Public Opinion by Finn Stokes

[raw]
made by Finn Stokes for LD35 (COMPO)
Shape a shift in public opinion.

In this social dynamics/political campaigning game, you must sway individuals to your point of view. People that you have convinced will spread your ideas to others.

Controls
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Arrow keys, WASD, or analogue stick to move
Convince others of your superior ideology by coming into contact with them
Watch your ideas spread

The stronger someone's opinion (more red or blue), the harder it is to convince them to change their mind.

There is both a single player and a two player variant. In playtesting, the two player variant seems more fun, so I encourage you to give it a try.

How to run:
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To run on Windows, you should just be able to extract the zip file and run 'Public Opinion.exe'.

To run on Linux / OS/X, you will need the following:
- Python 2.X (https://www.python.org/)
- PyGame (https://www.pygame.org/)

Then extract the archive and simply execute 'run.sh' or run 'src/main.py' with python2 from the main directory.

Ratings

Coolness 45% 1350
Overall 3.05 606
Fun 3.30 348
Graphics 1.82 885
Innovation 3.77 121
Mood 2.83 530
Theme 3.55 339

Feedback

Cosmologicon
19. Apr 2016 · 04:03 UTC
Cute. I think it's a little too fast-paced for there to be any real strategy. You just go after the dots that aren't your color and hope for the best. It's fun chasing them down, though. The two-player mode seems like it would be fun. An AI would have been great, but of course that's easier said than done.
JNI
22. Apr 2016 · 16:17 UTC
I like the game, it's a good idea, but you should develop an AI! Anyway good work!
badia_r
23. Apr 2016 · 14:40 UTC
I love the concept! That's cool! Too bad you can't play against an AI, that makes the single-player mode less fun.
Venneque
25. Apr 2016 · 12:38 UTC
Nice game, it's should be better if we could playing against IA on single player.
NuberuGames
25. Apr 2016 · 12:43 UTC
The game was running out of screen (i couldnt see the exit option and my character went offscreen a couple of times).
Fun mechanic, and cool idea.
Good job!
kalth.streil
25. Apr 2016 · 13:00 UTC
It's really innovative, but as stated requires an IA or another player to get the best out of it. Lack of sound hurts it a bit too (you could've recorded two different tones of hums easily and played with the levels for example!), but it's still good!
Mikaza
25. Apr 2016 · 14:00 UTC
Nice game i love this gameplay mecanique !
eott
25. Apr 2016 · 16:44 UTC
Ha, I like the clever interpretation of shapeshift and I also love simulation-type games. Well done!
qikcik
25. Apr 2016 · 16:45 UTC
Nice :D
plko
28. Apr 2016 · 19:26 UTC
Excellent. This is more like a social phenomenon
simulator.
kvanderlaag
03. May 2016 · 15:10 UTC
Neat idea that riffs off the theme in an interesting way. Reminds me of an interactive Game of Life, a bit.
Alphish
03. May 2016 · 15:12 UTC
Kinda fun to play for a bit, but it seems to lack any real challenge aside from "achieve the goal as quickly as possible"; no losing conditions or anything. I'd prefer if there was some way to lose the single-player game, e.g. by interacting with others your own opinion sways a little too, and takes some time to reinforce or something. Also, gotta agree with others that it's a bit too hectic.

Also, I like what you did with shaping shift. It's a bit of a stepping around the core theme, but in a creative way, so in the end it's not really bad.
Naca
06. May 2016 · 15:21 UTC
Cool experiment. It is a novel and very interesting approach to the theme. I know It's very hard to write a social dynamics simulator within 48 hours, but this is good as a first iteration. It could be easily expanded with new features in order to simulate more complex behaviour.
danielilett
08. May 2016 · 15:55 UTC
I really like the idea! It's a clever interpretation of the theme and it's fun to play. I think you should try to add an AI to the single-player mode, which would make it a lot more fun to play, and perhaps have obstacles or different shaped stages that make it harder to get to all the tiny squares.