The Troubled Train by RosyMaple

[raw]
made by RosyMaple for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

Take on the role of the engineer of a train with many, MANY, issues! Your company, the Mule Desert Express, has fitted their trains with state-of-the-art solutions to any issue that may present itself, but will you be able to utilize these effectively to keep the train safe?

Ratings

Overall 1273th 3.069⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1002th 3.19⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1121th 2.948⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1031th 3.224⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1320th 2.586⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Audio 841th 2.944⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Humor 716th 2.946⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1296th 2.75⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 30🗨️

Feedback

Pavocado
05. Oct 2021 · 00:37 UTC
That was a lot trickier than I thought it was going to be when I was reading the instructions.
I love the game mechanic. It started off pretty steady, I had a good pace going on... THEN THE UNICORNS ARRIVED. Oh my god! I ended up with like 15 things on the screen and my poor fingers couldn't click fast enough. I had great fun though. Great submission!

The unicorn one is the one I failed the most unfortunately. I couldn't focus on the spell I was meant to choose whilst shovelling coal and reloading bullets - that one may need to be tweaked slightly? But yeah, loved it, good job - I managed to travel 4371M
Fernando Sydenstricker C.
05. Oct 2021 · 00:41 UTC
![imagem_2021-10-04_214029.png](///raw/ef9/d3/z/46a6b.png)

Cool intro, nice song, but I've got lost on the controls and the screen was small
Forik
05. Oct 2021 · 00:45 UTC
One more game with train. Good job =)
Nutella4Gods
05. Oct 2021 · 00:50 UTC
I should have read the instructions before playing the game. Gets pretty chaotic after a while!
Marossi
05. Oct 2021 · 00:52 UTC
Fun game! There's a point where things get chaotic and everything starts to fall apart :P
Zefnerf
05. Oct 2021 · 21:18 UTC
This game makes me sweat. The beginning is so peaceful and slow, you feel as if you are just a simple engineer going down the rail... But then... The banditos show up and you start having to keep up a supply chain. BAM! Suddenly wizards are attacking? your coal is getting low while you constantly try to focus on the counterspell. Then a whole lot of other shit just starts coming at you wizards and bullets are flying, the engines are exploding! You start to realize that only a god could properly operate such a train and your hubris led you to your death as you accept your final fate...
chingle
07. Oct 2021 · 03:12 UTC
This is fun and stressful! I like the sound cues and build-up of the difficulty.
Rein
07. Oct 2021 · 05:53 UTC
I almost died just from reading the description. Then I died for real because of how many things you need to juggle in this game. It reminds me a lot of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. Very nicely done.
Fluorescent
07. Oct 2021 · 09:48 UTC
it is a very cool idea, I liked the overwhelming crisis-management that will make you lose at some point, but keeping trying is very fun!

Unicorns seem kinda off, or is it just me... if they have an elemental shield already and get attacked again, am I supposed to press the button once more or not?
this was my best attempt so far, 81,17 kph - 4300m - 15 cars :)
🎤 RosyMaple
07. Oct 2021 · 09:57 UTC
@fluorescent Thanks for the feedback!! To clarify your question as it currently stands you do not need to reclick for the unicorn game unless it wants a different element then you last clicked, this is a little out of line with all of the other games which all trend towards a neutral state.

we had tried to hint at this with the visual Bubble on the train car but a lot of the time by the time you get the car you wont be able to see it 😅
Fluorescent
07. Oct 2021 · 11:34 UTC
got it, will try again now then, knowing how to keep unicorns safe :)
fishbrain
07. Oct 2021 · 15:37 UTC
Haha fun little mini games that keep you on your toes and then panic! Good stuff! Enjoyed it.
StrictPeak
07. Oct 2021 · 16:05 UTC
Unstable does not do this game justice... Unstable + chaotic has made me more unstable... Enjoyable if you like to be over stressed thats for sure.
ranseur
07. Oct 2021 · 16:14 UTC
Just after starting the game after reading the instruction I was like "where are all the cool carriage types the tutorial was speaking about???". I got my wish, an more, quite soon after that ^^.
Hermitao
08. Oct 2021 · 00:33 UTC
Loved this game!! So challenging and such a cool idea!
![photo_2021-10-07_21-32-45.jpg](///raw/cb5/22/z/47c65.jpg)
This is how far I got! I've played on Linux Mint and everything seemed to go fine.
My only desire is that the windows would be more organized, but I guess thats part of the challenge.
"Rad as hell" hahaha, love it.
JuanRod707
08. Oct 2021 · 01:10 UTC
Very very fun!!!
FedeGelo
08. Oct 2021 · 02:02 UTC
This game is a lot of fun. I love the music at the start setting a cool relaxing desert vibes and then going nuts juggling everything. The audio of everything is also quite good. The only things I could complain is sometimes I wouldn't notice when getting new wagons, I don't think there is a sound for that or it isn't distinctive enough, but outside of that it's quite fun!
ThatANoNoWord
08. Oct 2021 · 04:01 UTC
The game is tricky but really fun! 4 types of problems you have to deal with makes a fun game about managing every assignment. The art feels rough, but isn't bad by any means. The game could use some more carriage types as well. Overall a solid game!
Skyward4d
08. Oct 2021 · 12:49 UTC
I think this is one of the more fun multi-tasking games I've played.
It was really clever to deactivate a module once you fail it, to give the player some breathing room and stop them snowballing through all five of their lives at once.
All of the modules were simple and intuitive as well, except the unicorn. And while it IS explained in the instructions, some players will likely skip the text and go straight to the game. As an alternative, maybe the modules could have been explained the first time you encountered them in game?
Otherwise, really good job. Good pacing on the difficulty ramp and that completely nailed the theme.
🎤 RosyMaple
08. Oct 2021 · 19:31 UTC
Thank you so much for the feedback @skyward4d we were hoping to add something like that as a pause screen with instructions each time you encountered a new module for the first time but sadly we didn't have enough time.
MarkVeligod
09. Oct 2021 · 13:28 UTC
Immortal train Choo Choo :D
Piper Thompson
10. Oct 2021 · 20:54 UTC
unfortunately the mac build didn't work...
ZaneDD
10. Oct 2021 · 20:56 UTC
Had a little trouble understanding the revolver and the unicorn interface at first (still not sure what W/E/A/F stand for?), but a fun little test of keeping track of lots of things!

If I might make a small suggestion, it would be to increase the size of the text at the bottom right and make it more flashy with colored bars and stuff! I didn't even notice that panel was there until I had already been playing for a while.
🎤 RosyMaple
11. Oct 2021 · 18:00 UTC
I'm sorry @piper-thompson none of our team had mac machines to test on during LD, do you mind me asking if you are using an intel or M1 mac?
Piper Thompson
11. Oct 2021 · 19:34 UTC
@rosymaple i have tested on a macbook air (MacOs Catalina) yesterday and it didn't work. Today, on my old macbook pro (MacOs High Sierra) it ran just fine! Both are intel macs
DzejPi
14. Oct 2021 · 12:35 UTC
Yea, doesn’t work for me on MacOS Big Sur 11.6 (20G165). It shows "You do not have permission to open the application" even though they should be fine. Tried on two MacBooks. I will rate your game on weekend when I am back on Windows. :)
eggland_games
16. Oct 2021 · 18:42 UTC
Very fun game.
I tried it on linux and it felt kind of laggy. Might just be my PC though.
Also I did not understand how it works because I skipped the instructions at first.
Once I read them everything made sense though.
The interface and graphics could use some polish but this was made in 3 days after all so well done!
🎤 RosyMaple
18. Oct 2021 · 19:36 UTC
Hey @dzejpi Thanks for letting us know the error that you are getting! I believe that is an error in our build pipeline for mac specially I'll work on a rebuild for Mac this evening!
CiaranW
19. Oct 2021 · 23:18 UTC
Really good fun haha, devolved into utter chaos by the end, but the mad clicking to reload, fend off UFOs and shield unicorns was a good combination of simple minigames. Funny theme too. Some sound to prompt when a new thing went wrong would be nice! Nice entry!
LDJam user 259103
21. Oct 2021 · 19:50 UTC
Found the game a little tricky to get the hang of, but once I did, it was quite fun! Nice work :)