The Operator by Gipzo
I’m happy to greet you in our one big Telephone National Inc. family.
My name is Harris and I will be your mentor and supervisor, opening the doors to the new and exciting world of public service to you!
I am sure that you already know the ground principals of our work!
They are the following:
- Be nice to our subscribers
- Do not chit chat with clients
- When you want to go to lavatory, don't say it. Raise your hand instead.
Controls:
Left mouse button - pick the jack / plug the jack
Right mouse button - drop the picked jack
Game features:
Accurate simulation of a mid 30s of 20th century telephone switchboard operator work
Intriguing score system
Increasing complexity
Perma-job-loosing
Tools:
Unity 5, Photoshop,
Team:
Artem Shambalev aka Gipzo -Programming, Game design
Mikita Bobchanka - Game design, Writing
Uliana Sentiurava - Art
Jura Alenin - Sounds
Music by
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Updates:
01.09.2016:
- Changed first screenshot so players are not confused and try to click on it.
- Fixed bug with frozen time
- Score system is now more loyal
My name is Harris and I will be your mentor and supervisor, opening the doors to the new and exciting world of public service to you!
I am sure that you already know the ground principals of our work!
They are the following:
- Be nice to our subscribers
- Do not chit chat with clients
- When you want to go to lavatory, don't say it. Raise your hand instead.
Controls:
Left mouse button - pick the jack / plug the jack
Right mouse button - drop the picked jack
Game features:
Accurate simulation of a mid 30s of 20th century telephone switchboard operator work
Intriguing score system
Increasing complexity
Perma-job-loosing
Tools:
Unity 5, Photoshop,
Team:
Artem Shambalev aka Gipzo -Programming, Game design
Mikita Bobchanka - Game design, Writing
Uliana Sentiurava - Art
Jura Alenin - Sounds
Music by
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Updates:
01.09.2016:
- Changed first screenshot so players are not confused and try to click on it.
- Fixed bug with frozen time
- Score system is now more loyal
| itch.io (WebGL+Mac+Win64) | https://gipzo.itch.io/the-operator |
| Original Jam Entry | https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B60fcIDRqqgYY1hjRWNnUDRKWkk |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-36/?action=preview&uid=32280 |
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-36/?action=preview&uid=52500
On day three the game felt like it froze though even though the current call I was connecting was working. I have one call and it won't end. I'm not getting new calls either.
I feel that this could be turned into a full game.
i especially love the report card at the end, and the graphic and music really good, match very well to bring the oldies vibe :)
The music and graphic style are well chosen according to the topic of the game. It's more challenging that it seems at first glance. Great game :D
- Connect me with Gipzo, his game is really cool1
For me it feels like a lot of the rules needs to be figured out.
There's not a lot of time to connect the calls, but I actually like that since it adds a lot of stress (on top of the chill-out music, hehe) and I'm guessing it actually simulates how it must have been back then.
Good job!
Well done!
The theme reminded me a lot of "Papers, Please" - if you keep working on this, I think some story elements would fit the game very well! Thanks for making this game! <3
The tutorial is excellent and sets the mood of the game perfectly. Then the main gameplay was very pleasant, with enjoyable basic actions (moving cables around and pushing buttons was well-polished) and actual tactics for optimizing work.
The two downsides I came up with this otherwise perfect entry are:
- I found the "Day 3" mechanic to be a bit annoying, as toggling the name list wasn't entirely practical (I would have liked to dismiss it by just clicking on it), and gameplay-wise it just wasn't very fun to skim through a list repeatedly under time pressure. Maybe you could have made the difficulty ramp up more nicely by having a "name call" pop up just a couple times during "Day 3", and increasingly in the following days. Also a 4x4 board might have sufficed, making it easier to look for a name and end up slowly learning them by heart (either that or making the same names come up often during the first days).
- The game was quite unforgiving, as a couple imperfect delays and a single blunder (getting a single connection wrong) can get you fired. Leaving some room for error would give us more time to get used to the "find by name" mechanic without having to restart from day 1 after each attempt.
Congratulations to everyone: the art & UI were excellent, the coding flawless and the game design very interesting. 5/5
At first it reminded me of Papers, Please, and I thought if you were to make a full game out of this it would draw inspiration from there (like uncovering plots, recurring characters, and denial of service if they sound suspicious). Well these are just my thoughts on what it could be if someone wanted to expand on it.
The game is great and designed well, good job!
The concept is clever, makes for a pretty addictive and tense experience. I also really like the art and cable physics. Great job!
Glad to see you made/are making the post-jam version.
good game well done.