{"author_name":"Radiatoryang","cat":"LD #25","comments":[],"epoch":1355796120,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"47542","p_author":"Radiatoryang","p_authorkey":"4369","p_urlkey":"83207","p_title":"[post-mortem] \u201cBarback\u201d is a 1-2 player game about a bar","p_cat":"LD #25","p_event":"LD25","p_time":"1355796120","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"4369","us_name":"Radiatoryang","us_username":"radiatoryang","event_start":"1355443200","event_key":"14","event_name":"LD25"},"text":"

\"beer5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is cross-posted<\/a> at my blog, “Radiator.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Barback”<\/a>\u00a0is a 1-2 player cooperative \/ competitive Tapper-ish variant about 2 brothers and a bar. It should take you about 15-20 minutes to play through. It’s a “jam” game; I spent 72 hours instead of 48, and used remixed assets from outside sources. The extra day was worth it though.<\/p>\n

Theme-wise, perhaps it doesn’t really fit with the “You are the villain” theme, now that I’m done with it and looking back.<\/p>\n

I didn’t want to make a game with obvious villains, but I think about my mental concept of a “villain” and by definition it seems to involve blatant villainy and a twirlable moustache. In this narrative, the villains are mundane: your own crushing feeling of failure, or people who care about you but are very pushy, etc. Oh well, guess I won’t win in the theme category?<\/p>\n

\"beer3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally, player 2 was just a barback and couldn’t serve drinks… but if they sabotaged the bartender enough, then they’d get to switch roles next turn. (This resembles the resentment in real-life bartender-barback apprenticeships; you look at the bartender and think, “s***, I can do that!”) But the barback class was really boring to use, and what happens a lot is that one player ends up being a barback anyway, so the psychology is intact without concrete constraints.<\/p>\n

About the game design: I thought Tapper’s sudden death rules were too strict and didn’t allow enough “s*** to befall you” before the game shutdown. Tapper multiplayer is also really horrible; one player sits out while the other gets to play. I had other stuff I wanted to add — some patrons would pay with tabs \/ credits cards, branching dialogue based on player performance, etc. Maybe I’ll add those features in January.<\/p>\n

All in all, I’m pretty happy with what I managed to put out, even with the instability and bugs.<\/p>\n

\"beer2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

– all art by me, most of it handpainted within 48 hours
\n – Rokkitt font by someone else
\n – music by “Stormby” http:\/\/ccmixter.org\/files\/Stormby\/39747
\n – lots of freesound.org samples
\n – some mechanics from “Tapper”, but it’s a very different game altogether with my rule changes<\/p>","time":"December 17th, 2012 9:02 pm","title":"[post-mortem] \u201cBarback\u201d is a 1-2 player game about a bar"}