New Grafflebog Colony by monika
*** CONTENT WARNING: The game's content is pretty close to clean, but the game allows a large amount of user-generated content. If you see anything horrible, email me at alternatehamlet@gmail.com ***
Welcome to New Grafflebog Colony!
I am Wishrim Bramblebob, and I am in charge of new colonist orientation. I think you’ll like this planet. It’s got some really nice weather, and really big mud pits, and some rather delicious amphibious creatures.
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In this game, you take part in a colony effort to rid a planet of humans by cultivating annoying plants. You can help in several ways, such as collecting seeds, breeding plants, writing moving articles about how to best deal with the human problem, and voting in online opinion polls. Will you be this planet's Thomas Paine? Its Gregor Mendel? Its `•.,¸¸,.•´¯ ώɨ$hяɨʍ68 ¯`•.,¸¸,.•´?
Participate as much or as little as you want. It's a massive multiplayer co-op game, so you'll get to share in the glory no matter how lazy you are.
You start out in Town Hall, where you will have to show your Library Card to do anything. Instructions on obtaining a Library Card are in the game.
Whatever you do, DO NOT VANDALIZE TOWN HALL!
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This game was made entirely in Google Docs. You should be able to read and vote anonymously, and even write articles anonymously because I didn't finish the part that verified that you didn't, but you will need a Google Drive account to plant and kill plants. It *shouldn't* be possible for anyone other than me to see your email address, but if you are security-conscious or worried about Google authorizations, I encourage you to create a gmail account just for this game.
There is also now a "Forged Library Card" option available from the Town Hall menu.
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I haven't had a lot of time to debug it, so if anything doesn't work right, let me know.
Also, I acknowledge this game needs content to be fun, and fun to get players, and players to make content, so I would like to give a special thanks to all the people who played it when it was a clean slate.
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Some bug fixes:
- There was an issue with the user tracker "taking up too much computer time per day" according to Google. It will now trigger less often, and at more relevant times.
- There were two bugs related to breeding that have been cleared up, but details would be spoilers.
- I moved four lines of code in newsletter publication to their own function so newsletter topic options could be updated separately from the new submission process.
- Added a "Forged Library Card" option because the Library Card system could not consistently handle all the registered users.
- After some soul-searching about whether or not it was game breaking, I decided to fix the bug that would show features present in unplanted seeds as "discovered".
Welcome to New Grafflebog Colony!
I am Wishrim Bramblebob, and I am in charge of new colonist orientation. I think you’ll like this planet. It’s got some really nice weather, and really big mud pits, and some rather delicious amphibious creatures.
----
In this game, you take part in a colony effort to rid a planet of humans by cultivating annoying plants. You can help in several ways, such as collecting seeds, breeding plants, writing moving articles about how to best deal with the human problem, and voting in online opinion polls. Will you be this planet's Thomas Paine? Its Gregor Mendel? Its `•.,¸¸,.•´¯ ώɨ$hяɨʍ68 ¯`•.,¸¸,.•´?
Participate as much or as little as you want. It's a massive multiplayer co-op game, so you'll get to share in the glory no matter how lazy you are.
You start out in Town Hall, where you will have to show your Library Card to do anything. Instructions on obtaining a Library Card are in the game.
Whatever you do, DO NOT VANDALIZE TOWN HALL!
----
This game was made entirely in Google Docs. You should be able to read and vote anonymously, and even write articles anonymously because I didn't finish the part that verified that you didn't, but you will need a Google Drive account to plant and kill plants. It *shouldn't* be possible for anyone other than me to see your email address, but if you are security-conscious or worried about Google authorizations, I encourage you to create a gmail account just for this game.
There is also now a "Forged Library Card" option available from the Town Hall menu.
----
I haven't had a lot of time to debug it, so if anything doesn't work right, let me know.
Also, I acknowledge this game needs content to be fun, and fun to get players, and players to make content, so I would like to give a special thanks to all the people who played it when it was a clean slate.
----
Some bug fixes:
- There was an issue with the user tracker "taking up too much computer time per day" according to Google. It will now trigger less often, and at more relevant times.
- There were two bugs related to breeding that have been cleared up, but details would be spoilers.
- I moved four lines of code in newsletter publication to their own function so newsletter topic options could be updated separately from the new submission process.
- Added a "Forged Library Card" option because the Library Card system could not consistently handle all the registered users.
- After some soul-searching about whether or not it was game breaking, I decided to fix the bug that would show features present in unplanted seeds as "discovered".
| Web - GDocs | https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MHMmjfJdTUAKZWxislen64G4THl3ELx07PctYBPQXVE/edit#gid=0 |
| Video of play (by Wertle!) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwayHx5gJwY |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=29124 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 100% | 1 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.50 | 279 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.06 | 514 |
| Humor(Jam) | 3.73 | 108 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 4.52 | 2 |
| Mood(Jam) | 3.26 | 378 |
| Theme(Jam) | 3.47 | 429 |
From the idea, to the platform and the implementation, the humor, and the sheer courage of leaving so much agency to random people on the internet, I am absolutely amazed by the greatness of this game! I can totally see this idea develop further post-LD, but even what is already there is wonderful!
The greatest things about the game are its humour, with its list of annoying characteristics and an incredibly high percentage of eloquent vandals. The first is plain addictive, in that "opening a new booster pack" kind of way: you know the pack is part of a series of cards, but you don't know which ones you'll get, or even if you'll get any new ones at all; finding a new characteristic is incredibly fulfilling, you feel like you made a real discovery, like you discovered a small wonder, like you actually enriched the knowledge of your faction in the game.
This sense of wonder and discovery is so rare in games I would have never expected I'd find it in a GDocs game, yet there it is! I believe it's amazing it was all achieved through sheer inventiveness and "abusing" a platform, and I hope it will be rate with the best of them.
I also love the fact that, in an age when thinking about "internet" makes you say "assholes", the developer managed to create a small, nurturing community. They're mischievous and roguish, but in an extremely lovable way!
I suggest you take the game for a spin, comment-reader! It might not be your cup of tea, but it really is an experience to try, you won't be disappointed at all!
My one complaint is that it was a little hard to get started. Just a little more in the way of, "Up THERE is where you access menus to do stuff, and down THERE are the different tabs with areas to go". Other than that, really awesome!
Great idea, great flavor, but it didn't seem to work?