{"author_link":"\/users\/leparlon","author_name":"leparlon","author_uid":"leparlon","comments":[],"epoch":1745796843,"event":"LD57","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":415446,"likes":6,"metadata":{"p_key":"211697","p_author":"leparlon","p_authorkey":"1006805","p_urlkey":"451524","p_title":"Well, that was depressing\u2026","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD57","p_time":"1745796843","p_likes":"6","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1006805","us_name":"leparlon","us_username":"leparlon","event_start":"1743811200","event_key":"111","event_name":"Ludum Dare 57"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD57","removed_author":false},"_superparent":406845,"_trust":1,"author":6805,"body":"...and that might be just why it worked.  \n*(A CLOCK IN post-mortem and a story on telling stories or is it deep to tell a deep story?)*\n  \n\nHow it started:   \n![Screenshot 2025-04-28 013724.png](\/\/\/raw\/59a\/1\/z\/6c864.png)\nHow it ended:   \n![Screenshot 2025-04-27 223147.png](\/\/\/raw\/59a\/1\/z\/6c85f.png)\nIt ended up ranking **#3 in Mood**. (Bragging, I know, but I'm proud that for once I succeeded on what I tried to succeed)\n\n## :white_check_mark: What Went Right: Taking Away Control (At the Worst Possible Time)\n\nFor most Jams, I like to take a few hours (or a whole night) just thinking about the theme, no rush, no pressure, just letting ideas brew while I walk around, talk to family or even sleep on it.  \nIt's honestly one of my favorite parts of the jam: wasting time on weird, probably (likely) bad ideas that only sound good in my head \ud83d\ude05.\n\nThis time, the idea came a little faster (for reasons I will discuss a bit downwards) and I spent half a day building it out.  \nIt became one of my favorite memories from this jam: brainstorming a slow, invisible way to break the player.\n\nAt some point, the *perfectly cruel* mechanic clicked:\n\n> *Spoilers ahead:*  \n> If you plan to play the game, [go now](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/57\/clock-in), it's pretty short, runs in the browser, can even be played from your mobile, one of the feedbacks I got from my wife is that the text was small on the phone, so if you click the post-its, the text enlarges.  \n> Come back here later.\n\nContinuing:\n\n![Screenshot_20250406_033727_Chrome.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/59a\/1\/z\/69857.jpg)\n\n**What if the moment the player finally *got* how the system works, right at that satisfying peak where you're just starting to master it, the game would *start taking it away*?**  \nWithout warning.\n\nOne day, the first click happens for you, with an odd subtle sound, minimal feedback. The first one, so you are not sure what happens. It does not happen again, until...  \nNext day, two clicks.  \nUntil you're just... there.  \nPresent, but no longer necessary.\n\nI wanted players to feel a tiny sting of unfairness.  \nAnd then realize:  \n**that\u2019s the point.**\n\nThere are plenty of small little things that I think add to it:  \nHidden visual cues: crosses growing on buildings... the city itself quietly turning into a graveyard for obedient drones.  \nPost-it notes that come back (depending on the answer you gave, hinting at something darker).  \nYour base salary just sort of continues...   \nAnd even the way the game ends is cryptic: wtf happens?  \nWell, only you know.\n\nIt is possible to end the game on the 3 screens, it's pretty hard to trigger on some (and time-consuming).  \nI was kind of hoping someone would eventually stumble on them accidentally (some hints on the comments made me think some did).\n![Screenshot_20250406_033745_Chrome.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/59a\/1\/z\/69856.jpg)\n\n## :white_check_mark: Minimalism Helped the Story\n\nWell, as usual, drawing takes me FOREVER, does not matter if I try to rush it, I always take way too long to make one button look right (Not a perfectionist, I just suck at it, there is always something weird I many times fix with some lucky pixel I forget to erase).  \nAnd well, compo timing being short, and I had even less time with family visiting, so, minimalist art style was not a design choice, it was basically survival.\n\nBut it ended up helping the game a lot...  \nThe static screens, muted colors, black screen transitions, and limited interactions made the world feel colder, flatter... drained.  \nWhich is exactly what the story needed.\n\nInstead of showing a bustling city full of life, what we got was that 2 shades of gray 6 shapes of squares kind of city.  \nInstead of celebrating progress, everything around you just sat there, grey.  \nThe way the city faded into grayscale as you commuted, the old computer screen (with PERFECT buttons), the dead, boring apartment...\n\n![Screen_Recording_20250406_033419_Chrome2-ezgif.com-video-to-gif-converter.gif](\/\/\/raw\/59a\/1\/z\/69858.gif)\n\nAlmost like I found a cheat code for making bad art work (I amazingly got 82 in graphics).\n\n## :white_check_mark: Its fun thinking about story telling.\n\nInstead of explaining how the game works, I was thinking on foreshadowing things, and how to add them.. etc.. I don't have much to say on that, except that I had a blast doing it (even if only thinking about it).   \nRecommend.\n\nAlso pretty nice to try to just tell enough of something, and later hope someone gets it.. and when some one does? Oh boy, that feels coooooooool.\nAlso Recommend.\n\n## :white_check_mark: Building the World First (And the \"Game\" Second)\n\nOne thing that helped a lot was thinking about the world first, before even worrying about the game.\n\n*\"What kind of world would this exist in?\"*  \n*\"What would someone do there?\"*  \n\nJudging emotions \"evolved\" from Judging reputation in the ideas realm. Then it became a work game, and rest just came.\n\nYou are just categorizing human feelings on acceptable or not acceptable, sort of reducing people 0s and 1s (the reports also sort of devolve in that way).\nIt felt fun to me, but I think that if the game had been longer, it probably would have gotten boring.\n(Maybe I also found a cheat code for bad mechanic)  \n\nThis ideas could only come from building the world first. I will definitely try that again, even if I make a dumb flying-armored-tree-bird-killing game once more.\n\nIt was so much faster to make everything connect... I usually take forever to be satisfied with an idea..\n![simpler times](\/\/\/raw\/59a\/1\/z\/6c862.gif).\n\n## :x: What Could Have Been Better - Balancing BOREDOM\n\nWell, I got BORED testing the game.  \nBy the end of the compo, I wasn\u2019t proud anymore, I genuinely felt bad... all that gray, hidding crosses, heavy messaging and all that thinking on \"how to make this darker\" eventually DOES GET INTO YOU.  \nI even started cutting things out: the commute home gets shorter after the first day because I literally couldn\u2019t stand playing through it anymore.\n\nOne commenter suggested clicking to stop the alarm clock.. well.. I had a starting thought on that (alarm sound was probably the last thing I added).. but that thought was interrupted by another th.... **NO**\n\nThe game actually has an internal apathy system: some stuff you do (or don't) slowly build it up, and if it reaches a limit, the game ends.  \nIt was extra challenging fiddling with it, because... how do you measure \"enough\" boredom for someone that will play it only once when you played the DARN THING 200 TIMES?\n\nAnother thing: how do you make a boring game *on purpose* without just making... a boring game?  \nOne of the commenters very cleverly pointed it out that If you succeed at making a boring game on purpose, well... you end up with a boring game:\n\n> I think the trouble with making a game exploring a \u201cbleak\u201d or \u201cboring\u201d situation is that if your work succeeds (and I think this does) then it just feels bleak and depressing\n\nAnd... yeah.  \nThe Fun score kind of reflects that. \ud83d\ude05  \n(Heh. Maybe I found yet another cheat code.)\n\n![Screenshot 2025-04-28 013009.png](\/\/\/raw\/59a\/1\/z\/6c863.png)\n\n## :x: There is No Way to Win\n\nI wish I had found (and had time for) a way to let players beat CALM, or at least reach a hidden \"happy\" ending.  \nBut honestly... I just didn\u2019t have the energy left to do it.  \nEven though I stopped working on the game with 9 hours to spare, a miracle for me, since I always finish in a mad cursing rush fixing last minute deployment issues (does not matter the engine... amazing, I always f... something up)\n\nGOOD ENOUGH.\n\nI couldn\u2019t even think of a way to beat it.  \nNow, some ideas are floating around... maybe for a post-compo version.  \n\n\nI think that even if I added, and ended up cutting the happy ending later, just knowing it existed might have made the whole experience lighter for me while making the game.  \nInstead, it was like I sorta believed the thing I was trying to build. Goddamm weak minded fool, game is not even that good. \n(funny thing: vacation ended today and I go back to work tomorrow)\n\n## :thinking: Lessons Learned\n\n- **Building the world first helps a lot.**  \n  Even if you don't have a full gameplay loop yet, understanding the *vibe* and *rules* of the world makes every design decision faster and more natural later.\n\n- **Emotional games hit you too.**  \n  Making a bleak game will bleed into your mood after a while. Plan for that. Hide an happy ending? Take breaks? I did take a few walks outside during development, it was sunny.. helped a bit.\n\n\n- **It's FUN telling stories\"**  \n  Even though it has an expiration date on some cases, it can be fun to tell a story as it is to build a fun mechanic. Will definitely try that again.   \n","comments":0,"created":"2025-04-27T20:15:25Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":415446,"love":6,"love-timestamp":"2025-04-29T07:04:03Z","meta":[],"modified":"2025-04-29T07:04:03Z","name":"Well, that was depressing\u2026","node-timestamp":"2025-04-27T23:39:35Z","parent":411538,"parents":[1,5,9,406845,411538],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/57\/clock-in\/well-that-was-depressing","published":"2025-04-27T23:34:03Z","scope":"public","slug":"well-that-was-depressing","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":1312818},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"415446","n_urlkey":"451524","n_parent":"411538","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/57\/clock-in\/well-that-was-depressing","n_slug":"well-that-was-depressing","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"6805","n_created":"1745784925","n_modified":"1745910243","n_version":"1312818","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/57\/clock-in\/well-that-was-depressing","text":"...and that might be just why it worked.  \n*(A CLOCK IN post-mortem and a story on telling stories or is it deep to tell a deep story?)*\n  \n\nHow it started:   \n![Screenshot 2025-04-28 013724.png](\/\/\/raw\/59a\/1\/z\/6c864.png)\nHow it ended:   \n![Screenshot 2025-04-27 223147.png](\/\/\/raw\/59a\/1\/z\/6c85f.png)\nIt ended up ranking **#3 in Mood**. (Bragging, I know, but I'm proud that for once I succeeded on what I tried to succeed)\n\n## :white_check_mark: What Went Right: Taking Away Control (At the Worst Possible Time)\n\nFor most Jams, I like to take a few hours (or a whole night) just thinking about the theme, no rush, no pressure, just letting ideas brew while I walk around, talk to family or even sleep on it.  \nIt's honestly one of my favorite parts of the jam: wasting time on weird, probably (likely) bad ideas that only sound good in my head \ud83d\ude05.\n\nThis time, the idea came a little faster (for reasons I will discuss a bit downwards) and I spent half a day building it out.  \nIt became one of my favorite memories from this jam: brainstorming a slow, invisible way to break the player.\n\nAt some point, the *perfectly cruel* mechanic clicked:\n\n> *Spoilers ahead:*  \n> If you plan to play the game, [go now](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/57\/clock-in), it's pretty short, runs in the browser, can even be played from your mobile, one of the feedbacks I got from my wife is that the text was small on the phone, so if you click the post-its, the text enlarges.  \n> Come back here later.\n\nContinuing:\n\n![Screenshot_20250406_033727_Chrome.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/59a\/1\/z\/69857.jpg)\n\n**What if the moment the player finally *got* how the system works, right at that satisfying peak where you're just starting to master it, the game would *start taking it away*?**  \nWithout warning.\n\nOne day, the first click happens for you, with an odd subtle sound, minimal feedback. The first one, so you are not sure what happens. It does not happen again, until...  \nNext day, two clicks.  \nUntil you're just... there.  \nPresent, but no longer necessary.\n\nI wanted players to feel a tiny sting of unfairness.  \nAnd then realize:  \n**that\u2019s the point.**\n\nThere are plenty of small little things that I think add to it:  \nHidden visual cues: crosses growing on buildings... the city itself quietly turning into a graveyard for obedient drones.  \nPost-it notes that come back (depending on the answer you gave, hinting at something darker).  \nYour base salary just sort of continues...   \nAnd even the way the game ends is cryptic: wtf happens?  \nWell, only you know.\n\nIt is possible to end the game on the 3 screens, it's pretty hard to trigger on some (and time-consuming).  \nI was kind of hoping someone would eventually stumble on them accidentally (some hints on the comments made me think some did).\n![Screenshot_20250406_033745_Chrome.jpg](\/\/\/raw\/59a\/1\/z\/69856.jpg)\n\n## :white_check_mark: Minimalism Helped the Story\n\nWell, as usual, drawing takes me FOREVER, does not matter if I try to rush it, I always take way too long to make one button look right (Not a perfectionist, I just suck at it, there is always something weird I many times fix with some lucky pixel I forget to erase).  \nAnd well, compo timing being short, and I had even less time with family visiting, so, minimalist art style was not a design choice, it was basically survival.\n\nBut it ended up helping the game a lot...  \nThe static screens, muted colors, black screen transitions, and limited interactions made the world feel colder, flatter... drained.  \nWhich is exactly what the story needed.\n\nInstead of showing a bustling city full of life, what we got was that 2 shades of gray 6 shapes of squares kind of city.  \nInstead of celebrating progress, everything around you just sat there, grey.  \nThe way the city faded into grayscale as you commuted, the old computer screen (with PERFECT buttons), the dead, boring apartment...\n\n![Screen_Recording_20250406_033419_Chrome2-ezgif.com-video-to-gif-converter.gif](\/\/\/raw\/59a\/1\/z\/69858.gif)\n\nAlmost like I found a cheat code for making bad art work (I amazingly got 82 in graphics).\n\n## :white_check_mark: Its fun thinking about story telling.\n\nInstead of explaining how the game works, I was thinking on foreshadowing things, and how to add them.. etc.. I don't have much to say on that, except that I had a blast doing it (even if only thinking about it).   \nRecommend.\n\nAlso pretty nice to try to just tell enough of something, and later hope someone gets it.. and when some one does? Oh boy, that feels coooooooool.\nAlso Recommend.\n\n## :white_check_mark: Building the World First (And the \"Game\" Second)\n\nOne thing that helped a lot was thinking about the world first, before even worrying about the game.\n\n*\"What kind of world would this exist in?\"*  \n*\"What would someone do there?\"*  \n\nJudging emotions \"evolved\" from Judging reputation in the ideas realm. Then it became a work game, and rest just came.\n\nYou are just categorizing human feelings on acceptable or not acceptable, sort of reducing people 0s and 1s (the reports also sort of devolve in that way).\nIt felt fun to me, but I think that if the game had been longer, it probably would have gotten boring.\n(Maybe I also found a cheat code for bad mechanic)  \n\nThis ideas could only come from building the world first. I will definitely try that again, even if I make a dumb flying-armored-tree-bird-killing game once more.\n\nIt was so much faster to make everything connect... I usually take forever to be satisfied with an idea..\n![simpler times](\/\/\/raw\/59a\/1\/z\/6c862.gif).\n\n## :x: What Could Have Been Better - Balancing BOREDOM\n\nWell, I got BORED testing the game.  \nBy the end of the compo, I wasn\u2019t proud anymore, I genuinely felt bad... all that gray, hidding crosses, heavy messaging and all that thinking on \"how to make this darker\" eventually DOES GET INTO YOU.  \nI even started cutting things out: the commute home gets shorter after the first day because I literally couldn\u2019t stand playing through it anymore.\n\nOne commenter suggested clicking to stop the alarm clock.. well.. I had a starting thought on that (alarm sound was probably the last thing I added).. but that thought was interrupted by another th.... **NO**\n\nThe game actually has an internal apathy system: some stuff you do (or don't) slowly build it up, and if it reaches a limit, the game ends.  \nIt was extra challenging fiddling with it, because... how do you measure \"enough\" boredom for someone that will play it only once when you played the DARN THING 200 TIMES?\n\nAnother thing: how do you make a boring game *on purpose* without just making... a boring game?  \nOne of the commenters very cleverly pointed it out that If you succeed at making a boring game on purpose, well... you end up with a boring game:\n\n> I think the trouble with making a game exploring a \u201cbleak\u201d or \u201cboring\u201d situation is that if your work succeeds (and I think this does) then it just feels bleak and depressing\n\nAnd... yeah.  \nThe Fun score kind of reflects that. \ud83d\ude05  \n(Heh. Maybe I found yet another cheat code.)\n\n![Screenshot 2025-04-28 013009.png](\/\/\/raw\/59a\/1\/z\/6c863.png)\n\n## :x: There is No Way to Win\n\nI wish I had found (and had time for) a way to let players beat CALM, or at least reach a hidden \"happy\" ending.  \nBut honestly... I just didn\u2019t have the energy left to do it.  \nEven though I stopped working on the game with 9 hours to spare, a miracle for me, since I always finish in a mad cursing rush fixing last minute deployment issues (does not matter the engine... amazing, I always f... something up)\n\nGOOD ENOUGH.\n\nI couldn\u2019t even think of a way to beat it.  \nNow, some ideas are floating around... maybe for a post-compo version.  \n\n\nI think that even if I added, and ended up cutting the happy ending later, just knowing it existed might have made the whole experience lighter for me while making the game.  \nInstead, it was like I sorta believed the thing I was trying to build. Goddamm weak minded fool, game is not even that good. \n(funny thing: vacation ended today and I go back to work tomorrow)\n\n## :thinking: Lessons Learned\n\n- **Building the world first helps a lot.**  \n  Even if you don't have a full gameplay loop yet, understanding the *vibe* and *rules* of the world makes every design decision faster and more natural later.\n\n- **Emotional games hit you too.**  \n  Making a bleak game will bleed into your mood after a while. Plan for that. Hide an happy ending? Take breaks? I did take a few walks outside during development, it was sunny.. helped a bit.\n\n\n- **It's FUN telling stories\"**  \n  Even though it has an expiration date on some cases, it can be fun to tell a story as it is to build a fun mechanic. Will definitely try that again.   \n","title":"Well, that was depressing\u2026","wayback_source":[]}