The Bellhop by Matt Blake

[raw]
made by Matt Blake for Ludum Dare 54 (COMPO)

main-menu-1.png

As the bellhop of Hilbert's Hotel, it is your job to deliver the infinite guests from one floor to the next. Each guest is assigned a colored shape that represents the floor they are trying to go to. Be careful; the elevator is pretty old, so it may break down if you load too many guests at once!

Ratings

Overall 216th 3.46⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 144th 3.64⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 84th 3.82⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 62th 4.16⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 310th 2.82⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Audio 135th 3.4⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 181th 2.636⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 184th 3.313⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 37🗳️ 29🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 374261
02. Oct 2023 · 16:16 UTC
Great game! very fun and Innovative :)
bmacintosh
02. Oct 2023 · 16:32 UTC
This is excellent, it manages to be relatively engaging while staying incredibly simple. I didn't pick up that the sound effects and red/green light were tied to when the elevator was allowed to move again until my second game, but when I did it gained a rhythm-game like element that was very satisfying.
LDJam user 3808
02. Oct 2023 · 16:40 UTC
At first glance this looked not so interesting BUT after just few seconds of gameplay it clicked. This was quite addictive with more of pattern recognition exercise.

Simple music added to the gameplay quite nicely and constant pressure to find next floor to go was good.

Small changes that would help. Use little larger icons for the guests and put the tutorial after start button. I just pressed start without noticing the How to play button...

Good job!
Flying Butter Studio
02. Oct 2023 · 18:40 UTC
Excellent and very innovating for me! I really enjoyed playing your game. My hight score was 65! Dont know if it is good... :smile:
Good job, i really like it!
Just onr thing: the music isn't repeated so after un game, we have no more audio :wink:

Continue like that, congrats!
🎤 Matt Blake
02. Oct 2023 · 18:52 UTC
@flying-butter-studio Ah shoot, I knew I forgot to test something :). 65 is really good! I'm usually only able to get in the 40s or so.
nullval
02. Oct 2023 · 21:15 UTC
really fun idea, It reminds me of mini metro :D
cheesepencil
02. Oct 2023 · 21:23 UTC
Smart, smart, smart. Small scope, great execution, that's how to do it, good job!
LDJam user 237413
03. Oct 2023 · 01:09 UTC
Fun game, really enjoyed it.
Great idea well executed :)
candlesan
03. Oct 2023 · 01:40 UTC
This game is great - reminds me of Mini Metro (in a good way). I enjoyed sending passengers to all the different floor destinations.
ellaris
03. Oct 2023 · 12:29 UTC
- Simple, neat, effective, enjoyable experience
- It felt like the passengers were spawning in real time, which means it would be best to smash buttons to get as many passengers off before you get swarmed. If you want it to be more of a puzzle game you could make the passengers spawn when the elevator moves.
- The main motivation here was getting a higher score, but not knowing when the elevator will break (capacity/load), and not seeing the exact amount of passengers going to each floor (since they obstructed each other), made it hard to enjoy making decisions, since it was almost random.
n.feofentov
03. Oct 2023 · 13:27 UTC
Fun puzzle game! All runs were ended when I had no choice but to move to some overcrowded floor I've been abandoning for a long time. I call it a "death floor".
Great submission!
Sleepy Caveman
04. Oct 2023 · 05:15 UTC
This was really fun! Reminded me of mini metro like some other people have said. A simple idea executed really nicely.
Defrag
05. Oct 2023 · 03:03 UTC
I'll second the comment that this felt like Mini Metro's spiritual predecessor. I like the gameplay. However, I didn't understand what caused me to fail. Is it too many people waiting on a floor, or too many people in the elevator, or too many people getting into the elevator at once? If there was some kind of hinting at which it was, I missed it. However, the audio was nicely rhythmic.
🎤 Matt Blake
05. Oct 2023 · 11:29 UTC
@defrag It's caused by too many people on at one time. Ideally I would have added some effects to better show how close you are to the limit, but I only had the time to put it in the hud.
Lizz
06. Oct 2023 · 01:40 UTC
This was a quick one for me! I like the concepts, it was simple and easy to understand. I would advise to try and maybe put some sort of story in it? I personally like levels more then a 'topscore', so I know if I did well [enough]. Indeed it would be nice to have more indicators on how close you were to 'too heavy'.
EqualEnergy
06. Oct 2023 · 02:01 UTC
This one is probably the most unique game I've seen so far this ludum dare, maybe a little bit more work on graphics and this game would be peak! One slight bug I noticed was when you failed, after failing the music suddenly stops, not the sfx only the music.
LDJam user 372085
07. Oct 2023 · 23:38 UTC
this was nice! i think this music and sound is real nice. i'd almost want this to be turn based? i think some balancing and polishing would be worth it here!
mango-malarkey
15. Oct 2023 · 06:57 UTC
Cool idea, and a good take on the them. I like the music and simplicity of the mechanics. As someone else said, I think it could be cool to make it turned based, so that you really have time to think about your decision and it becomes more of a puzzle game than a twitch game. On the other hand, in that case it might need some twist to the mechanics, because right now I guess the winning strategy is just to go to the floor where you have the most people currently in the elevator, until you get stuck? Great job!