esCargo by francoisvn

[raw]
made by francoisvn for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

Welcome to the slow lane of merchant life! You're a traveling trader with a serene business partner - a giant snail whose shell makes for a handy trade wagon.

Journey between villages, each with their own needs and goods. Unpack your wares, and trade wisely with the locals.

But beware - time waits not for man nor snail. Each day you have limited time to unpack, complete your trades, and load everything back up before getting back on the snail trail to achieve your ultimate goal and find the five baby snails out in the world.

Ratings

Overall 73th 4.049⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Fun 285th 3.5⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 47th 4.024⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Theme 12th 4.512⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 8th 4.732⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Audio 36th 4.22⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Humor 225th 3.41⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Mood 26th 4.366⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Given 55🗳️ 61🗨️

Feedback

kelldaw
Oct 06th · 23:38 UTC
Awesome pun lol
Retis
Oct 06th · 23:41 UTC
very smart game
CaptainCorgistan
Oct 06th · 23:47 UTC
Great game! Love the vibe that it's worldbuilding gives!
Melomaner
Oct 06th · 23:47 UTC
Very cool art! It would be really interesting to see the finished game without bugs and with properly tuned balance :)
aleksey_the_kid
Oct 06th · 23:53 UTC
Relaxing and yet challenging a bit, liked it
CameronPenner
Oct 07th · 03:22 UTC
Beautiful game! I thought it was interesting how different areas give you different kinds of items. It was pretty tricky to get items out of my cart though if they were burried deep enough. Then I realized I should basically be unpacking my cart when I arrive. And then the struggle was to get everything back in again! Interesting concept, very creative! Well done
klausklapper
Oct 07th · 12:06 UTC
Wow, now I can tell my grand children about those wild days in my youth when I was a traveleling merchang living in a snail. The whole mood is fantastic, the graphics and music blend well and create a somewhat suspenseful and interesting visual. I enjoyed it!

I would have liked to see some story component being part of this, wanting to learn more about this world. Why are salesmen travelling in snails? Why do people want all this archaic stuff I sell? And what is my purpose in life other than accumulating more archaic stuff? Questions over questions ...

Also I found the time constraint a bit too stressful sometimes, especially when my snail is packed full of stuff :)
Doridie
Oct 07th · 21:11 UTC
Fantastic artwork and atmosphere! So many lovely details and animations. I think for me the game would’ve felt cozier without object colliding with each other, but I still really enjoyed digging through the items and trading them. Such a nice idea and really well executed!
bwalter
Oct 07th · 22:29 UTC
The objects collisions was very irritating, but the art and audio are wonderful
Ciphereo
Oct 08th · 07:33 UTC
Very cool artistic expression! I like this atmosphere!
LDJam user 417758
Oct 08th · 07:48 UTC
Love the concept! The execution is a bit rough around the edges, but the creativity is 10/10.
LDJam user 417758
Oct 08th · 07:48 UTC
Love the concept! The execution is a bit rough around the edges, but the creativity is 10/10.
MakoTeam
Oct 08th · 10:51 UTC
Beautiful game and nice soundtrack. A bit buggy to drag stuff around, and a map is now fully intuitive but still a great job
lukk_batun
Oct 08th · 10:57 UTC
This is my favorite drag-and-drop mechanic. The graphics are great, and the sounds are fantastic!!
Vladcfg
Oct 08th · 11:02 UTC
Wow, this is really cool! The graphics and music are very pleasant, and the trading and village-hopping system is interesting. As a result, I ended up collecting a huge pile of junk) and couldn’t get what I needed for trading in time, because it was often at the very bottom, but I really loved the game!)
![41242.bmp](///raw/b0c/36/z/6ee3b.png)
finnreimann
Oct 08th · 12:33 UTC
Realy nice game! I just keep hoarding stuff and then i cant get it out of my snail haha
JOrbits
Oct 08th · 12:38 UTC
Really like the style and idea of the game. The art is great. As others have noted I would've preferred to see a version where the dragging feels less physics based maybe.
LDJam user 260720
Oct 08th · 12:44 UTC
Love the art and concept! I think it just needs a way for the player to sort or store the item in additional ways (maybe through upgrades?) because at some point it becomes really hard to find the items you want
RadonKalmor
Oct 08th · 13:46 UTC
Amazing game, kept me highly entertained and DETERMINED to the end. I had some issues with moving snail statue and clear crystal had a stary dot that kept attaching to things which was very unfortunate, but managed to clear the game nevertheless!
Ansible
Oct 08th · 14:25 UTC
Love the visuals and sound - just a really great mood and atmosphere/ I wasn't very good at actually trading, but the concept is engaging.
Bobap
Oct 09th · 04:44 UTC
That is a lot of art assets you managed to pull together in 72 hours, incredible work. I was envisioning something of the sort for my take but had to pare it back to a simple text based system to fit in the timeframe. Really love what you guys were able to pull off. No notes.
Erlioniel
Oct 09th · 08:17 UTC
The art is amazing, but to be honest I didn't manage to tolerate timer pressure and clumsy drag-n-drop with physics, so that might be improved. The idea to be honest is good, style, wibes and snail are amazing tho :smile:
GonulGaye
Oct 09th · 15:01 UTC
Nice design. I like it.
Tony Li
Oct 09th · 18:11 UTC
This is a lovely game! The art and all of the little touches in the background are fantastic, and the music and sounds suit the game well. It does a great job with the Collector theme.
Kaspjej
Oct 09th · 18:32 UTC
Cool game! Graphics and animations are made exepetionally well, but the gameplay drags a bit and the physics can be very irritating. Overall I enjoyed it quite a bit.
mechanicallife
Oct 09th · 19:05 UTC
Great stuff! loved the art, style and animation work on this. also the music was excellent. there was definitely some frustration when trying to beat the game like feeling like items where getting lost and just managing the physicality in the inventory. did eventually manage to beat it tho :) would have loved the feature to leave early out of a zone. but hey it a jam! Great work on this! ![Win.png](///raw/3a8/1/z/6f1db.png)
Aleksey Salion
Oct 09th · 19:19 UTC
Wow, the visuals and overall vibe are amazing. Really well done!
Purrseus
Oct 09th · 21:37 UTC
I am in awe with the world you built here! I love that there is no explicit story, yet so much implicitly unfolds in my imagination thanks to your gorgeous art and sound direction :heart:
Diralf
Oct 14th · 09:49 UTC
A charming game with a pleasant, funny atmosphere. The seated snails have a vibe all their own :D Visually, it’s reminiscent of classic quest games.

The idea of stashing whatever you can get your hands on is very interesting, and at the same time it makes you optimize what to take and what to leave, that's great.
The only thing I’d wish for is that items would snag on each other a bit less, especially when visually it seems like they should pass by each other just fine.
Just a fleeting thought: it might even be satisfying if you could pull an item from the very bottom and the other items would scatter beautifully. As a balance - you need to gather them back afterward :D

Overall, excellent game!
rosypenguin
Oct 18th · 21:40 UTC
Lovely art and animations, everything is so visually coherent and stylish! I agree with other commenters about the frustration with the friction between objects and having to manage a huge pile of items. I played for a while but just kept losing items and forgetting which zones were for what trades, so ended up having to wait multiple full day cycles to find the right trade zones. But absolutely fantastic work here, congrats to the team!