Caravan Express by Brigart

made by Brigart for Ludum Dare 53 (JAM)

Welcome to the Caravan Express! Feel yourself like a caravan leader! The life of a caravan leader is not easy. Long roads are full of dangers and adventures, heavy loads and stubborn animals! Help the caravan to deliver the packages safely and avoid danger troubles.

How to play:

1) Choose an order. Different orders have different reward, distance and weight. You have a limited capability of your inventory.

2) Equip your inventory by items from the storage. You also can buy new items in the shop (click on shop tent in the camp). You need items (tools) to handle with random events that can happen during the journey. You can store items in the storage. These items stay only in this camp. You always can return to this camp and find them.

3) Click "Start" to start the journey. Wait until you pass the order. During the journey random events can happen.

4) When an event happens, you need to choose an action. To do some actions you need to have a special item. Сonsequences of some actions can be bad. In this case you usually will got less reward for order. Consequences of other actions can be good. In this case you can get extra money or just lose nothing.

5) Earn more money, buy new items, pass orders and journey via the valley.

Enjoy the game!

Controls:

Left click - interact

Right click - sell item

Press S to open/hide a shop

Press M to open/hide a map

Press R to restart the game (you lost all progress!)

Authors:

Artem Petrov: Game Design and Code

Daria Zakharova: Art

Link	https://brigart.itch.io/caravanexpress
Link	https://brigart.itch.io/caravanexpress
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/caravan-express

Ratings

Overall	1076^th	3⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Fun	1194^th	2.4⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	982^th	2.85⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Theme	608^th	3.905⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	305^th	4.114⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Humor	845^th	2.667⭐	17🧑‍⚖️
Mood	762^th	3.333⭐	20🧑‍⚖️
Given		22🗳️	8🗨️

Feedback

Michael Harris

02. May 2023 · 19:21 UTC

It's hard to understand what's going on. Is the Inventory what I am carrying? Why do things pop out of my inventory and then show up in Storage? I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to deliver to where. I think this would benefit from some clearer instructions. But the art is good and it's definitely a delivery game! Good job!

LDJam user 299757

03. May 2023 · 14:00 UTC

Quite enjoyed this game, very relaxing. Could use a bit more gameplay but the style and art is very nice! Good game

asfdfdfd

03. May 2023 · 19:46 UTC

Damn travellers. They all are robbers!

LDJam user 299852

05. May 2023 · 15:07 UTC

The download link is broken and the embedded version is hard to read because there's not a fullscreen button :(

Life_Lich

05. May 2023 · 17:17 UTC

I think I am unable to sell, or maybe I don't understand the inventory, seem like right click doesn't work.

the art is really well made.

chaoli

06. May 2023 · 06:05 UTC

The art is incredible! The embedded version takes up only part of the screen, which needs to be fixed

🎤 Brigart

06. May 2023 · 19:46 UTC

@chaoli @michael-harris @triangle-point @selkieharbour @life-lich

Thank you very much for the feedback! I'm really glad that you like art :)
I will try to fix web version and will add the fullscreen mod.

@selkieharbour I fixed the download link, now you cal download the Windows version and play.

@life-lich About selling items, firstly you need to open a shop.

🎤 Brigart

06. May 2023 · 19:47 UTC

@michael-harris Sorry for not enough explanation, I will try to make a tutorial to make all the gameplay more clear. Inventory is your current items that you use in the journey, there are you order items and personal items. You need to select an order in the list and click START.
Storage is the place to keep items in the camp. Items go from inventory to storage if there is no enough place in the inventory.

James Laird

08. May 2023 · 01:45 UTC

Was able to play and understand what was going on without trouble.
Simple trader game; if you fail an obstacle, you lose some or all of your reward.
Short and fun; extending the game would have meant having some kind of permanent upgrades, or some routes that were much more dangerous but more lucrative.
I was a little disappointed that there was always exactly one obstacle during each trip; it would have been a good way to differentiate the routes (safe but low-profit routes).
Still, a fun, functional, shipped game. Good work!

fuzzybut

08. May 2023 · 17:54 UTC

First I'd like to say that your game has beautiful art, and nice job with the menu work! I think that the colors and screen layout were very eye-catching to me. I completely understand that there might not have been enough time to put in audio, but for immersion into the story and journey the player takes, I believe these features would have gone a long way. Even just a few sfx would help improve feedback to the user. After a few minutes of poking around, I understood the dynamic of the game and how to prepare for the next trip at each city, but this wasn't immediately intuitive to me at first. As you said in your previous comment, an in-game tutorial or even a sample screenshot with your objects defined/labeled would help (specifically personal vs. merchant goods). Perhaps upon arrival to a city, having some additional text feedback about the payout of the goods and having the player see them disappear from their inventory would be helpful. Thank you and congratulations on your entry!

🎤 Brigart

14. May 2023 · 20:08 UTC

@james-laird @fuzzybut
Thank you very much for this big and complex feedback! I really appreciate it. You give me some nice ideas how to improve the game, I will try to implement them. I really glad that you like my game :)

LogicProjects

14. May 2023 · 20:40 UTC

The art style is so good! I love the aesthetic but like the other comments mentioned it's a little bit hard to tell what's going on and what decisions to make and what they mean. I think it's a really good foundation but just a needs a little bit more fine tuning to find the fun

TheSmellofOxygen

16. May 2023 · 16:00 UTC

I love the art in this one! I wish there was a fullscreen option to show it off even better. Good color palette. Unfortunately the gameplay just isn't very fun. Lack of any audio, even a basic sound track leaves it feeling a little empty and your choices in game aren't very meaningful. I wish you could see a percentage chance of success of various actions when you encounter trouble on the journey, to help me weigh risk and reward. After the third "shiny thing far away" I stopped investigating any of them because they were all rocks. I also noticed that when I encountered wolves, if I had a spear or something and tried to run away, it would consume the item anyway. Wasn't sure what food was for except maybe helping people (who all turned out to be bandits!).

ruruie

16. May 2023 · 20:20 UTC

Neat no frills trail game. I think some simple things that could've improved it would be a simple music (just a few beats on beepbox would do), flavour text for the random events, and fixing the outline on the yak sprite.