The Black Market of Fun by mikethewayne

[raw]
made by mikethewayne for LD 41 (COMPO)

12th consecutive Ludum Dare Entry, went for an Arcade/Business Simulation set in a dystopian setting. Those are two genres that you definitely don't see very often, so I decided it would be perfect for the theme. This one might actually be fun, it even says so in the title.

In this game, you must raise money for your brother, who's escaped the authoritarian nation you're in, but was shot while doing so, so needs you to pay for a life-saving operation that he needs to survive. You have a job, but you are paid very little, certainly not as much as you need. You must therefore turn to the black market, buying low and selling high at night, all while avoiding the police that patrol to enforce the curfew.

Features: - Pac-Man-esque map and movement - Multiple-agent enemy AI - Trading simulation - Fully simulated market, prices fluctuate; it's possible cookies can cost more than a TV - Non-intrusive but detailed story (at least at the start and end of the game) - Different endings - Fully implemented legal system (totalitarian legal system, it's either prison or death, but still) - Walls! Unlike some of my previous games, you no longer need to pretend they're there

Missing: - Audio. And I was so sure I would have enough time this time around, but nope! Maybe one of these LDs I'll finally add music.

Thanks for playing! Now it's time for sleep.

Ratings

Overall 647th 2.733⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Fun 640th 2.533⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 259th 3.533⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Theme 465th 3.333⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 579th 2.633⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Mood 325th 3.067⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Given 28🗳️ 1🗨️

Feedback

petterroea
23. Apr 2018 · 14:45 UTC
Cool concept. Runs bad on my machine
Dan Matthews
28. Apr 2018 · 12:52 UTC
Really liked the idea, but it's a bit of a frustrating game. Time doesn't stop when you're making deals and going to work is really tedious.
🎤 mikethewayne
28. Apr 2018 · 15:56 UTC
Thanks for your feedback! I'm not sure why it runs badly, if I get any more complaints on that I'll see if I can sort it out. I decided to keep time flowing during deals to keep the urgency, but I made sure that the police can't see you while making deals, otherwise it would be too difficult. Also, going to work was meant to be tedious :) and there's no penalty for not achieving your quota, though admittedly I didn't think to add a skip to end button, or to make it a little less tedious.
NateTheGreat
28. Apr 2018 · 18:08 UTC
I liked the concept a lot! It was really difficult to not get caught while browsing the stores and I felt like there were too many police. Perhaps if there were fewer police at first and they ramped up over time that would feel more balanced? Good job!
Mohamed_DKD
28. Apr 2018 · 18:58 UTC
cool concept, but the game really need some balancing (a whole day for 2 dollars, you buy cookies, and you only gain 20-40 cents (maybe because it wasn't very late, but still, if the life is soo harsh, cookies should be more profitable than this), maybe i am used to more forgiving games, but damn! this game really punishes you for everything, and nothing is worst than losing all your money, because you forgot to sell that last cookie and rushed to job!, or went to jail 10 days because you weren't paying attention to time :(

Side note, there is a glitch where you still open the apartment menu while you are working, because the word you were asked to type had the letter E

Side note 2, first time i run the game, it only showed a gray screen with text in the middle, but after i closed it and opened it, it was all fine

Also, having only .jar game isreally bad idea, because most people are not aware of how to play them. Maybe you can provide .jar and zip with .exe at the very minimum
🎤 mikethewayne
28. Apr 2018 · 19:26 UTC
More feedback, thank you all very much! Funnily enough, the police are ramped up over time, but maybe I start off with too many? That's something I'll note down. As for the balancing, I tried to have it difficult at the start, but as you gained money, you could get into more profitable items. Again, I wanted the game to be brutal, but maybe I made it too brutal, something else to work on. I'll definitely need to look into this glitch, your work and apartment are in two different places, it shouldn't happen even if the last letter was E. I include a runnable .jar file, and as it's the only file in the folder, I would've thought people would just click on that? Maybe not, but I find that .exe files are generally treated with suspicion. Maybe next time, I'll also include an .exe file just to start the program, along with a runnable .jar.
Mektidas
01. May 2018 · 14:49 UTC
i didn't have much time to play now, i'll try it more later :P but looks very interesting
Erik Brendel
13. May 2018 · 19:37 UTC
This is a big game. There is a lot of story, of concepts, a big market system, lots of items... I think this is a bit much for a ludum dare. It is not a nice experience to read the tutorial 3 minutes and then still not understanding how to properly handle the running game. The "work" was really not funny. I know, it was meant to be like that for the story, but it makes it hard for me to enjoy the game. In general, it is really hard to make progress.
Ajay.2002
15. May 2018 · 05:04 UTC
I liked the concept a lot! It was really exciting but I feel like there are way too many polices. But Good Job!!