LudumData

CoolCoalGame by Gris

[raw]
made by Gris for LD 39 (COMPO)

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I approached the theme by making a VERY simple power plant tycoon where you need to cover demand all the time.

Instructions

  1. Drag coal by left-clicking anywhere in the coal cart into the generators.
  2. You can buy coal underneath the cart. Left click over the "0" on the bottom left and use it as an input field(It's counter intuitive I know...)
  3. The more coal you buy the cheaper it is but the longer it will take to arrive.
  4. All the energy gets dumped into the battery and from there you'll feed the demand. You can buy extra battery storage space by clicking on the button underneath it.
  5. You can only have 8 generators. You can buy them in the bottom center for 50€.
  6. Important, the number on the bottom right is the money you have.

Last as much as you can! (There is no time counter to know how long you lasted. This is for one sole reason... I suck!)

Description

This is my second Ludum Dare. I thought I'd get way more time to learn and practice between events but due to work this didn't happen. It's always gratifying to finish a game, even if it's a piece of shit. In this case, lets face it, a HUMONGOUS piece of crap. I was definitely rusty both on unity and c# for this challenge. It took me a long time to get comfortable with the whole thing. After the first 6h it was clear to me that the game ideas was not good, and I was having to much trouble executing it. In summary, you are watching the remains of the battlefield between me and Unity's UI system...and I was massacred. I did learn a bunch so I won't hide in the basement to cry ;) PS: The € thing instead of $ is intended.

Some Notes for the future: - I spent a lot of time reading the Unity Scripting API, UnityAnswers forum and StackOverflow to refresh a lot of things I already know. Next time do a 1 day intensive warm-up the week before or less intense during the whole week.

Tools

  • Unity 5.6
  • Audacity (for Sound)
  • Lunapic (for Graphics)
  • Bosca Ceoil (For the music)

Links

48hours + Noob = Bugs

I probably won't fix anything since I didn't like the idea or execution. This is just an acknowledgement of bugs and things lacking.

  • No timer to know how long you last.
  • No main menu.
  • No pause button.
  • Better screen adjustment to resize stuff according with screen.
  • Maybe keep a record of highscores?
  • Total lack of animations(It's horrible in general but it could've used some anyway)
HTML5 (web) https://gris.itch.io/coal-game
Windows https://www.dropbox.com/s/medqephbxwi1we4/CoalGameWin.zip?dl=0
macOS https://www.dropbox.com/s/beueb2me9tbpc2u/CoalGameMac.app.zip?dl=0
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/coolcoalgame-1

Ratings

Overall 550th 2.875⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Fun 401th 3⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 461th 2.8⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Theme 255th 3.65⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 537th 2.61⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Audio 321th 2.825⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Humor 63th 3.488⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Mood 478th 2.59⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Given 42🗳️ 40🗨️

Feedback

Durveg
01. Aug 2017 · 04:56 UTC
Was fun. Only thing I would change other than what you listed would be clicking the generators to add coal or even queue up coal to increase burn length. As the game went on I couldn't drag the coal as fast as it was burning out which started to hurt in the wrist a little but good management game. Lasted probably about 5 minutes with about €8000, all 8 generators and a ton of battery upgrades. Good job.
fingamer
01. Aug 2017 · 15:13 UTC
This game was fun to play but I think it is too hard because like said in a comment above the coal burns faster than you can put it there. Graphics were basic pixel graphics and audio was also immersive. Overall this was a fun tycoon styled coal game.
Mr.Houdini
01. Aug 2017 · 15:23 UTC
Stop thinking this bad about yourself. This shit works! Nice resource managing game, with humor and dynamic gameplay. It's a prototype, we know it. Just add a goal and some usability and you have it. Nice work, good luck!
notApollogising
01. Aug 2017 · 15:42 UTC
It was an interesting game, but pretty confusing. As fun as it was, the lack of good graphics and the 'bugs' you listed above causes the game to suffer from a low score. Dragging coal hardly even works. Nice attempt though. None of the bugs listed are bugs, they're features you didn't add.
SMA
01. Aug 2017 · 15:43 UTC
It's pretty mindless, and not much of a challenge, but still somehow strangely addicting - kinda like a clicker game i guess. If it had bit more depth and balancing it could be pretty good! I also thought the music was kind of fun, simple as it was.
Jima
01. Aug 2017 · 15:46 UTC
I love how you got this tutorial and small story at the beginning. I want to add that it would be nice to have currency symbol near money counter. I was looking for it for like 5 minutes
Wevel
01. Aug 2017 · 16:04 UTC
Interesting game, I feel that there is only any challenge at the start of the game, later on you are just having to keep dragging more coal to generators and you never really run out of coal.
pcmaster
01. Aug 2017 · 16:12 UTC
Dude, don't be harsh, this game is funny! I enjoyed for a bit. And my wrist hurts! :D Good job!
gonutz
01. Aug 2017 · 19:42 UTC
Who da Manny?

This endless clicker has very nice music and funny sounds - like "No Manny" ;-)

I love the Trump - coal reference, very funny!

The gameplay is repetitive - as all endless clickers - and after some time my hand hurts now and I could basically play for another couple of hours maybe, until the demand goes higher than what is possible to achive with the maximum of 8 furnaces. Maybe there should be room for more if anybody really wants to play that long :-)

I like the in-game tutorial, good job on that! I hate games where I have to search the LD page for instructions after getting frustrated with trying to figure out what I am supposed to do. This game does it right! It is simple, gets the message across and in your case is funny with the Trump image and references! I also like how the text rolls in as he speaks, instead of a static text. The movement and sound really make a difference and give a more polished feeling. Nice detail!

There is just one thing that confused me a bit, I did not realize that I had to buy a furnace at the start. Therefore I was fired couple of times until I re-read the instructions and found that buy button at the bottom. Also instead of automatically quitting the game a simple restart would have been nice, but I know it is sometimes simpler to program it like this in the 48 hours :-D

Overall a very good entry, good job, thanks and keep up the good work!
gonutz
01. Aug 2017 · 19:42 UTC
Who da Manny?

This endless clicker has very nice music and funny sounds - like "No Manny" ;-)

I love the Trump - coal reference, very funny!

The gameplay is repetitive - as all endless clickers - and after some time my hand hurts now and I could basically play for another couple of hours maybe, until the demand goes higher than what is possible to achive with the maximum of 8 furnaces. Maybe there should be room for more if anybody really wants to play that long :-)

I like the in-game tutorial, good job on that! I hate games where I have to search the LD page for instructions after getting frustrated with trying to figure out what I am supposed to do. This game does it right! It is simple, gets the message across and in your case is funny with the Trump image and references! I also like how the text rolls in as he speaks, instead of a static text. The movement and sound really make a difference and give a more polished feeling. Nice detail!

There is just one thing that confused me a bit, I did not realize that I had to buy a furnace at the start. Therefore I was fired couple of times until I re-read the instructions and found that buy button at the bottom. Also instead of automatically quitting the game a simple restart would have been nice, but I know it is sometimes simpler to program it like this in the 48 hours :-D

Overall a very good entry, good job, thanks and keep up the good work!
CyManSAP
01. Aug 2017 · 20:02 UTC
Most stressful tycoon I've played in a while. Lot's of fun, but I wish the game would quit when you're fired.
cyfixus
01. Aug 2017 · 23:32 UTC
This is huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugely timely and made me rofl a bit. Your scrolling text was very well paced..... I did get fired
Rombus
02. Aug 2017 · 01:47 UTC
haha "no money" 8D

I get fired easyly D:


congrats on the fun game man!
LuckyFeathers
02. Aug 2017 · 01:56 UTC
I actually ended up playing this for a while, until the cost exceeded the maximum I could produce with max generators and I couldn't do anything but wait for the inevitable death :p Good game and good approach to the theme. It's a bit complicated to grasp, so it's a good thing you added a tutorial. And don't be so harsh with yourself, you did great. The most important thing is to learn from your mistakes and improve for next ludum dare. Good luck :)
Bill Zeng
02. Aug 2017 · 02:37 UTC
Fun game, my only regret is that my trackpad hates me now
PeachTreeOath
02. Aug 2017 · 05:47 UTC
I clicked on this because of the icon and was not disappointed. This was a cool twist on idle/clicker games. The moving back and forth made it actually more work though (and consequently a different experience). I'm gonna have wrists of steel tomorrow. I didn't actually get bored of it like in normal clickers, i fought through the pain. I was hoping for some relief, but the only relief is to get fired. What a message about life!
JOrbits
02. Aug 2017 · 11:41 UTC
The game was not really hard. But sometimes (even though I had 50+ coal) I was not able to take it out of the coal cart, this was a bit disappointing. The graphics are nice and the music is good too.
mariandev96
02. Aug 2017 · 18:24 UTC
I really enjoyed playing the game , great job. The only issue that I had was that even though I had coal sometimes I couldn't get it out of the cart.
SVR_Audio
03. Aug 2017 · 15:00 UTC
I got fired ! haha It is pretty simple clicker game, but it is really cool, kind addicting I would say. I am not a huge fan of this kind of game, but this one was a good surprised, good job !
Badly Drawn Rod
03. Aug 2017 · 19:40 UTC
I enjoyed the humour, particularly the "You're fired" effect at the end. The chunky pixel graphics worked well with the fonts that you used, and the sounds were perfect for the game.
Fork0
03. Aug 2017 · 23:27 UTC
Loved the game! I do love such types of clicker/idle/grinding games or whatever category this falls into :D Played it until 14 demand and it just wasn't really possible to go on further.
EDIT: I LIED!!! 18.86 demand and i got fired xD
smbe19
05. Aug 2017 · 10:34 UTC
Nice game, funny orange dude at the start. Got pretty simple after the first coal delivery and you were always filling generators. But you fought Unity quite well :wink:
Yetman
05. Aug 2017 · 18:41 UTC
The game is hard at the beginning but gets a bit easy and repetitive after a while. I quit because my hand (and mouse) started to hurt from putting coal into the furnace. Otherwise, the game was generally fun and the concept is nice.
simonhutchinson
05. Aug 2017 · 20:56 UTC
Interesting resource management game! Glad to hear that you learned a lot in the process, and good luck with your continuing battle with Unity!
Vivoubos
05. Aug 2017 · 21:13 UTC
Interesting management game! Funny Trump :p
drtizzle
07. Aug 2017 · 08:59 UTC
Good job! Got a bit of a clicker-vibe off of it, and this was also strangely addicting. Loved the graphics, I like bulky pixels (I don't know if this is correct English). In the beginning I really had to watch my money and don't buy furnaces too fast, but after 3-4 minutes I could buy everything I wanted and the only challenge was to put coal in the furnaces as fast as I could. I quit the game because my arm began to hurt, not because I lost ;)

It would be nice if the game was a little bit more balanced (balancing and an 48h competition is not a good combination, I know), and/or if there were some automated systems to build, so you wouldn't have to drag coal all the time.

Overall a very nice game!
Baby Dino Herd
10. Aug 2017 · 23:42 UTC
Really timely and topical take on the theme! I especially enjoyed the double meaning of losing power when you get fired.

The game makes an interesting transition from puzzle game to clicker game the more generators you get. After a while I couldn't keep up ... I'm fired!
mamoniem
21. Aug 2017 · 15:55 UTC
Haha, nice and funny game. so far i loved it, what i think might needs improvements would be:
- the size and the game loading time.
- the UI was not arranged in a readable and friendly way, have to try out few times until i got the idea.

But overall nice entry with good and new design ideas.

-m