Sweetheart Speedrun by Snowdrama

You are on a date with your Sweetheart, but they're getting bored... So they ask you to grab them some things, and then some more... AND THEN SOME MORE! Keep getting them more and more stuff to prevent them from getting bored on the date and leaving!
| Link | https://snowdrama.itch.io/sweetheart-speedrun |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/sweetheart-speedrun |
Ratings
| Overall | 844th | 3.25⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1012th | 2.861⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 767th | 3.111⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 434th | 3.806⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 751th | 3.361⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 214th | 3.778⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 203th | 3.611⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 786th | 3.222⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 19🗳️ | 8🗨️ |
The music came out amazing, originally I was just going to use it for like menus and outside normal gameplay like it would pull back when paused, but when I realized it would work perfect to tell with an audio clue when the timer was paused and not paused, it just worked great.
Anyway Thanks for playing!
Also i like the idea that every 10 seconds you got a heart removed hehe.
@jhoffis The map was basically a canceled feature, Originally the partner character would wander the mall and go to various stores and you'd have to use the phone to find out where they were to deliver the items rather than them standing in the coffee shop the whole time. So yeah the map is basically pointless due to cutting that feature, and then like I mentioned in the above comment, it would have had like store names and such on it so you'd have a better idea of what stores have what items in them like "Coffee Donuts" and "Pursetopia"
It makes sense to have added like dialog where it's like "I didn't ask for a hat" when you turn items in, especially when the items text isn't readable like the Quadcopter in the upper right, but I didn't do that for speed reasons, if I were to do that there'd be a line per item that you brought, and the timer doesn't wait if you bring an incorrect item so for brevity, I made it a single line that covers all items. This could eventually be mitigated too by just having the item names be readable so you know what you shouldn't pick up.
Maybe if there was a more complex system, you would be allowed to trash items out of the inventory so you don't deliver the wrong item but there'd need to be some kind of penalty for doing that, so maybe you needs to spend points/money to buy items? There's some stuff that could be done but in the end this is what we ended up with.
Overall though the game is intended to be difficult and so it's not expected for you to get high scores on your first play. I didn't really playtest much until after the jam beyond making that the game was playable. My first few game I ended up getting like 5400 points likely because I had remembered where some of the items had been. It's expected that it would take 3-4 plays to memorize all the item locations, at which point I started getting over 10k points. My goals this time were to make the game have a steep learning curve in that you need to memorize where all 23 items are and memorize the layout of the mall and have ramping difficulty in that the partner asks for increasing numbers of items over time.
Some tips for another playthrough would be, use the time in the tutorial to go look at each item the timer doesn't start until you bring the coffee, and that you should keep in mind that you can bring partial orders, if they ask for a purse and an ice cream, you can bring the purse, without the ice cream for partial points and patience up, and then grab the ice cream after.
The reason I put the coffee in the main room with you and forced it to be the first item was as a tutorial on like how to pick up items, but nothing stops you from wandering around. It's not really hinted at that you could ignore the tutorial to wander around casually, that's just something that I know is possible.
@lereveur It does happen, I also don't do well with remembering things so I can understand that. Bigger labels for sure since the icons were clearly not enough to be able to know what the item was. The UI for items you were asked for was something I considered and omitted it intentionally, it was going to be one of the pages on the phone UI, but I opted to not have it specifically because it would make the game significantly easier.
I like the core idea! It does take some time to get the gist of what's where, and after that it becomes pretty fun.
While the game works well, the rooms are big and empty, you have to enter some to see what's sold there, and that kinda breaks the pace of frantically running around for me. To enjoy the game I had to switch to a vertical display, where it felt immensely better to play.
A few thoughts:
• Teleporting the Sweetheart from place to place every now and then (followed by a "I'm going to look at %itemname%" message) would help bring some variety, and while I see why there are two maps, I wish one would show both player and the date, and the other would show a color-coded map of the mall (i.e. all food colored yellow, all tech green etc.), as that'd be enough of a clue to not get completely lost while searching.
• I also think it'd be hilarious if your score was the credit for purchases (so negative, and the lower the better), and the item pickup sound was a cash register's ka-ching.
Overall, I see the potential this game has, and I'd return to see an updated post-jam version if you're planning on making one.
I think it was just a tad too difficult to find and get to the different items. You could compress the size of the space a bit, or maybe zoom out the view a little more. Or, give the player a little more information about where things are, such as putting icons on the map, or on-screen pointers towards the current items. Then it becomes more of an optimization and navigation problem, rather than pure memorization. Or, maybe you group the items more thematically, so if my date wants something techy, I know I should go to the techy area.
I'm glad I had tons of speed to get around, that was nice and fun. The audio and music were really nice, I really liked how you did a subdued version of the music while she was giving you a new assignment. Good work!
I'd say it lacks some design, but in overall it's cool.
Other than that, it's a cute premise, and I like the art/music/sound. I think if you fleshed it out more it'd be a really compelling little game!