A Day in the Life by iambored2006
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IMPORTANT: please, play the post-compo version. I added something that really makes the game complete for me, and it's important to me that you experience this idea to its fullest. If you'd rather rate the original version, by all means, do, but please check out the new one as well.
Someone said this is like a game-breaking bug. I'm not going to replace the original version with the updated one, but I'm also not going to override the post compo version with new versions. The addition is the 'Be happy' task. I'll leave it to you to judge whether or not to enter it into your calculations.
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In this game, you need to allocate "life-frames" in such a way as to maximize activities... or, whatever, I'm not going to tell you what you should do. It's meant more as a thought experiment than a game, I guess. Anyway, you're probably asking yourself "what does this have to do with the theme?" I guess you could say that this is how life works beneath the surface...?
CONTROLS: one mouse and clickers, to do the clicking.
INSTRUCTIONS: each activity requires a certain amount of consecutive frames, depending on the activity and the frame where it is initiated. To remove an activity, set any of its frames to 'Do nothing'; setting another activity over it will also remove it. Some activities may be set several times. Some activities may only be set after other activities (e.g. 'Work' and 'Learn programming').
IMPORTANT: please, play the post-compo version. I added something that really makes the game complete for me, and it's important to me that you experience this idea to its fullest. If you'd rather rate the original version, by all means, do, but please check out the new one as well.
Someone said this is like a game-breaking bug. I'm not going to replace the original version with the updated one, but I'm also not going to override the post compo version with new versions. The addition is the 'Be happy' task. I'll leave it to you to judge whether or not to enter it into your calculations.
************************************************************
In this game, you need to allocate "life-frames" in such a way as to maximize activities... or, whatever, I'm not going to tell you what you should do. It's meant more as a thought experiment than a game, I guess. Anyway, you're probably asking yourself "what does this have to do with the theme?" I guess you could say that this is how life works beneath the surface...?
CONTROLS: one mouse and clickers, to do the clicking.
INSTRUCTIONS: each activity requires a certain amount of consecutive frames, depending on the activity and the frame where it is initiated. To remove an activity, set any of its frames to 'Do nothing'; setting another activity over it will also remove it. Some activities may be set several times. Some activities may only be set after other activities (e.g. 'Work' and 'Learn programming').
| All OSs (.JAR file) - original | https://www.mediafire.com/?2beqcu4galoqgy6 |
| All OSs (.JAR file) - post compo | http://www.mediafire.com/?01dun7bk0duacqf |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=22590 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 100% | 1 |
| Overall(Jam) | 2.75 | 615 |
| Audio(Jam) | 1.60 | 660 |
| Fun(Jam) | 2.29 | 668 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 2.20 | 719 |
| Humor(Jam) | 2.46 | 410 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.81 | 59 |
| Mood(Jam) | 2.82 | 510 |
| Theme(Jam) | 2.26 | 689 |
@runvs point taken, added instructions in the description. Thanks for the feedback.
This aside I really liked your game and the message beneath. Well done.
A little description at the top of the screen like "try to organize your life so that you can 'get a job,' 'be happy,' and 'start a family'" Then put little tips that pop up as the player exhausts various possiblities like "It can be hard to manage family life with work, leaving you feeling stressed out" and "A life pursuing your dreams left you feeling pretty fulfilled, but a part of you longed to create the family you never had." Stuff like that. Kind of shoves the message into the player's face a little more (ruining some of the subtlety), but it makes a little clearer to the player what's going on. I was confused for a little what I was supposed to be doing exactly before I figured out what you were going for.
As others have said, music would've been nice. Even something very ambient and subtle.
Overall, it's nice to play something a little different from the other entries. Not that this kind of game hasn't been explored before (it's practically impossible to be 100% original, so who cares), but it's a refreshing slice of contrast from the heaps of shooters and "upgrade" games (those are fun, too, though!). So, kudos to you for trying to think outside the box. Made me reflect on my own life a little.
Now, I get what you're saying here. I'll try to experiment with this a little, maybe upload an enhanced version with some music later on. The thing is- my design philosophy is that things like text, music, and graphics are all there to amplify the message delivered by the gameplay, not the other way around. I feel like putting in too much text will make this a case of the latter. A good compromise would be to have tooltips for the tasks, as in- you hover over 'Be happy' and it says "You need to: Learn piano, Make a game".
I'll write a blog post on all of this after the judging is over, I think. I'll address what you said. Thanks again for playing!
BTW I've already rated it previously, I just forgot to leave a comment, sorry for that.
If only I had mastered learning to play piano and dated earlier in life!
Well, on to the comments about your game. :)
I really like the idea here. It's a really interesting approach to the theme.
I see that you kind of separated "ages" and somethings can be only done in certain ages (like, you can't date when you're too old and you can't learn to code if you're yoo young). But I don't see it as a game, as of now... it's more of a interactive thing...
Maybe you could add more time slices and separate the game into the ages. Like childhood, teens, adulthood, etc. Maybe you would be able to make it into more of a game... Adding short term goals (to a specific age) and long term goals (depending on what was previously done, but only on later ages), and also adding a conclusion after death, saying how you chose to live... This would remove the experiment part of it, but if it was short, it would be possible to play many times and see how things can go differently...
Ok, now after playing the post compo version... Still better. Really better. Now I have options and must choose what to do, and it interferes in my life...
But I still miss a conclusion (and more goals)... Maybe something like TeamPurpleDolphins said...
I think it still worked as it was now too. I got the two messages to light up as green. And the basic layout of the puzzle, the game was interesting.