Political misdirection by LeReveur

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Those alien people have political views, but none can win nor disappear without a total collapse of their civilisation.
They made an AI to take care of this fragile stability by passing laws, and you are this AI.
Vote laws by clicking or using [J] [K] [L] keys ([R] to restart at end)
If you don't vote, people will change their society themselves, following the trend that your prevision subroutine shows on the right.
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Unfortunatly I had to handle an unexpected familial matter this week-end, so, even if (for once) I had a bunch of ideas since the very start with this very good theme, I couldn't made very much in only one day, and I picked one to made it at least on a functional basis - although very raw.
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| Link | http://workshop.xenedon.com/LD49/ |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/political-misdirection |
Ratings
| Overall | 902th | 3.409⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 937th | 3.25⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 149th | 3.932⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 650th | 3.636⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1295th | 2.705⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 1193th | 2⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1256th | 2.833⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 27🗳️ | 27🗨️ |
I found it very difficult to have to switch between looking at the distribution thing on the left and the three symbols. I think that the marker should have been way lager so it is easier to see what the current state is.
Nice entry!
I had a really hard time with the controls, because I kept thinking that the keys would map to each of the three sections on the graph you were trying to keep balanced, so I'd instinctively press J when I needed to fill the leftmost quadrant, regardless of what symbol was being shown. I think I would have had an easier time clicking on the options I was selecting, rather than using my keyboard.
Overall though, this was pretty fun!
Very fun game. It would have helped having some type of rhythmic music on the background, to help entering into the "reaction zone".
Cool and unique!
The progression was a bit too quick for me, but all that means is that it's probably just right for the more twitch-game oriented players that this is meant for.
I do have a few other remarks:
- Why the three-way 'vote' that doesn't change anything?
- I once was forced to choose between 3 identical options, which then ended my game. If you expand on this, it's a situation you want to prevent before the player gets to see it.
- I had a game-over (I think the same one maybe even) where there still was a little bit of the smallest party left. (See screenshot.)
- Some sound-effects would really have helped here.

Wow I certainly didn't expected such detailed comment on a game I made in less than one day haha
• There is no progression, first turn longs for 4 seconds, next ones for 2 seconds, and every "vote", including the default one, are randomized. So, sometimes there is no way to win the next turn, but by anticipation you can avoid almost every bad situation (even if randomness can throw two bad situations, and then force you to lose, but this is very rare). For example, while showing my entry to a friend, I reached a high score of more than 300, if there was any progression I certainly wouldn't have :laughing:
• Each vote must result on a zero-sum, so if one "political view" is up and two are down, you'll have +2,-1,-1, if two are up and one down, you'll have +1,+1,-2, and so if all are up or down, this is like nothing changes
• There is two ways to lose : if one "political view" downs to zero, or if one reach the border of the circle (equals to the double of the start point) - this is what you had in the screenshot, with blue reaching max points allowed
Has I said at the end of the presentation page, I couldn't work on this LD all the time, due to an unexpected familial matter, so I just made something functional but didn't had enough time to expend it, that's why there is no intro scene, no sounds, and just a full random pick instead of some "intelligent randomness" as I like to do in this kind of design
Thank you for that so detailed feedback!
I hope your familial matter went over okay & that you have more time to work on your entry next jam!
My suggestion would be to either place the diagram right above the buttons, to reduce eye movements (because I always just looked at the diagram instead of the field of arrows), or to make the differences between the arrows in the field more distinct (or add colors to the arrows on the buttons), so it's more plausible to eyeball the ratios between the different arrows.
Otherwise, very interesting little game! I'm sure this could be used for some psychological experiments, or even for diagnosing some neurological disorders related to visual processing! :thinking:
It reminds me of games like reigns where you choose an option and it has an outcome, only really fast and real time haha. The graphics are really cute and it looks really polished overall.
Well done \o/