The Unicorn Shelter by senokos

made by senokos for LD 42 (JAM)

~ DESCRIPTION ~

Manage a shelter for abandoned unicorns. Keep them happy, recruit new volunteers, and expand your facilities. Also, read a lot of hastily written text on an exquisite white background.

We intended this game for the Compo until we realized that we had to be one person instead of two in order to qualify :) Monday being a working day, we hardly managed to add any new features or fix bugs (if anything, we seem to have created new ones) - so this is more of a skeleton of game, in a Diablo sense, than an actual game. Still, we hope you find something about it to enjoy.

~ PREMISE ~

A few weeks after unicorns first appeared on the black market for exotic pets, your uncle David came across an abandoned unicorn on the way back to his farm. The animal was malnourished and limping, and your uncle took to it his farm and nursed it back to health. Soon, Uncle David was running the first shelter for abandoned unicorns. You came to visit every now and then.

Yesterday night, you got a call from the hospital. Your uncle had been kicked in the head by one of his unicorns. In a brief moment of consciousness, he requested that you go to the shelter and take care of the animals while he is in hospital.

You are not sure about this, but you came anyway.

~ TEAM ~

Mikhail Fiadotau & Evgeny Bychkov

~ THE SOLE SCREENSHOT ~

HTML5 (web)	https://unicorn-shelter.netlify.com/
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/the-unicorn-shelter-1

Ratings

Overall	1082^th	2.881⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Fun	1038^th	2.738⭐	23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	1128^th	2.525⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Theme	1200^th	2.4⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Humor	407^th	2.947⭐	21🧑‍⚖️
Mood	1014^th	2.5⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Given		14🗳️	14🗨️

Feedback

WrenPirate

14. Aug 2018 · 02:00 UTC

The goofy graphic brought me in, which was a bit of bait 'n' switch, but I had fun. The game story is surprisingly sophisticated. This is the kind of game where I'd keep clicking because each day moves quickly, even though the algorithms aren't set to advance the player very quickly.

frontlinesaint

14. Aug 2018 · 06:53 UTC

This was actually pretty goodand a good idea didnt really fit the theme for me but otherwise i enjoyed playing.

manusaiz

14. Aug 2018 · 16:22 UTC

It's true that I click in this particular game based on your unicorn drawing, but I must say that I enjoy making those decisions inside the game and that sometimes is difficult to choose, like in the real world =)

Joschi

14. Aug 2018 · 18:13 UTC

On my first run I didn't get far in the game, so I wanted to try again, but the website is not working anymore :(

🎤 senokos

14. Aug 2018 · 18:28 UTC

@joschi Thanks for letting us know! Our host just decided to change its domain name without warning O_o The game is back online, though. Please give it another go!

Papaver

14. Aug 2018 · 19:30 UTC

Congrats with your game, I enjoyed playing it! I played it a second and third time, trying different things. It has a nice and well-thought-out back-story. I would have liked to see why I was game over, and how many days I survived.

Captain Nakou

14. Aug 2018 · 20:11 UTC

That game over was heartbreaking.
This is a fine game you've made here.

Joschi

14. Aug 2018 · 21:34 UTC

@senokos yeah it is working again and I finally get farther this time! @captain-nakou You came to the end of the game? My Unicorns are always getting pretty unhappy! :unicorn:

Jaydek

15. Aug 2018 · 03:29 UTC

Got drawn in by the title graphic and was disappointed by the lack of graphics in the game itself... I'm a little dyslexic, so the lack of colour and design of the typography made it hard for me to stay engaged, sorry!

Grats on the submission, though. Good luck with the jam!

Sigmath Bits

15. Aug 2018 · 09:25 UTC

Man, I played this for a while. Tough game, and surprisingly addicting. I can't work out the best way to go about the game, it's very difficult to balance money and feeding and taking care of the Unicorns. Thoroughly enjoyed myself though, for what seems like a simple text-based game at the surface.
Though, sometimes when scouting for donations, I actually lost money. Is this intended? I could understand getting nothing, but getting negative donations? Though, I suppose campaigning can cost a bit sometimes, so if that was the intention, never mind!

Nam Nguyen

15. Aug 2018 · 18:17 UTC

I have the unicorn's happiness decreased to zero and it died haha. This is not really a text adventure, more like a game with text output instead of visual output. I see some humor in there too. I think it would be more engaging to have some drawing of the unicorn with respect to her happiness :smile: . Good job putting it all together!

Raccoon_JS

15. Aug 2018 · 18:45 UTC

Nice text adventure game.

Laurim

15. Aug 2018 · 19:13 UTC

My story of managing the unicorn shelter:

-Take over the shelter.

-A wild unicorn appears. It needs help, so I help it.

-The unicorns aren't happy being crowded.

-Another wild unicorn appears. I don't have room, but I can't say no.

-Struggle trying to get the money to build additional paddocks and keep the unicorns fed.

-Seriously contemplate selling one to a circus... I desperately need the money... But I can't bring myself to do it.

-Unicorns really hate me for being so crowded.

-Finally manage to get them enough space.

-Unicorns still hate me, but it's about to start getting better.

-A newspaper runs two articles about how much the unicorns hate me.

-My reputation is destroyed

-Slowly manage to start turning things around.

-Uncle comes home.

This was a really cool concept, and a much more complex game than I was expecting! It's really well-balanced in a way that makes it challenging, yet doable.

My only gripe is that is that the game ended just as I felt I was actually starting to do well.
I never really got close to being able to buy things like the truck or many of buildings (ended up only building a tent and 2 paddocks).
I'd love to see an unlimited (or longer) version.

Overall a really fun and enticing game!

Zeriver

17. Aug 2018 · 11:13 UTC

That was a very fun mix of management game with light text adventure elements. I like how you added some bits where characters interacted and told more about the story, it could be even more fleshed out with some story bits. The game is rather well balanced i guess it depends on random events. One small thing, i think that the money you raise is lower depending on the day, i think you forgot to clamp the value so you won't collect negative money which happened to me twice :D. Anyway gameplay is pretty fun, the whole managing the unicorns and planning a head was entertaining. Well made game!
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