GameJam Tycoon by Dobryn

made by Dobryn for Ludum Dare 50 (COMPO)

How long can you last in your game jamming career.

Survive weekly crunch of making mini games for the marketing department of a company going bankrupt. You might just be their last hope to keep something going.

How long can you delay their inevitable end. How long can you pursue your hobby as a career.

Technical Details

You manage three variables : Your mental health, your savings that's running out because some weeks you don't get paid, and your reputation as bad games lead to poor fanbase. As long as you delay their inevitable depletion, you carry on as the gamejam tycoon.

I'm also trying out neomorphism for the css and some glitchy pixel art.

A single html file and source can be seen on the dev console.	https://dobryncat.itch.io/gamejam-tycoon
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/gamejam-tycoon

Ratings

Overall	576^th	2.793⭐	31🧑‍⚖️
Fun	579^th	2.534⭐	31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	448^th	2.983⭐	31🧑‍⚖️
Theme	368^th	3.517⭐	31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	604^th	1.981⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Audio	499^th	1.636⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Humor	110^th	3.569⭐	31🧑‍⚖️
Mood	505^th	2.741⭐	29🧑‍⚖️
Given		31🗳️	35🗨️

Feedback

Defrag

04. Apr 2022 · 16:35 UTC

Interesting take on delaying the inevitable - my personal hope is that mental breakdown isn't inevitable with game dev! For the game, I could not draw a connection between what impact the different choices might have on the three currencies. A few more scenarios might also increase replayability.

🎤 Dobryn

05. Apr 2022 · 22:51 UTC

thanks for your review @defrag , I completely agree with you. I am thinking about ways to point out the exact changes in variables with choices making them for meaningful, and abstracting the hairloss concept as it's just arbritrary when in the context of thousands.

Starlight Glimmer is best poney

05. Apr 2022 · 23:37 UTC

It never loads for me (Firefox 98)![black_screen.png](///raw/f90/1/z/4ceb9.png). I also don't see any source code in the dev console. Why not upload it normally?

Lako

05. Apr 2022 · 23:38 UTC

Very relatable in some parts. I liked some of the writing, it made me chuckle. Some of the prompts repeated often, sometimes back to back. It's hard to really tell what changed. One moment you may have 500 in savings, and then you'll be in the negatives. Good game though, pretty unique.

andrground

05. Apr 2022 · 23:39 UTC

Nice idea that depletion is inevitable with game dev, very fun quest!

My favourite moment is when I lost 150.000 hairstrands because I had to deal with memory management in C++.

VorpalSnark

06. Apr 2022 · 00:11 UTC

Whew, you've definitely given me a lot to think about with this one!

🎤 Dobryn

06. Apr 2022 · 00:28 UTC

thanks @vorpalsnark for checking it out, it was the first thing I could think of after learning of the theme, a game jam participant's existential question ...

🎤 Dobryn

06. Apr 2022 · 00:32 UTC

Thanks @andrground , under the right circumstances you can save a lot of money while having a good bit of followers getting a contract for your indiegame and thus starting your career as a tycoon, the game thus acts like a prologue.

That ending is however very rare, I only got it once.

🎤 Dobryn

06. Apr 2022 · 00:36 UTC

thanks @lako for playing the game, I agree with you that your choices should show atleast an estimate on how much they will be impacting your stats. With the prompts being random, repetitions are just part of the game, but I plan to improve upon it by avoiding too frequent repeatations and ofcourse more choices.

Guy Girmonsky

06. Apr 2022 · 10:46 UTC

That's a cool idea for a game.
Reminds me of those text-adventure rogue like games on the mobile, that you swipe the conversation left or right, for the yes or no interaction.
I think in order to immerse into this world there's a delicate balance of "lore" depth against short text paragraphs that's not easy to tackle in design, but I think you handled it pretty well. Cool meta submissions!

🎤 Dobryn

06. Apr 2022 · 12:21 UTC

thanks @guy-girmonsky , that was kind of my inspiration for this design, thanks for checking out the project.

Deylinia

06. Apr 2022 · 12:49 UTC

Cool different type of game! There was some bugs where closing brackets appeared below the buttons, but it was an enjoyable experience

🎤 Dobryn

06. Apr 2022 · 12:50 UTC

thanks @deylinia for checking this out.

Scrawny

06. Apr 2022 · 12:51 UTC

"A popular youtuber found your game taking too much ram and has declared your game as gay. Higher ups requested you to put some extra hours studying heterosexual memory management in c++. You will not be paid extra for this."
I am sobbing, 10/10

🎤 Dobryn

06. Apr 2022 · 12:55 UTC

thanks @scrawny for checking this out, the way higher ups often frame their requests seemed like a fun thing to make fun of :laughing:

Sawyer

06. Apr 2022 · 13:33 UTC

Pretty fun and pretty funny

Cambryx

06. Apr 2022 · 15:25 UTC

fun little game!
Hopefully I can continue to avoid C++ Memory Management in my programming future :D

PKZinpo

06. Apr 2022 · 15:41 UTC

Fun concept! Funny dialogues, overall was enjoyable to figure out how to maintain the levels of each of the variables. Some more prompts and an indication of what variables go up and down would be a great addition. Overall, it was a nice play. Good job!

🎤 Dobryn

06. Apr 2022 · 16:28 UTC

thanks @sawyer , thanks @pkzinpo I will be improving upon those points, thanks @cambryx all you need are some "pointers" and abstract data types :laughing:

WegPast

06. Apr 2022 · 21:38 UTC

As a not native English speaker, I ended clicking button a bit randomly some times, I confess x)
I wish to have a music in the background to relax me :p
Are all those situations made up or some happen to you ?
Anyway the reading was slick :)

SunJet

07. Apr 2022 · 13:30 UTC

The idea is cool, but the same events happen several times in a row frequently, so making more of them would increase the interest very much. Also I noticed a markup bug in one of the events
![Screenshot_20220407-162638.png](///raw/36e/54/z/4d5cb.png)

clemall

07. Apr 2022 · 21:32 UTC

Excellent writing.
Like others I loved this one: “A popular youtuber found your game taking too much ram and has declared your game as gay. Higher ups requested you to put some extra hours studying heterosexual memory management in c++. You will not be paid extra for this.”
You made my day xD

🎤 Dobryn

08. Apr 2022 · 01:44 UTC

thanks @clemall for checking this out, thanks @sunjet , I have added more content to it and will post in an updated version, this is the most I could write in 48 hours :)

thanks @wegpast , music can often make or break a game but I understand it's necessity, most of the situations were made up but some of those are realistic (and stressful). thanks for checking out the project.

tetrapteryx

08. Apr 2022 · 12:10 UTC

It's not always clear from the wording which part of the text I'm agreeing or disagreeing with. Really funny writing though, Some of the scenarios are hilarious!

Games_by_Tom

12. Apr 2022 · 07:00 UTC

When I read "tycoon", I did not necessarily expect a choose-your-own adventure style text game :laughing:

But I really liked it! Great humor, even though a bit dark / pessimistic ;)

It works, even though you did not get to finish everything that you had wanted to in the first place.
Great game, keep it up!

doomshmuck

14. Apr 2022 · 14:37 UTC

Definitely a different approach than most games out there... I would have really liked to have more options though. It also seemed like some of the text was at odds with the "I'm doing a jam game every week", like the one on the Y2K thing.

mirianbr

17. Apr 2022 · 22:38 UTC

Hey, very creative idea! I'd love to see new situations, but the ones you put there are very fun (a little dark, perhaps). In some of them I didn't know for sure how my option would affect the variables, but maybe this was intentional? Also, a soundtrack or audio effects would add a lot to the atmosphere, if you're planning to work in a extended version.

Nice entry overall, congrats for your project! :blush: