, the story is interesting and the gameplay is fun.

The only thing missing is the ability to play fullscreen so the putting the cursor in the corners would be easier.

This game is evil! There is so much time so you go around picking everything and then you don't have enough and you have to start over! EVIL! :smile: But seriously, loved it very much :heart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l-2hSJ421E

@leokrechmer thank you very much for your rating and your playthrough! And I am sorry for leaving your stream so abruptly — real life got me at the worst time and I was already running late. But I couldn’t skip watching you play! I will definitely add more gameplay next time. I planned much more (this is why the map is bigger), but I was unfortunately out of time. Thank you very much for checking it out on your stream!

@flying-dog-fish thank you for your comment! You’re definitely right about the fullscreen. Game Maker is acting kinda weirdly to me when it comes to HTML5 and scaling. I have some HTML5 issues on itch.io almost every single time. My "favorite" memory was with different game (Solitary Accompanied) that I tried in HTML5 only few hours before the GMTK Game Jam end and found out that the GUI was rendering at like eighth of the screen and I was able to fix it unpleasantly close to the deadline. I will take a look at it when the Compo voting ends. These issues should hopefully be resolved next time, since I am learning Godot and planning to switch to it completely - it seems that HTML5 there is significantly better and I don’t have to implement some workaround every time.

@molpe you can’t even imagine how excited and happy it makes me to see someone actually playing my game on the video! I almost died laughing at the UFO part, sorry for scaring you this much! :D I appreciate you finishing the game twice just to see different endings, I was indeed evil by not giving players any way how to finish if they pick everything. Thank you very much for playing!

The graphics and general art style are super pretty and fitting. I love the weird genre blending and the paper's please vibe.

Wonderful game! Really good job with the moods, I played it twice because on the first playthrough I couldn't raise the 100$ on time.

Nice, nice. It took quite a while once I've unlocked everything for something else to happen. I thought raiding the forest would trigger something. I ended up with like 1m+ coins before all my assets got confiscated and then I had nothing left to harvest to get my money back ;-;

I really like the art style, very unique. Good job with the game!

@demogorgon & @zimny11 thank you for your feedback and for playing!

@cookie-chr - I appreciate you playing the game twice just to see a different ending. Forest definitely appreciates you more now. :)

@pavocado I feel a little bit bad when I hear stories like that, haha! Getting one million confiscated... ouch! And no way how to leave the country after that, double ouch! I will try to be kinder in my next game. :)

Great take on a clicker game! The graphics and letters really sold the dystopic feel. Reminds me of Papers Please.

@katanoueki thank you for playing, glad you liked the visuals. Rated your game back as well. :)

Really nice game! Somehow managed to do have very good immersion even without much in the way of sounds and music. The plot unfolding through letters is very well thought out. I did get arrested tho :( Overall the gameplay could have been made a little more engaging. Once you figure out how well the upgrades do you can just sit there and watch the money counter.

@nyxkn thank you very much for playing and for your feedback! Super sorry to hear that you were arrested; hope they are not too hard on you in prison! You are definitely right with the fact that the gameplay could be more engaging - I was planning much more, but I unfortunately ran out of time. And you’re definitely right with buying upgrades and just watching the money go. I assumed most of the people would do it, so I am surprised how many players decided to pick everything off the forest. Too bad I didn’t give it some meaning, at least (except for the ending). Thank you very much, rated your game back, yours was definitely more engaging. :)

I like this! It reminds me some antiuthopy. I really love your art style! It's awesome :3

@coolestdoggie thank you for playing and for your review! I am glad you liked the art style. Inkscape was my friend, even though I have a love-hate relationship with it. Rated your game back as well. :)

I really enjoyed this one. I'm a fan of incremental games with narratives, like A Dark Room and Universal Paper Clips.

The fantasy of building a business in a country that is falling apart really resonated with me. Obviously it's less extreme, but I live in South Africa and governments make questionable (but thankfully still peaceful) decisions around here.

The aethetic was really cool as well. I'm disappointed I didn't get to the crashed "weather baloon" before the missiles came in.

I liked the elements of exploring the landscape. I would have enjoyed more actions in the world. Like finding people to help who then upgrade your production.

@evangreenwood thank you very much for your feedback! Unfortunately, the weather baloon crashed too far away, so don’t feel bad for not being to find it. You’re definitely right about more actions, maybe I will continue with this game after LD, we shall see. And I hope you’re safe despite your IRL government, that is the most important part!
Sorry for not being able to rate your game back - ratings are already closed and I got here just now. :(