The Dealer by Porcus_Pie

[raw]
made by Porcus_Pie for Ludum Dare 52 (COMPO)

Titlescreenshot.PNG

Content Warnings - Gore, Dark Themes, Implied Death and Violence

You've had this job for a while, it's pretty cozy, but you need to make sure you know what to sacrifice...

And sometimes, who to sacrifice.

You play as a back-alley organ dealer in a future world where organs can simply just be bought and grown. They take time and money, however, so sometimes it's best to take them from the source. Manage your resources, deal with customers, and choose who you deal with, who you ignore, and who becomes part of your stock.

screenshot1.png

This game was a bit of a change for me. Gone are my usual platformers and puzzlers and instead I decided to try make a resource management game! I think it turned out well. I ran out of time to get some music in but I think the atmosphere works okay without it!. Overall I'm quite happy with how it turned out! (But wow I forgot how tiring jams can be)

Hope you enjoy!

screenshot2.PNG

16-01-2023: Windows Version Added, no changes outside of adding "A game by JudeHDesign" on the title screen. The game is exactly the same

Ratings

Overall 32th 4.02⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 49th 3.9⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 16th 4.12⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 6th 4.46⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 38th 4.18⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Audio 110th 3.438⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Mood 11th 4.24⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 19🗳️ 34🗨️

Feedback

ffrusik
08. Jan 2023 · 11:49 UTC
Interesting game, but I'm having trouble with selling organs
muhuk
08. Jan 2023 · 19:45 UTC
Everybody needs lungs all the time. I enjoyed playing.
VerttiXPertti
08. Jan 2023 · 23:26 UTC
Great!
ekaktusz
12. Jan 2023 · 08:41 UTC
Wow this theme interpretation is very dark :D The gameplay is nice and I like the graphics too. Little morbid for my taste, but I still had fun! Nice job!
JeffSobel
12. Jan 2023 · 08:56 UTC
Wow, really great game. A lot more depth than I expected, and a really great tutorial!

Really well polished, and definitely worth playing!

I absolutely love the concept of harvesting the customers lol.
Rob6566
12. Jan 2023 · 09:02 UTC
:heart: the game! The resource management works well. I didn't :eye: an end game (unless it's upgrading all the tanks?) - I think it needs a win condition. The only thing that annoyed me a bit was having to click "exit menu" when in a tank menu. Clicking another tank should switch to that one. I liked the customer dialogues and the art style / audio.
3ggplant
13. Jan 2023 · 01:46 UTC
Good game, very neat gameplay loop and nice graphics.
Bloodfin
13. Jan 2023 · 01:53 UTC
I liked this interpretation and had a good time playing it. Wish you could click on another pod directly instead of exiting but other than that great work!
Torban
13. Jan 2023 · 01:53 UTC
Very nice design and polish on this one. Love the theme and mood. Super impressive that this was made in the compo. Great job!
LDJam user 221561
13. Jan 2023 · 02:15 UTC
Very dark (accidentally harvested a customer on first click) but good to play. Lungs man, lungs. All the time. The exit menu button is annoying, and the colour of the tanks didn't seem to match up with the upgraded tank level in any way which was confusing. +1 for the tutorial though.
kodingnights
13. Jan 2023 · 10:07 UTC
I really liked that you found time to add a tutorial!
Fun take on the theme. Game balance seems good, but there is a lot of waiting so more elements could be added so the player har something to do while waiting for crops to grow.
There could be some more variety in the customer faces and the sound is kind of simplistic.
Also, clicking on the tubes to check contents often did nothing - the tube remained unselected - maybe a bug?
I can really see this being developed further for a very interresting game.
LeReveur
14. Jan 2023 · 02:35 UTC
A detailed and usefull tutorial, in a COMPO, and above that the game is still polished?! Well, man, I don't know if you found the time to sleep or eat, but good job!
LDJam user 261453
14. Jan 2023 · 16:16 UTC
Love the game, although it took me some time to understand, I got the hang of it :v:
Sibi
14. Jan 2023 · 17:11 UTC
Phew that got quite hectic. I really like the atmosphere. It reminds me a bit of papers please.
Adrien Tremblay
15. Jan 2023 · 05:52 UTC
Not my type of game. But damn those graphics and that mood is top notch. Good fucking job sir
Uraffululz
15. Jan 2023 · 21:09 UTC
Wow! This was one of the most fun games I've played this jam. Simple enough, but it definitely gets intense as people grow more and more impatient. "Just wait 10 seconds and I'll get your marrow! Jeez!"
And it's a Compo? Holy crap! Great job, dude!
(P.S.: I'd love a windows download that I can save in my "LD52 Favorites" folder. I like to replay some of my favorite games from each jam sometimes.)
🎤 Porcus_Pie
15. Jan 2023 · 22:52 UTC
@uraffululz oh wow! Thank you so much (and thank you everyone else for that matter, such fantastic feedback). Might not get to it until this weekend but this was done in gamemaker, so a Windows export should be pretty easy.
🎤 Porcus_Pie
16. Jan 2023 · 07:39 UTC
@uraffululz Had some time after work, didn't take long at all. Windows version now available
pkenney
16. Jan 2023 · 17:30 UTC
Wow! Such a complete system with all of the UI, different organs, different customers, different resources, upgrades, timers, etc etc. It's an impressively well-rounded bunch of scope for a compo entry, and supported with nice graphics (esp the portraits) and sound effects, too.

And most importantly it was fun to explore the consequences of the system. My first run I was dragging it out being careful, but I kept getting jammed into a corner because most of my deals were done at a cash loss. Needed more murder! But then I pushed it a little too far too fast.

If I could tweak one thing it would be the way the menu system works. If I clicked on a tube I sometimes didn't want to do anything, and I had to click "exit menu" but that wasn't intuitive or convenient. Sometimes I wanted to just click into another tube, or even into the same tube to toggle out and back into my inventory.

I was often struggling with "what is my current inventory" so I'd do things like try to sell limbs that were at 100% in the tube but not yet harvested into my inventory, and I'd be clicking "sell" and nothing happening, and by the time I realized what I was doing wrong the timer ran out and OOPS. Or I'd click an empty tube and then "buy" and then I'd be picking but not recall what I already had in inventory.

Must be so hard to get the multi-modal sub-menus into a streamlined play experience in a compo, and I think you did a really good job with it, but it's SO hard that I still felt a few minor splinters along the way on that aspect.

But I enjoyed the dark mood of it all, and really fun to experiment around and see what's what.

Really imaginative and complete well-rounded entry here, nice job!
thejan14
20. Jan 2023 · 15:39 UTC
I think @pkenney has said it all, impressive entry overall! I personally think it could've started out even a little slower so that I have a chance to get a feeling of all the systems in place in the first run. But the game really encourages to take a second attempt and optimize anyway, so thats not a big deal :)
🎤 Porcus_Pie
21. Jan 2023 · 05:49 UTC
@pkenney Thank you so much for the feedback as always! I feel every game I post you make your way over and leave just absolutely fantastic and in-depth reviews. I definitely knew the menus were a bit clunky but I was running out of time already so just had to make do, same with the inventory.

I did definitely tried to push the player to harvest, I wanted to get the balance just right that could play without harvesting, but it would be so slow the player would feel like they had to!

Thank you again for the lengthy comment (in the best way :grin:)!
Untitled Studios
22. Jan 2023 · 22:50 UTC
Possibly the best ludum dare entry I have ever played, for one reason: this game knits together story and gameplay *perfectly*. The building stress as I need to go faster, as I need to harvest more of my customers, of making sure I'm well-stocked with all the organs I need mirrored perfectly the story of a black-market organ dealer that you're telling. Between the effective art, the stressful sound effects, and the engaging gameplay, I was brought into the shoes of the character I was playing as. Fantastic job.

A few minor notes, though I think if you had more time to playtest you probably would have caught these: if I'm already in a growing tube and I click on another one, I wish it would switch to that one rather than requiring me to click out of the menu first, and also I think it would be helpful if your current organ counts were listed while buying new ones.

Again, absolutely fantastic and an easy 5/5.
rasblo
25. Jan 2023 · 09:59 UTC
Very impressed by how you managed this in a weekend. Really effective complete entry. Reminded me of Inscryption for multiple reasons (mood, theme, even graphics) which is a great thing. The different characters and how they acted brilliantly affected what you wanted to do with them.

The menus took a bit getting used to (having to exit the menus in order to change) but that is my only nitpick.

Well done, congrats!
DaivyIsHere
26. Jan 2023 · 09:11 UTC
Atomsphere and the tension during gameplay are really impressive. Sounds are kind of not pleasant to listen to tho. But anyway a pretty good entry!