LudumData

Traffic Jam by MountainGoose

[raw]
made by MountainGoose for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

Please See itch.io link!

Control the traffic signals to keep everyone moving! Most definitely a prototype but stoked to be completed my first game jam.

CONTROLS:

You control four traffic lights. The labels on the right hand side of the screen represent each of the lights.

The yellow box is a control group. You can put as many of the lights in a control group as you'd like. To add another control group hit the button above.

The dial next to each control group controls how long each control group keeps the lights on for. (So you must have lights in the group AND the dial something greater than zero for the lights to work).

Thanks for the feedback! There will be bugs! And maybe features!

Known issues:

-Controls when paused seem to be hit or miss.

-The win screen seems to be hit or miss, the next level will just start.

Completed in 48 hours under compo rules but submitted for Jam as I didn't understand the difference at the time (first timer).

No AI used. Coding or Assets or otherwise.

Engine: Godot Music: https://www.beepbox.co SoundFx: https://www.bfxr.net/ Font: https://goblin-mode-games.itch.io/tiny-pixel-font

Game! https://mountaingoose.itch.io/traffic-jam-ludum-dare-59
Link https://github.com/EleventyFive/LD59-Repo
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/traffic-jam

Ratings

Overall 620th 3.289⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Fun 620th 3.053⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 512th 3.25⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Theme 231th 4.066⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 647th 3.197⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Audio 473th 3.095⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Given 50🗳️ 54🗨️

Feedback

Theogen
Apr 20th · 05:03 UTC
Congrats on your first jam game! It wasn't immediately obvious that you're supposed to drag the yellow labels and not the lights themselves from the level, but once I figured that out I successfully managed to complete all the levels. Very impressive! :slight_smile:
lanatra
Apr 20th · 06:37 UTC
Hey, congrats on finishing. What does the number in the box actually do; what does "light time on" mean? I cannot get the east/west traffic light to switch to green no matter what number I put in (the north/south works). Can you elaborate what to do?
OddballDave
Apr 20th · 12:07 UTC
Firstly, congrats on the first jam game completed. That's worthy enough of praise on its own. Secondly, I liked it. There were a few quirks, like I could only create a new group when the game wasn't paused, but I could only add lights to a group when the game was pause. The idea of a traffic lights management game is very cool, and I could see this being expanded with lots of cool features. Good stuff :8ball:
bonedaddy
Apr 20th · 12:08 UTC
I thought I left a comment on this earlier but not seeing it now. Not sure if that's a site problem. But I enjoyed this, felt there was a fun in there like sim city. It took a while to understand what to do. I also only passed one level because I didn't know what the level clear conditions were (I'd get below pass time but usually it'd just keep going). It's a good jam entry, there's some potential in this one
Sylvic
Apr 20th · 12:51 UTC
Great seeing fellow users of Godot, Beepbox and Bfxr! And congratulations on your first jam, that's always the hardest one.

It's a cool concept and a nice take for the jam. The gameplay is a bit hard to figure out at the beginning (and if the game's paused you can't add light groups, you should separate the UI from the pause).
Jordan The Human
Apr 20th · 13:15 UTC
Great job on your submission to this game jam. It's a fun little puzzle game! I had a little trouble figuring it out at first, but it got easier after that! Also, though maybe it's just me, I had a bit of trouble reading the font.
🎤 MountainGoose
Apr 20th · 14:29 UTC
@lanatra Hi Lanatra, so the idea is to put the light labels in the yellow light group box. The "light time on" dial is how many seconds the light will be green for. I was pretty fried at the end of the day yesterday, I'll update some instructions on the page now. Thanks for the feedback. It's definitely got some bugs as well so there's that.
fabelay
Apr 20th · 15:41 UTC
Pretty cool! I think I never fully understood how to be good in this game, but I managed to have traffic flowing quiet nicely. Thank you for making this!
StormSword
Apr 20th · 17:20 UTC
Take a few minutes to understand exactly how it works x)
But good idea, good job :D
jazzydingo
Apr 21st · 02:44 UTC
Cool stuff! Same here, had to read a bit and click around and set the time way up to figure out how to get started, but was very chill and cute game! Awesome stuff! And great that you got multiple levels in!
Kit Gorn
Apr 21st · 05:37 UTC
It's actually a very interesting concept. But essentially, there's one solution for every level. You just pair up the opposite lights for 4 seconds each, and everyone moves through quickly and smoothly. Just like in the real world.
pres2300
Apr 21st · 05:42 UTC
Really cool concept, and a great first jam entry! Congrats! I enjoyed what you built and had fun playing. I could see it expand into even more with more complex intersections, different types of traffic (i.e. trucks, pedestrians, bicycles) and other things that can complicate smooth flowing traffic. Great job!
🎤 MountainGoose
Apr 21st · 05:54 UTC
@kit-gorn appreciate the feedback, thanks for playing as is yes it's pretty basic. Timing to the car spawns added pedestrians etc just couldnt be made to work in time unfortunately!
🎤 MountainGoose
Apr 21st · 05:56 UTC
@pres2300 Thanks for playing and leaving feedback! I had a ton of fun making it. Definitely looking forward to the next jam already. Absolutely, those were in the to-be-added list! As well as left turn signals, crashes and all the things you have to cut with only 48 hours :)
oxnh
Apr 21st · 10:22 UTC
Hey I like your music, very chill. Gameplay is functional and that's great but it is slightly unfortunate that one solution can solve each level.
kayrum
Apr 21st · 12:11 UTC
Very nice interpretation of the theme. Sometimes I ran into the butg that I could not add new groups.
SU YUHANG
Apr 21st · 14:10 UTC
A game that fits the theme very well. The time-management mechanic is quite interesting and makes you think about how to allocate your time. hope the UI experience can be improved a bit, as it feels somewhat cumbersome to use.
🎤 MountainGoose
Apr 21st · 19:57 UTC
@oxnh Thanks for commenting on the music! It's not my strength and I was actually pretty happy how it turned out :)
Unfortunately I had no time for real level building in the end, so basic concept was the result. Would have love to flush it out more for sure.
🎤 MountainGoose
Apr 21st · 19:58 UTC
@su-yuhang thank you for the feeback! This game definitely turned into a UI lesson for me, I agree lots to be improved there!
oller125
Apr 21st · 20:02 UTC
Congrats on the first game jam! I initially also had an idea to do traffic lights but went with something else so I'm happy someone else had a go at it. I would say that it was pretty easy to figure out the solution and moving the labels rather than the lights themselves was a bit clunky.
GideonGriebenow
Apr 21st · 20:29 UTC
Hello fellow first-time game jammer! Congratulations on finishing an impressive first game! I also decided to give Ludum Dare a go this time. While I had many more ideas for my game, I'm happy that I was able to make a whole game with a "clean end" with seemingly no bugs.
Anyway, onto your game: I spent more time than I would care to admit playing it :) At first I got caught a few times on the first level, and then my strategy seemed to take shape and it became a lot easier. Sound was fitting, controls a bit hit and miss on pause, and the drag area of the group was a bit small, so I missed it a consistently until I slowed down and made sure - it would have been nice to have the group box it a bit more "receptive" of the light.
PS. Maybe add a "cover image" to your game - currently it's just the default grey image.
Sarenei
Apr 21st · 20:44 UTC
Grats on your first jam! I love traffic management games. I had a hard time figuring out how to get it work though. No matter what I did the cars wouldn't go. The lights would sometimes turn green, but the cars never cared.
Xahon
Apr 21st · 20:47 UTC
Nice game!!
The first game I like this jam so far!!
Bananplyte
Apr 22nd · 14:37 UTC
This was a very cute game - but there seems to be one single solution for all the levels
Dywanix
Apr 22nd · 16:02 UTC
nice usage of the theme
kr4ft3r
Apr 23rd · 00:15 UTC
It took me some solid five minutes of gradual learning until I could figure out the whole story. I think you did a great job here and the only flaw is that the most obvious combo is the best way to win (maybe in following levels there is more variation but I get stuck on 2nd level despite gettimg my avg time well below the pass time). Other than that the really awesome graphics and the feel of watching those cute cars move along is very satisfactory.
matt2728
Apr 24th · 12:57 UTC
Nice job. I had ab it of confusion at the start learning to play, but once I got it down it became interesting. I think you should be able to make light groups while it is paused though, and move lights between groups; seemed like I had to unpause to set it up, but I could pause again to set up the timings. This game makes me appreciate the complexity behind traffic lights haha.
LDJam user 384829
Apr 25th · 05:21 UTC
Well done! It was a simple but fun game, the graphics are great, and the audio is too. A really fun game, and great for your first jam.
The Big Lost
Apr 28th · 13:30 UTC
This shows promise! You could definitely keep developing this into something more substantial. Well done 👏
PoshDan
May 04th · 21:34 UTC
I found it odd that the cars wouldn't start going despite a green signal, until I gave the two opposite sides simultaneous signals, at which point I discovered that this 1 trick will win all the levels and traffic controllers hate me for it.