Pay Up! by kbf123

made by kbf123 for Ludum Dare 50 (COMPO)

Loan sharks are a scary bunch. In this game, you've made some bad choices and try desperately to stay afloat.

With a game like this, things like balance or rare interactions don't get as much playtesting, so there might be a few overpowered strats, but I'm fine with that. See if you can survive this nightmare game.

This ended up being a lot simpler in concept than creation, but maybe I'm just bad.

Man, there was so much I wanted to do. Notably I wanted to get this playable on browser. But I didn't have much time by the end, and now I guess I'm just settling with what's worked before.

Feel free to post your high scores for how long you survived. (Based on the code, I'm guessing a softlock is theoretically possible, but I don't think it's possible to earn enough money for that to be an issue)

Link	https://kingheron.itch.io/pay-up
Link	https://kingheron.itch.io/pay-up
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/pay-up

Ratings

Overall	27^th	4.071⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Fun	31^th	4.071⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	33^th	4.143⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Theme	14^th	4.31⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	39^th	4.273⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Humor	21^th	4.25⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Mood	24^th	4.167⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Given		39🗳️	26🗨️

Feedback

Thoastbot

04. Apr 2022 · 11:58 UTC

Dont know if this is intended but i just earned 0$ pushing pencils.
Apart from that a really addictive little game, i like it!
I even got the 10k from Roulette - feeling lucky now :D

LDJam user 258850

04. Apr 2022 · 12:38 UTC

John hasn't seen his wife and kids in 9 months. Loan sharks show up to his house every week for money. He drink 58 coffees before coming into work drunk, high af and always packs a gun. He can rob banks, he could be a high flying gambler, he could be a top 1% fat cat executive. Instead, John sweeps, like a mfing god, and waits for
his lottery numbers to come in. Johns a good man.

loved the game i'm going to come back and play this more after ludum.

Scrawny

04. Apr 2022 · 16:50 UTC

Absolutely love the style of this game. Gameplay and UI are intuitive, dialogue's great. Balancing's definitely the first thing I'd look at post-compo, game pretty quickly rolled into the territory where I had more money I could ever spend, and was just spamming random work to pass the time. Didn't bother me that much though, I had a great time playing. I rate this game "lost the wife and kid, got drunk and made -6$ pushing pencils" out of ten

ekeller217

04. Apr 2022 · 19:31 UTC

I have $109,056. It seems as though the inevitable will never come. I think at this point, the only way for me to lose is on purpose.
I really like this game. The menus are crisp, the art is nice, and you can buy a gun from the punk who works at the gas station. What more could you ask for?

Calzone407

04. Apr 2022 · 19:40 UTC

I really like this game. Executive is a bit busted though XD. This game definietly has a lot more polish than most games I've scrolled past

🎤 kbf123

04. Apr 2022 · 19:46 UTC

General feedback seems to be that the game's pretty easy to break. (maybe I should've implemented a few more stat caps) Ah well, things to consider for the future.

Agrimes

05. Apr 2022 · 00:00 UTC

The wife and son get really judgmental if you start mugging people when you have $50,000.

shellofagirl

05. Apr 2022 · 01:31 UTC

an HTML option would be cool. love the art from what i can see. >.>

n-studios

05. Apr 2022 · 21:40 UTC

great game really enjoyed it.

niterich

05. Apr 2022 · 21:47 UTC

Love the art and the sarcasm of the clerk! But I agree, it's too easy to break the balance and end up with more money than you know what to do with. Would have been nice to have an ending where you pay off your debt and get your family back, but I suppose that would go against the theme of this jam.

Swen

05. Apr 2022 · 21:59 UTC

Lost my job, my wife and child. Hmm I was wondering what the interactions with my family could be :p
Great entry!

ZachsButt

05. Apr 2022 · 23:02 UTC

great entry! not much to say in terms of feedback, the art style and gameplay were pretty effective and were relevant to the theme 👍

Shigor

08. Apr 2022 · 21:35 UTC

I became wealthy executive, annoyed that I cannot get better job for my wife.
I have no idea what would life of gambler or criminal brought me because I refuse to try it.

DevZhrssh

10. Apr 2022 · 08:12 UTC

Great job! I love the game! Really simple yet challenging

Molpe

21. Apr 2022 · 13:32 UTC

This game.... it works, it's nice, I was super lucky so money was not the issue for me, but I accidentally sold the child when I wanted to read him a bedtime story... :sob:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAy8rfH_qdc