{"author_link":"\/users\/sharks","author_name":"Sharks","author_uid":1054475,"comments":[{"id":904236,"author_name":"LDJam user 281060","author_uid":"281060","epoch":1673322188,"text":"I like the world building! Go whales!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":904281,"author_name":"Sharks","author_uid":"sharks","epoch":1673322780,"text":"Thanks, @darzu! The Whales are a very powerful ally to have :whale: ","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":904948,"author_name":"Wolfraam1974","author_uid":"wolfraam1974","epoch":1673332095,"text":"Nice stories! I wanna film","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":905174,"author_name":"LDJam user 0","author_uid":"0","epoch":1673335918,"text":"I think you spent a lot of time on logic design.\nI like this game because of the mode.The UI design of the game is also excellent.\nBut I dont like the theme","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":905672,"author_name":"arron-fowler","author_uid":"arron-fowler","epoch":1673344163,"text":"A simple pleasure. Considering it is so text heavy it never felt too cumbersome, you could get the gist, weight up the impact and zip along. No bugs that I noticed, solid work nicely done.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":905867,"author_name":"gamesplusjames","author_uid":"gamesplusjames","epoch":1673347206,"text":"This was a cool idea and nice to see a more mobile focused game while I was browsing on my phone. Thanks for making it!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":906026,"author_name":"Pusheeneiro","author_uid":"pusheeneiro","epoch":1673349338,"text":"Very nice story, and simple gameplay.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":917736,"author_name":"Sharks","author_uid":"sharks","epoch":1673575985,"text":"@arron-fowler Good to see you! Thank you for the feedback, I take not cumbersome as high praise!  \n@wolfraam1974 Haha, I made a couple little videos (that I would never share publicly, sorry :joy:) a few years back focused around the Pony Planet story :joy: Maybe someday!     \n@gamesplusjames Glad you liked it and were able to play on your phone!  \n@pusheeneiro Thanks, glad you liked the narrative!  ","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":918189,"author_name":"machino","author_uid":"machino","epoch":1673591809,"text":"Pretty cool idea and execution.  The UI was simple and sleek (unlike sand) and the audio effect and animations really added a lot for little.  I think a little more feedback for choices would be nice but pretty cool overall!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":918651,"author_name":"Sharks","author_uid":"sharks","epoch":1673612599,"text":"@machino Thanks for playing! Yeah I would've liked to have some more feedback if I had more time, aside from the stats most of the cards that happen because of your actions reference which specific choice it was that led to it.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":921061,"author_name":"ijzm","author_uid":"ijzm","epoch":1673716948,"text":"Simple idea, nice story! I wish you could swipe instead of having to click 2 buttons to confirm\/deny","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":924245,"author_name":"Sharks","author_uid":"sharks","epoch":1673909133,"text":"@ijzm Hmn that would be nice, I have found myself getting annoyed having to always confirm. The game is targetting mobile though - I assume you played on desktop? Regardless for improving desktop I worry swipe might get confusing\/be too easy to mess up, what about just the 'enter' key and 'y\/n'.","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":926105,"author_name":"Local Minimum","author_uid":"local-minimum","epoch":1674147040,"text":"Fun worldbuilding! I found myself (on computer) trying to drag the option to either side at first because of the example you had included here, which didn't matter too much but was a little confusing first. Perhaps you could disable text selection of the story-decision content.\n\nI also got a bit confused about what the time was supposed to do. What it might be counting up to, if something was to happen at a certain time... that type of thing. Perhaps it should be counting down instead so one knows the dreaded 0? And perhaps each decision gives some extra seconds? But also people read at very different speeds to combining reading with time\/stress might be problematic.\n\nAnyways interesting world you created.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":926187,"author_name":"Sharks","author_uid":"sharks","epoch":1674157034,"text":"@local-minimum Thank you for the feedback! I've heard a lot about the counter, it's just a timer that's it. It's not counting down to anything, time has no influence on your game, nothing bad happens there's no stress, it's just an informative readout like the turn number so you know how long you've been playing. But I've heard a lot that people think it is counting to something :joy: \n\nYeah text selection is of course a desktop only thing but definitely something I'll try to do!\nThanks for playing!","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":926677,"author_name":"LDJam user 233347","author_uid":"233347","epoch":1674244306,"text":"I enjoyed reading the texts very much. Even after activating \"papers please\" :smile: .\n\nVery fun entry.","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":926846,"author_name":"Sharks","author_uid":"sharks","epoch":1674275679,"text":"@xparker Haha thank you, and thanks for playing!","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"}],"format":"md","images":["ld52\/wayback-placeholder.png"],"links":[{"url":"https:\/\/github.com\/Sharks-Interactive\/Ludum-Dare-52","text":"Link"},{"url":"https:\/\/sharks-interactive.github.io\/Ludum-Dare-52\/","text":"web"}],"metadata":{"g_key":"86052","g_author":"1054475","g_event":"LD52","g_eventkey":"116","g_subevent":"JAM","g_urlkey":"397626","g_title":"Horsepower","g_status":"WAYBACK","g_place":"644","g_commentcount":"16","g_site2_node_id":"313732","g_hide":"N","g_has_icon":"Y","g_rqueue":"0","g_random":"0"},"nds":{"n_key":"313732","n_urlkey":"397626","n_parent":"313060","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/52\/horsepower","n_slug":"horsepower","n_type":"item","n_subtype":"game","n_subsubtype":"jam","n_author":"54475","n_created":"1671852833","n_modified":"1778793801","n_version":"1313357","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD52","removed_author":false},"_superparent":9,"_trust":1,"author":54475,"body":"# A stressful game about making impossible choices as a nation in the middle of a civil war.\n![banner.png](\/\/\/raw\/bc4\/d\/z\/55c7f.png)\n\n### Overview\nA **non-linear** text adventure about governing a planet of horses with **thousands of typos and crappy jokes**? Yup.  \nIn **Horsepower** you play as Choclate, the President of Pony Planet, during a civil war.   \n\n### A note on theme...\nFor this project **I have opted out of theme,** for the first time I completely and totally forgot about it after I became engrossed in my poorly written narrative :sweat:   \n   \nBut I really enjoyed making this and am really happy with how it came out. It was a lot of fun for me to get out of my comfort zone and use some new technologies. I hope my in-adherence to the theme does not affect your enjoyment of it, but if you believe theme to be integral to every LD game, I won't judge.\n\n**Please note: All this text is for reference only, do not feel like you have to read all of this :sweat_smile:**\n\n### Guide\nThere are also instructions in game.  \nYou can reference those if needed and **skip this.** The game is pretty self explanatory, but in case you get stuck... \n\nYou have two inputs: yes and no. To make your choices **tap\/click on the card in the center of the screen.** You can choose between yes or no by click on different sides of the card, left or right.  \n\nSelecting an option by tapping\/clicking on the card will bring up a 'confirm' button. It will also **show you the impact of this choice** on your stats. Green text means a stat will increase, red means it will decrease. Similarly, the coloured portion of the bar that appears displays how much each stat will be affected.\n\nAfter hitting confirm, your stats will be update and you will be given your next choice.\nDo note that the **total impact** of each choice is shown, your stats may not immediately change - this is not a bug (most of the time) - some events will continue to impact your stats in future turns.\n\n#### Purpose\nThe immediate goal of the game is to survive for as long as possible. That means keeping enough money in the bank (finances), ensuring your military is strong enough to protect your nation, keeping your world habitable for its citizens (nature), and remaining in the good graces of your public (popularity)\n \nThe overarching goal of the game is to win the war. In order to do that you have to get incredibly lucky, or make friends with the right people ;)    \n  \nA quick note on this though... It is really difficult to win and **really easy to soft-lock** yourself. *No,* that's not because I didn't leave enough time for playtesting, whatever are you talking about?!? The point is, when the game is running correctly you should see almost **no repeated cards.** If you get to a point where you are seeing **the same cards over and over again,** you are probably soft-locked :sweat_smile:. At that point just go until you feel you've seen enough of the game, you don't have to get a win\/lose state.\n\n### Media\n![media.gif](\/\/\/raw\/bc4\/d\/z\/55c84.gif)\n\n### Thanks\nFor this project I used `snowpack, svelte-js, typescript`.  \nHorsepower was designed, protoyped, and written by Owen Silva with illustrations from Fiona Thornton.\n\n### Playing\n*Horsepower* can be played on anything with an up to date browser, but **is designed for mobile** - mobile is something I've always wanted to do in an LD and this was the perfect opportunity!  \n   \nDespite it being designed for mobile, that **does not mean the experience on desktop is sacrificed.** You can still play the game perfectly fine on whatever device you use. If you want the *intended* experience you can open your browsers' devtools and enable its mobile emulator, but that is absolutely your choice.  \n  \nNote, I have to date made one little post-jam update. I like to think I am a purist when it comes to LD and I can assure that this update was QoL only and **did not** affect the gameplay in any major way, however I have not provided a pre-patch edition of the game. (Cus' I'm lazy) You can see the full extent of the changes in [this commit.](https:\/\/github.com\/Sharks-Interactive\/Ludum-Dare-52\/commit\/4d4f11796cb17de2bab655f33e77493b2d5cf5b0). The non-bugfixes summary is, typos, QoL statbars go bold when a choice would deplete them, number of rounds you survived is displayed at the end, and I did tweak the rarity\/effects of **one** single card, and by a small margin.","comments":16,"comments-timestamp":"2023-01-21T04:34:39Z","created":"2022-12-24T03:33:53Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"grade":{"grade-01":23,"grade-02":23,"grade-03":23,"grade-05":21,"grade-06":20,"grade-07":22,"grade-08":21},"id":313732,"love":0,"magic":{"cool":70.466426341764,"feedback":26,"given":9,"grade":21.857142857143,"grade-01-average":3.119,"grade-01-result":644,"grade-02-average":3,"grade-02-result":591,"grade-03-average":2.905,"grade-03-result":623,"grade-05-average":2.447,"grade-05-result":714,"grade-06-average":2.361,"grade-06-result":491,"grade-07-average":3.6,"grade-07-result":137,"grade-08-average":2.974,"grade-08-result":663,"smart":0.32626514091005},"meta":{"allow-anonymous-comments":"1","author":[54475],"cover":"\/\/\/content\/bc4\/d\/z\/55c70.png","grade-04-out":"1","link-01":"https:\/\/github.com\/Sharks-Interactive\/Ludum-Dare-52","link-01-tag":[42332],"link-02":"https:\/\/sharks-interactive.github.io\/Ludum-Dare-52\/","link-02-name":"web","link-02-tag":[42336]},"meta-timestamp":"2026-05-14T21:23:21Z","modified":"2026-05-14T21:23:21Z","name":"Horsepower","node-timestamp":"2025-09-05T05:55:48Z","parent":313060,"parents":[1,5,9,313060],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/52\/horsepower","published":"2023-01-09T07:03:19Z","scope":"public","slug":"horsepower","subsubtype":"jam","subtype":"game","type":"item","version":1313357},"text":"# A stressful game about making impossible choices as a nation in the middle of a civil war.\n![banner.png](\/\/\/raw\/bc4\/d\/z\/55c7f.png)\n\n### Overview\nA **non-linear** text adventure about governing a planet of horses with **thousands of typos and crappy jokes**? Yup.  \nIn **Horsepower** you play as Choclate, the President of Pony Planet, during a civil war.   \n\n### A note on theme...\nFor this project **I have opted out of theme,** for the first time I completely and totally forgot about it after I became engrossed in my poorly written narrative :sweat:   \n   \nBut I really enjoyed making this and am really happy with how it came out. It was a lot of fun for me to get out of my comfort zone and use some new technologies. I hope my in-adherence to the theme does not affect your enjoyment of it, but if you believe theme to be integral to every LD game, I won't judge.\n\n**Please note: All this text is for reference only, do not feel like you have to read all of this :sweat_smile:**\n\n### Guide\nThere are also instructions in game.  \nYou can reference those if needed and **skip this.** The game is pretty self explanatory, but in case you get stuck... \n\nYou have two inputs: yes and no. To make your choices **tap\/click on the card in the center of the screen.** You can choose between yes or no by click on different sides of the card, left or right.  \n\nSelecting an option by tapping\/clicking on the card will bring up a 'confirm' button. It will also **show you the impact of this choice** on your stats. Green text means a stat will increase, red means it will decrease. Similarly, the coloured portion of the bar that appears displays how much each stat will be affected.\n\nAfter hitting confirm, your stats will be update and you will be given your next choice.\nDo note that the **total impact** of each choice is shown, your stats may not immediately change - this is not a bug (most of the time) - some events will continue to impact your stats in future turns.\n\n#### Purpose\nThe immediate goal of the game is to survive for as long as possible. That means keeping enough money in the bank (finances), ensuring your military is strong enough to protect your nation, keeping your world habitable for its citizens (nature), and remaining in the good graces of your public (popularity)\n \nThe overarching goal of the game is to win the war. In order to do that you have to get incredibly lucky, or make friends with the right people ;)    \n  \nA quick note on this though... It is really difficult to win and **really easy to soft-lock** yourself. *No,* that's not because I didn't leave enough time for playtesting, whatever are you talking about?!? The point is, when the game is running correctly you should see almost **no repeated cards.** If you get to a point where you are seeing **the same cards over and over again,** you are probably soft-locked :sweat_smile:. At that point just go until you feel you've seen enough of the game, you don't have to get a win\/lose state.\n\n### Media\n![media.gif](\/\/\/raw\/bc4\/d\/z\/55c84.gif)\n\n### Thanks\nFor this project I used `snowpack, svelte-js, typescript`.  \nHorsepower was designed, protoyped, and written by Owen Silva with illustrations from Fiona Thornton.\n\n### Playing\n*Horsepower* can be played on anything with an up to date browser, but **is designed for mobile** - mobile is something I've always wanted to do in an LD and this was the perfect opportunity!  \n   \nDespite it being designed for mobile, that **does not mean the experience on desktop is sacrificed.** You can still play the game perfectly fine on whatever device you use. If you want the *intended* experience you can open your browsers' devtools and enable its mobile emulator, but that is absolutely your choice.  \n  \nNote, I have to date made one little post-jam update. I like to think I am a purist when it comes to LD and I can assure that this update was QoL only and **did not** affect the gameplay in any major way, however I have not provided a pre-patch edition of the game. (Cus' I'm lazy) You can see the full extent of the changes in [this commit.](https:\/\/github.com\/Sharks-Interactive\/Ludum-Dare-52\/commit\/4d4f11796cb17de2bab655f33e77493b2d5cf5b0). The non-bugfixes summary is, typos, QoL statbars go bold when a choice would deplete them, number of rounds you survived is displayed at the end, and I did tweak the rarity\/effects of **one** single card, and by a small margin.","title":"Horsepower","wayback_recovered":true,"wayback_source":{"capture":{"original":"https:\/\/api-jam.ludumdare.com\/vx\/node2\/get\/321501+321502+321503+321504+321505+321506+321507+321508+321509+321510+321511+321512+321513+321514+321515+321516+321517+321518+321519+321520+321521+321522+321523+321524+321525+321526+321527+321528+321529+321530+321531+321532+321533+321534+321535+321536+321537+321538+321539+321540+321541+321542+321543+321544+321545+321546+321547+321548+321549+321550+321551+321552+321553+321554+321555+321556+321557+321558+321559+321560+321561+321562+321563+321564+321565+321566+321567+321568+321569+321570+321571+321572+321573+321574+321575+321576+321577+321578+321579+321580+321581+321582+321583+321584+321585+321586+321587+321588+321589+321590+321591+321592+321593+321594+321595+321596+321597+321598+321599+321600+321601+321602+321603+321604+321605+321606+321607+321608+321609+321610+321611+321612+321613+321614+321615+321616+321617+321618+321619+321620+321621+321622+321623+321624+321625+321626+321627+321628+321629+321630+321631+321632+321633+321634+321635+321636+321637+321638+321639+321640+321641+321642+321643+321644+321645+321646+321647+321648+321649+321650+321651+321652+321653+321654+321655+321656+321657+321658+321659+321660+321661+321662+321663+321664+321665+321666+321667+321668+321669+321670+321671+321672+321673+321674+321675+321676+321677+321678+321679+321680+321681+321682+321683+321684+321685+321686+321687+321688+321689+321690+321691+321692+321693+321694+321695+321696+321697+321698+321699+321700+321701+321702+321703+321704+321705+321706+321707+321708+321709+321710+321711+321712+321713+321714+321715+321716+321717+321718+321719+321720+321721+321722+321723+321724+321725+321726+321727+321728+321729+321730+321731+321732+321733+321734+321735+321736+321737+321738+321739+321740+321741+321742+321743+321744+321745+321746+321747+321748+321749+321750+321751+321752+321753+321754+321755+321756+321757+321758+321759+321760+321761+321762+321763+321764+321765+321766+321767+321768+321769+321770+321771+321772+321773+321774+321775+321776+321777+321778+321779+321780+321781+321782+321783+321784+321785+321786+321787+321788+321789+321790+321791+321792+321793+321794+321795+321796+321797+321798+321799+321800+321801+321802+321803+321804+321805+321806+321807+321808+321809+321810+321811+321812+321813+321814+321815+321816+321817+321818+321819+321820+321821+321822+321823+321824+321825+321826+321827+321828+321829+321830+321831+321832+321833+321834+321835+321836+321837+321838+321839+321840+321841+321842+321843+321844+321845+321846+321847+321848+321849+321850+321851+321852+321853+321854+321855+321856+321857+321858+321859+321860+321861+321862+321863+321864+321865+321866+321867+321868+321869+321870+321871+321872+321873+321874+321875+321876+321877+321878+321879+321880+321881+321882+321883+321884+321885+321886+321887+321888+321889+321890+321891+321892+321893+321894+321895+321896+321897+321898+321899+321900+321901+321902+321903+321904+321905+321906+321907+321908+321909+321910+321911+321912+321913+321914+321915+321916+321917+321918+321919+321920+321921+321922+321923+321924+321925+321926+321927+321928+321929+321930+321931+321932+321933+321934+321935+321936+321937+321938+321939+321940+321941+321942+321943+321944+321945+321946+321947+321948+321949+321950+321951+321952+321953+321954+321955+321956+321957+321958+321959+321960+321961+321962+321963+321964+321965+321966+321967+321968+321969+321970+321971+321972+321973+321974+321975+321976+321977+321978+321979+321980+321981+321982+321983+321984+321985+321986+321987+321988+321989+321990+321991+321992+321993+321994+321995+321996+321997+321998+321999+322000?authors&parents&superparent"},"object":"objects\/sha256\/45\/4540d40f56d91ec94f34af839ea0e0b948b7b1d7a94f86f9a0fff6e7ed87cf70","record":"shard-0\/json-live-urgent-v3\/records\/6dd979b996f62598a2991ea389ce3fbd028574928ffd99654a0eeb719f8ab387.json","sha256":"4540d40f56d91ec94f34af839ea0e0b948b7b1d7a94f86f9a0fff6e7ed87cf70","source":"https","stored_at":1784022454}}