LudumData

The Grind by Deraj

[raw]
made by Deraj for LD21 (-)
The Grind is a simple game about escaping from work at a reasonable hour by avoiding responsibility.

The goal is to acquire as little work ("to-do's") as possible throughout your 9-5 workday. Wander around the cubicles and hide from the men in suits--if they're coming your way, that means they want to give you work to do!

Use the arrow keys to move, space to start, and escape to exit.

Gameplay video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKPY5R4reJY

The game and assets are licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL. Enjoy!

Windows http://sourceforge.net/projects/radius-engine/files/ld21/LD21-TheGrind.zip/download
Linux http://sourceforge.net/projects/radius-engine/files/ld21/thegrind_0.1-1_i386.deb/download
Source http://sourceforge.net/projects/radius-engine/files/ld21/thegrind-0.1.2.tar.gz/download
Post-mortem http://radius-engine.sourceforge.net/development/the-grind--ld21-.html
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-21/?action=preview&uid=4936

Ratings

Coolness 5% 115
Overall 2.42 384
Audio 1.00 371
Community 3.30 71
Fun 1.74 446
Graphics 2.37 340
Humor 2.75 83
Innovation 2.84 226
Theme 3.16 194

Feedback

naxum
22. Aug 2011 · 17:14 UTC
Neat idea, but perhaps a more clear goal, or somewhere you had to get to in order to beat a level would've made it more interesting than just hiding in a cubicle the whole time! :D
ratking
22. Aug 2011 · 20:40 UTC
Wish there was a way to work off the TO-DOs! ;)
PaulWagener
23. Aug 2011 · 16:01 UTC
Love the idea, but I feel powerless to really get an effective strategy going. The suits move more or less move randomly so I end up hiding at one spot for a long time.
Surrealix
24. Aug 2011 · 16:14 UTC
It's an innovative theme, but as other commenters have said it felt pointless hiding in a cubicle all day. Although I imagine that's what a lot of bored office workers feel, so perhaps you achieved your aim!

I also wish there was a way to work off the TODOs! My high score was 6.
N0_Named_Guy
26. Aug 2011 · 01:52 UTC
Can compile, but can't play it on Arch Linux 32 bits... Whenever I press any arrow key it stops working. Here's the console output:
└┌(%:~/sandbox/ld21/Deraj/Linux/thegrind-0.1)┌- ./thegrind
ERROR: [string "TheGrind/TheGrind.lua"]:171: attempt to call method 'reset' (a nil value)
ERROR: [string "TheGrind/TheGrind.lua"]:1277: attempt to index field 'eventHandlers' (a nil value)
N0_Named_Guy
26. Aug 2011 · 01:52 UTC
If you need any help debugging this, please PM me on IRC (N0_Named_Guy)
🎤 Deraj
26. Aug 2011 · 04:49 UTC
Many apologies, N0_Named_Guy, the source tarball specifies a required version of radius-engine of 0.7, but it actually requires radius-engine 0.8 which is currently only available from the Git repository (git://radius-engine.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/radius-engine/radius-engine).

Sorry for letting that slip in. I think I can actually remove the dependency on radius-engine 0.8 without affecting the game. I'll try and do that tomorrow.
hamster_mk_4
26. Aug 2011 · 06:13 UTC
This is a brilliant interpretation of the theme. I am *ahem* I mean I have coworkers who are experts in cubical ninjitsu.
🎤 Deraj
26. Aug 2011 · 15:12 UTC
N0_Named_Guy (or anyone else compiling from source), I've uploaded a new source package that only depends on radius-engine-0.7.tar.gz (which can be found here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/radius-engine/files/). Thanks for the heads-up, and sorry for the trouble!
Rudy
28. Aug 2011 · 08:10 UTC
I like the idea, but it could be taken much further, like a full day of avoiding work in various ways instead of idling in corners. Some variety would help.
angrygeometry
29. Aug 2011 · 01:39 UTC
simple idea, executed well. a bit more direction would have been good though!
Shigor
29. Aug 2011 · 23:03 UTC
Nice idea, but quite boring implementation, suits often seen me around corner, gameplay quickly devolved to hiding in one cubicle and then hoping I'd move away if suit was coming, but since they move randomly and there's too much of them...
Points for theme and some for innovation, but overall just boring.
Tulrath
05. Sep 2011 · 01:53 UTC
Woohoo 59 To-Do items FTW! Neat interpretation of the theme. You should take it a step further and give the player a tranquilizer gun to take out bosses from a distance (and make it so the bosses have to get closer to you to give you work). Changing levels would have been nice too.

I'd really love to see this game developed further, I think it has a lot of potential :)
🎤 Deraj
13. Sep 2011 · 02:44 UTC
Thanks, everyone for taking the time to play and comment. I generally agree with your feedback. Namely, the gameplay did not reach the level of completeness I had hoped for when I set out.

Regardless, I'm proud of what I accomplished and am looking forward to the next competition :)