Days to Come by Cassio Eduardo
Days to Come is a survival RPG where the player must explore the world to find a Water Chip and a Alternator and bring them back home to increase the chances of living for another day. In your journey you will get stronger, find new allies and many enemies that are also just trying to survive.
Gameplay:
Find the "Water Chip" and the "Alternator" and bring them to the starting position.
You can loot the crates spread across the map.
You must manage the "Hunger" and Thirst" bars by eating and drinking. Click on the item name to consume.
Opening menus does not stop time.
Recruit allies (they will be waving at you) by pressing 'E'.
Equip items by clicking on a party member's name and selecting the equipment on the window below.
Get new traits by clicking on the '+' icon. Every rank you can select 2 traits (one positive and one negative).
Controls:
W, A, S, D - To move.
E - To recruit new characters, enter boat and loot crates.
I - To open the party screen.
Esc - To close some windows.
Trait Descriptions:
Positive
Brawler - Increased melee damage.
Steady Aim - Increased ranged damage.
Unpredictable - Increased dodge chance.
Quickness - Increased speed.
Critical - Increased critical chance.
Fast Metabolism - Regenerates health during battle.
Tough - Increased endurance.
First Aid - Increased healing abilities.
Negative
Coward - Decreases melee damage.
Trigger Happy - Decreases ranged damage.
Predictable - Decreases dodge chance.
Slowpoke - Decreases speed.
Clumsy - Decreases critical chance.
Sick - Loses health during battle.
Weak - Decreases endurance.
Butcher - Decreases healing abilities.

- #### Update 1 - Fixed some very nasty bugs that made the game unplayable.
- #### Update 2 - Fixed island overlapping, infinite grenade throws by the AI and Text placement.
- #### Update 3 - Fixed a bug introduced in "Update 2", where the characters stopped following the player. -_-"
| Windows | https://drive.google.com/open?id=12h9AylisCUmtygIXbbgnfGhFbwdEEbR2 |
| HTML5 (web) | https://dword.itch.io/days-to-come |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/days-to-come |
Ratings
| Overall | 827th | 3.167⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 772th | 3.042⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 892th | 2.875⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1227th | 2.295⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 897th | 2.978⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 829th | 2.848⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 24🗳️ | 17🗨️ |
Playing to better evaluate other criteria. :)
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Ainda estou jogando. Uma coisa que eu gostaria, seria de um botão para simplificar a escolha dos comandos na hora de lutar. Tipo "apertar a" em vez de clicar em "Atacar". Creio que os inimigos não tenham tanto delay quanto clicar em um um botão e depois arrastar até mim.
Jogando para avaliar melhor outros critérios. :)
@ramanujo I usually pick smaller scopes when I team up, so I don't fail other people and we all deliver a more polished game. But when working solo, I enjoy making big and complex projects (and I usually fail >_<). I know that's weird, but it's my way of having fun on game jams.
The game is the jack of all trade but master of none. The jRPG style combat was a nice touch, there's a good choice of abilities and items, but unfortunately, it's really hard to get used to it due to not having enough intel about enemies. I also would prefer if while I'm choosing the action the charge bars would pause. The lack of pause worked in some final fantasy games, but it also was refined to quickly move through the menus and UI, which is rather tough to do in this case.
On the map, the enemies seem to be a bit faster than you. It can be a problem if you want to avoid combat, but I can see why it would be the case. Still, perhaps it could be nice if there was some variation to it, perhaps enemies that are faster/slower? It looks like everyone is moving the same speed to me. Also, the enemies seem to be stocked up - I probably won't forget the first time I encountered enemy to think 'hey, it's 1v1, this should be fine', only to meet up with two dudes and having to use up bandages I just gathered to be back in the decent state.
Inventory management has a lot of depth to it, but without some quality of life mechanics, it's clunky to use. There's a bunch of items you can gather from crates and stuff, but having to click the up arrow on every item is rather bothersome.
Still, that being all said, I'm really impressed with the game. For a game that's been done in 72 hours, there's a lot of stuff you can do and a bunch of mechanics player can explore. I would really like to see what would happen to this game given some more time!
Still, really impressive solo project and ambitious which typically leads to countless of bugs and unfinished project but you managed to produce something playable and concrete. Nicely done!
0 - Mecânica Principal:
A mecânica principal de encontrar os itens necessários para sobreviver é desafiadora (apoiada nas mecânicas secundárias). Ter de sobreviver durante o processo de busca é de muitas formas difícil (às vezes é bom um desafio).
1 - Mecânicas Secundárias:
Cuidar da própria alimentação e hidratação é algo difícil no jogo, porque não há um sinal claro (fora do menu de informações) sobre o estado atual do personagem (seria interessante se houvesse um sinal quando estivesse abaixo dos cinquenta por cento, ou algo assim; mesmo que a pessoa tivesse que ativar (mostrar só para quem quer)).
Cuidar da massa máxima do inventário é interessante, nos faz ter que pensar antes de tomar uma decisão. Como o tempo não para nesses casos, fica parecendo que o tempo está super rápido (por um lado é uma decisão lúdica de desafio, por outro, no caso da continuação do projeto, eu sugeriria que a velocidade dessas barras fosse reduzida).
A respeito do sistema de desenvolvimento do personagem, seria interessante se os tratos fossem explicados no jogo (com a seta do mouse em cima mostrar um texto explicativo ou algo assim). Entretanto, poder-se-ia querer que o jogador jogasse até entender todos os tratos.
O sistema de consumo de itens pode ser melhorado, pois eu estava usando "comida" e quis trocar para "água", infelizmente não bastou clicar em "água", eu primeiro teria que cancelar ter clicado em "comida".
2 - Curva de Aprendizado:
Os comandos com ASDW e mouse não foram difícil de perceber. O acesso ao inventário (tecla I) e lidar com os menus acabou sendo um pouco menos intuitivo, mas ainda assim deu para pegar sem maiores dificuldades.
3 - Flow:
Ao que entendi a dificuldade cresce tanto por tempo (quanto mais demora, pior fica em relação aos suprimentos), quanto por tamanho do grupo (quanto maior o grupo, mais difícil pode ser de administrar e de manter o povo suprido) e em relação às ilhas (há ilhas onde os inimigos caem com trinta pontos de vida, em outra eu ataquei com todo o meu grupo equipado e o cara continuou de pé; isso que ele era só o primeiro de um grupo com quatro inimigos).
Em nenhum momento o jogo ficou entediante, em alguns pontos (logo no começo, e mais para o final) o jogo se tornou "difícil". Eu sugeriria suavizar um pouco a dificuldade no late game, ou estender o jogo para essa experiência ser mais balanceada.
4 - Love Points:
A possibilidade de entrar ou não em combates e a mecânica de navegar com o barco foram pontos muito agradáveis. A ideia de evolução do personagem também ficou bacana. O desafio baseado no tema da Ludum Dare também ficou muito interessante (daí cabe a você mensurar se esse ponto positivo é apenas para o escopo da jam ou se ele continua atrativo fora do evento, em caso de continuidade do projeto).
5 - Apresentação da Narrativa:
A narrativa dentro do jogo parece dizer respeito à sobrevivência em um evento apocalíptico ou naufrágio de muitas pessoas (isso foi incerto para mim, dentro do contexto do jogo, isoladamente). Essa narrativa é muito interessante. Os possíveis aliados não foram tão bem explicados, mas poderiam ser explicados de alguma forma (talvez colocá-los como reféns em lutas, em vez de reféns no mapa, focalizando a ação de salvá-los como justificativa do vínculo, ou algo assim). Seria interessante saber mais sobre os motivos para ter de reunir os itens necessários.
6 - Art Polishment:
Do ponto de vista visual, o jogo ficou muito bom para tempo de jam. Parabéns. Há sempre espaço para polimentos, como seria o caso de criar um pouco mais de carisma nos personagens (mas daí teria de abandonar iniciar com personagem aleatório e passaria a ser mais limitado, mas com mais profundidade; daí caberia a você saber se vale a pena, ou se até mesmo faria sentido em relação às suas pretensões).
A parte sonora pode ser aprimorada majoritariamente. Há muito que pode ser feito para aprimorar a experiência de jogo (que já está muito boa).
Creio que o jogo possa ser transformado em MMO por rodadas (ou seja, um vencedor semanal ou diário para o jogo). Nesse sentido poderia monetizar vendendo skins ou até mesmo em um sistema de vencedor ganhar, mas para entrar ter que pagar (realmente não sei se isso funcionaria, já vi jogos mais ou menos assim). Se a ideia for monetizar vendendo o jogo, eu diria que criar mais carisma nos personagens, situações problemas (narrativas) e polir a arte sejam mais interessantes e priomordiais.
8 - Geração de Comunidade:
Caso publicado creio que logo geraria comunidade (tanto vendendo o jogo, criando uma página no Facebook (chame-me para curtir), quanto no caso de MMO).
9 - Diálogo Cultural:
O jogo faz referência ao medo humano por um "fim da sociedade" (alguns anseiam por isso, hahahahah). Também remete à solidão e à sobrevivência mais básica. Caso a narrativa seja bem trabalhada, ele pode acabar influenciando no sentido contrário (jogo -> cultura).
Evaluation...
0 - Main Mechanics:
The main mechanics of finding the items needed to survive is challenging (supported by secondary mechanics). Having to survive during the search process is in many ways difficult (sometimes challenging).
1 - Secondary Mechanics:
Taking care of one's own food and hydration is difficult in the game, because there is no clear signal (outside of the information menu) about the character's current state (it would be interesting if there was a signal when it was below fifty percent or something; even if the person had to activate (show only to whoever wants to)).
Taking care of the maximum mass of the inventory is interesting, it makes us have to think before making a decision. As time does not stop in these cases, it seems that the time is super fast (on the one hand it is a playful decision of challenge, on the other, in the case of the continuation of the project, I would suggest that the speed of these bars be reduced).
Regarding the developmental system of the character, it would be interesting if the dealings were explained in the game (with the mouse pointer above show an explanatory text or something). However, one might want the player to play until he understands all the dealings.
The system of consumption of items can be improved, since I was using "food" and wanted to switch to "water", unfortunately it was not enough to click on "water", I would first have to cancel having clicked on "food".
2 - Learning Curve:
The commands with ASDW and mouse were not hard to perceive. Accessing the inventory (key I) and dealing with the menus turned out to be a little less intuitive, but it was still easy to pick up.
3 - Flow:
As I understand the difficulty grows so much in time (the longer it takes, the worse it is in relation to supplies), and the size of the group (the larger the group, the harder it can be to manage and maintain the people supplied) and the islands (there are islands where the enemies fall with thirty points of life, in another I attacked with all my equipped group and the guy continued standing, that he was only the first of a group with four enemies).
At no point did the game become boring, in some points (from the beginning, and more towards the end) the game became "difficult". I would suggest softening the difficulty in the late game, or extending the game for this experience to be more balanced.
4 - Love Points:
The possibility of entering or not fighting and the mechanics of sailing with the boat were very pleasant points. The idea of evolution of the character was also nice. The challenge based on the theme of Ludum Dare was also very interesting (it is up to you to measure whether this positive point is only for the scope of the jam or if it remains attractive outside the event in case of continuity of the project).
5 - Presentation of the Narrative:
The narrative within the game seems to relate to survival in an apocalyptic event or shipwreck of many people (this was uncertain for me, within the context of the game, in isolation). This narrative is very interesting. The possible allies were not so well explained, but could be explained in some way (perhaps placing them as hostages in fights rather than hostages on the map, focusing on saving them as a justification for the bond, or something like that). It would be interesting to know more about the reasons for having to gather the necessary items.
6 - Art Polishment:
From the visual point of view, the game was very good for jam time. Congratulations. There is always room for polishing, as would be the case to create a little more charisma in the characters (but then you would have to abandon starting with a random character and would be more limited, but in more depth, then it would be up to you to know if it's worth it , or whether it would even make sense in relation to his claims).
The sound portion can be improved mostly. There is a lot that can be done to enhance the gaming experience (which is already very good).
I think the game can be turned into MMO by rounds (ie a weekly or daily winner for the game). In that sense I could monetize selling skins or even a winning system win, but to enter have to pay (I really do not know if that would work, I've seen games more or less like this). If the idea is to monetize selling the game, I would say that creating more charisma in the characters, situations, problems (narratives) and polishing art are more interesting and priomordial.
8 - Community Generation:
If published, I believe that it would soon generate community (both selling the game, creating a page on Facebook (call me to enjoy), and in the case of MMO).
9 - Cultural Dialogue:
The game refers to human fear for an "end of society" (some crave it, hahahaha). It also refers to solitude and the most basic survival. If the narrative is well worked, it can end up influencing in the opposite direction (game -> culture).