LudumData

Supply Chain by oatsbarley

[raw]
made by oatsbarley for Ludum Dare 51 (COMPO)

Supply chain management for babies.

Connect resources to production to consumers, all with easy-to-understand colourful shapes.

ss3.png

I struggled to nail down the mechanics with this until Sunday, so it's not got as much to it as I was hoping for. Still! give it a go and let me know what you think.

It's a bit rough, but I'm super interested in any feedback and ideas you might have.

Quick help

(sorry, I meant to do an in-game tutorial but didn't have time)

The game is about sending the correct shapes to consumers, by combining or dividing the shapes available to you.

  • Connect nodes by dragging between their inputs and outputs (the little circles alongside each node -- inputs are on the left and outputs on the right)
  • Yellow square nodes are resource nodes, they generate shapes. The number on the node corresponds to the number of sides the shape will have (e.g. 3 - triangle, 4 - square)
  • The green/red triangle nodes are factory nodes.
    • Green: combines 2 shapes to create a new shape by adding their number of sides (e.g. triangle (3) + square (4) = heptagon (7))
    • Red: divides a shape in two, making 2 new shapes (e.g. heptagon (7) / 2 = triangle (3) and square (4))
  • The coral circle nodes are consumers, they consume the shapes sent to them. The number on the node corresponds to the number of sides on the shape that they're expecting.

Tips

  • If you wait too long to pull nodes off the conveyor belt, it'll fill up and you'll lose the game.
  • If you wait too long to satisfy a consumer, a timer will start ticking down - once it reaches zero, you'll lose the game.
  • You can connect a single output to multiple inputs (but individual inputs can only be connected to one output).
  • When an output is connected to more than one input, it will cycle through connections in the order they were connected each time it sends out a new shape.
  • If a shape can't be used by a node (e.g. a factory that doesn't have any outputs connected) it'll be wasted.

Notes

  • I haven't done a lot of testing (in general, but also) of the endgame/reload functionality, so if you're on your second or third playthrough and stuff starts breaking, I'd suggest restarting the game (refresh) and see if that fixes anything.

Thanks for taking the time!!

Link https://github.com/craigmjohnston/ld51
Link https://oatsbarley.itch.io/ld51
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/supply-chain

Ratings

Overall 260th 3.375⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 209th 3.4⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 63th 3.85⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 339th 3.325⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 112th 3.85⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 71th 3.737⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 303th 2.25⭐ 16🧑‍⚖️
Mood 225th 3.25⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 20🗳️ 10🗨️

Feedback

🎤 oatsbarley
02. Oct 2022 · 21:41 UTC
Having trouble updating the description, so here are the links:
- HTML5: https://oatsbarley.itch.io/ld51
- Source: https://github.com/craigmjohnston/ld51
Deniz ARAS
03. Oct 2022 · 09:53 UTC
Just completed "Capitalism". Nice work can be expended and made into complex game or tool for "Satisfactory" factory management software.

Few Bugs: When restarting the game some yellow nodes do not give resources and you lose the game automatically. Reloading the page solved that issue. Also you can not (or I couldn't) severe connections that are connected. In addition to that I couldn't find a way to move the node I placed.

This could be a great product with more time.
SciDev
03. Oct 2022 · 19:17 UTC
This is a very visually appealing game, very clean looking. It took me like 5 minutes to figure out how to connect the nodes, even with instructions (people tend to skim large text blocks), so if you were to come back to developing this game, I'd recommend building instructions into the gameplay (eg. mouse icon dragging between two nodes or something).
BridgeOnAStick
03. Oct 2022 · 21:04 UTC
Took me a while to understand what to do, but eventually got the hang of it. There's a lot going on after a few nodes have been placed, I don't know what I've added and what has the correct output into an input. It also becomes a bit of a mess after placing so many nodes, with connections going over other nodes.
Parpello
04. Oct 2022 · 07:52 UTC
Very original! Kinda difficult at the beginning, but once you get the hang of it it's pretty fun! I think i'll come back for it! The following steps are really intriguing
kory
04. Oct 2022 · 19:30 UTC
I tried for awhile, but I couldn't figure out how to play :(

I don't understand how to connect the nodes. They don't seem to connect they just look like they draw over top of eachother. Any tips?
🎤 oatsbarley
04. Oct 2022 · 19:40 UTC
Hey @kory thanks for giving it a go. Totally get it, the UX side of things didn't get as much attention as I'd hoped it would so it's not super obvious what to do.

You drag and drop the lines between the small circles that appear to the left and right of each node. Distance doesn't really matter so you can space all your nodes out. Inputs are on the left and outputs on the right.

Let me know how it goes!
kory
04. Oct 2022 · 20:16 UTC
@oatsbarley OHHHH I get it, now I can play and it's fun! I really like the sound effects they are quite charming. Thank you!!
cafebeef
05. Oct 2022 · 07:08 UTC
@oatsbarley Thanks for posting the explanation here! I didn't realize I could click and drag lines. You might want to consider adding that description to the help section above. The synchronized sound effects and clean aesthetics are great btw.
🎤 oatsbarley
05. Oct 2022 · 12:13 UTC
@cafebeef thanks for playing! And good shout on the info, I've added it :thumbsup:
Corporation
05. Oct 2022 · 19:40 UTC
Very cool concept, quiet innovative, some kind of a math pazzle with time limit. I enjoyed playing it, maybe just the learning curve was a little steep)
M4ttU
05. Oct 2022 · 20:04 UTC
I agree on the learning curve being steep but the game is fun. I'm sure that by polishing the UX (allowing players to move already placed nodes, easier way to connect them, etc), it could easily be a mobile game with some success. :)
Well done!
Jimbly
07. Oct 2022 · 22:34 UTC
Neat idea! Getting some Mini-Metro vibes =). Really like the aesthetic. Game is way too unforgiving though, I kept on doing things like dividing but then linking up the wrong output to my next node and seem unable to remove the (now harmful) connection, at least not before the super impatient consumers throw a fit ^\_^. I would have liked something a little more chill, if not satisfied in 10 seconds, the consumer goes away or score decreases or something instead, would probably have kept playing for quite a long time if I didn't keep getting a game over ^\_^. Still, was fun!
loveapplegames
09. Oct 2022 · 08:10 UTC
Great game, original and challenging. It looks good too. It is such a pity it's so hard to play because it is way too fast. I spent most time fiddling with line drawing, and 10 sec to connect a consumer is too short. If the game ran at half or third speed it would be much better. Also it would be much better if you could move the nodes after placing them.
🎤 oatsbarley
09. Oct 2022 · 09:26 UTC
Thanks for all the comments.

@corporation @m4ttu @jimbly @loveapplegames all super solid feedback, I really get what you're saying about it being unforgiving, and definitely about it being too fast.

I think a lot of games this compo/jam probably suffered by using the "10 seconds" literally for timing, so it's going to be interesting to see post-jam versions once they've had their timing tuned.
Jimbly
09. Oct 2022 · 14:04 UTC
Yeah, that seems very true. I've played a lot of games which probably would have been better without the theme ^\_^, although, perhaps they would not have been thought of without the theme. 10 seconds is actually a really weird time - way too long for quick action games, way too short for anything contemplative =). On my game (a little tower-defense-ish) I quickly gave up on having my main tension/win-lose state tied to 10 seconds and instead just had that be part of the underlying pacing, balance would have been insane to try to tackle if I stuck to 10 second waves (though that was considered in my original plan ^\_^).
Schuster
12. Oct 2022 · 13:53 UTC
Very clean, like mini metro and I like the challenge. 10 sec felt like I was always rushing.
Izzet
14. Oct 2022 · 18:43 UTC
I remembered shapez game from steam while playing this, very nice minimalist graphics. I have some problems when restarting the game, I had to reload the page every time, otherwise shapes were not emitted. Other then that, nice entry.
justking144
14. Oct 2022 · 21:21 UTC
Very cool look and I loved the sound, but it was very hard to figure out how to play