Tower of cards by Vhalenn

[raw]
made by Vhalenn for Ludum Dare 50 (COMPO)

The art of managing companies in a permanent growth.

There is no good way to do it, just try to delay the inevitable fall. Start your own business and listen carefully your shareholders to fulfill your goals !

base_screen.png

Be careful to not disappoint or you might fall. I mean you will of course fall one day so give your best to stay as long as you can ! You can expand your tower to recruit more employees and generate more money, or increase the density of each floor to "optimize" space, or even change you employees salary.

But be careful, they might not like what you do !

global_screen.png

Ratings

Overall 68th 3.929⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 344th 3.262⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 153th 3.667⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 107th 4.048⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 23th 4.405⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 149th 3.421⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 102th 3.725⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 29🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 278918
04. Apr 2022 · 02:47 UTC
The graphics are amazing! Watching the building sway back and forth only caused a mild panic attack lol. Very nicely done!
William Corrin
04. Apr 2022 · 05:51 UTC
This game has a lot going for it! Here are all the things I really enjoyed about your project:

- Graphics: these are phenomenal graphics! The bloom on the top of the building, the subtle swaying of the tower when you build more floors, and the background with the other towers create a really nice atmosphere.
- Sound Effects: The little noises when the text boxes pop up, and the drum-ish sound when building another floor add great polish.
- Theme: I never thought I would be in a situation where "the inevitable" that is being delayed is...me getting fired. Lol. I think the concept of an unkeepable balance between employee satisfaction and shareholder satisfaction is a very unique take on the theme.

I have a few minor tweaks/suggestions that I will share as well:
- Tutorial is very confusing. Its kind of all over the place and the explanations for some of the UI don't really make any sense
- The communication to the player on what is happening in the game isn't always clear. I understand some of it, but since 100% of your game is UI-focused, I think that leads to inevitable confusion due to the complexity of trying to relay all that information in a pleasing and informative manner to the player. I don't really have a solution for this, but I do think that it is an issue when playing the game.
- I like the ambience of the people, but I'm not a huge fan of the little song you have playing in the background. Maybe thats just me though :)

Overall, this was a really killer submission! My favorite graphics I've seen so far, and a very very interesting concept that was well executed. Great job!
mixon00
04. Apr 2022 · 08:46 UTC
Great graphics. Interesting approach to the theme. :thumbsup:
🎤 Vhalenn
04. Apr 2022 · 08:56 UTC
@william-corrin Thank you for your critic !

For the "confusing" part, I made the decision to deliberately make the tutorial messy to reflect the fact that no one know the good answer to "How to manage a company growing" and this is a lighting fast tutorial in 5 seconds, this is literally just a shit of paper that people gave you.

For the audio I had really few time after working on all of the game base, balancing it. Audio is really where I have everything to learn, this is why I exclude this rating category.
Have a nice day ! :)
🎤 Vhalenn
04. Apr 2022 · 09:15 UTC
@mixon00 Thank you, I really appreciate !
LDJam user 281060
04. Apr 2022 · 19:06 UTC
Excellent tutorial and humor! Loved playing this game. Great graphics for such a short amount of time! Good start to a solid idle/clicker game.
🎤 Vhalenn
04. Apr 2022 · 20:10 UTC
@darzu Thank you a lot ! I'm really happy you enjoyed it !
boc_dev
05. Apr 2022 · 14:02 UTC
Very nice game. I agree that the tutorial could be better, but given we only had 48 hours cant really hold it against you. Graphics were very nice, and the message was deep
SayuriNyooko
05. Apr 2022 · 14:23 UTC
Oh, I like this one, thank you! You always have to find some balance not just in work but in life, too! Graphics is good, music is fine, it's not annoying :)
foxwater
05. Apr 2022 · 22:31 UTC
Really solid approach to the theme! I was a bit overwhelmed initially and didn't really know what to do, but the help UI explained things well enough. It's a fun concept, very well done!
Tristian Tee
06. Apr 2022 · 07:38 UTC
Oh my gosh... My vote for winner of the compo. Too real though.

I can't really think of anything negative except maybe a better fired screen or ending would have been nice.

Like the UI and tutorial being suboptimal kinda leaned into the "We don't care, we just want money" vibe. It worked too well, reminded me of a lot of places I have worked.
🎤 Vhalenn
06. Apr 2022 · 14:43 UTC
@tristian-tee Thank you a lot for your comment ! Yes I wanted to explore this idea of how to manage a company by always having to reach financial goals, this is very interesting to reflect I found during this jam.

If I had more time I really wanted to destroy this building of course, breaking the windows and structure but I only had time to do a quick balancing shader to show that it's not as solid as we could think. :smile:
Meta-link
06. Apr 2022 · 17:38 UTC
Really well made game, and fun to play. Good job :smile:
Ani
07. Apr 2022 · 00:15 UTC
Great job, especially with the graphics! I was quite confused with what to do, but that was the point I think!
🎤 Vhalenn
07. Apr 2022 · 21:24 UTC
@meta-link and @ani Thank you ! :smiley:
Langotriel
08. Apr 2022 · 17:18 UTC
Yo, what a great game! The setting, visuals, social commentary and everything else just goes so well together, paired with a dismal music track and sound effects that complement it perfectly. Top marks!

To think this was made solo in 48 hours is crazy to me.
🎤 Vhalenn
08. Apr 2022 · 19:55 UTC
@langotriel Thak you a lot ! I'm very happy you understood the game and enjoyed it !
Etherion
08. Apr 2022 · 21:39 UTC
Interesting game. Really liked the music and graphics. Balance between needing to make money and keep the workers in line is an interesting mechanic, though I felt the worker anger line moved a bit too quickly for me to properly react to it. Side note, exit button at the end of the game doesn't seem to work properly.
🎤 Vhalenn
08. Apr 2022 · 21:42 UTC
@etherion Thank you ! I though of adding a speed button but there was so many thing to do so I didn't had time to do this. For the end game button yes it work for the windows build but in a web build I didn't found a way to properly reset the game, exiting the app just made it freeze.
Alex Stewart
09. Apr 2022 · 00:43 UTC
I enjoyed this game! The tutorial was hard to follow (though it's clear that was done in line with the setting). It was going so well all at once, but then I got fired super quickly! :sweat_smile:
nsadie
09. Apr 2022 · 13:26 UTC
Very nice graphics and mood! I wasn't 100% sure how everything worked together, but I guess that is business! ;)

For resetting the game in the web build you can just reload the scene! I hide the quit button for web builds as calling that leads to issues.
🎤 Vhalenn
10. Apr 2022 · 20:38 UTC
@alex-stewart Thank you for your comment !

@nsadie Thank you, I'll guess I'll just do this for the next games, it's simpler and easier ! :smile:
Kitkii
13. Apr 2022 · 07:38 UTC
Love the design of the game and the tutorial basically saying ignoring the workers, just like in real life. The game seemed very smooth and polished and despite my best efforts I struggled to break the hundred year streak, it seemed to just become impossible near the end. However it was really unique to see that you can adjust workers pay and amount of employees per floor to adjust how much income you receive. That was something I that thought fits perfectly in the game and adds to the game making it more complex which I like. Solid game overall, keep it up!
evgeney24
23. May 2022 · 11:35 UTC
Interesting approach to the theme.