Dr Bentham by hmrpf
Dr. Bentham needs to save a lot of patient today.


Dr. Bentham needs to save a lot of patient today. But between the fast decrepitude and the bugs i didn't fixed, it's not gonna be easy. Dead or Saved, click on the bodies to make them disappear.
Be brave ! And have fun.
:tools: Godot / PixelEdit / Ableton
I'll gladly take feedback For context, I'm a solo team, and did everything except the background ambiant music.
Thanks for playing !
| Game on Itch ! | https://hmrpf.itch.io/dr-bentham |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/dr-bentham |
Ratings
| Overall | 421th | 3.484⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 548th | 3.113⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 212th | 3.6⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 148th | 4.113⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 268th | 3.919⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 181th | 3.661⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 470th | 2.722⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 175th | 3.828⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 26🗳️ | 39🗨️ |
I wasn't quite sure what to do at first, I think there can be a better indication about which bodies are dead and alive at the start. I also think it'd be nice to have some kind of score or other indication of progress -- I didn't really know when to stop.
Nice job esp as a solo dev!
This was a very creative take on the theme "harvest", properly terrifying too (buh you didn't need to include bios of people but you did anyway, made me almost feel bad for sacrificing them (nice work)).
Nice work on this entry, and good luck in judging!
I get vibes similar to the first fallout, although gameplay here is much more dynamic, really engaging. Wish that there was some goal to pursue - after a while, altough very entertained, i was confused whether i was playing the game right. Great job, also the how to play menu is so relatable :)
+Interesting concept and details
+ Immersive background sound and sound effects
Suggstion : A volume setting could save someone's life.
The SFX were great for ambience, I especially liked how each organ made its own sound when picked.
It did sound a bit like the patients were cussing me (so ungrateful! (:)
Good job on the graphics as well, your anatomy skills are sharp.
- The known bug of being unable to place organs to the table and in my case also to the person
- Could place multiple stomachs on the table at once
- Game kept running even though I killed many haha
- I don't know if this is a bug but the timer gets reset by removing an organ so it's easy to cheese it
Overall: Decent, but difficult game.
@substain Thanks for your feedback and your time ! Yeah the random system is actually too random so you can get really unlucky. I need to twist that. There should be a way to get organs from another place that the bodies you have I agree. I thought so far of organ donors, or maybe after some level if there is a progression unlock a machine that heals organs I don't know yet. But i'm aware of the problem :D Again thanks !
It would also have been nice with clearer instructions.
It looked visually nice.
Good job, this can turn out to be a good game I think with fixing up some bugs here and there and fine tuning the gameplay. C:
Loved the `Sorry... I didn't have time for this screen` :heart_eyes: made me laugth :slight_smile:
Some thoughts/suggestions regarding the game. Keeping in mind, that this is a perfect scenario suggestions, and/or possibly short fixes that would (imho) improve the gameplay experience. Sorry, if somebody else already mentioned it, wanted to write my thoughts first, then read others :slight_smile:
1. I think the first problem you have if having patients truly random. I had a row of patients (5+) that were only missing kidney. And then 6+ patients in a row that were missing a heart. Some with better variation, and then again 4+ in a row with missing only kidney. That kind of got depressing, as you cannot really do anything about the situation only wait for the new body.
- I think it would be better to have the sequence manually predefined (at least for the jam), so you can fine-tune the order each organ shows up.
- More complex solution would be use some kind of fake-random generator. For example have rules, that not 2-3 patients in row can have same missing organ. Or if player didn't put any organ in for some time, generate body with missing organ the player has in stash.
2. The removed part decays rather quickly (it seems about the same time it takes normal patient to die). So unless, you get two-three patients at the same time or in a perfect combination, it's really hard to save any of them even then. I suggest possible solutions or combination of them:
- I would suggest making organ table actually a freezer, so they don't decay.
- Then to introduce some challenge back - require ~3 second de-freezing before putting it back to the patient. Maybe also apply some medicine, so it gets accepted better.
- Make the slots stackable, so you can prepare "in case of emergency".
- Allow organs to be purchased for a price also (and maybe even sold). Then of course you need to generate money, so maybe, treated patients could leave you some "gifts" :upside_down:. Or sometimes even relatives could leave gifts in advance. The size of the "gift" could depend on their profession, their marital status.
3. The balance between decay and and number of patients. I would suggest increasing decay time as well as number of patients at the same time. And maybe even make a queue of new patients, in case you are taking too long. That way there is higher change to get right combination of organ parts, and not jsut wait untill they all die.
- Additionally you could introduce some (expensive?) medicaments, that extend they decay time, so you have more time to treat them, but it could be more expensive. Especially worth doing if combined with above noted points.
4. Some kind of story / day-to-day payment, story choices would be nice, but I guess this is definitelly out of gamejam scope :laughing:
Oh, and after few times I could put heart on the table anymore, I think some other collider might be blocking it?
Overall, I see some interesting gameplay potential. And you did well and a lot working on this alone. Looking forward to post-jam updates and next LudumDate entry :wink: